Challenging Orthodoxy in School Leadership Studies: Knowers, knowing and knowledge?

Abstract

The field of leadership in general and school leadership in particular is a place where knowers engage in knowing and produce knowledge. This article challenges the who, what and why regarding the accepted knowers, knowing and knowledge, and opens up possibilities for alternative approaches that are currently being worked for. This is done with the presentation of six inter-connected typologies of knowledge production: Provinces, Practices, Processes, Producers, Positions and Perspectives. It is argued that these six 'Ps' enable those within and outside of the field to generate descriptions and understandings of the interplay between researching, theorising and practising in educational settings. This has the potential to democratise knowledge production not only through being inclusive in who does the knowledge work, but also by working to recognise the structures that enhance or inhibit the agency of the knowledge worker. We are deeply embedded within these political processes and as such we are involved in a dynamic field where through praxis we can secure what we do and can produce alternatives to what we do. It is concluded that our agency to make choices within our practice as researchers, theorists and practitioners, is exercised within a complex setting of organisational, cultural and social structures.