Educational Leadership and Michel Foucault

Waiting forSuperleader: leadership as anti-resource discourse

“…Drawing from Foucault, Gillies (2013) argues that leadership and hierarchy in the discourse are mutually supportive. 'Leadership discourse requires a hierarchical structure and such a hierarchical structure lends itself to leadership discourse' (p. 46).…”

“…However, in order to shape the reality and conduct of the followers to meet the standards the leader must 'be the kind of person that the standards have in mind, capable of accomplishing the activities that the standards entail, of performing within the relationships presumed at different levels, and of conforming to the principles which form the boundaries' (Mahony and Hextall 2001, p. 186). Further, Gillies (2013) states: 'As long as there is a "vision" of a desired measurable goal and capacity to influence others to reach that goal, then effective leadership can be seen to be in place' (p. 77). Thus, I argue that leadership is not only an exceptional superhero construct, but it is also tautological.…”

“…Leadership as anti-resource discourse Gillies (2013) argues that the discourse of school reform, 'focuses on how to get more and better outcomes from schools and the current emphasis on leadership can be quite clearly evidenced as having emerged from this school effectiveness agenda . .…”

“…Through the certification process, states restrict the role of leaders in schools. Finally, the professional nature and expert knowledge of school leaders have been called into question and diminished through the imposition of performance standards (Ball 2001, Elliott 2001, Mahony and Hextall 2001, Niesche, 2011, Gillies 2013.…”

“…The focus of the work of leaders is to shape the conduct of the followers (Gillies 2013). That is, 'the leader influences others to act in such a way as to achieve the desired goals' (Gillies 2013, p. 77).…”