I am currently a Reader in Educational Management and Leadership in the School of Education at the University of Strathclyde. Prior to joining Strathclyde, I was an Associate Professor at the British University in Dubai and at Simon Fraser University in Canada.  I have also been a Guest Researcher at the Humboldt University of Berlin for a number of years, was Visiting Professor in Administrative Studies at the University of Tartu, Estonia and a Visiting Fellow at Oxford Brookes University.  In addition I have been a guest lecturer at universities and institutes in the US, the UK, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Norway, Lithuania, Finland, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.  My doctoral work and subsequent academic work is in both public administration and educational administration and leadership, with some of my scholarship examining the intersections of the two fields. I am on the boards of a number of international journals in the field, and regularly do peer review for a number of prominent book publishers, and have guest edited a number of journal special issues.  In Canada I also worked as a management consultant to the public sector for over a decade on a broad variety of projects including legislation development, organisational reviews, board development, and government department restructuring and redesign including several projects on schools and higher education.  My fields of study include a BA in philosophy and history with a minor in psychology, a BEAD in education (English, social studies and theatre), an MA in English and an MEd in educational administration, and an interdisciplinary PhD in administrative studies and leadership (public and educational administration).  My education also includes many years of training at a conservatory of music in Canada.

My research concentrates on developing and exploring a critical humanistic and humanities-based paradigm in administration and leadership, and, in the case of their application to education, reflects a system view.  The topics I publish on vary from foundational administrative philosophy and theory, interdisciplinary foundations of administration, theories and models of public and educational administration and leadership to a range of topics grounded in this foundation: Weberian studies; organisational and leadership aesthetics, culture, multiculturalism, ethics (including passive evil) and values; policy studies; international and comparative administration; critiques of neoliberalism, the New Public Management and globalisation; the role of history and biography in the field; postcolonial critiques of globalised higher education; the role of emotions and toxic leadership; and more recently Islamic ethics for leadership and principles of Islamic public administration and postcolonial studies.  The new topics I am currently developing are on leadership identity formation, education under post-neoliberalism, nationalism and populism, digital and social media challenges for educational administration, and cinematic and literary critiques of educational administration and leadership for research and teaching as well as teaching educational administration and leadership in Muslim contexts. 

I have published a number of books with Routledge on ethics, aesthetics, politics, emotions, trust and betrayal and ideologies in educational leadership, with a forthcoming volume on maladministration in education and have authored Secrecy and Tradecraft in Educational Administration: The Covert Side of Educational Life (Routledge 2014).  In addition to many articles published in leading journals I have also contributed to encyclopaedia and handbooks in educational theory and in educational leadership, and chapters to a number of books covering a broad range of aspects in educational and public administration in the US, the UK, Australia, Germany, France and Russia.

Sole Authored Book:

Secrecy and Tradecraft in Educational Administration: The Covert Side of Educational Life, Routledge (2014).

Refereed Edited Books:

Editor, Ethical Foundations for Educational Administration. (Routledge, 2003).  Chapters contributed: “A Kantian Critique for Administrative Ethics: An Alternative to the ‘Morally Mute’ Manager?” and “Editor’s Introduction”, and co-authored with K. Mihailova “Bibliography of Christopher Hodgkinson’s Writings” (276-280). Other contributors include scholars from Australia, the US, the UK, Hong Kong, and Canada.

Principal editor (co-editor with R. Bates), Aesthetic Dimensions of Educational Administration and Leadership. Milton Keyes: Routledge (2006; paperback 2012). Chapters contributed: “Introduction” (coauthored with Richard Bates), “Imagination, Taste, the Sublime, and Genius in Administration: A Kantian Critique of Organisational Aesthetics”, “The Aesthetics of Charisma: Architectural, Theatrical, and Literary Dimensions” and “The Art and Legacy of the Romantic Tradition: Implications for Power, Self-Determination and Education” (coauthored with A. Stanley). Other contributors include scholars from Australia, the US, Canada, and the UK.

