Course overview
This course will develop critical awareness about assumptions underpinning strategic leadership to inform students' understandings about the nature of complexity related to key policy themes of quality, accountability and equity. Students will examine the complex work undertaken by school leaders to strategically deliver on educational outcomes framed by the notions of quality, accountability and equity. Assumptions underpinning strategic leadership and a range of contemporary educational perspectives on educational leadership will be examined including consideration of global and local drivers of education policy production and the positioning of the school leader in various policy debates. 'Quality, accountability and equity' as key drivers of strategic leadership will be critically reviewed through the lens of enacted complex practise, making visible both intended and unintended outcomes. Critical examination of key policy drivers as stated will be undertaken in review of: dimensions to educational measurement and the notions of 'performativity'; data-driven accountability and the concept of transmitted risk; educational leadership as adaptive responsible processes including tools, tactics and technologies to enterprise dynamics of coherence, collaboration and productivity.
Course learning outcomes
- Develop a critical understanding of the position and role of the educational leader in relation to educational debates
- Examine the policy drivers that inform the positioning of the educational leader within a specific context
- Develop strategies for delivering educational outcomes that are framed by notions of quality, accountability and equity
- Analyse the processes, including tools, tactics and technologies, that inform the complex dynamics of coherence, collaboration and productivity in an educational setting.
- Develop critical perspectives of local and global influences on educational policy.