ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 delves deep into some of the complexities, ambiguities, and widely felt emotional pressures of education leadership. Reflections are based on Andrea Berkeley’s first-hand experience of headship, combined with 12 years’ coaching and consultancy with hundreds of school leaders and several chief executives of multi-acaademy trusts and education charities. Although the chapter focuses mainly on the unique leadership role of the headteacher or school principal, many observations also apply to the distributed leadership roles of other senior staff in today’s schools. The chapter concludes with some thoughts on what seems to help school leaders manage the inevitable psychological pressures so that they may continue to find fulfilment in their roles.
The three chapters that follow contextualize the personal and anecdotal exploration of the opening chapter with an overview and analysis of the research on school leadership, together with the key theoretical frameworks that inform and underpin the book as a whole.
