Putting education into educational leadership : the main challenge of contemporary educational leadership

Regardless of more than two decades of the presence of leadership concept in educational ield, there is still need of educationally adequate understanding of educational leadership. Most theories of leadership in education and their practical applications simply transfer leadership theories form general management theory without any deeper attempt of educationally contextualised relection whether they really suit the needs of educational organizations. Their main disadvantage is the fact, that they are built originally on values that are not necessarily central or important for educational purposes. The author argues that the contemporary dominant understandings of educational leadership in their main dimensions are grounded in context external to education and inluenced by values that are not (or should not be) central for educational organizations and purposes. Showing that the author proposes educationally adequate understanding of the main dimensions of leadership and a set of values that should be central when building theory and practice of contemporary educational leadership.