Addressing Difference as Well as Commonality in Leadership Preparation for Faith Schools

Abstract

THIS PAPER ARGUES that, in preparing people for leadership in faith schools, attention should be paid to the differences in their purpose, nature and ethos as well as to what they have in common with all other schools. First, I suggest that leadership is essentially connected to purposes. Then I bring out some of the ways that leadership of faith schools, and more particularly, leadership of church schools, requires priorities and capacities additional to and different from those required in mainstream schools. Third, as an example of the type of separate and specific provision for church school leadership that is needed, there is a brief description of an MA programme which I directed between 1997–2002. Fourth, there is an analysis of some of the tensions and conflicts brought about by the desire of churches to have separate provision of leadership preparation opportunities. Finally, it is suggested that, although there are difficulties that arise when faith schools emphasise their distinctiveness too much, so too there are dangers when insufficient attention is paid to this distinctiveness and when other professional and educational orthodoxies are imposed.