Equality has grown as a focus of public policy, and viewed as a fundamental right with intrinsic value (Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)). As a vehicle for economic, social, and civic well-being, it is considered indispensable and promotion is reinforced by law.  In the European Union, statutory impetus is provided by recent equality legislation.  In Ireland, this includes equal status legislation (2000-2004) which prohibits discrimination in the provision of educational services across nine grounds - gender, age, marital status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, disability, ‘race’, and membership of the Traveller community. For education, the language of inclusion is juxtaposed with a legalistic discourse and a range of ideological positions about educational equality. This paper reports on research conducted in one Irish region by a team led by Marlene Morrison and Jacky Lumby (University of Lincoln, UK) to develop suitable instruments for equal status audits in three pilot institutions, two from secondary and one from adult education. Drawing upon data from staff, learners, and parents, it considers the extent to which anti-discrimination frameworks are being understood, mediated, and acted upon to form the basis of equal status planning and action. Policy taking at the micro-level is seen as political and contested; this is linked both to the contradictory functions of legislation and assumptions by institutional leaders about the rhetorical and operational values that guide their practices and those of others. Conclusions draw upon the transferability of findings for leaders in educational settings within and beyond Ireland.

While the rhetoric of ‘partnership’ is ubiquitous in United Kingdom policy documents at national, regional, local and organisational levels, the competitive environment persists whereby individual schools and their leaders vie to be judged effective against norm referenced standards which take little account of differentiated intakes. Equally, leaders are exhorted to put learners’ interests first in the face of the multiple and powerful interests of education and training organisations and their staff. This paper draws on evidence of interviews with young people, teachers/trainers and support services staff from two Local Education Authorities in Wales and two in England to analyse the interplay of power and interests in relation to education and training for the upper high school phase of 14-19 year olds. It considers how leadership of a school might be understood and assessed, given that what is increasingly demanded by policy is corporate leadership of a local system rather than leadership of an individual organisation. The adoption of collective aims to raise achievement for all within a local area, rather than just those in one’s own school poses radical challenges to the autonomy and culture of schools and their leaders. The interplay of power, interests and their leadership implications in the UK and more widely are analysed.