School self-evaluation and empowering leadership in DEIS schools: an exploration of success

Figures & data

Table 1. Overview of participants.

Pseudonym	Role	School	Years of teaching experience	Years of leadership experience
Seán	Vice Principal	School 1	11	2
Matty	Principal	School 1	24	16
Geraldine	DEIS coordinator	School 1	29	11
Noreen	Principal	School 2	30	10
Veronica	Vice Principal	School 2	17	13
Peter	DEIS coordinator	School 2	26	10
Laura	DEIS coordinator	School 3	15	2

Table 2. Demographic information of participating schools.

Pseudonym	No. of students	Descriptors
School 1	750–800	Co-Educational; Rural; Interdenominational
School 2	550–600	All-Girl School; Urban; Catholic Ethos
School 3	550–600	Co-Educational; Urban; Catholic Ethos

Table 3. Braun and Clarke’s (2006) six-stage thematic analysis.

Stages	Action(s)
1. Familiarising yourself with the data	To become familiar with the structure and content of the interviews, we as a group, repeatedly read all of the transcripts of the participants’ interviews. The ‘First Author’ (FA) listened back to the original recordings to ensure the accuracy of the transcriptions
2. Generating initial Codes	Based on our reading of the transcripts, we noted and organised initial codes. FA then led the coding of the transcripts. This was an iterative process as new codes were identified throughout the reading of the interviews, therefore, requiring revision of previous interviews considering newly identified codes
3. Searching for Themes	FA then compared and collated the codes to create themes and sub-themes. For example, ‘Leading to Empower’ comprised of codes such as ‘shared vision,’ ‘ownership,’ and ‘collaborative’
4. Reviewing Themes	Themes and sub-themes were reviewed to confirm suitability of definitions. For example, ‘Leading to Empower’ was explained as ‘approaches to leading and empowering staff members in realising the collectively established goals of the schools.’
5. Defining Themes	FA then re-read the transcripts in light of the identified themes and subthemes to confirm accuracy of representation. Once completed, we further refined the sub-themes, assigned clear titles and finalised definitions
6. Producing Analysis	Writing the report, making the explanation of the themes and sub-themes coherent

Braun, V., and V. Clarke. 2006. “Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology.” Qualitative Research in Psychology 3: 77–101.

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