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Authentic leadership

“Authentic leadership is about exercising influence in ways that are ethical and aligned with school values.”

“We are interested in any matters to do with the exercise of educational leadership,” said Associate Professor Michael Bezzina, Head of ACU National’s School of Educational Leadership.

The school currently has some 600 students enrolled in Master’s degrees in Educational Leadership and is involved in supervision of 50 in Doctoral programs.

While the school’s programs are focussed on Catholic education, it has also worked with leaders in organisations as diverse as Catholic, Lutheran and independent schools, police departments and community organisations.

Associate Professor Bezzina also directs the University’s Flagship for Creative and Authentic Leadership, which offers research, consultancy and professional development.

“Authentic leadership is about exercising influence in ways that are ethical and aligned with school values, not just the pursuit of the bottom line,” he said.

Specialist research areas reflect the University’s values, including leadership for learning, moral and ethical leadership, leadership for social justice and social responsibility, Indigenous leadership, intercultural leadership and more.

“Research tells us a number of things about how we best impact on learning for our students,” he said. “The most important impact is created by classroom teachers, but somebody has to create a context and conditions in which they work and continue to improve.

“People tend to think about leadership as a quality of individuals. While this is true, it can also be understood as a quality of organisations and communities in which many can share as they exercise influence in formal and informal ways.”

Projects include:

  • Linking Worlds, investigating cultural influence on educational leadership in remote Aboriginal communities, and how this might assist in strengthening leadership capacity among educational leaders. This is headed by Dr Jack Frawley and Professor Tony D’Arbon in partnership with Bachelor Institute for Indigenous Teacher education and funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC).
  • Leading Aligned Numeracy Development (LAND) which involves Catholic Education Offices in the Northern Territory, Adelaide and Western Australia, and Principals as Literacy Leaders (PALL) in association with Principals Australia. Dr Mike Gaffney heads up two, the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) funded projects. Read more about Dr Gaffney. 
  • Leaders Transforming Learning and Learners project which is exploring ways in which leaders in Catholic schools can exercise leadership of learning with strong moral purpose. Associate Professors Michael Bezzina and Charles Burford are working with Catholic education authorities in Sydney, Broken Bay, Maitland-Newcastle, Parramatta, Wollongong and Lismore.
  • AUSAID Australian Leadership Awards is providing intensive professional development for educational leaders from South East Asia and the Pacific.
  • A professional development program for leaders of Anglicare Sydney.