Educational leadership: Producing docile bodies? A Foucauldian perspective on Higher Education

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to contribute to a long‐standing critical tradition in the educational leadership literature through an analytical examination of the idiosyncrasies of leadership in Higher Education institutions (based on the UK example). It applies a postmodern way of thinking to the educational leadership phenomenon to problematise and challenge the traditional views on the trajectories of power in Higher Education institutions, utilising Foucault’s key theoretical units of discipline, governmentality and biopolitics as a toolbox for dissecting the implications of neoliberal ideology on the leadership praxes. Significantly, the paper demonstrates how the engagement with Foucault’s three modes of objectification—dividing practices, scientific classification and self‐subjection—can expose the ways, in which the roles of educational leaders become re‐configured into economic‐rational individuals or subjects, who are compliant with the imposed requisites of the government’s neoliberal agendas. The paper concludes that Foucault’s theoretical perspectives could be used as a methodological template for a deeper critical analysis of leadership practices, equipping academics with additional tools for critiquing the existing boundaries of neoliberalism and intervening in the transformation of the social order by undertaking an investigation into the practices of governmentality, as suggested by Foucault.

The Lockdown Files: University Performance and Development Reviews (PRDs) as a Form of Governmentality

“…The complexity emerges when institutional imperatives such as the prevailing governmentality of the organisation drives those in leadership roles to think and act in a particular fashion. The organisational governmentality directs leaders in a particular way through a process of subjectification, which positions them within a power dynamic that renders them potentially as a docile body (Beattie, 2020). We would suggest that compliance with this situation indicates a managerial turn, and that resistance to this state of affairs is a hallmark of leadership.…”

Exploring Teacher Leadership and the Factors Contributing to It: An Empirical Study on Chinese Private Higher Education Institutions

“…Pearce et al (2018) argued that shared leadership is a potential elixir for leading public institutions of higher learning, unleashing creative potential, focusing on pressing strategic imperatives, and enabling sustainable systems that leverage true talent to the maximum effect. Likewise, discussions about educational leadership focus on instructional leadership (Beattie, 2020) and educational administration in higher education (Marshall et al, 2020).…”

Higher Education Leadership Transformation in East Kalimantan: Challenges and Opportunities

“…Universally, leadership transformation in higher education institutions plays a pivotal role in steering regional sustainable development and fostering human resource advancement (Beattie, 2020). These transformations wield a profound influence on shaping the future landscape of educational paradigms, societal progress, and economic growth (Aisyah et al, 2022;Fitriani et al, 2024).…”