Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the role of an under-graduate educational leadership in introducing students to the complexity of school leadership practice. Design/methodology/approach: Theoretically informed by Bourdieuian social theory and drawing on a questionnaire with a cohort of students, the paper evaluates a course in relation to achieving its outcomes. Findings: An analysis of student responses indicates that the course did introduce students to school leadership practice and assist in the construction of a school leadership disposition. Research limitations/implications: The theoretical resources used in the paper have significant implications for how researchers conceive of school leadership practice. Therefore, this paper may be the basis of further work. Practical implications: The findings of this work have implications for teacher educators and specifically universities. From this paper, the inclusion of an educational leadership course in under-graduate programs should become more the norm rather than the exception. Originality/value: This paper has value in two unique ways. First, there has been very little work undertaken on the role of educational leadership courses in under-graduate programs and in the context of increased political attention and no formal pre-requisites for the principalship in Australia, this work is both timely and significant. Second, this paper works with a sophisticated notion of school leadership practice and its location using social theory, a perspective that is uncommon in much of the literature on educational leadership. (Contains 3 notes and 1 table.)