Leading Under Pressure: Educational Leadership in Neoliberal Times

The best leaders lead by example, not by mandate. However, so much leadership has become conscripted by neoliberal values. Educators and politicians, who are increasingly making policy for educators, have come to believe that standardized test scores are the same as knowledge acquired, as if test scores actually measure knowledge as opposed to information. Simply put, educational policy is no longer being developed for educational purposes but education is increasingly being manipulated as an experiment in social engineering.

Educational leaders are caught on the horns of a dilemma - to follow and inscribe policies they do not agree with or to ＂go rogue＂ and do what they know is needed. Leading under Pressure is aptly titled, as there is significant pressure being placed on school leaders at any stage in their careers. However, in an otherwise increasingly hostile political, commercial and natural environment, there are some rays of hope. For example, teachers still know what it is that their students need and strive to provide that, despite mandates that try to create consumers of us all.

This volume is divided into three sections, the first of which seeks to explore social contexts of educational leadership. The second section explores the experiences of a variety of educational leaders in various contexts, while the third section of this volume looks at some of the consequences, unintended and otherwise, of the neoliberal commodification of education.

Stephanie Chitpin is a Full Professor of Leadership in the Faculty of Education, University of Ottawa, Canada. She is the recipient of the 2020 Research Excellence Award. Her research, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) and the Ontario Ministry of Education, Canada, is international in scope. Her research includes the analysis of the Objective Knowledge Growth Framework (OKGF), based on Sir Karl Popper’s critical rationalism, as a new tool for understanding principals’ decision-making. She is Series Editor of ＂Transforming Education Through Critical Leadership, Policy and Practice.＂ She has authored over 100 aricles and several books on leadership. Her most recent book is Understanding Decision-Making in Educational Contexts: A Case Study approach (2021).

Robert E. White has taught extensively in public school across Canada for over twenty years Robert is a Senior Research Professor with the Faculty of Education at St Francis Xavier University and an adjunct professor in education at the University of Toronto (OISE). Robert’s research interests include educational administration and policy, postmodernity and globalization, qualitative research methodologies, and critical pedagogy. Robert is Associate Editor of the International Journal of Leadership in Education and Editor of the International Studies in Educational Administration. His most recent publication is Qualitative Research in the Postmodern Era, Volume II: Critical Approaches and Selected Methodologies (2022).