The implicated advocate: the discursive construction of the democratic practices of school principals in the USA

Abstract

Changes in the public service sector during the last stages of the twentieth century contributed to an international reconfiguration of state-centric governance. Supported by the discourses of individualism, marketization, national governance, and competition, this (re)shaping of governance presents a specific dilemma for the political identity of educational leaders. In response to the troubling lack of international scholarship focused on the political role of educational leaders, this article provides insight into the ways in which the political identity of school leaders within the USA is influenced by dominant discourses. The understandings highlight the ways in which educational leaders are expected to realize their roles as resolute implementers of state policy, while also being directed to act as deliberative advocates within the jurisdiction of educational policy making. We believe that these competing discourses have altered the identity of educational leaders into what we have labeled as the implicated advocate. The purpose of this article is to provide the field of the politics of educational with a concept that may expose the double bind that is experienced by the educational leaders.

Keywords:

• political identity
• governance
• educational leadership
• policy
• democratic theory
• neo-liberalism

Notes

1. For the possibilities of such an approach see the work of Badiou (2003) and Rancière (1991, 2004). Both authors reject the notion of foundational explanations for democratic action and offer alternative discussions of democracy from this point of view.