Twenty-fifth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

Drawing on discursive social psychology, the aim of the research project presented was to study Greek primary teachers’ ways of understanding the “principalship” as identity. As the institutional status of the school principal places her on the top of school hierarchy in terms of responsibilities as well as privileges, studying the teachers’ point of view towards the principal as participants of everyday school life may reveal the commonsensical ways actions associated with the particular official position are described and evaluated, and identities assigned. To this end semi-structured interviews were conducted and fully transcribed. The analysis focused on the variability of the constructions of the principal’s identity within the argumentative context of the interview as participants accounted for the principal’s actions. This type of analysis allows connecting the micro-context of argumentation with the macro-context of school structure as the discursive constructions of the principalship as identity also can be interpreted as constructions of the school’s institutional order by everyday participants. Some practical implications of this approach may be designing ways of intervening in the principal-teachers relations by taking into account teachers’ evaluations of the principal’s actions, and designing principal selection and assessment criteria.