1 Thinking about the school most of the time: studio as generative metaphor for critical reflection Pat Thomson School of Education, The University of Nottingham patricia.thomson@nottingham.ac.uk Orcid 0000-0002-4801-0000 Special issue on metaphor for Journal of Educational Administration and History. Accepted October 1. 2018 Abstract Busy leaders need time to reflect and renew. They need to consider the particularities of their school and the ways in which they can work with others in the school community to address pressing issues, as well as to make future plans. The metaphor of the studio offers some helpful avenues for thinking how this reflection might occur. Artists use their studios for respite, not knowing, generating new ideas, risk taking, integrating theory and practice, exercising criticality and developing socially just practices. Leaders might take a lead from artists; however, there are both space and time challenges to making the studio a practical possibility. Keywords: studio, metaphor, leadership, reflective practice