Devine, D (2013) 'Practising leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools: tensions in the
field?'. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 34 :392-411
Practising leadership in newly-multi-ethnic schools: tensions in the field?
This paper explores the leadership practices of three principals following a period of
intensive immigration in Ireland. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, it conceptualises schools
as structured social spaces and of their leadership work as a form of practising. This
practising is conceived of as an outcome of the intersection between deeply embedded
subjectivities operating in diverse fields of action which shape, constrain and transform each
principal’s practices. Presenting an analytical model that highlights the circular and capillary
like dimension to such practising the paper explores how principals’ recognition of immigrant
children (their recognitive practices) as well as investment in supporting their learning
(distributive practices) are shaped by the logics of practice across different fields, as well as
by their own evolving habitus and struggle to be authentic in a period of rapid social change..
Practising effective leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools must be conceived as layered
and multiple but must be underpinned by an ethic of justice, if the minoritized status of
‘ethnic’ others is to be challenged and overcome.
Keywords: leadership, migrant, habitus, field, ethos
Introduction
There is an increasing emphasis on leadership for effective change in education (OECD
2008). Less clear however is how leadership is defined and what it means in practice for
school principals on the ground. This is especially the case with respect to the changing
contexts, global, national and local, within which schools are situated. One element of this
context has been shifting patterns of migration. Globally the integration of migrant children
has assumed considerable importance (OECD 2009). Education is persistently viewed as a
key site for integration yet the role of school leaders in shaping integrative practices has not
received much attention. There is some research on leadership for diversity in schools in
countries with a relatively well established history of immigration. Less evident is research
on leadership practices in schools with newly arrived immigrant families. Principals are
often the first point of contact between the state and the immigrant family. Their practices set
the context for what happens in schools, as they mediate state policies through their
(re)actions.
Research into their practices has implications for understanding processes of
adaptation and inclusion of immigrant children, and their parents, into the settlement society.
1
During the Celtic Tiger boom, Ireland had one of the highest rates of migration across the EU
(CSO 2011). The proportion of children from an immigrant background currently stands at
10% in primary schools, many from countries with which there was no prior link, including
Eastern Europe (especially Poland), the Philippines, Nigeria and South Africa. A system of
state funded faith schooling exists, with over 90% of schools in the primary sector under
Catholic patronage. A gradualist response by the State to school governance change has
given rise to an increasing diversity in the range of school choices in certain urban areas.
This has seen the expansion of the multi-denominational ‘Educate Together’ schools and the
development of an additional multi-denominational sector called ‘Community national
schoolsi. While nationally many children of immigrant background attend the local Catholic
school social class as well as faith background intersects in patterns of school enrolments.
This has led to the concentration of immigrants in schools classified as ‘disadvantaged’
(Byrne et al 2010, Darmody et al 2012). In areas of urban density, where there is likely to be
a greater range of choice, it has also led to the creation of ‘immigrant schools’ as nonCatholic immigrants enrol in the multi-denominational school sector. This is a pattern likely
to consolidate, especially during a period of economic recession (Devine 2011).
Given the predominance of Catholic schooling in Ireland, school principals tend to come
from the majority ethnic white Catholic grouping and their educational and for primary level
their professional formation, will have mostly taken place in Catholic institutionsii. There is
increasing research internationally on the characteristics of faith based education, especially
Catholic schools (Morris 2010) and the distinctive emphasis of such schools on ethos,
community and service to the poor (Mifsud 2010). There is a tension however between ethos
as practice within a school (the institutional habitus of ‘service’), and ethos as part of a state
funded governance system which sorts and selects children into schools according to their
faith background.
This tension is especially evident where the society comprises an
increasing number of ethnic ‘others’. Faith based governance structures influence patterns of
segregation through enrolment policies, as well as through practices within schools which
will be informed by faith norms.
Given the intersection between faith and ethnicity,
racialised practices may become reinforced through rights of access of immigrant children to
different types of schools, as well as through the practices which take place in schools once
children are enrolled.
2
The paper considers these issues with respect to the leadership practices of three primary
school principals in Ireland. Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, it conceptualises schools as
structured social spaces and of their leadership work as a form of practising. This practising
is conceived of as an outcome of the intersection between deeply embedded subjectivities
operating in diverse fields of action which shape, constrain and transform each principal’s
practices.
Presenting an analytical model that highlights the circular and capillary like
dimension to such practising the paper explores how principals’ recognition of immigrant
children (their recognitive practices) as well as investment in supporting their learning
(distributive practices) are shaped by the logics of practice across different fields, as well as
by their own evolving habitus and struggle to be authentic in a period of rapid social change.
