TAFE managers : juggling educational leadership and accountability : an overarching statement

![CDATA[This paper represents an attempt to consolidate the past four years of research in the Doctorate of Education into the form of an overarching statement for the portfolio. The research for the portfolio is occurring within the context of technical and further education in New South Wales (TAFE NSW) and specifically addresses management and leadership in this vocational education and training organisation. Management within TAFE is currently being constructed around the discourses of managerialism, economic rationalism and the ‘new vocationalism’, all of which are impacting on the role of educational leaders in TAFE. The papers in the portfolio explore the working lives of TAFE managers and provide an insight into the tensions being felt by these managers in trying to adapt to their new environment. The major tension generated centers around the question of educational leadership verses accountability. A number of managers would argue that the two are in competition with the stress on accountability weakening the pedagogical output of TAFE. To many, the tensions created in the juggling of these roles whilst trying to maintain a healthy balance between the two, with limited support and resources, is not an attractive work option. Accordingly they are making the decision not to move into management positions within TAFE. The question must then be posed (particularly in the current climate of casualisation and the impending retirement of the ‘baby boomers’), “Who will step up to leadership in TAFE?”]]