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Leadership Imaginaries : Toward a Cultural Political Economy of Community College Leadership / by David F. Ayers, Allison L. Palmadessa.
Springer Nature - Springer Education (R0) eBooks 2026 English International Available online
View online- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Ayers, David F.
- Series:
- Education Series
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Education, Higher.
- School management and organization.
- Education--History.
- Education.
- Education and state.
- Economics.
- Higher Education.
- Organization and Leadership.
- History of Education.
- Educational Policy and Politics.
- Political Economy and Economic Systems.
- Local Subjects:
- Higher Education.
- Organization and Leadership.
- History of Education.
- Educational Policy and Politics.
- Political Economy and Economic Systems.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (238 pages)
- Edition:
- 1st ed. 2026.
- Place of Publication:
- Cham : Springer Nature Switzerland : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2026.
- Summary:
- This book explores the evolution of community college leadership imaginaries. Drawing insights from cultural political economy and critical discourse studies, it defines leadership imaginaries as constellations of meanings used to navigate a complex institutional reality. The main thesis of the book is that during the second half of the 20th century, leadership imaginaries evolved in relation to ideological contests and political-economic crises. Chapters on topics such as leadership, mission, vision, and crisis interrogate the unwritten rules about what administrators must do to be “good” leaders. Once these unwritten rules are made explicit and connected to ideological processes, it becomes apparent that leadership work does not have to be the way it is. Problematizing the status quo, we call for community college leaders, mentors, researchers, and other stakeholders to reimagine leadership and leadership work. David F. Ayers is associate professor of community college leadership at NC State University, USA. He is editor of Community College Review. He received the 2017 Senior Scholar Award by the Council for the Study of Community Colleges. Allison L. Palmadessa is Chair of the Department of History, Professor of History at Greensboro College, USA. She is the author of Power, Discourse, and the Purpose of Policy in Higher Education: A Genealogical Study of the Higher Education Act (2023, Palgrave MacMillan) and National Failures and the Condemnation of US Higher Education: Points of Crisis from 1958 to 2024 (2025, Palgrave MacMillan).
- Contents:
- Chapter 1: Introduction
- Chapter 2: Historical Overview
- Chapter 3: Theory and Method
- Chapter 4: Leadership Imaginaries: Cultural, Political, and Economic Contexts
- Chapter 5: Mission: The Evolution of a Contested Organizational Genre
- Chapter 6: Vision: Knowledge or Prophecy?
- Chapter 7: Imaginaries and the Legitimation of Community College Responses to the Energy Crisis
- Chapter 8: Conclusion: Reimagining Leadership.
- Notes:
- Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.
- ISBN:
- 3-032-12047-0
- 9783032120472
- OCLC:
- 1568064408
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