Foucault and school leadership research : bridging theory and method / Denise Mifsud.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mifsud, Denise, author.

Series:

Social theory and methodology in education research series.

Social theory and methodology in education research

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Educational leadership--Philosophy.

Educational leadership.

Educational leadership--Research--Methodology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (268 pages).

Place of Publication:

London, UK ; New York, NY : Bloomsbury Academic, 2017.

Summary:

Foucault and School Leadership Research illustrates the application of Foucauldian theory to an educational leadership research context, thus staging the ways a researcher negotiates the methodological tensions and contradictions in the conduct of qualitative inquiry within education research. The book draws on an empirical study of a multi-site school collaborative that investigates relations of power within the unfolding network among the various leadership hierarchies in school governance. The book is anchored around a narrative dramatization that the author, Denise Mifsud, crafts from her data, using the dramatic play as a medium to present her research findings so as to show rather than just tell readers about network leadership dynamics. Mifsud's innovative use of dramatization to communicate her findings and analysis serves to problematize the representation of qualitative research, as well as to incorporate researcher interpretation and explicate the intertwining nature of theory and methodology. Through the use of Foucauldian theory, mainly his notions of webs of power, discipline, governmentality, discourse, and subjectification, the research narrative critiques and problematizes traditional understandings of educational leadership. The book focuses on and demonstrates the challenging enterprise of the art of theory application in method by outlining the epistemological, operational and analytical challenges encountered: the application of Foucauldian concepts in education research contexts; the adaptation of methodological and theoretical concerns; in addition to showing how the quality of research outcomes is shaped by social theory

Contents:

Introduction : setting the stage for the research narrative

Foucauldian props for data interpretation and representation i

Foucauldian props for data interpretation and representation ii

Data analysis choices and the crisis of representation

Data analysis choices and the fictional representation of narrative

Raising the curtain on sunnyside college

The performance of collegiality

The fluidity in the emerging relations of power

The unfolding of leadership distribution

Bringing down the curtain?

Presenting conclusions and theorisations : the quasi-final stage.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781350010482

1350010480

9781350010468

1350010464

9781350010475

1350010472

OCLC:

994882918