Postgraduate Module Descriptor

EFPM911: Educational Leadership and Management

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

The principal aim of this module is to facilitate the critical examination by module participants of educational leadership and management. 

This module will examine key questions such as:

  • How might we characterise educational leadership and management?
  • What are the key models of educational leadership and what is their relationship to the contexts in which they are practised? 
  • What is the role of teams and the collective in educational leadership? 
  • What is the relationship between learning and educational leadership?
  • In what ways might mentoring and coaching enable and develop leadership and management?
  • What is the significance of identity to educational leadership
  • In what ways might you as an education leader and/or manager seek to develop your practices in the light of your learning on this programme? 

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Demonstrate a critical understanding of different notions of education leadership and management
2. Critically evaluate different theoretical perspectives on education leadership and management
3. Demonstrate a critical understanding of key global, national and local issues in educational leadership and management
Discipline-Specific Skills4. Critically reflect upon and evaluate your own understanding of education leadership and management and its application to education settings with which you are familiar
5. Consider and critically reflect on ideas concerning the relationship between educational leadership and management theory, research, policy and practice
6. Critically evaluate research evidence related to the leadership and management of education
Personal and Key Skills7. Synthesise and organise ideas to present a convincing argument
8. Engage in critical, reflective debate
9. Evaluate your own leadership and management practices in relation to facilitating education change
10. Consider the application of theoretical ideas, policy positions and research implications to educational leadership practices
11. Undertake both directed and independent study to recognise, justify and analyse key ideas in educational leadership and management literature and relate these to research, theory, policy and practice

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Gronn, P. (1999) The Making of Educational Leaders, London: Cassell

Gronn P. (2000) Distributed properties: A new architecture for leadership. Educational Management and Administration. 28(3), 317–338.

Hall, D., Moller, J., Schratz, M., and Serpieri, R. (2017) From welfarism to neo-liberalism: Conceptualising the diversity of leadership models in Europe. In: Waite, D. and Bogotch, I. (eds) The International Handbook of Educational Leadership, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Blackwell Publishers.

Hall, D. (2013) Drawing a Veil over Managerialism: Leadership and the Discursive Disguise of the New Public Management, Journal of Educational Administration and History, 45 (3), 267-282.

Ozga, J. (2009) Governing education through data in England: from regulation to self-evaluation, Journal of Education Policy, 24 (2),149-162.

Thomson, P. (2008) Headteacher critique and resistance: a challenge for policy, and for leadership/management scholars. Journal of Educational Administration andHistory, 40 (2), 85–100.