Framing headship: a demand-side analysis of how the headteacher role is articulated in job descriptions

Milton, Emmajane ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8065-9857, Morgan, Alexandra ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0689-9470, Davies, Andrew James, Connolly, Mark ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4278-1960, Donnelly, Damian and Ellis, Iwan 2023. Framing headship: a demand-side analysis of how the headteacher role is articulated in job descriptions. International Journal of Leadership in Education 26 (2) , pp. 339-358. 10.1080/13603124.2020.1811898

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Abstract

The majority of studies into recruitment to the headship role have focused on supply-side dynamics and teachers’ own accounts of the factors that (dis)incentivize them from aspiring or progressing to headship. Significantly less work has been done in analyzing demand-side factors. This paper addresses the gap by presenting findings from a mixed-methods analysis of headteacher job descriptions (n = 67) published in a complete school year within Wales – one of the UK’s devolved education systems. A discourse analysis was conducted, based on organizational and occupational conceptions of professional work, which informed a subsequent content analysis of the job descriptions. Our findings identified a dominance of articulations that privileged organizationally-orientated understandings of headship and evidence of a lack of contextualization and agency by stakeholders responsible for recruitment. Such ‘demand-side’ analysis offers scope for examining and understanding the way in which headship is framed and aligns with policy within a variety of international educational contexts and jurisdictions.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
ISSN:	1360-3124
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	21 August 2020
Date of Acceptance:	13 August 2020
Last Modified:	07 Nov 2023 19:34
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/134315

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