Em a nc ip ato ry lea de rs hip DAVID CORSON This study introduces ‘emancipatory leadership’ as an approach that educational administrators might adopt in settings of great diversity; and in other contexts too. As a background to the concept, the study presents a critical discourse analysis that suggests how easily distorted communication can arise in formal administrative settings when the interests of those wi th some stake in the matter under discussion are not represented among the participants. In this case, Board of Trustee members were highly successful in debating and reaching suitable conclusions when the agenda items concerned their own close interests. However, when the meeting agenda broached the affairs of an out-group with no known patronag e on the Board, distor tions in communicat ion and small injustices became common; and the out-group’s interests were compromised. The article also includes a case study of a group of emancipatory leaders at work. It concludes by su ggesting some fe at ures of ‘emancipatory leadership’ that might improve administrative practice in education. Introduction On first encounter, the phrase ‘emanc ipat ory leadership’ looks like an oxymoron: a contra dic tion in terms. How can word s li ke le adershi p and leader (German: di e Fu ¨ hr ung and de r Fu ¨ hr er), whose verbal rules of use have linked the m with some of the most oppr essive activities in human history, be emancipatory in anything more than an ironic sense? Even Peter Drucker, the management guru who helped establish the cult of corporate leadership in North America, neatl y ironicized his own conce pt of leadershi p by admitti ng that: ‘Leadership is all hype . We’ve had three grea t leaders this century – Hitler, St alin and Mao’ (Ol ive 1999; C6). Indeed, despite attempts to rehabilitate ‘leadership’ by styling the concept in other ways, it still tends to resist any ready and sympathetic collocation with phrases like ‘human emanci pa tion’, ‘human freedom’, or ‘human autonomy’ (for some of the other lea de rshi p styles advance d see: Du ke (1996), instructional; Leithwood et al . (1996), transformational; and Macbeath et al. (1996), interactive). I f irst beg an to think about these matter s when I came into conta ct with the reforming educationa l ideas of Paolo Freire, whose mission wa s to David Corson is Professor in the Department of Theory and Policy Studies at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. He has taught in universities in Canada, England, INT. J. LEADERSHIP IN EDUCATION, 2000, VOL. 3, NO. 2, 93±120
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