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In this article, I reflect on my contribution of critical perspectives in educational leadership to both Australian and international scholarship. Critical perspectives have played a key role in educational leadership for a number of decades particularly recognising the key contribution of John Smyth and others (Smyth, 1989). I use the term critical perspectives to bring together a wide array of approaches and theories to the field that both seek to work in socially critical ways to interrogate approaches to educational leadership that are too focused on instrumentalism and narrow views of ‘best practice’ often with the exclusion of recognition and understanding of social, cultural, religious, economic and political contexts; and also, to provide alternate ways of thinking about and practising educational leadership. For my own contribution to this area, I have drawn on a range of different theoretical and philosophical traditions including the work of thinkers such as Michel Foucault in the examination of power and subjectivity, the work of post-structural writers such as Jacques Derrida and Jean Francois Lyotard; and also work in the area of socially just leadership. This has been a particularly fruitful line of inquiry that has played an important role in broadening the scope of educational leadership research and its contribution to understanding the complexity of issues and problems in education more generally. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The introduction of new accountabilities and techniques of government for the purposes of educational reform have created new complexities and tensions for school leadership. Policies such as the publishing of league tables in the UK, high stakes testing in the US and the introduction of theMy Schoolwebsite in Australia are particularly significant for school principals. In this article I appeal to the work of Foucault and Deleuze to provide an alternate approach to understanding how principals are constituted as subjects through a range of practices and discourses associated with the introduction of theMy Schoolwebsite. I specifically draw upon Foucault’s notion of governmentality and Deleuze’s notion of societies of control to provoke new lines of thought into these government practices. I argue that it is through the performative in the education system that school principals are becoming perpetually assessable subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses articles contained within the issue on topics related to critical theory in education, including the "My School" website; the work of philosopher Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu and Gilles Deleuze; and schools in disadvantaged communities.

This paper explores the tensions and complexities for two principals as they work towards equity and improved social and educational outcomes for their Indigenous students. Drawing on Foucault’s fourfold ethical frame and poststructuralist notions of the subject, this paper presents the different ways the white female principals of Indigenous schools are formed as subjects. We illustrate how the multiplicities of their subject formation are influenced by the historicity and contextual factors of the schools and communities. These factors play a significant part in how these principals work as advocates and differently experience and negotiate the tensions around representation of and for Indigenous schools and communities. In realising equity goals for Indigenous students, the paper draws on Foucault’s work to illustrate the imperative of school leaders’ cognisance of, and capacity to work with, these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Globally, a range of new schooling accountabilities have created a complex and often contradictory context in which school leaders work. For principals of low socio-economic status (SES) and disadvantaged schools, they must balance the accountability, performance and reporting requirements against the other needs of their communities. These tensions require new ways of rethinking leadership in the current educational context. This article draws on the work of Foucault, particularly the notions of power and counter-conduct, to examine the case study of one principal in a very low SES school as she negotiates her way through these new schooling accountabilities. This case study illuminates the importance of leadership as a form of counter-conduct through the constitution of the principal as a political subject or form of advocacy leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper provides examples of how a teacher and a principal construct their 'ethical selves'. In doing so we demonstrate how Foucault's four-part ethical framework can be a scaffold with which to actively connect emotions to a personal ethical position. We argue that ethical work is and should be an ongoing and dynamic life long process rather than a more rigid adherence to a 'code of ethics' that may not meaningfully engage its adherents. We use Foucault's four-part framework of ethical practice as a framework through which an 'ethical self' can be purposely constructed. This is important work, as those who have authority over others must know how to monitor themselves against the misuse of the power of their positions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]