A Socially Critical Perspective on Educational Leadership.

This paper takes the point of view that the mechanisms of demolition are those of economic rationalism: globalization, marketization, deregulation, competition, and privatization. The growing concern of government with economies, markets, and money carries over to education and other institutions. Currently in Australia, devolution is interpreted in terms of a centralized authority that determines the allocation of resources and policy formation; accountability or how to meet prescribed outcomes is the responsibility of local bodies. Devolution has placed education at the service of industrial production and markets, and facilitated the movement to transformative leadership (in which leaders are required to reshape corporate culture and carry workers along with the vision). The logic of the market corrodes traditional educational commitments, which are based on important cultural and social understandings, as well as the production of skills and useful knowledge. Economic rationalism increases competition among schools, undermines social solidarity among educators, increases collegial surveillance, intensifies teachers' work, raises the pressure for accountability, and makes principals act as managers of resources. It is important to abandon the sterile texts of scientific management, recognize the ideological and value-laden nature of leadership, and reconstitute an administration that is both democratic and truly educational. (Contains 40 references.) (LMI)