Editor, Political Approaches to Educational Administration and Leadership. (New York: Routledge, 2008; paperback 2011).  Chapters contributed: “Critical Introduction” and “Beyond the Crooked Timber of Humanity: Kant and Hegel on the Political Critique of Educational Administration.”  Other contributors include scholars from Canada, the UK, the US, and Australia.

Associate editor, 4 volume Master Works set, Educational Leadership and Administration, Sage (2009).

Principal editor (co-editor M. Schmidt) Emotional Dimensions of Educational Administration and Leadership, Milton Keynes: Routledge (2009; paperback 2013).  Chapters contributed: “Critical Introduction” (co-authored with M. Schmidt), “The Romantic Philosophy of Mind: The Elevation of Emotions to the (Anti-)Heroic Ideal,” “Unconscious Dynamics in the Educational Organisation: The Psychoanalytic Contributions to Administration and Leadership Studies,” “Psychopathy in Educational Leadership: The Problem of Narcissists in Positions of Power” (co-authored with T. Atkins). Other contributors include scholars from the UK, Canada, the US, Cyprus and Australia.

Principal editor (co-editor M. Schmidt) Trust and Betrayal in Educational Administration and Leadership, New York: Routledge (2010; paperback 2013). Chapters contributed: “The Interdisciplinary Foundation of Trust: From Trustworthiness to Betrayal,” “Trust in Organisational, Leadership, and Management Studies: Theories, Approaches, and Conceptions” and “Studying the Psychological and Cultural Wages of Mistrust: An Essay on Organisational Torment under a Suspicious Regime”.  Other contributors include scholars from the US, the UK, Australia, Canada, and Slovenia.

Editor, Ideologies in Educational Administration and Leadership (Routledge, UK, 2016); includes contributor chapters from: Canada, Australia, the US, UK, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Italy, and Poland.

Principal editor (coeditor P. Milley), Maladministration in Education: International Theories, Research and Critiques; co-author of critical introduction and single author of chapter entitled ‘The Total Toxic Institution: When Organisations Fail Psychologically, Socially and Morally.’ Other contributors include scholars from the UK, the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Italy, Turkey, and South Africa.

Refereed Book Section

Co-editor with J. van Buer of the “Evaluation, Quality Development and Assurance” section of the Handbook of Vocational Education Research, Felix Rauner (International VET Research, Bremen University) and R. Maclean (UNESCO International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Bonn) editors (Springer, 2009), the English language version of Felix Rauner, ed. Handbuch Berufsbildungsforschung (Bielefeld: W. Bertelsmann Verlag, 2005).  Section editor introduction, van Buer and Samier, “Evaluation, Quality Development and Assurance.”  English-language edition published in 2007.

Invitational Publications:

a. Book chapters:

“The Philosophical and Historical Origins & Genesis of Islamic Global Governance,” L. Pal and M. Tok (eds) Global Governance: Muslim Perspectives, Contributions and Challenges, Palgrave Macmillan (forthcoming).

 “The Politics of Educational Change in the Middle East: Nation-building, Postcolonial Reconstruction, Destabilized States, Societal Disintegration, and the Dispossessed,” in A. Means and K. Saltman (eds), Handbook of Global Education Reform, Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming.

 “Fairness, Equity and Social Cooperation: A Moderate Islamic Social Justice Leadership Model for Higher Education,” in L. Shultz and M. Viczko (eds) Assembling and Governing the Higher Education Institution: Democracy, Social Justice and Leadership in Global Higher Education, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016, pp. 35-64.

“Western Doctoral Programmes as Public Service, Cultural Diplomacy or, Intellectual Imperialism? Teaching Educational Management & Leadership in the United Arab Emirates,” in A. Taysum and S. Rayner (eds) Investing in Our Education? Leading, Learning, Researching and the Doctorate, Scarborough: Emerald Publishing, 2014, pp. 93-123. Volume 13 in book series International Perspectives on Higher Education Research.

