dmurphy3@staffmail.ed.ac.uk
Notes for workshop session
Dealing With Dilemmas
Daniel Murphy
University of Edinburgh, Scotland
The ideal school leader is often portrayed heroically in the aspirational literature of leadership. She
or he can drive forward an agenda of change and improvement whatever the challenges. Yet the
experience of school leadership on the ground is more complex. School leaders often find gaps
between their ideals and vision for their school community and the tensions and moral uncertainties
of the daily job, often leading to high levels of personal and professional stress. These tensions arise
from micro-level conflicts of values and interests between individuals and groups within plural
school communities but also at the macro-level of the education system, where the competing
priorities set by its political masters are exacerbated by those who wield power within the school
community, both overtly and covertly, to exert influence and control. In school communities, this
gives rise to specific and unavoidable dilemmas which affect individuals, students, parents and staff,
deeply. Dilemmas which can occur on a daily basis or may only face a school leader occasionally,
depending on school context, the outlook of the school leader and his or her ‘fit’ with the school
community. The experience of dilemmas of school leadership is widely reported in research from
different educational systems.
USA: 'part of the 'genetic code' of the job' (Cuban 1996)
Australia: ‘the bread and butter of what school leaders do’ (Cranston et al 2006)
‘part of the fabric of everyday life in a school’ (Kimber and Campbell 2014)
England: 'together the constructs of ‘tensions’ and ‘dilemmas’ capture the immediacy of the
continuing conflicts faced by many heads' (Day et al 2000)
Sweden: ‘educators expressed the view they were not coworking with parents but rather
were involved in power struggles over children’s hearts and minds. (Bunar 2011)
Japan: ‘the equity and efficiency dilemma’ (Kariya 2011)
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Scotland: ‘The urgent, often reactive, character of life in a school community poses specific
issues. There, complexity replaces simplicity; difficult conflicts of interest replace clear
rational decision-making; factors unimportant in one setting assume particular importance
in another. In this environment, school leaders are often expected to mediate and make
difficult decisions’ (Murphy 2013)
Daniel Murphy uses this concept of ‘dilemmas’ as a conceptual vehicle to rebalance our
understanding of the work of school leaders (Murphy 2013). From this viewpoint the school leader’s
authority comes not just from his or her managerial competence or educational vision but from his
or her moral wisdom in dealing with the difficult dilemmas of contemporary living.
Much of the literature on dilemmas adopts an ‘ethical’ stance (Begley 2004, Cranston et al 2006,
Ehrich et al 2011, Kimber and Campbell 2014, Norberg and Johansson 2007, Shapiro and Stefkovich
2001, Shapiro and Hassinger 2007, Stefkovich and O’Brien 2004). Ethics gives an essential
perspective but a purely ethical view of a dilemma is limited. Two other viewpoints are needed to
get a complete picture of the issues at stake. Often political issues are part of the problem with the
school leader caught by contradictory flows of political power which cannot be ignored. Often a
psychological approach - sensitivity to the high emotions that may be involved, to the varying
conceptual construction of the situation by the participants and to the possibilities that learning may
be possible - opens up the most useful methods for resolving the dilemma. Murphy’s professional
and research experience and his work developing Scottish school leaders, led to the development of
a ‘3-D’ perspective: three disciplines - psychology, politics and ethics – offer complementary
viewpoints on the dilemmas.
1. Insights from psychology:
1. dilemmas are interpreted conceptually and experienced emotionally;
2. often they are situations where creativity and learning are possible …
3. … but individuals may or may not learn from such experiences. Sometimes the school
leader can facilitate that learning to get to a satisfactory resolution.
2. Insights from politics:
1. dilemmas often arise from the social and political complexity of the school environment;
2. social change is rapid, consequently traditional shared values and understandings are
under pressure from individualisation, globalisation and diversification;
3. different people have and use power and influence – pulling in different directions.
3. Insights from ethics:
dmurphy3@staffmail.ed.ac.uk
1. dilemmas inevitably involve values
2. the values of those involved often differ
3. ethical frames of reference are required to understand both the dilemma and its
potential solutions. Ethics asks ‘What is right?’ not just ‘Who has power?’
These three perspectives a more complete view, a fuller analysis, of what is at stake and
consequently provide a better stance from which the plan the best way forward. Working through
exemplar dilemmas using the 3D approach provides those on leadership training programmes as
well as serving school headteachers with a broad understanding of how the situation arose, what
kinds of issues are at stake, and possible ways of moving forward positively rather than being
trapped on the horns of the dilemma. This kind of discussion develops understanding of the
experience, as well as the aspiration, of school leadership.
The workshop is based on the 3D frame Murphy developed in his professional and leadership
development practice (Murphy 2013). Further detail of the conceptual framing is used to aid
understanding of typical ‘dilemma’ situations, presented as ‘vignettes’. Workshop participants
discuss and resolve these dilemmas by asking and answering these questions:
–
What challenges are faced by the ‘leader’ in facing up to this situation?
–
How do the participants understand the issues / events involved? What can be
‘learned’?
–
What emotions are involved?
–
Who has power and how can/do they use it?
–
What policy / policies are involved (in causing or solving the dilemma)?
–
What values / principles are involved?
–
What action should the leader take?
In the resulting discussions, the dialectical complexity of leadership is opened up to view
(Hodgkinson 1983) and the practical wisdom of the leader explored (Varela 1999, Vokey 2001).
dmurphy3@staffmail.ed.ac.uk
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