Professional identity formation of female school principals: Gender and emotionality connections

Abstract

This article presents a comparative analysis of the professional identity formation of three female principals of schools serving disadvantaged population in Spain. The focus on identity formation is complemented with parallel attention on gender and leader’s emotionality issues. The study embraces a qualitative-interpretive stance with a narrative methodological focus. The cases are framed within a broader study in which 73 male and female school principals participated in a training programme based on feedback and group coaching. Results confirm the multiple and multi-layered nature of professional identity declared in the theoretical framework. However, a diversity of patterns could be distinguished, from the managerial to the communitarian activist, with hybrid identity somewhere in the middle of such polarity. The way gendered emotions impacted the biographies of the cases was also analysed. Implications to the design and development of training programmes with a focus on leadership professional identity are suggested.