Exploring leadership identity development through the professional lived experiences of female secondary school headteachers in England

This study explores leadership identity development through examining the professional lived experiences of a group of female secondary school headteachers in the south of England because women continue to be under-represented in this role. Much of the extant literature in this field points to the reasons as to why women do not take on this position of leadership and focuses often on deputy headteachers, mixed gender sample groups or the global perspective. Thus, there is a gap in the empirical knowledge and understanding of what factors have supported and enabled female secondary school headteachers to take on the role locally and how the construction of a leadership identity over time aids advancement to senior leadership. Therefore, guided by four open research sub-questions relating to four interconnecting concepts of leadership, identity, values and gender, this thesis aims to answer the main research question: What can be learnt from the professional lived experiences of female secondary school headteachers which can inspire and support aspirant female headteachers to become leaders? This interpretivist and social constructionist study involves twelve female secondary school headteachers in the south of England. The qualitative research methods employed involved a pre-interview task of drawing a River of Life to enable the participants to reflect prior to the interview on their professional lived experiences over time. Then, the women took part in individual narrative interviews which further explored the key concepts of leadership, identity, values and gendered career experiences. The data from the interviews were analysed inductively, reflexively and iteratively using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) reflexive thematic analysis in order to actively generate themes to answer four research subquestions. To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first time that leadership identity development of female secondary school headteachers in England has been explored in this way. The main findings of the study illustrate that the women’s core sense of purpose and 3 leadership identity are congruent and that their leadership identity development has been influenced by notable people, critical episodes and epiphany moments at different stages of their careers. This thesis also provides further insight into the connections between social identity theory, social identity theory of leadership and theories of how leaders develop through lived experience within the context of women in educational leadership. Synergies are drawn with existing leadership identity development models. The findings have wider implications for informing future leadership programmes in the secondary school sector as well as educational policy and practice. Further recommendations for research are highlighted at the end of the thesis.