The Centre for Research in Educational Leadership and Management (CRELM) focuses on how leadership is done, for what purpose, and by whom, in educational settings from the early years to higher and adult education.
We aim to understand leadership and governance in education. We address questions about purpose, for example:
- is leadership focused on the successful achievement of academic and social outcomes?
- does leadership enable students from diverse backgrounds to benefit from education and contribute to society?
We address questions about how leadership is done. For example, we draw on diverse leadership models, social and critical theories to recognise the complexity of leadership principles, structures and processes as they operate in interconnecting educational and social systems.
We address questions about who does leadership, and how leaders prepare for and develop their leadership. We believe educational leadership is enacted by policymakers, formal post-holders, teaching and support staff, students and families. We ask questions about the representation of women and other marginalised groups in leadership.
We investigate leadership preparation and development. We also provide professional leadership learning for beginning and serving teachers and leaders through our popular MA Educational Leadership and Management programme. We investigate the enactment of education policy. We adopt critical perspectives to analyse unequal power structures in policy, leadership and management and their effect on learning and the work of teachers and leaders.
As social scientists we use quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods methodologies to generate empirical data from close-to-practice leadership and governance. We investigate leadership in educational settings in learning phases from early years to higher and adult education.
We are a diverse group of scholars from diverse backgrounds at different stages of our research careers. At the heart of our research projects, is our passion for recognising diversity, promoting inclusivity, and successful leadership for learning, leadership for social justice, socially just and culturally responsive leadership.
We undertake research in multiple international contexts, including with a valued and vibrant group of postgraduate researchers. We share our research by publishing books and in international peer reviewed journals, presenting at international conferences, giving keynote talks across continents and engaging in multi-media.
Themes that are particulary associated with CRELM are:
Leadership and governance in education
Much of our work explores the tensions and dilemmas faced by leaders as they seek to improve outcomes for learners in complex educational environments. Leadership is individual, distributed and/or collective as well as culturally situated and context specific. Governance includes all aspects of policy and practice. We research leadership which we conceive as a process of influence geared towards the achievement of shared goals.
Leadership preparation and development in education
We explore multiple aspects of leadership preparation and teacher development, including succession planning, training, induction, and retention. Leadership development is a process of career-long growth which includes the development of beliefs and values, as well as knowledge, skills, and dispositions. Leadership development can be formal or informal and is often embedded in real-world educational challenges.
Critical perspectives on education policy and leadership
Educational leadership has the potential to reproduce or disrupt existing social inequalities. Using critical theories and lenses, we explore the implications of power relations in leadership and policy. We consider issues of diversity, equity, and social justice in leadership and education including by challenging processes of managerialism, marketisation, and marginalisation.