Introduction
The elusive search for what makes an effective leader or how best to prepare school
leaders has challenged and inspired those who study and/or work with educational
leaders, managers and administrators for many years. In fact, it is arguably the very
problem that led to the establishment of educational administration as a domain of
study in the first place. Despite the plethora of books, journal articles, conference
papers and scholarly activity, our understanding of school leadership as a phenomenon
and leaders as actors in a social space remains a contested terrain. Among the
ambiguity and complexity of leadership as a concept/practice, preparation programs
for current and aspiring leaders have become the panacea for developing and
supporting leaders for the improvement of school standards/performance. This paper
contributes to the discourse on leadership preparation from an Australian perspective.
The unique contribution of this paper is the focus on a much under discussed
perspective, that is, the role of a leadership preparation course in an under-graduate