The Aesthetic Dimensions of Educational Administration & Leadership [Hardcover]

The question of aesthetics as a theoretical framework for thinking about modern leadership issues in educational settings is an emergent area of inquiry that is receiving considerable attention. There is a growing sense that the mechanistic approach to leadership, which has been widely encouraged over the last ten years, is sterile and that a more philosophical approach is now required.

This approach is covered here, taking into account the importance of aesthetics on all aspects of the administrative and leadership world: the ways ideas and ideals are created, how their expression is conveyed, the impact they have on interpersonal relationships and the organisational environment that carries and reinforces them and the moral boundaries or limits that can be established or exceeded.

While presenting a significant departure from conventional studies in the field, the international contributors reflect a continuity of thought on administrative and leadership authority, from the writings of Plato through to current theory.

Introduction: Foundations and History of the Social Aesthetic.  Part One: Philosophical Foundations.  Imagination, Taste, the Sublime, and Genius in Administration: A Kantian Critique of Organisational Aesthetics.  The Art and Legacy of the Romantic Tradition: Implications for Power, Self--Determination and Education.  Collingwood on Imagination, Expression and Action: Advancing an Aesthetically Critical Study of Educational Administration.  The Metaphysical Sources of Pragmatic Aesthetic Leadership.  On the Contribution of Critical Theory to Educational Administration and Leadership: Aesthetic Experience as Resistance to the Iron Cage of Dominative Administrative Rationality.  Part Two: Aesthetic Sources for Administration and Leadership.  AesthlC*