Foucault and School Leadership Research by Denise Mifsud

Foucault and School Leadership Research by Denise Mifsud

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.

There are now many books about FoucaultThis book uses Foucault and takes on the spirit and style of his method to explore the practice of institutional leadership. Drawing on Foucault's interest in absurdist drama, Mifsud's study examines some of the dramas of institutional life. In doing so she throws down a challenge to the orthodoxes of qualitative method. * Stephen J. Ball FBA, Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology of Education, UCL Institute of Education, UK *

Denise Mifsud is the Gozo College Principal within the Ministry for Education and Employment, Malta, and an independent education researcher and consultant. She is also an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781350105546
ISBN 10	1350105546
Title	Foucault and School Leadership Research
Author	Denise Mifsud
Series	Social Theory And Methodology In Education Research
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Year published	2019-03-21
Number of pages	280
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.