Leading newly-multi ethnic schools – preservation and/or transformation of the field
The work of Bourdieu is useful in highlighting the complex dynamics in the positioning of
school leaders. Principals come to their role embedded within their habitus – durable ways
of ‘speaking, walking, feeling and thinking’ (Ibid 1990:70) which provide the ‘logic of
practice’ for their everyday lives. The habitus is open to mediation and change, embedded
in relations of power which operate in the field of action. As Bourdieu notes:
A field is a structured social space, a field of forces, a force field. Constant
permanent relationships of inequality operate inside this space, which at the same
time, becomes a space in which the various actors struggle for the transformation or
preservation of the field (Bourdieu 1998: 40-41).
Schools can be considered as structured social spaces with their own ‘logics’ of practice –
configurations of power and representation that have developed over time. There are a
myriad of fields, as there are social relations but field, habitus and capitals are
inextricably linked in shaping orientations and practices in the world. In schools, such
practices crystallize in the dynamics of (mis)recognition which play out between actors in
the field: principals, teachers, children and their parents. These dynamics are in turn
governed by the actors’ capacities to mobilise different forms of capital, providing the
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currency to recognition, entitlement and esteem.
Unlike Foucault’s (1979) ‘docile
bodies’, Bourdieu emphasises the active and reflexive nature of agent’s ‘doing’, in which
they orient themselves, depending on their access to capitals, to the preservation or
subversion of the field (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992: 109).
It is this agency which
lends a dynamic quality to the concept of ‘field’, which can be construed as a field of
struggle and/or force; preservation and/or transformation. Practising is then the
mechanism through which structure and agency merge, norms become instantiated
(Giddens 1984) through the practices engaged in by actors in schools.
Leadership practices then are never neutral. Principals are aware of their own ‘place’ as well
as the ‘place’ of others. However this ontological ‘knowing’ may be threatened as norms of
become ‘unsettled’ (Youdell 2006) in the intensity of social change. Such change can come
from diverse quarters. The broader shift toward neo-liberal policies in the Anglo/Saxon
world, given further momentum through the global economic crisis, has led to a sea change in
both the conditions and discourse of leadership in education. Principals are required to
distribute a declining pool of resources, while maintaining school performance and reputation
in highly competitive contexts (Keddie et al 2011). Simultaneously they are encouraged to
become more authentic and socially conscious in their roles (Creemers and Kyriakides 2010;
Moller 2009), tackling the under-performance of certain groups in education, including
children of immigrant background (Crul and Holdaway 2009). Yet returning to Bourdieu,
transformation in the ‘field’ is inter-twined with forces of preservation that can operate
simultaneously. Within the neo-liberal paradigm, it is school principals who must exercise a
form of ‘super-leadership’ as they counter-balance competing demands. Some do so with
persistence, reaching out to migrant children and their parents through inclusive school
practices (Blair 2002; Gaetane 2008). Others are ‘hard to reach’ (Crozier and Davies 2007),
exercising a form of passive racism as they ‘manage’ diversity in an attempt to preserve the
status quo (Parsons 2009, Perumal 2009). Transformational practices in schools invariably
centre on the transformation of students (and their parents) rather than school cultures, with
an absence of meaningful attention to racialised (and gendered) dynamics in school
leadership discourse (Blackmore 2010). Soft multiculturalism abounds, a form of practical
tolerance which celebrates diversity as an additive extra to the ‘real’ learning of schools
(Bryan 2010, Blackmore 2006, Kitching 2011). Racialised discourses themselves become
refashioned as ‘cultural’ difference - the ‘othering’ of minority groups legitimized on the
4
grounds of perceived essentialist differences in cultures (Modood 2007) rather than any
structural inequalities at play (Gillborn et al 2012).
Cultural racisms of course are entwined in socio-historical processes of nation making,
defining who belongs and who is on the ‘outside’. Such dynamics are played out differently
across countries and their school systems depending on their socio-historical trajectories. As
a post-colonial state of relatively recent origin, the education system has played a key role in
‘shaping the Irish nation’ (Devine 2011, Kitching 2010).
Faith and colour based
normativities are deeply embedded and are structurally reinforced through a system of state
supported faith based school governance. Being white and Catholic are privileged signifiers
of ‘Irishness’ (CSO 2011). Furthermore, as a country with a long history of emigration,
patterns of immigration have traditionally involved the ‘return’ of those with prior links to the
Irish diaspora – repeat circulations of normative identity signifiers that did little to challenge
prevailing ethnic based norms.
Practising leadership in newly-multi ethnic schools
I want to consider this broader conceptual analysis and specific local context with respect to
two inter-secting domains that are relevant to the education of immigrant children. First there
are recognitive practices - leadership practices which foster recognition and positive visibility
of ‘others’. Second there are distributive practices – the implementation of policies, through
the investment of time and resources to support teaching and learning for diversity.
