Overview
- Presents unique theorising of the principalship that draws on Lyotard and Foucault
- Examines real-world case studies of school principals’ challenges and struggles
- Discusses international implications of policy enactment for school leaders
Part of the book series: Educational Leadership Theory (ELT)
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About this book
This book investigates the localised effects of reform by exploring the impact of a school improvement policy agenda on the work of three experienced principals. It presents three longitudinal case studies within a shared specific leadership context in Queensland, Australia. The case studies enable an exploration of the way the principalship in this context has evolved over time, providing deep insights into the practices and beliefs of three experienced school leaders working in a period of rapid and urgent systemic reform. The nature of global reform policy borrowing means that the research and the findings within this monograph are relevant for international audiences.
The book describes a new way to understand and theorise the effects of reform policies and associated pressures on school leaders. Using post-structural theory, it provides a better understanding of the specific effects of reform policy ensembles, particularly when combined with an analysis of the ways policyand discourse work together at a wider level to create an environment that disciplines the principalship. Further, it sheds lights on the means of complying with or contesting policy influences and how the work of leaders has changed over time.
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Keywords
- primary school leadership
- elementary school leadership
- educational leadership
- Michael Foucault
- J.F. Lyotard
- school policy enactment
- school reform policies
- school improvement
- school principals
- lenses and notions of performativity
- leaders and autonomy and accountability
- Independent Public Schools
- NAPLAN
- experienced school leaders
Table of contents (8 chapters)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
In 2018, Amanda was named the International Journal of Leadership in Education’s Emerging Scholar, and her doctoral thesis was awarded an Honourable Mention by the American Educational Research Association’s Division A (Administration, Organization, & Leadership). Amanda was named a ‘New Voice Scholar’ in the area of Educational Leadership Research by the Australian Council of Educational Leaders in 2016, and was one of the 2015 recipients of the Australian Association for Research in Education’s Postgraduate Student Researcher Award for her paper exploring the way principals’ practices have changed since the 2008 introduction of NAPLAN testing. This paper was later nominated as a finalist for Springer’s Best Paper award for the Australian Educational Researcher journal.
Amanda works with aspiring principals, supervises doctoral students in the areas of leadership and policy, is an active member of the Australian Association for Research in Education, and serves on editorial boards for distinguished education and leadership journals.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Principal and School Improvement
Book Subtitle: Theorising Discourse, Policy, and Practice
Authors: Amanda Heffernan
Series Title: Educational Leadership Theory
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-1495-7
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-13-1494-0Published: 09 August 2018
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-13-4642-2Published: 01 February 2019
eBook ISBN: 978-981-13-1495-7Published: 30 July 2018
Series ISSN: 2510-1781
Series E-ISSN: 2510-179X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 179
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: Administration, Organization and Leadership, Philosophy of Education, Educational Policy and Politics, Sociology of Education