Critical Education Policy and Leadership Studies (CEPaLS) is one of BELMAS’ longest established RIGs. We bring a distinctively critical approach to all our research: this approach recognises, describes, explains and theorises how various forms of power work, particularly through education policy, to produce social injustice in education and its leadership.
Injustice can be seen in how professional roles, status and identities are understood, enacted and accessed; who benefits and loses from certain educational arrangements; and how education policy can reproduce and materialise, or sometimes disrupt these arrangements. In the CEPaLS RIG, we are therefore concerned both with drawing attention to injustice, and also with creating and promoting more socially just forms of educational leadership.
We are particularly interested in the “educational” part of “educational leadership”: research has consistently shown that in too many schools and universities, we see managerialism rather than leadership. Managerialism focuses on performance rather than teaching and on standards rather than learning. In contrast, CEPaLS recognises leadership as a communal resource for education as a common good in a publicly funded and accountable system.
RIG members may include anyone who works in educational organisations, including schools, local authorities, unions, further and higher education.
Critical approaches can be used with any area of education research. However, we are particularly interested in exploring issues of privatisation in educational leadership and governance; professionalism; identities and practice; inequalities and injustices.
“Our research-informed standpoint is underpinned by a commitment to educational services that are owned, funded and accessed in common as a public good. What and who we might label as leaders, leading and leadership are a resource available for all, and this ‘all’ includes children, parents, communities, professionals, researchers, business owners, taxpayers and local and national policymakers who are located within and committed to in-common teaching and learning.” (Gunter and Courtney, 2021, p. 194)
Professor Steve Courtney
Professor of Sociology of Education Leadership, University of Manchester
Email: steve.courtney@manchester.ac.uk
Dr Deniz Örücü
Associate Professor in Educational Leadership and Management, University of Nottingham
Email: deniz.orucu1@nottingham.ac.uk
Event Title: Critical Perspectives on Educational Leadership and the Response to COVID-19. University of Bath. Keynote speakers: Prof Toby Greany and Prof Pat Thomson, University of Nottingham.
Event Title: Privatisation and Corporatisation: Engaging with the Field. University of Manchester. Keynote speaker: Dr Dorothy Smith, La Trobe University, Australia.
Event Title: Leadership and Entrepreneurialism: An exploration of academies and MATs. Mary Ward House, London. Keynote speakers: Warwick Mansell and Dr Kirsty Morrin.
Arar, K., & Örücü, D. (2024). Post-migration ecology in educational leadership and policy for social justice: Welcoming refugee students in two distinct national contexts. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 52(6), 1410-1433.
Arar, K., Örücü, D., & Gümüş, S. (2024). Educational leadership and policy studies in refugee education: a systematic review of existing research. Educational Review, 76(4), 1032-1056.
Arar, K & Örücü, D. (2021). A Foucauldian analysıs of culturally relevant educatıonal leadership for refugees as newcomers. In F.English (Ed). The Palgrave Handbook of Educational Leadership and Management Discourse. Springer
Arar, K., Örücü, D., & Mahfouz, J. (2022). Social in/justice and double marginality in educational leadership: Trajectories of three female school principals from the Middle East. In Victoria Showunmi, Pontso Moorosi, Charol Shakeshaft, Izhar Oplatka. Bloomsbury Handbook in Gender Educational Leadership and Management
Courtney, S.J., Armstrong, P.W., and McKay, A., (Eds.). (2024). Critical Education Leadership and Policy Scholarship: Introducing a New Research Methodology. Leeds: Emerald Publishing.
Courtney, S.J., Gunter, H.M., Niesche, R., and Trujillo, T. (Eds.), (2021). Understanding educational leadership: Critical perspectives and approaches. London. Bloomsbury.
Fitzgerald, T., and Courtney, S.J. (Eds.), (2023). Critical education policy and leadership studies: Essays in honour of the intellectual contributions of Helen M. Gunter. Cham: Springer.
Mifsud, D. (Ed.) (2021) Narratives of Educational Leadership: Representing Research via Creative Analytic Practices. [Part of the Springer Educational Leadership Theory Book Series] Singapore: Springer.
Örücü, D. (2023). Crises and traumas: Challenges for leadership in education. In P.Woods, A. Roberts, M.Tian &H. Youngs (eds.) Handbook on Leadership in Education. Elgar Handbook of Leadership in Education, Edward Elgar Publishing.Elgar Handbooks in Education, Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd.
Wilkins, A., Courtney, S.J. and Piattoeva, N. (2024). Keywords in education policy research: A conceptual toolbox. Bristol: Policy Press.
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