Combined, these practices are constitutive, re/shaping the institutional habitus of the school
as well as the habitus of other actors in the school (such as parents, teachers and children).
How these practices are enacted will be influenced by the context of the ‘field’ and the logics
of practice which govern that field. The ‘field’ in this sense can comprise the school itself;
the broader community in which it is situated, as well as the field of educational policy
making at national and increasingly international level.
Such ‘logics’ will become
intertwined and part of the principal’s own habitus, itself also the product of prior personal
history and experience.
Power is central to this leadership practising – operating in a
capillary like circular fashion, deriving from structural as well as agentic influences. Both the
powerfulness of the principal’s role, as well as her/his embeddedness in power relations is
reflected in figure 1:
5
The model foregrounds the inter-play of structure, agency, power and practice in the
leadership work of school principals. Structures refer to the rules and resources (Giddens
1984), signifiers and power relations which set the context for action in schools. These can
be at a national level in terms of State policies (e.g. governance/patron structures, resourcing,
curriculum and assessment policies), as well as classed, racialised, gendered and other
normative representations in the society. Such structures permeate the local level through for
6
example housing and employment patterns in the local community. Agency reflects the
reflective capacities of actors (in this case the principal) to make decisions based on the
meanings they attach to those interactions. These twin dynamics, along with prior histories
shape the principal’s habitus, in turn shaping their leadership practices.
Normative
assumptions around race, faith and class are (re)constituted through the manner of
engagement with ‘the other’ and the underlying drive toward transformation or preservation
which permeates principals’ work. Habitus is generative however. It is open to modification
as a result of working with migrant children and their parents, contributing to the
(re)production of existing structures and/or unsettling taken for granted ways of ‘being and
doing’. This is the tension Bourdieu speaks of in terms of preservation and transformation in
the ‘field’.
Outline of the study
This paper explores the leadership practising of three principals in newly multi-ethnic
primary schools in the Republic of Ireland. It draws on repeat interviews and visits to the
three schools. Table 1 below highlights the profile of these three schools – all in receipt of
supplementary state support through the DEISiii scheme. The analysis is also supplemented
by more in-depth knowledge of these schools through interviews with teachers, children and
parents, reported elsewhere (e.g. Devine 2009, Devine 2011). Interviews were fully
transcribed and analysed using Maxqda software for coding and thematic analysis.
[Insert Table 1 here]
The remainder of the paper considers the micro-dynamics of these principals’ leadership
practices in their newly-multiethnic schools. Two inter-related themes are presented. The first
focuses on the significance of ‘field’ and how community dynamics, school governance
norms as well as other national state policies shape practices of recognition and distribution
on the ground. Second, the paper explores the habitus of these principals and their struggles
for authenticity as they marry the tensions between transformation and preservation in a
context of significant social and demographic change.
7
The significance of ‘field’ to leadership practices
Taking Bourdieu’s concept of ‘field’ as structured social spaces, this can be considered in
terms of the geographic field of the local community in which each school was situated.
This, coupled with the field of governance (patron structures), influences the demographic
profile of children in each of the study schools, including the range and extent of ethnic
diversity within them. These intersect with the broader field of state policy in relation to
migration and diversity (e.g. immigration policy, urban planning and provision of a range of
school choices in the area) but combined may give rise to differing recognitive challenges for
principals.
Further the work principals put into supporting diversity (their distributive
practices) is also influenced by the resources provided by the State to support inclusive
practices in schools.
Oakleaf primary, led by Mr Dempsey since the 1980’s, is a Catholic co-educational school,
located in a suburban working class housing estate. The wider community reaped some
benefit from the ‘boom’ through employment and building of private housing that brought a
greater social mix in the school catchment area. Its immigrant community derives in large
part from medical personnel (mainly doctors) from the Middle East (e.g Libya, Iraq and
Egypt), as well as immigrants from Eastern Europe and Asia and a small number from
Africa. Traditionally the ‘field’ of Oakleaf primary was one characterised by engagement
with issues of social and cultural marginalisation, including with Traveller children. As Mr
Dempsey says:
We had a very clear community and an unarticulated understanding about their
background and culture …now we have people coming from different cultures and
maybe different expectations
Such comments can be understood in terms of the challenge of transformation that was facing
Oakleaf. For Mr Dempsey however, the institutional ‘habitus’ of the school was one which
equipped the staff with an openness to change, including a strong record of ‘reaching out’ to
parents:
We were very conscious of working with people who are less empowered... there
was a strong culture in the school for the active participation of parents
8
Mr Dempsey spoke especially positively of levels of social engagement between immigrant
and non-immigrant parents. My own field trips to the school over a period of ten years
indicated an active parent community that confirmed his views. Interviews with children and
parents indicated their experiences of some racial tensions in the wider community, yet the
school appeared to be a positive social space that encouraged all parents to become involved.iv
Such recognitive practices are exemplified in the decision relatively early in the phase of
immigration to offer faith instruction to Muslim children during school hours, in spite of the
Catholic designation of the school. For Mr Dempsey this was a core element of recognition of
culture and identity:
We decided that for Muslims, religion is so important to them that we
immediately facilitated them in terms of teaching religion.
