Will the real distributed leadership stand up please? The construction of ‘reality’ through policy rhetoric, interpretation and evaluation by post-primary inspectors in the Republic of Ireland

Abstract

ABSTRACT Many narratives that advocate distributed leadership, as a prescribed model, resonate richly with certain democratic values which can beguile contrary and exploitative practices. With this ambivalence in mind important threads in the evolution of distributed leadership to the top of the school policy hierarchy, in the Irish post-primary experience, are examined. Policy documents are critically analyzed, as are school inspection reports which show the leadership practices as understood and endorsed by some school inspectors. What emerges is a complex picture which includes a cleavage between a rhetoric of workplace democracy and a reality of management work carried out voluntarily and unpaid, including activities which arguably are not leadership at all. A connected conclusion is that economics can be a determinant of what constitutes distributed leadership.