 “Exploring Aesthetic Dimensions of Leadership: Re-establishing Human Agency,” in Handbook of Educational Leadership: Advances in Theory, Research, and Practice, ed. F. English, 2^nd edition, Sage, 2011. Pp. 273-286.

 “Reconciling Canadian-Russian Differences: On the Art of Comparing Public Administration Systems,” in ПРОБЛЕМЫ КАНАДОВЕДЕНИЯ (Problems of Canada), ed. V. I. Sokolov. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences, 2007. Pp. 65-81.

“Demandarinisation in the New Public Management: Examining Changing Administrative Authority from a Weberian Perspective,” in Max Webers herrschaftssoziologie: studien zu entstehung und wirkung, eds. E. Hanke and W. J. Mommsen. Tübingen: Mohr/Siebeck, 2001. Pp. 235-263.

Reprint of "The Weberian Legacy of Thom Greenfield" (1996), in: S. Ball, ed. Sociology of Education Major Themes. Volume III: Institutions and Processes, Routledge (UK), 2000.

The Capitalist Ethic and the Spirit of Intellectualism: The Rationalized Administration of Education. Paper presented at the invitational colloquium on Max Weber, Groupe de Recherche sur la Culture de Weimar, Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, January 10-11, 1997, in Paris, France.  In L'éthique protestante de Max Weber et l'esprit de la modernité, ed. G. Raulet. Paris: Editions de la Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, 1997. Pp. 190-207.

b. Journal Articles (refereed highlighted):

“Education in a Troubled Era of Disenchantment: The Emergence of a New Zeitgeist,” Special Issue on Education in the Trump Era, Journal of Educational Administration and History, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2017.1399865. (refereed)

 “The Islamic Public Administration Tradition: Historical, Theoretical and Practical Dimensions,” Administrative Culture, 2017, 18, 1, 53-71. (refereed)

 “Towards a Postcolonial and Decolonising Educational Administration History,” Journal of Educational Administration & History, 2017.  Available: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220620.2017.1343288. (refereed)

“A New Biographical Studies for Educational Leadership: Challenges from a Postcolonial and Globalised World,” Research in Educational Administration & Leadership, 2016, 1, 2, 187-228. (refereed) (http://dergipark.ulakbim.gov.tr/eyla/index)

 “Emirati Women’s Higher Educational Leadership Formation under Globalisation: Culture, Religion, Politics and the Dialectics of Modernisation” for special issue “Regendering the Academy,” Gender and Education, 2015, 27, 1-16. (refereed)

 “Is the Globalization of Higher Education a Societal and Cultural Security Problem?” Policy Futures in Education, 2015, 13, 5, 683-702. (refereed)

“Where have the disruptions gone? Educational administration’s theoretical capacity for analyzing or fomenting disruption,” Critical Rejoinder to articles in International Journal of Leadership in Education Special Issue “These Disruptive Times: Rethinking critical educational leadership as tools for scholarship and practice in changing times,” 2013, 16, 2, 234-244. (refereed).

“Pursuing the Administrative Avant-Garde: An Aesthetic Critique of Change in Educational Systems,” Critical Studies in Education, 53, 1 (2012), 47-58 (refereed).

“Canadian Federal Mandarin Memoirs: On the Formation of Lester Pearson’s Public Service Ethos,” in PROBLEMY KANADOVEDENIYA V ROSSIISKIH I ZARUBEZHNYH ISSLEDOVANIYAH. VYPUSK (Canadian Studies Issues in Russian and Foreign Research), Vol. 3, Sankt Peterburg (2009) (refereed).

“Towards a Model for International Comparative Educational Administration: A Critical, Contextualised, and Interpretive Approach,” Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences (Taiwan), 3, 3 (2009), 35-64.  Each issue of this journal has an invited paper.

