BA Education, Leadership and Culture

This unit allows students to develop critical thinking about leadership cultures in education. Students will learn about leadership concepts and theories from academic literature in the field so that they can apply it in educational contexts.  Students will gain experience of gathering both secondary data about public figures in education, and primary data by connecting with and interviewing educational leaders about their practices. Students will present their work in blogs or podcasts and multi-modal audio-visual video presentations, benefitting from structured staff and peer support to develop their digital communication skills.

• Inform students about educational leadership practices and styles with reference to key concepts and theories from the leadership field.
• Engage students in data gathering through a case study approach to educational leaders using primary and secondary sources.
• Develop student’s ability to critically assess how educational leaders work with their communities.
• Refine student’s ability to present content professionally for different audiences through digital mediums.

The main mode of delivery will be in 12 whole-group weekly two-hour lectures augmented with 6 one-hour online seminars in small groups once every two weeks. Pre-reading / viewing will be given each week for students to learn key concepts and theories of leadership which will be applied to educational leaders in the sessions. Guest lectures will be used to develop student skills in digital content production (blogs, podcasts, video) in preparation for their two pieces of assessment. One of the 2-hours lectures will be given over to structured peer-assessment sessions where students will present to each other their final piece of assessment in draft form in order to get feedback and redraft their work before final submission. This will be made accessible and inclusive to all as students will have a good amount of time to prepare in advance, and have autonomy over whether they present to each other a written script, perform their presentation in person, or produce a video.

• Define key leadership theories and concepts.
• Recognise different styles of leadership in education.
• Relate leadership theories concepts and styles to education contexts.
   

• Categorize educational leaders by leadership style.
• Deconstruct the practices of educational leaders
• Predict outcomes of leadership styles in context.
   

• Review the impact of an educational leader.
• Conduct research into the practices of an educational leader.
• Summarise information about an educational leader for a non-academic audience.

• Network with educational leaders
• Plan and manage of resources.
• Comment clearly and reflectively on educational leadership. 

Choice of either a blog or a podcast about an individual in education critically analysing their leadership style with reference to literature. 25%

1000 words (blog) or five minutes (podcast)

A case study of analysing the leadership of an educational organisation with reference to relevant literature presented in a multimodal format combining sound an images. 75%

10 minutes

Via turnitin within 15 working days of submission.

Bass B. M. (1990). From Transactional to Transformational Leadership: Learning to Share the 
Vision. Organizational Dynamics, 18(3), 19–31.

Burns J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper and Row.

Carroll, B., Ford, J., and Taylor, S., (eds.) (2015). Leadership: Contemporary Critical Perspectives. London: Sage.

Courtney, S. J. Understanding Educational Leadership: Critical Perspectives and Approaches. London and New York: Bloomsbury Academic.

Cunliffe, A.L., and Eriksen, M. (2011). Relational leadership. Human Relations, 64(11), 1425–
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Day, D. (2001). Leadership development: A review in context. The Leadership Quarterly, 11(4), 581–613

Gunter, H. M., Hall, D., & Apple, M. W. (Eds.). (2017). Corporate elites and the reform of public education (1st ed.). Bristol University Press.

Hughes, B. C., S. J. Courtney, and H. M. Gunter. 2020. “Researching Professional Biographies of Educational Professionals in New Dark Times.” British Journal of Educational Studies 68 (3): 275–293.

Innes, M. (2021) The micro-politics of policy enactment in a multi-academy trust, School Leadership & Management, DOI: 10.1080/13632434.2021.2002839

Lumby, J., (2013). Distributed leadership: The uses and abuses of power. Educational Management 
Administration and Leadership, 41(5), 581-597. 
Weber, M., 2009. From Max Weber: essays in sociology. Routledge.

Western, S. (2013). Leadership: A critical text. 2nd ed. London: Sage