ABSTRACT

It would be a mistake to think of school leadership as wholly separate from the contingent political and administrative system that manages it and controls its context. The early school managements controlled the service in the Benthamite tradition of public administration with the twin powers of legal authority especially authority over teacher tenure and bureaucratic controls. School leadership was inescapably enmeshed in a systematic process of control, the managerial equivalent of the Public Employees lesson in the yard, rigid (PE) and enforced by use of the stick. This managerial tradition is not, however, the only source of modern school leadership style. A lack of understanding of the skills and processes required for the development of excellence begins with senior administration, and continues into the school leadership itself. The present leader/manager role of the headteacher is a complicated amalgamation of elements drawn from these very different traditions.