“Canadian Federal Mandarin Memoirs: On the Personality and Ability to Speak Truth to Power,” Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien, 50, 1, (2007), 103-119. (refereed)

Co-author A. Stanley, “Stone Angels & Paper Airplanes: Literary Representations of Canadian Public Administration.” Representations of Canada: Cross-Cultural Reflections on Canadian Society 4 (joint annual publication of Federal Agency of Education of the Russian Federation, Volgograd State University, and Centre for American Studies Pennsylvania Canadian Studies Consortium), eds. A. I. Kubyshkin, R. M. Timko, and I. A. Sokov, 2007, 119-138.

“Educational Administration as an Historical Discipline: An Apologia pro Vita Historia.” Journal of Educational Administration and History, Special Issue: Understanding Leadership in Education: The Need for History? (2006). Guest editor, P. Ribbins (University of Birmingham), 38, 2, 125-139. (refereed)

“Toward a Weberian Public Administration: The Infinite Web of History, Values, and Authority in Administrative Mentalities.” Administrative Culture, 6 (2005): 60-93. (refereed)

“Toward Public Administration as a Humanities Discipline: A Humanistic Manifesto.” Administrative Culture, 6 (2005): 6-59. (refereed) Reprinted in F. English ed., Educational Leadership and Administration, 4 vols., Sage, 2009.

“Multiculturation of the Canadian Civil Service: Cultural Composition and Cultural Agenda of the Public Service.” Zeitschrift für Kanada-Studien 46, 1 (2005): 162-183.

“Weber on Education and Its Administration: Prospects for Leadership in a Rationalised World.” Educational Management, Administration & Leadership (UK), 30, 1 (2002): 27-45. (refereed). Reprinted in Jenny Ozga (ed.) Sociology of Education. 4 vols. Sage (in press).

“The Historical Development of Multicultural Policy in Canada: Public Administration Considerations.” Ahornblätter 15 (2001): 77-96.

"Interpretive Excursions in Educational Administration: Reconstructing Weberian Theory as a Comparative Historical Sociology." Journal of Educational Administration and Foundations, 11, 2 (1996): 35-59. (refereed)

c. Encyclopaedia Entries:

 “The Neoliberal Globalisation of Education: Western and Developing Nation Perspectives,” (Springer, 2016) M. Peters (ed.) Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory.

“Max Weber on Education,” (Routledge, 2016) J. Palmer (ed.) The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Educational Thinkers.

Two entries for the Management Section (Information Age Publishing, 2013) F. English editor, in the Handbook of Educational Theories (general eds. B. Irby, G. Brown and R. Lara-Alecio) Information Age Publishing, 2013: “The Aesthetics of Leadership and Administration” (pp. 945-952) and “Bureaucratic Theory: Myths, Theories, Models, Critiques” (pp. 909-915).

Three entries for Encyclopedia of Education Law, 2 vol. (Sage 2008), C. Russo (ed.): “Bureaucracy,” “Authority Theory” and “Critical Theory”.

d. Book Review Essays

“The Evolution of the Modern University: From Scholarship to Disenchanted Economic Handmaiden” (4 books). Policy Futures in Education Journal, special issue: The University in Transition, 8, 2 (2010): 238-247.

 “The University under Globalisation: Neoliberalism, the Market Model, the Entrepreneurial Professor, and the Disenchantment of Academia,” Educational Management, Administration & Leadership, forthcoming.

Refereed Non-Invitational Articles:

‘Designing Public Administration Curriculum for the United Arab Emirates: Principles for Graduate PA Programmes for a Modernising Arab Islamic State,’ Administrative Culture journal, 2014, 15, 2, 222-246.

Co-author E. ElKaleh, ‘The Ethics of Islamic Leadership: A Cross-cultural Approach for Public Administration’, Administrative Culture, 2013, 14, 2, 188-211.

