Senior Administrators in School Divisions (Re)Composing Stories to Live By: A Narrative Inquiry

My research puzzle for this narrative inquiry is about senior administrators in school divisions (re)composing stories to live by during a period of heightened accountability to improve student achievement. As this study unfolds, Clandinin and Connelly’s (2000) understanding of a narrative inquiry approach is used to explore research puzzles, wonders, and new learning. This study begins with my experiences as a senior administrator on the educational landscape and explores my puzzles about improving student achievement in school divisions. My wonders centre on questions such as: How do we demonstrate improved student achievement for all students? Do we all agree on what improved student achievement is? How do I find balance with what I believe about learning, and achieve what is expected of me in the role of a senior administrator in a school division? How have my experiences shaped my professional identity, and who I am as a senior administrator? Do senior administrators in school divisions (re)compose stories to live by as their professional identity evolves and leadership skills develop? The participants in this study are three senior administrators from school divisions: Barbara, Alice, and me. Field texts were collected throughout the study in the form of artefacts, audio recordings, documentation notes, personal field notes, and chronicles. Eventually I moved from field texts to interim texts, and I integrated literature about narrative inquiry, educational leadership, professional identity, colonization, and teacher education. Narrative accounts were created for each of the participants. As the narrative accounts, literature, and relevant field texts were interwoven from interim to research texts, six story threads resonated: being a member of the colonizing dominant group, shifting professional identity, re(composing) stories to live by, becoming awakening to the lives of children and youth, school reform, and the shaping presence of dominant institutional narratives. This dissertation shares the narrative understanding of the author and two participants about their experience of being senior administrators through the narratives they create to understand those experiences. It creates hope for additional research in educational leadership and senior administration using a narrative inquiry methodology.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral -- first

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Education

Grantor dc:publisher

Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Antifaiff, Gloria Lynn

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Couros, Alec

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Lewis, Patrick
• Tupper, Jennifer
• Anderson, Brenda

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

https://doi.org/10.82465/4897

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uregina.scholaris.ca:10294/7679