ABSTRACT

This chapter explores some of the potential consequences of attempts by governing bodies to exercise the nascent leadership function. Examination of the membership and composition of governing bodies reveals other obstacles to the exercise of effective leadership. London Education Authority (LEA) officials, acting as clerks for governing bodies, can establish firm control over those bodies, nipping firmly in the bud any attempts at establishing forms of educational leadership. The various pressure groups for educational consumers have recorded successful examples of educational leadership by governing bodies and provided a number of the proliferating guides for successful governorship, which offer several forms of assertiveness training for governors. The Taylor Report's recommendations rested on the belief that governing bodies should stand in the direct line of formal responsibility between LEA and school, so that governing bodies could determine the lines on which individual schools would be run.