Richard Bates is Professor of Education in the School of Education, Deakin University, Australia. He researches and teaches in the fields of educational leadership, teacher education and international education, examining social issues related to justice and education. Part of his work in the new sociology of education and cultural education has been on educational management and leadership. Among his important publications, I can mention Teachers: Globalization, Standards and Professionalism in Times of Change (with Tony Townsend, Springer, 2007) and The Aesthetics of Educational Management and Leadership (with Ignacy Samir, Routledge, 2006). This text introduces one of Bates' important writings, which undoubtedly narrates a comprehensive but historical analytical trajectory of the developments in the knowledge of educational management and leadership. The volume of citations, together with the precise narration of the events and the experts involved in these events, has made Bates's article an important and readable source in the field of educational management and leadership studies. In this report, it has been reviewed to maintain the general structure of the original text of Richard Bates' article.