Preparing Educational Leaders in Managerialist Times: an Australian Story by Eacott - Article Example

Eacott's (2011) article on education leadership focuses on the need to equip students with leadership skills instead of just transforming them to become the agents of leading change.

Eacott focuses on how school leaders in Australia are constructed through school leadership and development programs to become delivers of state agenda. The content of what is actually taught in Australian schools is not given specific attention unlike in the cases of the US. If school leaders are really trained to be the deliverers of the state agenda, then they have a crucial role in mentoring the students with skills on how to become leaders themselves but not agents of change. School leadership and educational development programs have an added value to the university students since it focuses on offering diverse intellectual schools for the student to be equipped with the skills desired in the 21st century.

Eacott (2011, p.45) is opposed to the content of the program offered in the Australian university which is based on the requirements of the market or simply about educational change. School leadership and development program should be more centered on the practical divide rather than the theory. When school leaders acquire diverse intellectual resources, Eacott (2011, p.56) argues that such leadership underlies decisions. Reliance on systematic programs and resources from non-university providers would make the school leaders lack adequate knowledge to equip the students who are the leaders of tomorrow.

For school leadership to be effective and desirable, the measures implemented depend majorly on whether the professionals setting them are academics, policymakers, or practitioners. School leadership is not just understanding the rule of the game where the principal is the deliverer of the state agenda; it is about redefining the boundaries of schooling (Eacott 2011, p.59).  When students are trained to read more than just what the school program provides, the benefit is acquiring the knowledge needed in future leadership.