What Is the Meaning of Educational Leadership in a Time of Policy Engineering?

• In Event: Moscone Center West Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Philosophical Critiques of Contemporary Trends in Educational Policy and Practice

Abstract

In this philosophical essay, I aimed to explore how the logic of policy engineering drives the purpose of educational leadership. I draw from Tosas (2016), Ball (1995, 2003), Marcuse (1991), and Arendt(1958) to show how current policy discourses are shaped by technologies of management, which is restricting possibilities for educational leadership.I first present three different policy conceptualizations and how these conceptualizations construct the purpose of leadership and subject of leaders in policy implementation. Second, using the idea of Stephen J. Ball’s (1995) policy engineering and Harbert Marcuse’s (1991) one-dimensional thinking, I argue that the technologies of constructing subjectivity bind educational leadership within a management framework. Third, explore possible creativity for school leaders within interactions between leadership and policy.

Author

• Taeyeon Kim, University of Nebraska - Lincoln