Abstract:
In this paper, I examine the issue of educational leadership and school autonomy from the perspective of school principals. I report on findings from an ARC project looking at school autonomy and social justice to explore how principals perceive, experience and practise school autonomy in their day-to-day work. I analyse their beliefs and practices in relation to their school and policy context to show how they both perceive and experience autonomy differently based upon their school context as well as their experience and career stage. In addition, the project found school autonomy reforms within a context of marketisation have placed undue pressure on school principals without the necessary system supports. This has led to a situation where many school principals are entangled by being in favour of more autonomy but also suffering as a result from work intensification, health, and well-being issues, and feeling the pressure of supporting teachers and working towards goals of social justice and equity. I analyse this entanglement through Foucault’s notion of subjectification, with such practices of the principal as rendering the principalship as a form of uneasy and de-stabilised subject position in relation to autonomy rather than the fixed and comforting construction as portrayed through policy and education reform.