Practising leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools: tensions in the field?

Abstract

This paper explores the leadership practices of three principals following a period of intensive immigration in Ireland. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, it conceptualises schools as structured social spaces and of their leadership work as a form of practising. This practising is an outcome of the intersection between deeply embedded subjectivities operating in diverse fields of action that shape, constrain and transform each principal’s practices. Presenting an analytical model that highlights the circular and capillary-like dimension to such practising, the paper explores how principals’ recognition of immigrant children (their recognitive practices) as well as investment in supporting their learning (distributive practices) are shaped by the logics of practice across different fields, as well as by their own evolving habitus and struggle to be authentic in a period of rapid social change. Practising effective leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools must be conceived as layered and multiple but must be underpinned by an ethic of justice, if the minoritised status of ‘ethnic’ others is to be challenged and overcome.

Keywords:

• leadership
• migrant
• habitus
• field
• ethos

Notes

1. The difference between both school types relates to faith formation. In ‘Educate Together’ schools, faith formation takes place outside the school day, separate from the core curriculum activities of the school. In community national schools, faith formation takes place during the school day according to the faith background of the children in the school. Substantive change is currently underway in school governance choices arising from a recent report of the Forum on School Patronage, with the proposed transfer of ownership of Catholic schools to alternate multi-denominational patron bodies in areas of high urban density. There are currently 60 Educate Together schools and six community national schools nationally.

2. In Ireland, teacher education has traditionally been structured in denominational terms with the largest and longest established providers being Catholic colleges. All entrants to primary initial teacher education are required to have proficiency in the Irish language, also reducing the likelihood of immigrant representation in the teaching profession at this level.

3. DEIS allocation is reflective of high levels of social and economic disadvantage.

4. Immigrant parents consistently expressed positive experiences of recognition and persistent efforts by the school staff to encourage them to become actively involved in classroom/teaching activities and social events.

5. Nationally there are over 3200 primary schools, of which 2888 are Catholic, 181 are Church of Ireland, 14 are Presbyterian, one is Methodist, one is Jewish, two are Muslim, 60 are ‘Educate Together’, and five are community national schools.

6. This was undoubtedly related to their DEIS status and the continual need to maintain numbers in the school.

7. Simplistic dichotomies of parental choice should not be assumed, however. There is evidence of children from Nigeria seeking to attend the local Catholic school (Devine 2011), perhaps in recognition of its’ ‘normality’ and hence prestige, but also because of the desire for a more formalised school structure evident in the wearing of school uniforms.

8. The GAA is the largest nationally based sports organisation for the playing of hurling and Gaelic football. A traditional signifier of ‘Irishness’ and ‘national identity’, it has historical links with Catholicism, reflected in the organisation of local clubs around Catholic parishes throughout Ireland.

9. Hurleys and sliotar are the stick and ball used in playing the Gaelic game ‘hurling’.

10. Immigrant parents in Maryville spoke about the ‘warmth’ and care their children experienced. Also evident, however, was a lack of connectedness to the community of the school. The parents interviewed had less than one friend in the school and neither did they speak – as did parents, for example, in Beechwood Primary and Oakleaf Primary – of a ‘parent community’.

11. In essence this is about State policy, rather than religious belief per se, and is being addressed through a gradualist widening of provision. While pluralist in intent, I have argued elsewhere (Devine 2011) of the risk of increasing social and ethnic segregation through a system so profoundly shaped by parental choice.

12. Considerable investment by the State was made from the period of 2005. This shift in the broader field of state policy on immigration was directed especially toward the expansion of language support to schools, since substantially cut owing to the economic recession.