ABSTRACT
This chapter is structured around a narrative of what took place at an employment appeals tribunal involving a member of staff at the school of which I am principal. It is part of a much more extensive narrative of how I take up my role in relation to all the school’s stakeholders including the staff. The events in which I have been involved have led me to examine what leading has demanded of me: a struggle to control and master myself. This notion is taken up in Peter Senge’s books, The Fifth Discipline and Presence. In reflecting on what motivates me to struggle with myself, I draw on Charles Taylor’s and Alasdair MacIntyre’s work on the ground of values. In conjunction with the theme of self-mastery and control, I would like to investigate what I mean by intention, where I think it comes from and how it stays the same/changes over time. Does intention arise in action as the pragmatist position would hold? Or does the source of my intention lie in some metaphysical realm? I want to begin to think through some of the assumptions about intention that inform the stories I live and tell in my practice and to examine some of the questions my involvement as principal in an institution akin to many other public service institutions raises.
