Distributed leadership: critical perspectives

This article questions the dominance of distributed leadership as a worldwide theory of educational leadership. It critiques the theory’s uncertain definitions, its unrealistic reliance on positive behaviours and its avoidance of engagement with issues of power. It explores why it is widely presented as preferable to bureaucracy when the worth of bureaucracy is evidenced by its ubiquity in organisations, despite being caricatured and side-lined. The article suggests that a more critical stance in relation to distributed leadership and a more open-minded embrace of the potentialities of bureaucracy offer a credible and positive path forward for educational leadership