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Thinking with Michel Foucault in Educational Leadership
Methodological and Conceptual Challenges
Thinking with Michel Foucault in Educational Leadership
Methodological and Conceptual Challenges
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Description
This book brings together key scholars using Foucault in educational leadership to provide an overview of his methodologies, concepts, and examples of applications. Written for both those new to and experienced with Foucault's work, this book explores new avenues to understand, critique and explore relevant issues in educational leadership. The book features chapters from academics and practitioners based in Australia, Denmark, Italy, the UK and the USA, and includes chapters on global education leadership, decolonial leadership, gender, and digital education governance.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction: Bringing the Work of Michel Foucault to Educational Leadership and Policy, Richard Niesche (UNSW Sydney, Australia) and Denise Mifsud (University of Bath, UK)
1. Michel Foucault and Educational Leadership: The State of the Field and Where to from Here?, Denise Mifsud (University of Bath, UK), Richard Niesche (UNSW Sydney, Australia) and Adam Bongers (UNSW Sydney, Australia)
2. Feeling the Way in the Dark: Archaeological Research in Educational Leadership, Adam Bongers (UNSW Sydney, Australia)
3. Subjectivation as Ethopoiesis. A Tool for Critical Social Research, Roberto Serpieri (University of Naples Federico II, Italy)
4. Foucault, Decolonial Thinking and Critical Leadership Studies in Education: Expanding the Epistemic and Ontological Toolbox, Francesca Peruzzo (University of Birmingham, UK) and Emanuela Spanò (University of Cagliari, Italy)
5. Inanimate Leadership: The Ability of Inanimate 'Things' to Govern in Education, Christina Gowlett (The University of Queensland, Australia)
6. Doing Dispositive Analysis on Educational Policy: Applying Inclusive Politics as an Example, Bjørn Hamre (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
7. 'What's Happening to Me?': School Leaders Resisting the Impossible Bargain, Chris Dolan and Robert Hattam (University of South Australia, Australia)
8. Experiencing the Dispositif of Educational Leadership: Performativity and the Ethics of Leading Critically, Saadia Adnan and Stephen Kelly (University of Adelaide, Australia)
Product details
| Published | 22 Jan 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Hardback |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 320 |
| ISBN | 9781350471887 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 10 bw illus |
| Dimensions | 234 x 156 mm |
| Series | Social Theory and Methodology in Education Research |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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This book demonstrates that the field of educational leadership is not intellectually dead. So many public resources have been wasted on 'what works' agendas that do not work for educational leaders, leading and leadership. Instead, thinking with Foucault is methodologically necessary because the authors show that educational leadership is educative.
Professor Helen Gunter, Professor Emerita, University of Manchester.
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Foucault argued that the point of his work was to be useful. This collection of paper makes very worthwhile use of his work. Foucault's toolbox is brought to bear on the question of educational leadership with flair and the papers offer a rich array of insights highly pertinent to the current 'problems' and vicissitudes of education. Some critical possibilities for a different kind of leadership are offered. Lots of food for thought here.
Stephen J Ball Emeritus Professor of Sociology of Education, University College London.
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As the authors in this collection show, Foucault can be a thinking companion who provokes, stimulates and encourages critical interrogation of knowing, knowers and how we come to know. Researchers in educational leadership need this book.
Pat Thomson Professor of Education, The University of Nottingham and Adelaide University

























