Professional Identities of Urban School Principals

• In Event: Leadership, Administration, and Leaders in Urban Schools

Abstract

This paper focuses on (1) the leadership of urban schools, (2) how its uniqueness and complexity have created the need for a different type of leader and (3) a new way to think about the practice and preparation of these leaders (Earley & Weindling, 2004). The authors begin with a review of the literature on the unique dimensions of urban school leadership highlighting dimensions that reflect the substantive complexity of the role (Day & Leithwood, 2007). Contemporary policy and preparation have tended either to ignore this complexity or to respond to it with a catalogue of skills and competencies that reinforce a technocratic perspective (Hargreaves, 2009). To understand this critique and to propose a remedy, they review research on identity theory that emphasizes the role that identity plays in leadership practice and explore the elements of professional identity. In this review they illustrate how identity theory informs an understanding of urban school leaders’ practices (Lumby & English, 2009; Ryan, 2007; Scribner & Crow, 2012). The authors provide a critique of and balance to the technocratic perspective in ways that acknowledge the uniqueness and complexity of urban school leadership but provide a direction for practice, preparation, and research. In the final section of the presentation they describe implications for practice, preparation, and research to emphasize the uniqueness and complexity of urban school leadership and to reform leadership development for this critical group of school leaders.

Authors

• Gary M. Crow, Indiana University

• Samantha Paredes Scribner, Indiana University - Indianapolis

• Samara Wolf Fetner, American Educational Research Association