Dorothy's Wars: school leadership during the Birmingham Blitz

ABSTRACT

This essay examines the school leadership experiences of an infant school head teacher in Birmingham, England, during the Second World War. Drawing on the letters of Dorothy Walker, the essay offers insights into school leadership wartime deprivations. The impact of an international war on the home front was not head teacher Dorothy Walker's only challenge. As the youngest and one of the few women head teachers in Birmingham, Dorothy Walker struggled with the traditional masculine hierarchy of the local educational system and with traditional social and familial gender roles. Dorothy Walker also battled with a traditional educational school culture as she promoted progressive educational practices. These three challenges – the war, gender relations, and progressivism – are referred to as ‘Dorothy's Wars’, or the battles that she faced as a woman school leader in Birmingham during the early years of the Second World War.

KEYWORDS:

• Women in school leadership
• education during the Second World War
• progressive education
• education and gender
• biography and correspondence

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to acknowledge the Department of Education and Social Justice, School of Education, University of Birmingham for its support for this project and to Department Head Jane Martin, as well as to Sian Roberts, Kay Whitehead, Jo Thomas, Ian Grosvenor, and Rita McLean.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Kate Rousmaniere is Professor of history of education in the Department of Educational Leadership at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio. She is the author of the 2013 book, The principal’s office: a social history of the American school principal and has written extensively on the history of school teachers and administrators.

Notes

1. Dorothy Walker Chamberlain correspondence, Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham. Hereafter referred to as DW Letters.

2. DW Letters: 2 September 1939.

3. DW Letters: 10 October 1939.

4. DW Letters: 18 February 1941, 2 April 1941.

5. DW Letters: 28 November 1940.

6. DW Letters: 23 May 1940.

7. DW Letters: 28 August 1940.

8. DW Letters: 14 November 1940.

9. DW Letters: 15 August 1940.

10. DW Letters: 27 March 1941.

11. DW Letters: 12 September 1940.

12. DW Letters: 18 July 1940, 26 September 1940.

13. DW Letters: 23 May 1940.

14. DW Letters: 29 April 1942, 30 April 1941.

15. DW Letters: 8 October 1942.

16. DW Letters: 1 June 1940.

17. DW Letters: 23 May 1940.

18. DW Letters: 18 August 1943.

19. DW Letters: 9 December 1939.

20. DW Letters: 7 November 1939.

21. DW Letters: 22 November 1939.

22. DW Letters: 23 January 1941.

23. DW Letters: 28 August 1940, 24 September 1941, 20 March 1939.

24. DW Letters: 16 November 1938.

25. DW Letters: 5 July 1939.

26. DW Letters: 4 February 1942.

27. DW Letters: 25 July 1940.

28. The Gipsy Trail, No 17, 1937–1938 (p. 14).

29. 6 July 1939, Head Teacher Fields’ log book (p. 100). Oakley Road Council School No 115 (ORS), Infant's School, City of Birmingham archives, MS 229, School logs books, 1926–1940.

30. DW Letters: 5 July 1939.

31. DW Letters: 28 June 1939.

32. DW Letters: 16 January 1941, 6 May 1942.

33. DW Letters: 24 September 1941.

34. DW Letters: 25 July 1940.

35. DW Letters: 8 May 1940.

36. DW Letters: 16 May 1940.

37. DW Letters: 3 February 1943.

38. DW Letters: 19 June 1943.

39. DW Letters: 5 September 1940.

40. DW Letters: 28 August 1940.

41. DW Letters: 6 May 1942.