Interestingly because of this recognitive practising, Oakleaf was developing a reputation
among the broader Muslim community as a school suitable for Muslim children: ‘we have
people from the Muslim community who deliberately seek out this area so that they can get to
our school’. Exemplifying the capillary exercise of power, the field of action within Oakleaf
was having an influence on the broader field of representation (demographic profile) outside
in the community, as an increasing number of Muslim children attended the school. This
was not without its problems, in terms of managing tensions within the teaching staff, as well
as the local community. It was clear that Mr Dempsey felt ethically conflicted in negotiating
these tensions between transformation and preservation, as he struggled to maintain his
principle of being inclusive of all parents, while satisfying core obligations to maintain the
Catholic ethos of the school:
Can we have a Catholic multi-denominational multi-cultural school? It is a
contradiction in terms
Governance status and associated faith ethos is an important ‘field’ of action in a faith based
state system. On the one hand recognition of difference is provided in a pluralist system
where a diversity of faith schools will be funded by the state in line with parental wishes v. On
the other hand, enrolment on the basis of faith background can be exclusionary; giving rise to
both racialised and classed dynamics of exclusion/inclusion, a challenge also noted in Malta
(Mifsud 2010). This occurs where there is a high demand for school places in a local area
and a limited number of school choices available. None of the schools in this paper were
overtly ‘selective’vi and enrolled children from all denominations yet spoke of other schools,
9
in more affluent areas especially, of doing so. Yet these principals were conscious of the
dynamics in this field and the need to maintain their school’s reputation, in an increasingly
competitive education market place. This is reflected in the comments of Mr Dempsey who
had already ‘lost’ some families to a more middle class, and less ethnically diverse school not
far from his own:
Now there are anomalies …you know you could effectively use an enrolment policy
to exclude people and I know this has happened
The balance in enrolment, and perceptions about the reputation of the school were also a
challenge for Ms Hannigan, principal of Beechwood primary.
This school, under the
governance of ‘Educate Together’ was built in response to the massive demographic growth
in this area arising from immigration. The school comprises 85% children of immigrant
background and in spite of the recession Ms Hannigan indicates: ‘families are definitely
staying’.
There are several new primary schools within the local community, each
representing different patron structures. The school has DEIS status, although Ms Hannigan
indicates that the profile of the parent population is very mixed, ranging from professionals
working in the IT, engineering and health care sectors, to also include immigrants who have
come through asylum and refugee programmes. Reflecting the impact of state level policies,
Ms Hannigan bemoaned the absence of ‘proper’ planning in terms of the provision of social
supports and resources in the local area. This heightened the significance of the school as a
locale for building community among a potentially disconnected population:
I could see areas like this end up being ghettos because there are no
resources...there is nothing for the community except the school
Given the high concentration of immigrants in her local community, Ms Hannigan spoke of
‘white flight’ as the area became defined as an ‘immigrant’ zone. She struggled not only with
the reputation of her school as ‘immigrant’ but also with misperceptions that related to the
lack of ‘normality’ of the ‘Educate Together’ governance model:
You are constantly battling against myths... ‘YES we do teach Irish, YES we do
speak English’, you know we are normal [emphasis added]...one parent wanted
his child moved to another local [Catholic] school ...he probably looked in the
yard and thought ‘oh my god’ when he saw all the immigrant kids there... are we
going to be the black school with the white school?vii...it is very tricky
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Racialised dynamics are clearly evident in the ‘reputational challenges’ referred to by Ms
Hannigan and Mr Dempsey. A defining element of ‘Educate Together’ however, is its’ open
enrolment policy:
Our enrolment policy is first come, first served so there would be no criteria like
how long you have been in Ireland or your religion
Maryville primary, like Oakleaf, is a Catholic primary school, under the governance of a
female religious order. Core to their mission is ‘service to the poor in areas of greatest
need’. This underpins the ‘logics of practice’ in this all girls’ school established over 100
years ago. Sr Bríd, a religious sister, has been principal for the past 15 years. She speaks of
the school as an outlier in terms of inter-generational poverty, but, with some pride, says:
the standard of the building excels many a rich school…there is a huge loyalty to
the Sisters over the years … children that came to the school have their kids in the
school …we had Travellers, this school welcomed everyone
Like Oakleaf primary, the immigrant population comprises a large proportion of health care
workers, mainly nurses from the Philippines, India and Pakistan. Given that immigrants are
often located in areas of social housing or low rental cost this can create ‘friction’ where
there is competition for scarce resources.
