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.
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