Scaffolding educational leadership through centres of practice: the cases of SIME and I-LEAD

This case report explores how two centres within research-intensive business schools, the Centre for Scholarship and Innovation in Management Education (SIME) and I-LEAD, the Centre for Innovation, Leadership, Education and Development, are reframing the value of education-led scholarship in business and management education. In contexts where institutional prestige is measured largely by research outputs, both centres reposition the educator as a leader, innovator and agent of change. They scaffold educational leadership by creating structured spaces in which pedagogy is recognised as a legitimate site of inquiry, collaboration and career development. Through communities of practice, mentoring and evidence-informed experimentation, they show that educational leadership can be expressed through influence, creativity and shared purpose rather than positional authority. This case argues that such centres are vital infrastructure for rebalancing research-driven cultures, valuing the relational, practice-based and transformative work of educators, and prompting reflection on how educational leadership can be genuinely recognised and sustained.