Leadership for learning: What else could leadership be for?

Abstract

While the phrase ‘leadership for learning’ has become common currency, what meanings and implications does it conceal? What else might leadership be for and to whom does the ‘learning’ apply? How to revive and revisit the essence of learning-led leadership buried beneath the legacy of managerialism, narrow conceptions of accountability and performativity? Drawing on a number of studies of head teachers’ and teachers’ lives primarily in England and Scotland, this article explores the insidious influence of policies which have disempowered teachers and considers what may be done to reignite the ‘passion’ which so many teachers initially brought to the job. With an eye to the future and the issue of sustainability, the article finishes with the ecology of learning and teaching and the dilemma space between the probable and the desirable. Quoting the Futures Forum the educational challenge is to ‘keep the lights on today and to find a way of keeping them on a generation from now in very different circumstances’.