ABSTRACT
This chapter describes alternative thinking and pedagogical practices within postgraduate courses in educational leadership and management. There are many postgraduate courses in educational leadership and management where the focus is managerialist and where a neoliberal ideology has influenced the content and pedagogy of study. The chapter deals with ontological research agenda focused on the ontological nature of relationships in the formation of Relational Leaders. It focuses on the group philosophy known as the rationale or special character of the programme. The dialogue opens emerging storylines that simultaneously converge and diverge while sustaining a rich diversity of meanings which foreground the roles of context, history and culture in our considerations of educational leadership. The formation of educational leaders is a critical and humanistic concern. Implications exist for leadership, educational processes, as well as the partnering with educational organizations within the local community. Critical and humanistic practices are invariably located within a wider educational community and beyond to include para-educational organizations.