Sr Bríd was the only principal to mention
community tensions in this respect. This was most notable in the earlier phase of immigration
and had a clear racialised component, directed at those from ‘African nations’ who had
immigrated through the asylum process:
Women were coming to me saying: ‘I’m on the housing list for this length of
time and why are immigrants in there?’...it was making an impact
Wider urban/social planning, local employment opportunities as well as school governance
models intersected then in shaping the profile of immigrant enrolment in the study schools.
School governance also influenced practices of recognition in each school once immigrants
were enrolled although this was not as straightforward as one might assume. A trajectory of
responses along a continuum of transformation or preservation is evident with the nature and
level of recognition practised, as we will see later, also influenced by the habitus of the
principals themselves.
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For Mr Dempsey, being a Catholic school was interpreted in terms of belonging to a local
community but this was articulated in terms of the inter-section between ‘Parish’ and the
strength of sport (especially the GAA - Gaelic Athletic Association)viii as the glue for locally
defined place based identities:
I do believe in a Catholic school – not because of the Catholicity but because of
the community – a bit like the GAA there are boundaries – a community to meet
and a place to belong’
The ‘hybrid’ approach to recognition in the school – blending traditional signifiers of Irish
identity (Catholic and GAA) with newer versions, is encapsulated in the comments of the
deputy principal, Ms Macken, when she stated:
One day when I saw all the Muslim boys coming from their Qur’an instruction,
they had their helmets, their hurleys and their sliotarsix with them and I said
that’s integration.[emphasis added].
In Maryville primary, also a Catholic school, there was in contrast seamlessness in practice
that appeared untouched by the changing demographic profile.
Undoubtedly this was
influenced by the school’s lengthy history but also by its much defined identity with a
Catholic religious order. Most of the immigrants who came to the school were Catholic and
indeed those who came from India had prior links with missionary schools run by this
religious order:
The bulk of our immigrants were Catholic because the Polish community and the
Filipino’s are very Catholic, the Indians are nearly all from a Catholic diocese that
our religious order was with and they were telling each other to come
A Catholic ethos was core to Sr Bríd’s articulation of her leadership practices, yet was
spoken of in very pragmatic terms:
It is a Catholic school but not everyone is a practising Catholic...we had our
school mass and children that weren’t catholic were free not to come [emphasis
added] if they wished, but we displayed the flags where the children were from
Sr Bríd’s comment here is instructive. Recognition for her is interpreted as ‘freedom not to’
participate – a form of practical tolerance (Blackmore 2006) that does not challenge the
12
underlying habitus of the school. Her practising is primarily oriented toward preservation
framed within a Christian charitable approach. Transformative practice occurs based on
individual needs which demand a response. We see this in her account of an interaction with
a Muslim father:
there was a little Muslim refugee...her father asked about her wearing hmmm
[hijab] and I said ‘let her see what the tracksuit is and let her then see does she
want to wear this headdress’. She decided not to wear the head dress so that was
the only time I was asked [emphasis added], but we hadn’t an issue with it
For Sr Brid, recognition was perceived as an everyday aspect of school life, because, in
safeguarding children’s wellbeing, that is what schools are supposed to do. It is reflected in
her comment that ‘We don’t have specific policies because the school is a place of welcome. It
doesn’t matter what country you come from’. With good intentions, inclusion happens. Sr
Bríd took great pride in articulating stories of immigrant children who had gone on to do well
in secondary school. When asked specifically about alternative faith formation during school
hours she stated: ‘It might have been possible but we were never asked’.
For Ms Hannigan, recognition of diversity was central to the ‘Educate Together’ ethos. Not
only did children of ‘all denominations and none’ enrol in the school, but recognition
underpinned all levels of practice in the school:
Our ethos would be one of tolerance and respect for all cultures and religious
belief. We set up a diversity committee with staff, parents and children which has
drawn up our diversity code
Significantly, these practices drew on a human rights framework, centred on equality, respect
and recognition:
Within ‘Educate Together’, we have our core ethical curriculum which is very
human rights based. So, we would try and use a lot of human rights resources
with the kids.
