Leading pedagogical reform

Pedagogical leaders are not always the leaders of pedagogy during pedagogical reform. In this paper, I argue that pedagogical reform can be enabled or constrained by pedagogical leadership. Pedagogical leadership and pedagogical reform require careful scrutiny within specific research contexts. Pedagogy itself has different meanings among educators. Uncontested views of pedagogy within two primary schools in Australia resulted in pedagogical dissonance, confusing the reform agenda. I present case study data from 10 participants, deploying the theory of practice architectures to think about leading as a practice. This paper explores four key drivers of pedagogical change derived from the data that build towards a theory of pedagogical change. Theoretical approaches to leadership are considered and contested and assumptions about leadership and management are explained. Teachers need opportunities to deeply understand pedagogy in order to avoid production-line pedagogical reform. Pedagogical leadership requires careful re-visioning within middle leadership, principal leadership and teacher leadership debates.