The SAGE Guide to Educational Leadership and Management

Abstract

The field of esthetics has not been previously linked systematically to the study and practice of educational leadership and management. However, recent work has attempted to show that an understanding of work on esthetics and organizational contexts, artifacts, leadership, culture, power, and symbolic capital can lead to new insights into educational leadership and management. In particular, esthetics is shown to provide a bridge between educational theory concerned with understanding and imagination, and leadership theory that reunites educational and organizational practice. Such a perspective also allows for both the study of educational organizations and an esthetically informed approach to leadership preparation.