The Study of Educational Leadership and Management: Where Does the Field Stand Today?

Abstract

This article comments on the state of research in educational leadership and management as a field of study between 1990 and the present. We discuss the role of research reviews and compendia in the field as a means of identifying past trends, current dilemmas, and future directions for scholarship. We conclude five major points. First, today there is less agreement about the significant problems that scholars should address than in past years. Second, scholarly directions seem to be changing, as an increasing number of scholars are approaching educational leadership and management as a humanistic and moral endeavor rather than a scientific one. Third, although there are more diverse and robust methodological tools available for inquiry, programs of sustained empirical research are few in number. Fourth, a reluctance to evaluate the worth of contrasting conceptual and methodological approaches according to an accepted set of scholarly criteria leaves researchers, policy-makers and practitioners to fall back upon individual judgments of what is useful and valid knowledge. Finally, a lack of empirical rigor in the field continues to impact the development of a future generation of researchers.