Co-author C. Mullen (Univ. of North Carolina) and S. Brindley (Cambridge University, UK) and F. English (Univ. of North Carolina), An Epistemic Frame Analysis of Neoliberal Culture and Politics in the US, UK, and the UAE: A Praxis for Regressionsverbot; Samier full paper-length section: Internationally Networked Recolonization of the UAE: The Political Economy of Education in a Transition State under Globalisation, Interchange, 2013, 43, 3: 187-228.

Coauthor J. Lumby (University of Southhampton), “Alienation, Servility, and Amorality: Relating Gogol’s Portrayal of Bureaupathology to an Accountability Era,” Educational Management, Administration and Leadership (UK), special issue: The Significance of Leadership Theory, 38, 3 (2010): 360-373.

“On the Kitschification of Educational Administration: An Aesthetic Critique of Theory and Practice in the Field”, International Studies in Educational Administration, 36, 3 (2008): 3-18.

“The Problem of Passive Evil in Educational Administration: Moral Implications of Doing Nothing,” International Studies in Educational Administration, 36, 1 (2008): 2-21.

 “Managerial Rationalisation and the Ethical Disenchantment of Education: A Weberian Perspective on Moral Theory in Modern Educational Organisations.” Special Issue of the Journal of Educational Administration 40, 6 (2002): 589-603.

"Public Administration Mentorship: Conceptual and Pragmatic Considerations." The Journal of Educational Administration (Australia) 38, 1 (2000): 83-101.

"Administrative Ritual and Ceremony: Social Aesthetics, Myth, and Language Use in the Rituals of Everyday Organizational Life." International 25th Anniversary Edition of Educational Management, Administration and Leadership, 25, 4 (1997): 417-436.

"The Weberian Legacy of Thom Greenfield." Educational Administration Quarterly 32 (1996): 686-704.

Guest Editorships:

Administrative Culture, Special Issue: Aesthetics and Government, 8 (2007), includes editor’s introduction, “’Art-Full’ Government: On the Aesthetics of Politics and Public Administration,” 4-13.  This project involved preliminary research meetings with several colleagues in political science and public administration, and related disciplines, at the Universities of Helsinki and Tampere, Finland, August 2005 and the Universities of Tallinn and Tartu, Estonia, April 2005). (refereed)

Journal of Educational Administration and Foundations, Special Issue on Aesthetics of Educational Administration and Leadership, 19, 1 (2008). Includes Editor’s Introduction  pp. 13-18). (refereed)

Journal of Educational Administration, Special Issue on Exploring the Emotional Dimensions of Educational Leadership: Implications for Professional Programmes (Australia), 48, 5 (2010).  Includes editor’s introduction and “Preventing and combating administrative narcissism: implications for professional programmes,” co-authored with T. Atkins. (refereed).

Interchange, Guest editor with F. W. English, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US), C. A. Mullen, School of Education, University of North Carolina at Greensboro (US), S. Brindley, Cambridge University, and L. C. Ehrich, Queensland University of Technology (Australia), 2 Special Issues on Neo-Liberal Networks in Public Education. Co-author Editors’ introduction: ‘Neo-liberal issues in Public Education,’ and co-author with C. Mullen and S. Brindley of a UAE case study entitled ‘An Epistemic Frame Analysis of Neoliberal Culture and Politics in the US, UK, and the UAE’, (2014) vol. 43, no’s 3 & 4. My case study is subtitled: ‘Internationally Networked Recolonization of the UAE: Education in a Transition State under Globalization’, pp. 211-228 (refereed).

International Journal of Leadership in Education, Special sectionon Security Studies and the University (forthcoming), based on papers at the CCEAM/CASEA 2014 conference symposium and additional contributions.  Editor introduction and contribution: ‘Globalized Western Educational Leadership as a Cultural Security Threat: Implications for Higher Education Leadership and for Curriculum in Developing Countries’ (refereed).