In contrast with parents interviewed in Maryville primaryx, interviews with parents indicated a
palpable sense of community inside the school:
They are so receptive to all the good ideas and they just change for us (Indian
mother)
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Across the three schools there were then competing logics of practice (Bourdieu 1990) for
these principals to negotiate in terms of reputation and enrolment, as well as how to cater for
diversity once children from immigrant communities were enrolled. The analysis highlights
the contradictory exercise of power - how for example at a broader level school ethos and
governance can simultaneously promote inclusion and exclusion, depending on the broader
‘field’ in which the school is situated. This can happen in terms of priorities in enrolment of
those who are ‘the same’xi but also in the level of mis/recognition which may play out on an
everyday basis for those who are enrolled in the school.
Underpinning these practices were also however distributive challenges as these principals in
an increasingly constrained economic environment, practically managed the diversity in their
schools.
Each spent considerable energy lobbying for language support services,
psychological supports, assessment and cultural mediation servicesxii, even during the boom
years. As Ms Hannigan states:
Trying to get hold of services, its’ really difficult. We looked for funding from the
Minister and we got a grant to set up a translation service
Distributive practices are not only influenced by state policy, however, but also by the
systems principals themselves put in place to monitor the inclusion of immigrant children.
Such systems are key indicators of the level of recognition of diverse ‘others’ in the school.
There were notable differences evident here across the three schools. In Maryville primary
the emphasis was on supporting individual children who became visible through their needs,
rather than a systemic focus on the needs of immigrant children and their parents as a group.
In contrast, Mr Dempsey and Ms Hannigan engaged in considerable reflexive practising
related to the development of school wide inclusive policies. This inevitably gave rise to an
‘unsettling of hegemonic assumptions’ (Youdell 2006), challenging personal identity and
habitus:
It’s really hard...we all have built in prejudices and it is only when we come face
to face and deal with it that we really see that change is worth the challenge (Mr
Dempsey, Oakleaf primary)
What is at issue is the extent to which these principals were reactive to the change, or whether
the change itself led to an ‘awakening of consciousness’ (Bourdieu 1990:116), giving rise to
alterations in their leadership practising. Such practising is influenced by the broader ‘field’
in which the school is located, locally as well as nationally. It is also influenced however by
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the ethical and moral dimension which each principal brought to their role (Stefkovich and
Begley 2007). This was embedded in their ‘habitus’, which in turn influenced how they
managed reactions and interaction within the school.
Habitus and authenticity in the leadership role – the drip effect
Commitment, passion and the investment of self was evident in each of these principal’s
narratives about their work (Sugrue 2005).
Their practising was personal as well as
professional, as they mobilised social and cultural capital to provide additional supports. Sr
Bríd and Mr Dempsey for example spoke of how they had helped immigrant parents by
writing references and identifying English language training opportunities. Ms Hannigan was
involved in a local development group to ‘build a community spirit’ in the area. These
dispositions were in turn influenced by these principals’ own histories, as well as classed and
ethnic positioning. For Mr Dempsey, his upbringing in a community characterised by waves
of Irish emigration, provided him with an appreciation of belonging to ‘locality’. This was
central to his understanding of ‘Irishness’:
I spring from a locality with a long tradition of emigration ... it has shaped me. I
have travelled a lot and when you come home to Ireland there is a great
connection between people and their locality
Mr Dempsey came from what he termed an ‘advantaged background’ that included an
experience of entrepreneurship in his father’s work. He attributes this as formative in the
drive for innovation in his leadership practices.
The generative nature of habitus (‘the drip
effect’) is reflected in the awakening of consciousness (Bourdieu 1990) evident below in his
early teaching experiences in a working class community:
This was deep poverty...there was no imagination in dealing with the kids... a
summer project involving the parents was a real lesson to me in tapping into
people’s resources ... I would not like to be romantic about it, it was a drip effect
Sr Bríd and Ms Hannigan both grew up in urban environments yet also spoke about the
importance of community in their up-bringing. Indeed for Sr Brid, the locality in which her
school was located was where her own family originated, as well as one where her religious
15
order had a lengthy tradition. Continuity rather than change was then the hall mark of her
‘habitus’ and this in turn was reflected in her leadership practising. Her rootedness in this
locality provided her with ‘le sens pratique’ (Bourdieu 1990: 52) in relation to her own
pragmatic positioning:
My own family were working class people... my Dad always said it didn’t matter
who we met, whether high up or low down you were just a person, same as the
next one.
For Ms Hannigan, it was her experiences of prejudice through family links in the North of
Ireland that gave her a strong sense of resistance to ‘intolerance’:
We were so judged [as Catholics] ... it was absolute intimidation and I say to kids:
‘who gives the right to judge anybody based on their accent or where they live or
their name?’... [There is] a need for not ‘boxing’ people into categories...it makes
me feel so uncomfortable
The duality of habitus as structured and structuring – generative and determining is reflected
in Ms Hannigan’s comment. As a result of her own positioning as ‘other, it has generated
within her a resistance to such positioning, the embodied impact of ‘boxing people into
categories’ still felt after all of these years.
