The Concept of Educational Leadership: Exploring Macro-level Facets

Abstract

At the dawn of the twenty first century, there is anticipation for better educational reforms both at thestructural and functional level. Heck and Hallinger (2005) have observed that although variousdisciplinary and interdisciplinary movements, in their attempt to understand the history of educationalleadership, have critically approached the issue; at a practical level all efforts still reside in the sameindividualistic resort. Authors have cited ample research dictating the processes of leadership inorganizations both at individual and collective level (Bass, 1990; Knipe & Maclay, 1972; Heine, 1971;Hogg, 2001; Sinha, 1980; Yukl, 1998, 2002) however, in the arena of educational settings, theleadership process has inadvertently been a neglected issue. Educational leadership as a conceptwas studied more in terms of leadership style of principal in school context (Bush, 2007), distributivepractices (Spillane, Halverson, & Diamond, 2004), or comparison of different cultures (Tang, Yin, &Min, 2011). However, a more critical stance of educational leadership at the macro-level – a dimensionwhich affects the lives of individuals in the long run was not much emphasized. The manner in whichHofstede (1980) questioned the applicability of American leadership theories abroad apparentlyseems limited when compared with the universalized approach of educational leadership as emergingdiscipline. This universalization of the concept of educational leadership defies the ontology of itssocio-political system and is epistemologically seeking space in inflated way. Why the psychology ofindividuals in any enterprise or educational setting is not the same pertains more to socio-politicalsystems, cultural endorsements, polarization of culture at the hands of educational leaders and also toideological framework which shapes the psychology in different way (Kincheloe, 1999).Tracing the