Leadership, rhetoric, and formalist literary theory

Abstract

AbstractIn his article, “Educational Research: The Hardest Science of All,” policy scholar David Berliner (2002) asserts that “no unpoetic description of the human condition can ever be complete” (p. 20). Berliner's words echo the epistemological and methodological climate of late 1970s and early 1980s social science research, a phase often characterized as the “literary turn.” In this historical moment, social science scholars turned to interdisciplinary sources, most notably literary theory and the humanities, for new means of addressing the ineffable, aesthetic aspects of human activity. This work and emphasis remains a prominent, growing genre within several fields, exemplified by widespread recognition of Margaret Wheatley's poetic approach to leadership inquiry and pedagogy (2009), frequent inclusion of aesthetic works in leading research journals (such as Qualitative Inquiry), and recent creation of arts‐ and humanities‐based educational research criteria for submissions to the American Educational Research Association's annual conference and sponsored journals.No field of inquiry better illustrates the need to understand human activity as “poetic” than leadership, which is perhaps the quintessential marker of social existence. Accordingly, in this symposium we wish to explore how such interdisciplinary approaches, specifically those grounded in the humanities, have manifested in leadership inquiry and pedagogy. It is our hope that this collection of essays will illustrate the breadth and depth of the field of leadership studies, as well as offer our readers new perspectives and inspiration in their own research and practice.