Is it all a ‘game’? Analysing academic leadership through a Bourdieuian practice lens

Abstract

Much contemporary educational research draws upon Bourdieuian concepts such as field and the metaphor of the game for its inspiration. Yet his theory of practice remains an under-explored concept in educational leadership. Perhaps this is because the preceding concepts are better equipped to perform the required conceptual labour compared to earlier Bourdieuian theories of practice. However, an alternative possibility is that the emphasis on field and the analogy of the game has obscured subaltern readings of leadership practice. This paper draws on Alan Warde's argument for a ‘reconfigured’ notion of Bourdieuian practice, based upon Alasdair MacIntyre's differentiation between the competitive logic of practice of a field and the cooperative logic of practice. Drawing on an autobiographical academic leadership story, the paper examines how an analysis of the characteristics of these overlapping but conceptually distinct logics of practice may expand understandings of academic leadership practice, and of practice per se.

Keywords:

• academia
• leadership
• practice

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my appreciation for the invaluable feedback generously provided on earlier drafts of this article by Dr Shaun Rawolle. I would also like to thank anonymous reviewers for their useful feedback. Finally I would like to express my appreciation to Professor Bill Green, former Sub Dean Research, Faculty of Education, Charles Sturt University whose support and encouragement of a symposium on Bourdieu and practice held at Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga in 2006, planted the seeds of thought for this subsequent article.

Notes

1. For the purposes of this article, I deliberately use the term ‘leadership’ in a broad sense, to refer to firstly, the roles and positions imbued with formal status and authority in academia, including both management and research functions. Secondly, I draw on a more holistic meaning of leadership as that which is ‘bottom-up’ and practised by individuals or groups of people in both the paid and voluntary sectors, the public and the private spheres, in families and extended communities. In academia, these types of practices have been defined as ‘ivory-basement’ leadership (Eveline, 2004).

2. Thus the notion of ‘sayings’ connotes that there is a crucial representational element to practice.

3. I describe the following events in as general terms as possible due to the need to maintain confidentiality.

4. The author would like to acknowledge and thank an anonymous reviewer of this article for raising this point and the observation that follows.

5. Refer to the preceding footnote.