Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the career experiences of women deputy headteachers

ABSTRACT

This paper offers an autoethnographic account of using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) as a doctoral researcher to explore the career experiences of women deputy headteachers. IPA is a qualitative methodology which lends itself to a detailed exploration of the ways in which individuals make sense of their lived experiences. Despite the wide use of IPA in many areas of social science, this methodological approach is not commonly used by those investigating the career experiences of those working in educational leadership, management and administration. To examine the methodological implications of using IPA in such studies, this paper reflects on the author’s doctoral journey as she investigated the career experiences of twelve women deputy headteachers working in state-funded secondary schools in England. Participants were interviewed at the point in their careers when they were contemplating the significant decision whether or not to pursue promotion to headship. Interview extracts and illustrative excerpts from the author’s research journal are used to discuss the possibilities of IPA as well as the potential challenges facing first-time IPA researchers.

KEYWORDS:

• Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA)
• qualitative methodology
• deputy headteachers
• educational leadership
• women’s careers

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the anonymous reviewers and the journal editors for their helpful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 As I explore in detail elsewhere (see Guihen 2019), scholars in the field of gender and educational leadership (see, for example, Cubillo and Brown 2003) point to several influences constraining senior women’s career paths, include caring responsibilities and stereotypical beliefs related to women and leadership. Enabling influences are said to include networking and the presence of women role models.

2 I found the following strategies to be particularly important in ensuring that my participants were treated with sensitivity and respect: (i) reminding participants of their right to withhold certain aspects of their experience, or withdraw from the research project entirely; (ii) ensuring that appropriate forms of support could be signposted to those in need of it; and (iii) being prepared to stop, wait or break from the interview process if necessary (Dahlberg, Dahlberg, and Nyström 2008; Smith, Flowers, and Larkin 2009).

Additional information

Funding

This research project was funded by a PhD studentship awarded by the School of Education, University of Leicester.