Attempting a Europeanization of educational leadership: philosophical and ideological dimensions

Abstract

Joining the European Union is a process largely based on meeting a number of pre‐requirements associated with a number of factors; the most important being economy. Other factors are associated with trade, education, environment, quality indicators, effectiveness and efficiency. Establishing knowledge and evidence base societies on common grounds helps to foster closer links between the member countries and also creates a sense of belonging, a common identity of being EU citizens. However, achieving common grounds in terms of education processes and foundations prevails as a mighty and fairly complicated task. The reasons are mostly associated with the meanings the concept ‘education’ is given in various countries and by different people. This has to do with the fact that education in most examples is tightly linked with notions of ethnicity, history, civilisation and culture, the very reasons for being. It was a realisation from the start that the multiculturalism found within the EU needs to be respected in order to meet set targets and the vision of Europeanization. Therefore, attention was given on which areas of education to include first in this dream; these entailed citizenship, lifelong training and learning in a process of building the knowledge‐based economic society. Educational leadership has never been seen as a priority, whilst leadership development in various other fields i.e. industry and commerce has been broadly emphasised. The question posing here is twofold: in our quest to realise the European dream as set during the Luxemburg Meeting, can we establish a common European dimension on educational leadership and if so, what elements do we need to consider? In this article I consider the above with caution in an effort to throw some light into notions of educational leadership across Europe, aiming to come across with a number of levers and barriers in a possible attempt for a Europeanization of Educational Leadership.

Notes

1. The Greek word for science is episteme, derived from the verb epistame, which means to know.

2. Krama in Greek is used to mean a mixture of, a blend of.