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Abstract
This paper presents a case for the importance of an application of Jean-Francois Lyotard's ideas to the analysis of educational leadership. Through exploring Lyotard's concepts of language games, the differend and performativity, this paper argues that the approach taken through the development of leadership standards cannot capture the messy, complex and contradictory phenomenon of leadership, and in fact, works against alternative understandings and approaches. An example of a leadership capabilities framework is used to illustrate the incommensurability of language games at work in these approaches. The paper then considers other ways of undertaking research in educational leadership to provoke further study in the ‘field'.
Notes
1. Like English (Citation2002) I question the notion of a ‘field’ of educational leadership. This notion of a whole, coherent, unquestioned body of knowledge is still yet to be adequately problematized in the broader literature.
2. It would be a mistake to charge Lyotard with the celebration of the postmodern as his main contribution to knowledge. He has been critical of the way the term has been taken up and also articulates his particular view in works other than The Postmodern Condition (see Lyotard Citation1991, Citation1993).
3. For example, recently there have been moves toward establishing a national set of standards for school leadership through the Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership.
4. The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) has now become the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services (NCLSCS). In this paper, I use the term National College as an abbreviation.