Generating Stealth Agents in Educational Leadership through Imagination

This dissertation explores imagination as an apparatus for social change within educational leadership, conceptualized through the lens of dissensus and speculative inquiry. In response to growing systemic uncertainty and complexity, it argues for imagination as a pivotal mechanism through which educational leaders might disrupt entrenched inequities and redistribute possibilities for human flourishing. Employing a post-intentional phenomenological framework, this study examines how imagination emerges, fragments, and reconfigures during speculative future scenarios deliberately designed to unsettle traditional leadership paradigms. Participant narratives reveal imagination as inherently disruptive, capable of breaking apart dominant epistemologies and enabling leaders to reimagine more just and sustainable futures. The findings illustrate that imaginative leadership emerges from acts of dissensus, characterized by vulnerability, movement, and tension. Ultimately, this research contributes to educational leadership theory by positioning imagination as a socially embedded, epistemic apparatus essential for transformative leadership. The dissertation, itself an act of disruption, advocates for an educational leadership practice grounded in imagination, arguing that embracing uncertainty, speculative futures, and creative refusal is vital for addressing contemporary educational and social challenges.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

School Improvement

Grantor

Texas State University

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Schunka, Lori

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Arar, Khalid

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Guajardo, Miguel A.
• Koschoreck, James
• Martinez, Melissa

• imagination
• educational leadership
• post-intentional phenomenology
• justice
• speculative inquiry
• futurism
• critical leadership praxis

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/10877/20905

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digital.library.txst.edu:10877/20905