Discourses and Identities: U.K. Male and Female Principals’ Perceptions and Experiences in Early-Years Schools

• In Event: Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: Leadership for Social Justice Roundtable on Culturally Responsive Practice

Abstract

This paper presents research which investigates male and female principals’ perceptions and experiences of working in the early years of schooling. It explores principals’ narratives in relation to status, promotion, relationships and family and identifies several influential discourses which impact on principals’ identities and the ways in which they carry out their roles. In this study men and women could be seen at times as exhibiting the same characteristics, qualities and approaches although there were some which predominated among women or men. More nuanced understandings of the ways in which men and women operate are needed. The paper concludes that key discourses constrain and facilitate ways of being within the role of principal and so may challenge agency.

Author

• Deborah Jones, Brunel University