Educational Micropolitics and Distributed Leadership

Abstract

This article critically reviews two bodies of literature that potentially share common concerns, yet rarely overlap: distributed leadership and educational micropolitics. Alternative explanations for the split between these two analytical approaches to school organization are explored in sections on problem framing, methodology, and the marketplace of educational research and publishing. The article concludes that the separation between explorations of educational micropolitics and distributed leadership is both consequence and reflection of an increasingly prevalent managerialism required in the current policy context, which emphasizes smoothing out micropolitical conflict rather than examining it or learning from it.

I appreciate the close read that the issue editors and two anonymous reviewers gave to an earlier version of this article. Thank you also to Amy Ryken of the University of Puget Sound, Roland Coloma, Indigo Esmonde, Ruben Gaztambide-Fernandez, and Lance McCready of OISE/UT for discussions that improved my argument.

Notes

¹ I am coauthor of a chapter in the Leithwood, Mascall, and Strauss collection. Consistent with a commitment to reflective practice, I am trying here to understand tensions and gaps that are present in my own work as well as in the work of others. Where I am critical of the field, I am also implicating myself and seeking to improve my own analyses.