Educational leadership: leadership for/as Bildung?

Abstract

With inspiration from the educational paradox: how can actors, as external influences, enable human beings to act independently of external leadership? This article will discuss an organizational paradox: how can staff be lead in ways that enable them to become autonomous followers? The educational paradox was originally phrased in the beginning of the Enlightenment epoch and it therefore links education with democracy: ‘Bildung’ was seen as a way to facilitate people in being emancipated, action competent citizens of democratic societies. The organizational paradox is also phrased as a vision of a democratic education in a democratic setting. The article discusses this leadership vision in the light of contemporary trends in society, politics, governance and culture: globalization, decentralization, contingency, neo-liberalism and neo-conservatism, new public management and the efforts to promote and stress the managerial aspects of school leadership.