Year: 2024
Type of paper: Symposium
Abstract:
As global crises are lived out locally, such as social polarisation, climate emergencies, humanitarian disasters, the divisive politics of racism, and challenges to democracy, school principals are often the first front-line responders. In these challenging situations, they are tasked with managing the intense emotions of others and their own. Taking inspiration from Threadgold’s (2020) “figures of youth” and their visibility in policy (Waite et al., 2024), this paper traces possible figures of principalship.
Drawing on Garfinkel (1967), Threadgold describes a ‘figure’ who stands in as a theoretical, simplified construct. We advance this concept to show how different figures position principals as central actors in school communities. Such figures emerge in how policy and standardisation depict the complex expectations of principals, in multiple, contradictory and sometimes notably absent ways.
Such figures also emerge within principals in a project funded by the Australian Research Council into principals’ emotional labour (Wilkinson, 2021). Such labour is largely invisible in standards/job descriptions but manifest in the intense ‘hard’ emotional hours during times of crisis.
Research methods include an anonymous survey of critical incident testimonies, policy review, stakeholder interviews and case studies.
This paper moves beyond the semiotic assemblages described by Threadgold to explore the emotional labour principals during crises, how these might be constructed as figures of principalship and what this might mean for a reimagining of the real work of principals by researchers and policy makers.
Drawing on Garfinkel (1967), Threadgold describes a ‘figure’ who stands in as a theoretical, simplified construct. We advance this concept to show how different figures position principals as central actors in school communities. Such figures emerge in how policy and standardisation depict the complex expectations of principals, in multiple, contradictory and sometimes notably absent ways.
Such figures also emerge within principals in a project funded by the Australian Research Council into principals’ emotional labour (Wilkinson, 2021). Such labour is largely invisible in standards/job descriptions but manifest in the intense ‘hard’ emotional hours during times of crisis.
Research methods include an anonymous survey of critical incident testimonies, policy review, stakeholder interviews and case studies.
This paper moves beyond the semiotic assemblages described by Threadgold to explore the emotional labour principals during crises, how these might be constructed as figures of principalship and what this might mean for a reimagining of the real work of principals by researchers and policy makers.