Methodological Notes on the Study of Educational Leadership Relationally

The social sciences are paying increasing attention to relations. In contributing to this ongoing dialogue and debate Educational Leadership Relationally (Eacott, 2015) articulates a relational research program for the study of educational administration and leadership. This paper provides an overview of the relational program with particular attention to the five central tenets of the methodology. Key aspects of the relational program concern the complicity of the researcher with the ordinary language of the everyday, problematizing the research object, locating activity in spatio-temporal conditions, overcoming binary thinking, and productive theorizing. This paper and the collection of papers in the special issue, continue to dialogue and debate on the merits of the relational program.