ABSTRACT
This chapter reflects upon the application of a practice perspective – practice architectures (Kemmis et al., 2014) – to analyse the nature of emergent leading practices across Australia, Sweden and Finland in a range of settings including early childhood and schools. In particular, the chapter attends to the cultural specificity of each of the sites, that is, the practice traditions of educational provision in each of the three nations in which these practice traditions are enmeshed. In employing this theoretical framework the authors examine which leadership practices and concepts are enabled/opened up by this theoretical view and which leadership practices are constrained/closed down. The argument in the chapter will respond to the question of which leading practices become normalised in terms of sayings (thinking and speaking about leadership), doings (actions in regard to leadership) and relatings (connections between people, systems and non-human elements in practice settings).
