Network leadership: a new educational imperative?/ Alma Harris, Cecilia Azorin and Michelle Jones

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated networking within and across schools in an unprecedented way. It has demanded new forms of leadership and leadership practices that are network based and technologically driven. The rapid emergence of the ‘network school leader’ during the pandemic raises questions about the forms of leadership practices that are being enacted and the forms they take. The article examines the functions assigned to those occupying leadership positions in various education networking environments and focuses on the multi-faceted nature of leadership in these networks. This article considers some of the contemporary specialist literature on networking that offers insights into network leadership processes and practices. In this article, it is proposed that distributed leadership offers an important theoretical and analytical lens to investigate network school leadership more deeply. The article concludes by positing that in the dramatically changed world of education, network leadership is no longer an option for some but rather is a new educational imperative for all.