This concluding article attempts to review some dominant themes from the preceding contributions and relate them to my own preoccupations and perspectives. It focuses on the themes of agency, reform and the field. It points to the risk of polarising the debate about the relative influence of agency and structure but acknowledges and exemplifies the impact of the radical organisational reforms of recent years, particularly in England, on schools and their leaders. The educational world has changed beyond recognition since Baron and Taylor's edited book was published. I argue that, in spite of the severe challenges this has posed for the field of educational administration, and whatever the variations in its title and scope in different contexts, it has become the important and distinctive field of study and application that they intended it to be.