Chapter 12: Academic and Epistemic Drift and The Re-Production of Leadership Preparation Norms

Since the birth of free, compulsory, public education (Goodlad, Soder, & Mc-Daniel, 2015) some 200 years ago, the field has placed great faith in administration, management, and leadership to guide and direct schools to their varied goals. Over this history, the purpose and goals of education have shifted and changed as have curricular, instructional, pedagogical, and assessment practices. However, as much as some aspects may have changed, consistent throughout this history is the assumption that the administrator plays a key role in the success of schooling, what some have called the “inevitability of leadership” (Gronn, 2008; Kuyper, 2012; Sobis, van den Berg, & de Vries, 2012). At the same time, the core purpose of schooling, learning, is not clearly defined, leaving the very thing school leadership and administration seeks to influence shaped by folk assumptions and craft knowledge (Myran & Sutherland, 2018).