The Composite Head

Coping with changes in the primary headteacher's role

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11160716
AutoresMari Boyle (The Open University, autor correspondente), Peter Woods (0000-0002-8705-3310, The Open University)
Ano1996
Volume22
Fascículo5
Páginas549-568
Data de publicação1996-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoBritish Educational Research Journal (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0141-1926 • E-ISSN: 1469-3518
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/0141192960220503
OpenAlexW1977637612
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas18

It has been argued that the role of the head has changed dramatically in recent years, following the introduction of the Education Reform Act and Local Management of Schools in 1988. A case‐study of a lower school headteacher is used here to explore how she has developed her own form of leadership in the face of the changes. In contrast to many accounts of headteachers, which report their practice in the form of typologies or bimodal polarities, we report a headteacher who has made a comprehensive, multivaried role for herself, despite conflicting elements within it, which reaches across the standard dimensions. The chief characteristic of her role is a universalism, evidenced in her self‐expression through teaching, her orchestration of disparate elements of the role, and controlled collaboration with her staff. She accomplishes this difficult task through objectifying the problems, taking ‘time out’, using ‘resistance humour’, and with the aid of a number of personal qualities, including her love of her job and of her children, her stance as a ‘professional mother’, and her motivation through feelings of guilt. The role of the headteacher is seen to be complex, full of conflicts and contrasts, and irreducible to a polarised position. Rather, there is adaptation to particular circumstances which produces a composite form of leadership

Coping (psychology) · Feeling · Head teachers · Pedagogy · Resistance (ecology) · Sociology · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Literacy, Media, and Education · Psychology · Social Psychology · Teacher Education and Leadership Studies