Overview
- Proposes an original approach to the study of school leadership using a paradox conceptual framework
- Examines fifteen paradoxes representing the complexity in the lives and work of principals
- Adopts an inductive approach, with decisions about theory originating from empirical data drawn from fieldwork conducted in schools
- Investigates existing structures of power and control by critiquing pervasive assumptions about the fixed and natural qualities of leadership
- Focuses on emancipatory possibilities, democratic practices and political participation of school leaders
Part of the book series: Educational Leadership Theory (ELT)
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About this book
The book takes paradoxes as formed out of the constitutive practices of discourse rather than as representations of conflict or complexity. Using fifteen paradoxes derived from theoretical and empirical analysis, it provides insights into the competing forces that contradict simplistic positivist accounts of contemporary school leadership and reveal the presence of a political struggle for the soul of the principal in the neoliberal era. It considers these paradoxes in three categories: (1) principal subjectivity and authority, (2) neoliberal policy and (3) managerial practice.
The book advocates critique, counter-conduct and agonistic thought and practice as resources for principals participating in such a struggle, and employs Foucault's 'care of the self' and 'practices of freedom' to promote more active involvement of principals in authoring their ethical and political selves.
Keywords
- paradox and critical leadership studies
- paradox as a tool of thought
- paradox lens and critique
- subjectivity of principals and paradox
- neoliberalisation and principal subjectivity
- school leader tensions and conflicts
- policy discourses and principals
- Focauldian theory
- Foucalt
- Governmentality and truth
- Governmentality and power
- Governmentality and discourse
- authority and school leadership
- agonism and school leadership
- critique and resistance
Table of contents (9 chapters)
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Paradox and the School Leader
Book Subtitle: The Struggle for the Soul of the Principal in Neoliberal Times
Authors: Chris Dolan
Series Title: Educational Leadership Theory
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3086-9
Publisher: Springer Singapore
eBook Packages: Education, Education (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020
Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-3085-2Published: 25 March 2020
Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-3088-3Published: 25 March 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-3086-9Published: 24 March 2020
Series ISSN: 2510-1781
Series E-ISSN: 2510-179X
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVII, 234
Number of Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations
Topics: Administration, Organization and Leadership, Educational Philosophy, Educational Policy and Politics, Philosophy of Education