Her progression to leadership of an ‘Educate
Together’ school, with its core emphasis on social justice within a human rights framework
‘fit’ with her own emerging dispositions: ‘It just sounded like it was what I always wanted
to do, like that it was me’. For her, these experiences also shaped her desire to embrace
‘new’ or perhaps unrecognised aspects of ‘Irishness’. Exploring identity positioning was a
core element of her leadership practice that drew on cultural as well as place based contexts
in creating hybrid forms of Irishness:
We are very conscious that there is a new Irishness and that it means different
things to different people. We have looked at all the different cultures and
identities... this is Ireland so we also put a focus on Irish dancing and Irish music
and being from this [area]
All three principals were Catholic in their own religious backgrounds yet its impact on their
leadership habitus differed. As a religious sister, Sr Bríd was deeply invested in a Christian
way of life but one that had an additional ‘vow’ in working with the poor:
16
It was a big influence in choosing [this religious order]... that they worked in the
neediest areas
For both Ms Hannigan and Mr Dempsey their Catholicity was not privileged in their
identities yet they acknowledged its formative influence on them.
Ms Hannigan had
previously taught in Catholic schools for over 20 years, yet it was the desire for more
explicit inclusiveness that led to her working in Beechwood primary:
Teaching in Catholic schools I got more and more uncomfortable...but my
Christian upbringing has instilled certain things – I would find myself quoting the
Bible
Mr Dempsey spoke about his commitment to ‘reaching out’ in terms that drew on a Catholic
discourse of mission and pastoral care: ‘the school had that almost missionary sense of
working with people who are less empowered’. However his leadership practices were
linked in his view to his strong civic (rather than religious) sense of the primary school as a
space for inclusion and empowerment:
The one institution of the State where children from other countries and parents can
have very positive experiences, where they can be given self confidence and
encouraged to participate, is the primary school
These principals’ habitus were also embedded in normative assumptions about their ethnic
identity that were ‘awakened’ when they were confronted with the range of diversities that
immigration had brought. What is significant is that when any spoke more circumspectly
about certain groups they did so only where there were a large number of that community in
the school.
Reflecting tensions in the field, it was this that threatened the ‘logics of
practice’ and the normative assumptions about the schools’ ways of being and doing. What
differed however was how they addressed this challenge and if it caused a core questioning
of their habitus - that in itself generated new forms of identity production and practice. For
Sr Bríd a dysconscious response to diversity remained paramount (Leonardo 2009). Her
orientation was toward preservation of the field – a field in which she had a history of intergenerational connectedness.
It did not cause her to question the privileging of traditional
white Catholic Irish identity in the school where she worked.
While she expressed
‘misgivings’ about some African immigrants, Nigerians especially: ‘they were very hard to
deal with...but the children we loved them’, she was committed to providing supports for all
17
children when needed.
Mr Dempsey and Ms Hannigan also had challenges that derived
from normative assumptions related, for example, to the presence of an increasing number
of Muslim children in a Catholic school, or being perceived as an [immigrant’] ‘black’
school. These were referred to however as challenges of how to change rather than as
deficits that related to the immigrant groups themselves. Their focus was on structural level
change to support how they could accommodate to the diversity in their schools. Indeed in
both these schools the need to change the mainly white profile of staff was specifically
mentioned:
It’s all white Irish teachers ... if there was more diversity among teaching staffs it
might be easier (Ms Hannigan, Beechwood primary)
We would love to see international members of the staff and that would be
integration at its best (Ms Macken, Oakleaf primary)
Concluding comments
Schools are ‘structured social spaces’ with their own logics of practice that foreground how
immigrant communities are received. Principals are responsible for negotiating between
competing logics of practice, and this is especially challenging when large scale immigration
occurs in the local community.
The analysis presented highlights the tensions that exist in
their practice between transformation and preservation of the ‘field’. These derive from
community dynamics both inside and outside the school, as well as national level policies
related to support and planning for diversity in schools. These tensions are embedded in
structural level dynamics in the field of action as well as habituated practices that derive from
their own personal experiences. This is the inter-play between structure and agency, between
accommodating and adapting to change driven from the ‘outside’, while simultaneously
driving a vision for the school from the inside. Leadership practising becomes reflected in
recognitive and distributive practices, who and what is recognised and how this becomes
instantiated in the implementation of inclusive policies in schools. Power is central to such
processes of recognition and distribution, re/constituting identities in a complex and
sometimes contradictory manner. Their practices are part of a capillary like feedback loop
that connects macro level patterns (for example resource allocation, governance structures,
urban planning) to micro level processes and patterns in schools.
