Don’t Listen to Me! And Other Dilemmas of Leadership-Focused Curricula in Teacher Education

• In Event: Listening, Hearing, and Speaking: Voices From Teacher Education

Abstract

This is a theoretical, genealogically oriented study of how leadership is constructed in teacher education curricula. The study is based on critical analyses of research literature in educational leadership, curriculum, and teacher education. The analysis suggests that across three domains--definitions of leadership, components of a leadership curriculum (knowledge, skills, and dispositions), and pedagogical possibilities for leadership--the concept of leadership is convoluted and prone to performative contradiction. The purpose of this study is to render some assumptions about leadership explicit and susceptible to critique, add nuance to otherwise mono-dimensional discourses of leadership, provide analytical formulations for talking about unintended consequences of leadership curricula, and inspire educators to experiment with imaginative conceptualizations of leadership.

Author

• Lynn Fendler, Michigan State University