Leading for quality: questions about quality and leadership in Australia

Abstract

This article is situated in the context of recent policies for teacher quality in Australia. Discourses on quality have crossed many domains of public policy, including education. A feature of these discourses has been an emphasis on improving teacher quality and raising professional standards. The article uses critical discourse analysis to explore the implications of quality discourses for educational leadership. In so doing, it analyses how recent educational policies construct discourses on quality and professional standards, discourses which position educational leaders in particular - often contradictory - ways. Such positionings offer different ways of understanding leaders and how best they might lead for quality. The article concludes by raising questions about quality and leadership, questions that highlight the need to rethink educational leadership within a quality policy framework.