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School Leaders and Leadership: A Longitudinal Life History

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Unmasking School Leadership

Part of the book series: Studies in Educational Leadership ((SIEL,volume 20))

Abstract

This chapter provides background, context and theoretical framing for the longitudinal life history of school leaders and leadership documented in this book. It paints a background picture of the educational system in which the study is embedded with particular reference to the requirements specified to attain the office of principal. Additionally, while grounded in this systemic milieu, it takes a broad-brush approach to the manner in which leadership literature has evolved over time, situated and shaped by the emergence and increasing influence of neo-liberal ideology during the period under scrutiny in later chapters. The stance adopted throughout this first-half of the chapter is one that also provides a rationale and justification for taking a life history approach to leadership. The second section, while building on the first, addresses the issue of life history, its credentials and its methodological potential to contribute differently and distinctly to leadership literature while espousing a change over time perspective. The chapter concludes with a succinct account of data analysis and the creation of themes that are individually dealt with in subsequent chapters and collectively paint a composite picture of school leaders and leadership over time. Thereafter, the participants in the study are introduced to the reader as a means of contextualising subsequent chapters, orienting the reader and adding to the rationale for the approach adopted as a distinct contribution to leadership literature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin, Ireland

    Ciaran Sugrue

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Sugrue, C. (2015). School Leaders and Leadership: A Longitudinal Life History. In: Unmasking School Leadership. Studies in Educational Leadership, vol 20. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9433-6_1

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