Michel Foucault's ideas about power have profoundly influenced numerous academic disciplines, including educational leadership. Within higher education, traditional conceptions of power as something possessed or exercised hierarchically are routinely challenged and reconfigured through Foucauldian frameworks. This article examines six core themes-disciplinary power, surveillance, governmentality, knowledge and discourse, resistance, and subjectification—and interrogates their relevance in the context of higher education leadership. Drawing from a rich palette of global case studies and empirical reflections, the analysis unpacks how power relations saturate institutional structures, policy-making, and daily practices, shaping agency and constraints for leaders, faculty, and students alike. Throughout, the article foregrounds the dynamic and relational nature of power in universities, advocating for a more reflexive and ethically attuned leadership paradigm that resists simplistic binaries and promotes emancipatory possibilities.
Sepeng et al. (Mon,) studied this question.