Advocating a Post-structuralist Politics for Educational Leadership

Abstract

Post-structuralist discourses have usually been associated with forms of critique and deconstruction of social, cultural and philosophical phenomena. However, this article attempts to provide a generative approach to understanding educational leadership through Michel Foucault's notions of power and subjectification, and Judith Butler's notions of performativity and discursive agency through re-signification. We argue that leadership is not simply a list of traits, characteristics or behaviours to be implemented. Rather, we argue that leaders are performatively constituted through everyday practices and discourses. The aim is to interrupt prevailing discourses that often re-inscribe certain forms of meaning and understanding in educational leadership. This disruption subsequently provides possibility for putting forward otherwise silenced ideas about what leadership is and how leadership 'identity' (subjectivity) is formed, thus expanding the methodological tools scholars can use to talk about leadership.

Discourse and teacher identity in business-like education

“…As Ruelle and Peverelli (2017) point out, group members constantly construct their identity via ongoing social interaction, creating a shared story about the group and its membership. Post-structuralism can therefore play an important role in unsettling and challenging particular claims to truth in education and education discourse (Niesche and Gowlett, 2015). It is an approach that can help us better understand the construction of educational subjects in neoliberal reforms (Rodriguez, 2008), and highlight the unanticipated consequences of neoliberal policies (Barnett, 2005) as it highlights how teachers either participate in or resist particular discourses.…”

Parent involvement in education? A Foucauldian discourse analysis of school newsletters

“…Discourse is productive in that it creates that which it describes and is defined by Youdell (2006: 6; see also, Foucault, 1972) ‘as bodies of ideas that produce and regulate the world in their own terms, rendering some things common sense and other things nonsensical’. ‘Discourses and discursive practices form ‘truths’ and norms’ (Niesche and Gowlett, 2015: 378). These norms shape our beliefs and actions, and they underpin our understanding of reality and our place in it (St.…”

Mapping trends in educational-leadership research: A longitudinal examination of knowledge production, approaches and locations

“…For example, Wilkinson (2008) highlighted the need for more diverse research perspectives within the field, noting that scholarship frequently overlooked implications and issues of diversity. Niesche and Gowlett (2015) advocate similarly, highlighting the way in which much of the field has marginalised discourses relating to feminism, ethnicity and race. Lopez (2021) has called for educational leadership to be decolonised to challenge western models that dominate research in the field.…”