Educational Leadership and Nancy Fraser Drawing on the work of Nancy Fraser, this book offers a critical view of contemporary educational leadership and reform discourses, exploring how her key concepts of redistribution, recognition and representation may apply to social and therefore educational justice. Fraser offers a political and pragmatic reconciliation between feminist, neo-Marxist, critical and post-structuralist theories. This book outlines how Fraser has worked on and worked over theories of social justice and how this can inform how we can understand educational theory, policy and practice generally. In particular, the book focuses on the field of educational administration and leadership (ELMA) as it relates to equity issues such as school choice and inequal- ity, gender and inclusive leadership, and alternative schooling. Fraser’s argument about ‘scaling up’ social justice theory is shown to be highly salient given the emergence of the field of transnational education policy and its role in the context of intensified nation-state and edu-business competition. Overall, through the lens of Nancy Fraser’s unitary framework, this book con- siders epistemological questions about the nature of knowledge, examines the relationship between the state, the individual, education and social movements, addresses the difficulties and dilemmas which arise due to the intersections of gen- der, class, race, sexuality and culture in a globalized context, and illustrates how the principles of social justice can be mobilized by leaders in everyday practice. Educational Leadership and Nancy Fraser is an illuminating read for those policymakers, researchers and practitioners engaged in the field of educational administration, leadership and social justice. Jill Blackmore is Alfred Deakin Professor of Education at Deakin University, Australia. Critical Studies in Educational Leadership, Management and Administration Series Series Editors: Pat Thomson, Helen M. Gunter and Jill Blackmore This series draws on social and political theories from selected key thinkers and activists to develop critical thinking leadership tools. Each text uses the work of a particular theorist or theoretical approach, explains the theory, suggests what it might bring to the ELMA field, and then offers analysis and case studies to show how the tools might be used. Every book also offers a set of questions that might be used by individual leaders in their own practices, and in areas of further research by ELMA scholars. In elaborating the particular approaches, each of the books also suggests a pro- fessional and political agenda which addresses aspects of the tensions and prob- lems created by neoliberal and neoconservative policy agendas, and the ongoing need for educational systems to do better for many more of their students than they do at present. Titles in the series Deconstructing Educational Leadership: Derrida and Lyotard Richard Niesche Educational Leadership and Hannah Arendt Helen M. Gunter Educational Leadership and Michel Foucault Donald Gillies Educational Leadership and Nancy Fraser Jill Blackmore Educational Leadership and Nancy Fraser Jill Blackmore First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Jill Blackmore The right of Jill Blackmore to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Names: Blackmore, Jill, author. Title: Educational leadership and Nancy Fraser / Jill Blackmore. Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2015049588| ISBN 9781138022027 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315777337 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Educational sociology | Educational leadership—Social aspects. | Social justice. | Educational equalization. | Fraser, Nancy. Classification: LCC LC189 .B56 2016 | DDC 371.2—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015049588 ISBN: 978-1-138-02202-7 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-77733-7 (ebk) Typeset in Galliard by diacriTech Dedicated to my son Jesse who had a strong sense of social justice and of care for others. This page intentionally left blank Contents Series foreword ix 1 Introducing Nancy Fraser 1 2 From state-managed to transnational capitalism: Fraser, feminism and the field of educational administration and leadership 20 3 Educational inequality, parental choice and school governance 41 4 The gender politics of educational leadership 62 5 Addressing social justice dilemmas: The case of male teachers and alternative provision of education 85 MARTIN MILLS 6 Conclusion: Fraser’s thinking tools and socially just education 98 7 Annotated bibliography 119 References 124 Index 149 This page intentionally left blank Series foreword Imagine yourself walking into the foyer of the Department of Education, Victoria, Australia. In front of you is a wall on which a series of names are displayed ceiling to floor. You glance quickly and note the following: Edward de Bono, Richard Elmore, Michael Fullan, Andy Hargreaves, Maria Montessori, Linda Darling- Hammond, Daniel Goleman, Kenneth Leithwood. Now imagine yourself in England. You decide to go to the website of the state-owned leadership research and training National College and you find a section called Key Thinkers. When the screen changes you find yourself looking at a list which contains many of the same names. Today, both of these things have disappeared. The names on the wall in Victoria have been removed and the National College website has been revamped. But they were both in place for some years. Seeing them made us wonder how it was that the very same people were being lauded on both sides of the world. We noted that both lists were dominated by North American men. In the Australian case no Australians were listed, and in the case of England, the English names were in a minority. Would this happen if we were exploring a leadership space or place in Los Angeles? In Edinburgh? In Cape Town? In Beijing? In Buenos Aires? In Toronto? It is interesting to think about where and where not we might see similar listings. We are sure that we would not have found this thirty years ago. While there was an international circulation of educational ideas and texts, the development of a celebrity leadership culture promoted by international gurus with modern- izing know-how is a new phenomenon. It is worth considering why this might be the case. We think of four possible reasons. 1 Leadership now encompasses all aspects of ‘continuous educational improve- ment’. All professionals (and increasingly children and young people as well), are identified as leaders, doing leading and exercising leadership. Head teachers, or principals, are deemed repositories of leadership that they do or do not ‘distribute’ to others to enable ‘delivery’ to be ‘maximized’. All edu- cational professionals are spoken to or about as school leaders, often without reference to role titles, and so just about everyone is potentially included as a consumer of leadership ideas and models.