On Educational Leadership as Emancipatory Practice

As a critical reflection on education and educational leadership today this book makes use of the ideas of some of the major thinkers of our time—Adorno Arendt Biesta Brown Apple Hall Marx Nietzsche Rancière Said Williams and others—in an examination of the emancipatory potential of education. Author Duncan Waite explores the political social systemic epistemological and cultural barriers and roadblocks that inhibit liberatory education discussing the concepts of corruption and abuse of power; systems and structures that hobble us; ideologies such as neoliberalism capitalism and corporatism; identity and consciousness; and conceptions of learning growth and development. Ultimately the author unpacks how these issues relate to liberation emancipation and social justice for students teachers and educational leaders as well as the role leadership can play in realizing the emancipatory promise of education.