1st Edition
Educational Leadership and Antonio Gramsci The Organising of Ideas
This insightful book explores the life and ideas of Italian Marxist theoretician Antonio Gramsci, and argues his work has considerable contemporary relevance when re-considering educational leadership in today’s age of crises.
Gramsci’s theory of hegemony has provided an invaluable intellectual resource for those seeking to bring about radical change in the complex context of contemporary capitalist societies. In particular, his focus on the role of organic intellectuals engaging in an ongoing ideological struggle across economic, political and civil society helps to locate his notion of hegemony as a theory of leadership that is deeply rooted in pedagogical processes. This volume focuses on transformatory change both in and through education, reframing traditional notions of educational leadership as educative leadership, in which leadership for change, within and beyond educational institutions, is understood in pedagogical terms.
This volume will be of pivotal interest to academics, researchers, and postgraduates in the fields of educational leadership, the sociology of education, and education policy and politics. Practitioners interested in educational leadership and social theory, and those active in social movements, may also find the book of use.
- Education and Transformation: Rethinking Educational Leadership
- Antonio Gramsci: His Life and Ideas
- On Education and the Role of Intellectuals
- Gramsci’s Contemporary Relevance: Working ‘In and Against’ the Neoliberal State
- The Passive Revolution in English School Reform: Hegemony from Above
- Challenging the Neoliberal Restructuring of Public Education: Union Renewal and Counter Hegemony from Below
- ‘For the Practical Transformation of the Real World’: Making the Case for Educative Leadership
Biography
Howard Stevenson is Director of Research, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at University of Nottingham.
"Guided by one of the most significant figures of critical analyses of culture and power, Howard Stevenson provides us with an insightful and substantive analysis of the limits and possibilities of educational leadership. Books such as this are increasingly necessary in the politically charged climate of educational policy and practice right now."
-Michael W. Apple, John Bascom Professor of Education, University of Wisconsin, Madison and author of Can Education Change Society?.
"In this extraordinary work, Howard Stevenson both sets out a rigorous and highly relevant reading of Gramsci’s key ideas, and offers a devastating critique of neoliberal trends in education, its political conceptualisation, and the historical context that produced them. Focussing particularly on concepts of educational leadership, this is, at the same time, a crucial contribution to the sociology of education, an excellent introduction to Gramsci for any interested reader, and a profound and acute analysis of our historical moment and the political forces that have produced it. Stevenson and his collaborators demonstrate, if any of us needed reminding, that education is a crucial site of struggle that should be of concern to everyone, and his proposals for radical and transformative leadership are persuasive and inspiring."
-Jeremy Gilbert, Professor of Cultural and Political Theory at University of East London and author of Twenty-first century socialism and (with Alex Williams) Hegemony Now.
"In an age of multiple crises worldwide, Howard Stevenson rethinks leadership as an educative process through Gramsci’s notions of hegemony, organic intellectuals, and working in and against the neoliberal state in England and beyond. Importantly, this book points the way forward to transformational change in schools by linking leadership practices with social movements. If you are a school leader, university academic, union organiser, or parent and community activist who cares deeply about reimagining the future of schools and acting collectively to shape change in society, read this book and commit! A luta continua! (‘the struggle continues!’)."
-Lauri Johnson, Boston College, USA, Co-convenor, WERA (World Educational Research Association) Network for Educational Advocacy.
"A disruptive and welcome book, which asks us to rethink our idea of educational leadership so that we can use it to respond to our crisis-ridden times. Educational leadership, Stevenson argues, should not be the work of managers, but of organic intellectuals and popular movements. In its creative use of Gramsci’s ideas, the book is a welcome challenge to an orthodoxy that has narrowed our vision of educational possibility."
-Ken Jones, Head of Policy, Education, Equality and Social Justice at the National Education Union, and author of Education in Britain: 1944 to the present.
"Educational Leadership and Antonio Gramsci is a veritable call to pedagogical arms. Raising the urgent question of what form of leadership can rejuvenate the collective struggle for democracy and social justice, Stevenson insists that only a counter-hegemonic and educative one can prevent looming global catastrophe. A must read for our age of crises."
-Catherine Rottenberg, Professor of Media, Communications, and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London and author of The Rise of Neoliberal Feminism.
