Heads on Deputy Headship

Abstract

Headteachers are interesting, deputy headteachers are not. In exploring this theme, the paper attempts to say something about how deputy headship is depicted within both the small number of studies currently available which focus specifically on this role and the much more substantial literature on headship. It draws selectively upon 34 substantial, on-the-record, published interviews with head-teachers from secondary, primary and special schools in which the author and others have been engaged over the last few years to consider what we can learn of deputy headship from headteachers. For many of them, this was not seen as a positive experience.