Researching School Leadership in Context: Lighting the crucible of experience

This showcase is predicated on the observation that leadership can only be
understood within the context in which it is exercised. Our sharp focus on context and its
influence on school leadership invites research agendas designed to assist practitioners and
contribute to a field often criticised for being overly concerned with intellectual critique. We also
argue that studies of school leadership may be enriched by the interpretive research we have
adopted emphasising that the subjective dimension greatly influences what school leaders do.
Hence, theories of “organisational life” should be generated inductively by examining
perspectives of practitioners. Accordingly, the showcase examines ways leadership is understood
and enacted in schools encountering numerous economic, emotional and social pressures, in
small, rural/remote schools, and in faith-based schools, concentrating on challenges school
leaders face and the strategies they adopted to deal with them.