18
Sr Brid orients herself to preservation of the field, reinforced through a seamless intersection
between her habitus and that of the school. There are transformative elements to her practice,
as these are directed to support individual immigrant children and their parents in need. Yet
normative assumptions around identity and belonging are re-constituted through a form of
practising that views immigrant, and indeed ethnic status, as extraneous to the work of the
school. In contrast, Mr Dempsey and Ms Hannigan attempt to subvert the field of normative
action, orienting their practising to working with the grain of ethnic influences (including
traditional Irish signifiers) to forge hybrid ways of being and doing. Their struggles derived
from their desire to effect deep change while managing the reputation of their schools in an
increasingly ‘choice’ driven market.
In a period of economic recession these tensions in the ‘field’ will become even more
pronounced. Critically reflecting on current policy and practice in schools is of crucial
importance if fragmentation and segregation of ethnic ‘others’ is not to become consolidated
as an inevitable aspect of immigrant experiences in education. Unless underpinned by an
ethic of justice, leadership practices in schools may serve to consolidate the minoritized status
of ‘ethnic’ others, rather than challenge and overcome it. Further research is required to
identify how prevalent these patterns are across the primary and secondary sectors. Leading
for diversity requires authentic engagement with self and other, a willingness to take risks, be
resilient and push boundaries. The inter-relatedness of principals’ practices however with
broader dynamics of power, recognition and representation suggests other key stakeholders,
such as teachers, the state and patron bodies also have a key role to play. Practising effective
leadership in newly multi-ethnic schools must be conceived as layered and multiple but must
not lose sight of the centrality of children’s well-being (both majority and minority ethnic) as
the ultimate priority and goal.
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21
The difference between both school types relates to faith formation. In ‘Educate together’ schools faith
formation takes place outside of the school day, separate from the core curriculum activities of the school. In
Community national schools – faith formation takes place during the school day according to the faith
distribution of the children in the school. Substantive change is currently underway in school governance
choices arising from a recent report of the Forum on School Patronage, with the proposed transfer of ownership
of Catholic schools to alternate multi-denominational patron bodies in areas of high urban density. There are
currently 60 Educate Together schools and 6 Community national schools nationally.
ii
In Ireland, teacher education at primary level takes place in one of four Catholic Teacher Education Colleges
or one Church of Ireland Education College. All entrants to primary teacher education are required to have high
proficiency in the Irish language, also reducing the likelihood of immigrant representation in the teaching
profession at this level.
iii
DEIS [Delivering equality in schools) allocation is reflective of high levels of social and economic
disadvantage.
iv
Immigrant parents consistently expressed positive experiences of recognition and persistent efforts by the
school staff to encourage them to become actively involved in classroom/teaching activities and social events.
v
Nationally there are over 3200 primary schools of which 2,888 are Catholic, 181 Church of Ireland, 14
Presbyterian, 1 Methodist, 1 Jewish, 2 Muslim, 60 ‘Educate Together’; and 5 Community national schools.
vi
This was undoubtedly related to their DEIS status and the continual need to maintain numbers in the school
vii
Simplistic dichotomies of parental choice should not be assumed however. There is evidence of children from
Nigeria seeking to attend the local Catholic school (Devine 2011), perhaps in recognition of its’ ‘normality’
hence prestige, but also because of the desire for a more formalised school structure evident in the wearing of
school uniforms.
viii
The GAA (Gaelic Athletic Association) is the largest nationally based sports organisation for the playing of
hurling and Gaelic football. A traditional signifier of ‘Irishness’ and ‘national identity’ it has historical links
with Catholicism, reflected in the organisation of local clubs around Catholic parishes throughout Ireland.
ix
Hurleys and sliotar are the stick and ball used in playing the Gaelic game ‘hurling’.
i
x
Immigrant parents in Maryville spoke about the ‘warmth’ and care their children experienced. Also evident
however was a lack of connectedness to the community of the school. The parents interviewed had less than one
friend in the school nor did they speak, as did parents for example in Beechwood and Oakleaf primary of a
‘parent community’.
xi
In essence this is about State policy, rather than religious belief per se and is being addressed through a
gradualist widening of provision. While pluralist in intent, I have argued elsewhere (Devine 2011) of the risk of
increasing social and ethnic segregation through a system so profoundly shaped by parental choice.
xii
Considerable investment by the State was made from the period of 2005. This shift in the broader field of
state policy on immigration was directed especially toward the expansion of language support to schools, since
substantially cut owing to the economic recession.
22