Personal identity and leadership: learning from deputy principals’ lived experiences

ABSTRACT

The contexts in which people immerse themselves, as well as the people they interact with, contribute immensely to people’s understanding of self. As a person grows, lives and operates in different contexts with different people, he/she develops a self-concept or a particular understanding of oneself. This understanding constitutes an identity which becomes entrenched, thus a person brings this understanding wherever he/she goes, including the workplace. Research on teacher identity has established that teachers’ identities are constantly evolving and are multifaceted. Although the research on teacher identity has shown that the personal aspects of teachers influence their professional practices, the literature on school leadership has for many years overlooked the influence of leader’s personal identities on their leadership practices. Instead, the focus has mainly been on the expected traits and practices. This paper is drawn from a project that explored the lived experiences of deputy principals; therefore, it focuses on one set of school leaders. Through the lived experiences of these leaders, the paper intends to reveal the influence of personal identities on leadership practices. The main contribution of this paper is to clearly show that the leadership practices of deputy principals are not free from their personal aspects of selves.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sibonelo Blose

Sibonelo Blose is a lecturer at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, he joined this university in February 2016. He is positioned in the Education Leadership, Management and Policy (ELMP) discipline. Sibonelo has recently completed his PhD with the University of KwaZulu-Natal. His study was titled: ‘leading from the middle: lived experiences of Deputy Principals across school quintiles’. He has developed an interest in narrative inquiry methodology and his PhD study was within the narrative inquiry methodology. Prior to joining the university, Sibonelo served ten years in the South Africa Department of Basic Education as a secondary school teacher and also as a Deputy Principal.