Passionate Principalship

<p>This book puts 'real life' back into the literature on school principalship. Through a life history approach, it portrays daily life in schools as a much more messy, contested and precarious existence, where principals struggle with passionate commitment to find continuity amongst frequently changing and often conflicting policy initiatives.<br>The book draws on comprehensively in-depth interview data with new, experienced and veteran principals. Their life stories illustrate the struggles involved in the ongoing negotiation of identities through unprecedented change. The authors lucidly argue that:<br>* The realities of principals' lives are much more demanding that rational linear approaches to reform suggest;<br>* A revolving door approach to the appointment of principals is inadequate<br>* Passion is central to the lives and work of principals, but this passion needs to be rejuvenated and rekindled through opportunities for learning<br>* There is a need for further research on the relationship between the lifecycles of principals, the leadership legacies of school communities and the cycles of mandated reforms as a means of lending coherence to leadership learning and sustained and renewed leaders.<br>This is essential reading for principals and their professional bodies, academics and researchers, school leaders on leadership courses internationally.</p> Introduction, Ivor Goodson Section 1: Passionate Principalship 1. Putting 'Real Life' into School Leadership: Connecting Identities, Leadership and Life History, Ciaran Sugrue Section 2: People in Principalship: Stories of Engaged Selves 2. Sustained Motivation Embedded in Place: Living with Accountability and Mandated Change, Colin Biott and John Spindler 3. Old Metaphors, New Meanings: Being a Woman Principal, Jorunn Møller 4. Memberships and Relationships in a Changing Context, Lejf Moos 5. Creating Continuity through Change: Comfort with Uncertainty, Ciaran Sugrue Section 3: Passionate Principalship: Learning from Life Histories 6. Coping with Accountability - Tensions between Reason and Emotion, Jorunn Møller 7. Regulation and Trust: Negotiating Relationship, Lejf Moos 8. Immediacy and Distance: Inter-generational Professional Learning, John Spindler and Colin Biott 9. Being Principal: Leadership Inside Out, Ciaran Sugrue Section 4: Beyond Passion in Principalship 10. Principalship: Beyond Pleasure, Pain and Passion, Ciaran Sugrue