History and the study of ‘administration’ (LAMPS) in education: a reflection on an editorial for a special issue

The special edition of JEAH published in August 2006 on ‘Administration and Leadership in Education: A Case for History?’ argued that history has been seriously undervalued in the study of administration and leadership in education. My introductory editorial explained why this mattered and outlined the framework in which the papers it contained were set. It then examined the concepts of administration and leadership in education and considered them as a field (or fields) of knowledge. In an exploration of how knowledge is produced, it discussed history as a form of knowledge and considered the contribution it could make to the study of the field. This was followed by a review of what was asked of the contributors and their response. The editorial concluded with ideas for future work. At the request of the new editors of the journal, this paper is a revised and extended version of my earlier editorial. Some aspects have been shortened (e.g., the review of contributions), others extended (e.g., views on history and its role), and some new material has been added (e.g., a discussion of the history of the field in the UK as represented in attempts to review the field since George Baron’s ground‐breaking keynote given at the first research conference of the British Educational Administration Society held in Birmingham in 1979).