Women School Leaders: Gender and Identity

Gender and leadership within educational leadership in England has previously had a greater lens focussed upon secondary education. With a critical shortage of primary headteachers this research aims to investigate the impact of gender and identity on female deputy/assistant headteachers within primary schools, when deciding upon whether to consider take up a headship role. This paper will set out an exploratory and qualitative approach to research using an epistemological approach, in which narratives surrounding school leadership are explored. Social identity theory will be used as a theoretical framework for the study, with a focus upon gender and identity. Research questions will seek to gain greater understanding on how deputy and assistant heads identify as leaders and how gender has and continues to shape their career path. The examination and analysis of the concept of gender and identity amongst women school leaders and identification of emergent themes uses a post positivist reflexive stance. Interviews for this study followed the Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) and this specific narrative approach sought to engage the participant in sharing their experiences rather than their position and to facilitate both the expression and sharing of previously forgotten perspectives, forming a rich narrative for interpretation. The structure of the BNIM enables the researcher to have a dual focus: the personal meaning behind the biography and the wider context of socio-cultural processes. There is a need to use this knowledge to build our capacity for female leadership in schools, if we are to meet the demand for headship and sustain it within the longer term.