Leading Ladies:Portraits of Principals:The Leadership Styles and Practices of Women SecondarySchool Principals Reflected within a Principal ProfessionalLearning Community

摘要

Recent New Zealand Ministry of Education documents highlight the challenge toprovide professional learning opportunities for principals and the current initiativeto support and strengthen school leadership through the Professional LeadershipStrategy. There is a need for professional development strategies andopportunities that help principals more effectively understand their school contexts,responsibilities and their own competencies, leadership styles and practice. Totransfer and be sustainable, effective leadership practice requires the building ofprincipal leadership learning communities within individual New Zealand schoolcontexts.This thesis builds on previous studies of New Zealand women principals'experiences of leadership, contributing to a greater insight into the identities, roleand practice of women principals while modelling a framework for reflectivepractice as a tool for professional and educational leadership development. As aniconographic study of three New Zealand women secondary school principals thisthesis exhibits the life stories and experiences which have impacted upon theirpersonal theories about leadership styles and practice. Composed through amétissage (merging) of image and dialogue to create portraits of the principal'sleadership identities it is set in situ within a principal professional learningcommunity.A qualitative, multiple-case studies methodology was employed. The design wasinformed by a reflective practitioner approach and action learning orientationunderpinned by arts-based inquiry, a methodological and theoretical genre thatproposes a reinterpretation of the methods and ethics of human social research.The findings indicate that the personal development, self-awareness and growth ofa leader are a catalyst to stimulate collective development and accomplishment.