Who knows about educational leadership, what knowing means, and what knowledge is produced is the core concern of this paper. The focus is on how histories of professional practice (teaching, research, publication) can and should be constructed in ways that not only chart events but also engage with the power processes that structure how agents are located in the world. An investigative framework and process is presented and used to argue how this could be undertaken. Through a limited but illuminative investigation of transformational leadership, the paper concludes that there is much to be gained by examining maps and mappers, and mapping in order to develop a critical understanding of the inter-relationship between research, public policy and the state. (Contains 1 figure and 79 notes.)