The Rural Primary School Head Teacher in the Field

• In Event: New Perspectives on Leading and Teaching in Rural Schools

Abstract

The paper draws on in-depth ethnographic research undertaken in one English rural primary school and its surrounding community over a period of three years; data derived here from over eight hours of interview with the school’s head teacher. The paper is conceptually informed by the work of Bourdieu (1984) and his work around field, habitus and capital as a means of understanding practice. The paper contends that as the neo-liberal economic field increasingly contaminates the field of education so a contextual understanding of the complex and shifting social space which the head teacher occupies, including their habitus and the capital they deploy, is of central importance to understanding practice.

Author

• Carl Bagley, Queens University Belfast