Role theory, emotions, and identity in the department headship of secondary schooling

This paper traces the emotions of 29 Canadian secondary school department heads as they engage with their own and others' educational purposes, with the power relationships of secondary schooling and with their relationships with other individuals around them who are a!ected by and have expectations for their role. Such interactions have embedded within them a range of emotions which point to internal ambiguities about power and position, in middle management in particular and within educational administration more widely, which seemed perpetuated by normative educational administrative practices. The "ndings revealed tensions between teaching and leading, experiences of loneliness, emotional misunderstanding and the resentment that comes from feelings of powerlessness. ( 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.