ABSTRACT

This insightful book explores the life and ideas of Italian Marxist theoretician Antonio Gramsci, and argues his work has considerable contemporary relevance when re-considering educational leadership in today’s age of crises.

Gramsci’s theory of hegemony has provided an invaluable intellectual resource for those seeking to bring about radical change in the complex context of contemporary capitalist societies. In particular, his focus on the role of organic intellectuals engaging in an ongoing ideological struggle across economic, political and civil society helps to locate his notion of hegemony as a theory of leadership that is deeply rooted in pedagogical processes. This volume focuses on transformatory change both in and through education, reframing traditional notions of educational leadership as educative leadership, in which leadership for change, within and beyond educational institutions, is understood in pedagogical terms.

This volume will be of pivotal interest to academics, researchers, and postgraduates in the fields of educational leadership, the sociology of education, and education policy and politics. Practitioners interested in educational leadership and social theory, and those active in social movements, may also find the book of use.

chapter 1|26 pages

Education and transformation

Rethinking educational leadership

chapter 2|27 pages

Antonio Gramsci

His life and ideas

chapter 3|23 pages

On education and the role of intellectuals

chapter 4|24 pages

Gramsci's contemporary relevance

Working ‘in and against’ the neoliberal state

chapter 5|25 pages

The passive revolution in English school reform

Hegemony from above

chapter 6|23 pages

Challenging the neoliberal restructuring of public education

Union renewal and counter-hegemony from below

chapter 7|22 pages

‘For the practical transformation of the real world’

Making the case for educative leadership