The two faces of secondary headship

Laura Guihen

doi:10.1177/0892020617696627

Abstract

Men continue to outnumber women at the secondary head teacher level. This article reports on some of the preliminary findings of a larger study exploring the ways in which women deputy head teachers, as potential aspirants to headship, perceive the secondary head teacher role. Using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis methodology, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants. The data revealed that, while making decisions about their professional futures, the majority of the women held dual, contradictory images of secondary headship. One image consisted of a role plagued by risk, performativity and stress, whereas the other focused on the agentic capacity head teachers have to transform lives and communities. The article highlights the ways in which a belief in the power of headship to make a meaningful difference to the lives of young people can encourage some women to aspire towards headship regardless of the precarity they perceive as being ingrained within the head teacher role.

Highlights

How do women deputy head teachers working in English secondary schools perceive headship? Do they aspire to climb the rung of the occupational ladder? This article endeavours to address these questions by drawing on some of the preliminary findings of a larger study that focuses on the lived experiences of women deputies and the ways in which these influence the likelihood of their aspiring towards the ‘top job’
These women tended to combat the drawbacks they perceived as being attached to the secondary head teacher role by focusing on the opportunities that the position offered to bring about positive change
This article has explored the ways in which a sample of 12 women deputy head teachers, as potential aspirants to headship, perceived the secondary head teacher role

Summary

Introduction

This article endeavours to address these questions by drawing on some of the preliminary findings of a larger study that focuses on the lived experiences of women deputies and the ways in which these influence the likelihood of their aspiring towards the ‘top job’. How do women deputy head teachers working in English secondary schools perceive headship? Do they aspire to climb the rung of the occupational ladder? It aims to explore how women deputy head teachers, as potential aspirants to headship, understand and make sense of the secondary head teacher role

Background

Discussion and conclusion