This article considers case-study data from four English further education colleges. Responses from managers occupying a range of middle manager roles, their senior managers and their teams were analysed in order to assess key features of the middle manager role, and to identify factors which enable or impede them. Analysis focused upon the `mechanical' and `organic' aspects of the role, ways in which the role occupies the mechanical and organic dimensions, and where the difficulties lie in balancing the needs of the two.

This article on leadership in the English learning and skills sector is a development of a keynote paper presented at the BELMAS 2002 conference and forms a pair with the companion article on schools by Alma Harris. The article argues that research on colleges to date has focused on discrete levels of management/leadership and seems to be out of key with developing theories of distributed leadership emerging from schools research. It is suggested that leadership is embedded in the activities of staff and students, including delegated management, and can be understood to be both distributed and systemic. The creation and enactment of such leadership is explored by drawing on data from two research projects in England, one of which focused on general further education colleges and the other on sixth form colleges. It is argued that the distribution of tasks and responsibilities are fundamentally different in the two categories of college. The reasons for these differences indicate that the leadership which is constructed in each type of college is shaped not only by the pressures of government policies, as suggested by previous research, but also by a number of factors including the socioeconomic composition of students and the profile of staff. This article therefore suggests that leadership cannot be understood by discretely analysing the practice of particular categories of staff. Rather it can be seen as distributed in a variety of different ways and also as simultaneously systemic, flowing through and shaped by the entire community of each college.

For some time concerns have been raised that early in the 21st century there will be a crisis in Australian higher education. High levels of retirement and low levels of recruitment in institutions of higher education have been the trends for some time. Mentoring, as a workplace learning approach, could be used to address some of the problems associated with the recruitment and attrition of academic staff. This article aims to present a strategy for how mentoring, as a workplace learning approach, can be used within an academic environment and the benefits that can be expected as a result of its successful implementation. Although reference is made to the needs of Business Schools many of the principles are applicable to all branches and disciplines within higher education.

The three successful headteachers at a school in England managed policy, i.e. applied power effectively, in three distinct but interacting arenas: the micro level within the school and its departments; the meso level with local government and communities; and the macro level of central government and its agencies. They influenced these arenas by persuading school members to support their vision of a successful school through creating a culture that made staff and students feel valued but responsible members of the school community. This was achieved through the public sharing of knowledge of how to act effectively within school, e.g. in lessons or break times; to be connoisseurs of external policy contexts at meso and macro level; to understand how staff, students, and parents might perceive their actions; to assert their views and values effectively within the common interests of the school community. These leaders also created relationships with the school’s local authority and residential communities that made their members feel welcome partners with the school.

The English National College for School Leadership organized a programme of study visits to several international leadership centres in 2001. This article reports the findings of these visits and relates them to recent research on school leadership preparation. This shows a widespread commitment to training and preparation for headship but considerable diversity in the nature of such provision. There are many courses for aspiring, beginning and experienced principals but few examples of a coherent programme for all three stages. Preparation for leadership teams and middle managers is very limited. Learning modes include on-line provison, mentoring, coaching and internship as well as courses. The article recommends the establishment of an international network of leadership centres.

This article begins charting the field of leadership with respect to English Educational Psychological Services within the context of unprecedented and externally imposed change within local education authorities, including Best Value legislation and increasing market forces. It draws upon the work of Brighouse and Woods (on shared leadership and school improvement) and reports on the outcomes of a service improvement framework utilized in three Educational Psychology Services (City, Shire County and Metropolitan Borough). The data were triangulated with results from LEA OFSTED inspections and a short Business Excellence questionnaire. It was concluded that the adapted framework provided a valid and reliable tool that could be used to support service improvement initiatives. The study also enabled an initial exploration of leadership and psychology within modern Educational Psychology Services.

Drawing on the views of a wide range of theorists, including in particular Greene, Greenfield and Habermas, the author argues for the need, if we are to conceive of new possibilities for ourselves and for society, for imagination. In this context, a persistent theme of rural communities, once heavily dependent on a single economic resource, surrounds the need for innovative leaders who are capable of imagining new options and willing to take considered risks. Based ona case study of a single community and its school, the author argues that these characteristicsare becoming the first victims of an everincreasing technological rationality of educational institutions, but that the process may be reversed by practices of communicative discourse, and by a revitalization of critical participation in the practical and performing arts. An underlying assumption is that successful school leaders consider the interests of adults as well as those of students, and that they, together with other community members, engage in decision-making on socioeconomic and cultural ends as well as means.