The New Enterprise Logic of Schools: The Leadership Challenge
by Brian Caldwell
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Overview
At a conference on the theme of "The Leadership Arena in the 21st Century" in 2005, Brian Caldwell presented some interesting ideas about the future of schooling and their implications for school leaders. He suggests that school leaders must not be risk averse. We need to nurture ‘enterprising leaders’, and by this he means leaders who are, among other things, daring, resourceful, alert, gifted with foresight, and who have a ‘get up and go’ approach.
Caldwell emphasises the need for schools to be in a range of partnerships – with the community, business, and research and academic groups. His ideas may provide a challenge to what many people think about the idea of self-managing schools.
He makes interesting reference to Thomas Friedman’s work on the flattening and convergence of enterprise, the economy, and education on the global scene. There are links to the Secondary Futures work, which is a New Zealand project aimed at stimulating thinking about the role and purpose of education 20 years from now.
Caldwell provides an interesting example of one school that consulted its community, especially the students, about their hopes and dreams for a school of the future.
Reflective questions
These reflective questions might guide you in your reading of this paper:
- What is global convergence? How has it made an impact on your school already, and how will it make an impact over the next five years? Does your school charter take these issues into account?
- What ways could you use to engage your school community – students, parents, and staff – in thinking about schooling for the future and how it might be different from what your school is currently doing?
Further reading
Walsh, K. (2004). Leading and managing the future school. UK: National College of School Leadership.
The New Zealand Secondary Futures Project
References
Caldwell, B. (2005). The new enterprise logic of schools: The leadership challenge. An invited keynote address to the 10th annual conference of the Professional Development Network of School Leaders on the theme "The Leadership Arena in the 21st Century", Queensland, July 2005.
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