Being Other-wise: A Principal Reflects on English as a Moral Technology

ABSTRACT

Reflecting on a day of dangerous bushfire conditions in NSW, I recount my leadership responsibilities as a principal, highlighting the shaping force of my English teaching past in my response to certain managerial demands that I faced. I illustrate how the sense of ethical responsibility and a commitment to openness that came to define my understanding of subject English, and my programming practices and advocacy, remains with me, mediating my work and subjectivity as a school leader. I outline how, on this day, it was necessary to recognise what poet Wallace Stevens calls a ‘supreme fiction’ in my engagement with aspects of policy and governmentality. I contend that key aspects of English as a form of ‘knowing’ have much to contribute to the efficacy of school leaders.

KEYWORDS:

• English teaching
• English curriculum programming
• school leadership
• Derrida
• textuality
• supreme fiction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mark Howie

Mark Howie is an Adjunct Fellow with the School of Education at Western Sydney University and a NSW high school principal. He is a former President and honorary Life Member of both the Australian Association for the Teaching of English and the English Teachers Association (NSW). His teaching awards include the NSW Minister for Education’s ‘Minister’s Award for Excellence in Teaching’ (2000) and Highly Commended National Achievement (for Excellence by a Teacher) in the Australian Government National Awards for Schooling (2008). Mark’s teaching and research have focussed on secondary English curriculum and professional advocacy by teachers. Mark is the author/co-editor of a number of books on English teaching.