Resistant leadership: countering dominant paradigms in school improvement

ABSTRACT

In Australia, school leadership is influenced by neoliberal discourses of accountability and performativity. Many schools seek to balance systemic pressures that narrow outcome expectations with a desire to deliver schooling in the broad interests of the students and communities that they serve. In this case, the principal was appointed to a school under threat of closure. To re-establish he purposefully disrupted traditional arrangements using approaches that disregarded many standard school improvement paradigms. The school improved in enrolments, reputation and student learning. This paper examines how this principal found and created spaces for disruptive change within the local context and the broader policy environment. While the value or ethics of the leadership are not the focus of the paper, it is noted that the autocratic position he assumed was problematic. Despite this, the case provides insight into leadership that resisted the confines of normative pressures to support radical school improvement.

KEYWORDS:

• School improvement
• resistance
• change management
• educational leadership
• innovative improvement
• turn-around
• student empowerment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Fiona Longmuir

Fiona Longmuir (PhD) is a lecturer in educational leadership at the Faculty of Education, Monash University. A career in school leadership and research consultancy has developed her interest in educational leadership, school improvement and student engagement and agency. Her doctoral research was completed at the University of Melbourne in 2017 and investigated principal leadership in two high-advantage, improving Victorian secondary schools. Fiona worked for over 15 years in Victorian government primary schools and held leadership positions for much of this time. For the past nine years, she has worked as Senior Consulting Researcher – Director of Research in Innovative Professional Practice at Educational Transformations in Melbourne, Victoria. This role saw her lead and contribute to research projects that have investigated education systems, school effectiveness and school leadership across Australia and around the world. Her research interests include school leadership, school culture, contextual influences (particularly concerning advantage differences and equity) and innovative approaches to student engagement. She has presented at Australian and international conferences and co-authored journal papers and book chapters.