The Impact on Truth and Meaning

The Impact on Truth and Meaning

The last chapter ended by asking what is the educators’ basis for robust evidence. The epistemological basis for evidential claims is perhaps the critical nexus of questions for educational leaders. Yet, for reasons deriving from pressures of both commodification and control, they are increasingly difficult questions for leaders to ask. Commodification pressures ask for a primacy of the question ‘is it useful?’ over that of ‘is it true?’, deflecting educational leaders away from questions of truth and towards concerns of utilitarian worth. Pressures of control also steer leaders from educational concerns, for as Gunter (2001: 96) argues: ‘the mandated model of headship … presented within current government documents does not see the headteacher as ...