Aspiring Leaders - Research by Masters Students

Authentic Leadership (AL) is a relatively new construct that has garnered considerable attention from scholars and practitioners. While there has been a surge in studies addressing the link between Authentic Leadership and Emotional Intelligence (EI), these studies have been predominantly focused on business leadership and not centred in an Irish, educational context. Due to the interpersonal nature of leadership, there is a growing body of research that considers EI necessary for successful, effective leadership, as it has been identified that emotions affect organisational behaviour. Leading a team is challenging, as teams are recognised as being cauldrons of bubbling emotions. Understanding the nature of emotions and how to manage them is therefore essential to successful, authentic leadership. The purpose of this research study is to explore the link between Emotional Intelligence and Authentic Leadership in an educational setting. The study involved an interpretivist qualitative approach and was applied through semi-structured interviews and focus groups to elicit and explore senior and middle leaders’ perceptions of the role of EI in AL. Twelve leaders from both primary and post-primary school settings participated in this research study. The results indicate a strong link between Emotional Intelligence and Authentic Leadership within Irish schools. Specifically, leaders who were considered by their staff to be Authentic, were cited as possessing high levels of Emotional Intelligence. In addition, EI is said to be central to AL, as both constructs encompass similar characteristics. The findings suggest the following overlapping similarities: self-awareness, transparency, empathy and the use of emotional labour. This study has highlighted the potential value of restructuring school leadership training programs to place a greater importance on EI competencies. By recognising and developing the EI of aspiring leaders, it can work to enable them to lead their schools authentically to desired, successful outcomes.

This socio-cultural research is an exploratory study of the lived experience of Irish post-primary school teacher-mothers as they reject/pursue principalship. It is contextually situated amidst a widespread challenge recruiting and retaining principals (Canadian Association of Principals (CAP) 2000; Whitaker 2003; Irish Primary Principals Network (IPPN) 2006; Golden 2019), as well as numerical evidence of female underrepresentation in principal positions (Organisation for Economic Development and Co-operation (OECD) 2016; Ireland, Department of Education 2022). Issues of leadership are examined through a lens of gender and adopting a blended interpretivist/constructivist approach. A purposeful sample of ten teacher-mothers participated in semi-structured interviews, whereafter data was collated, synthesised, and thematically analysed. Three key themes emerge from this process. The first theme reveals teacher-mother’s early perception of the role of teacher, with entry motivations, early career ambitions and the interplay between career and motherhood framing the dialogue. Perceptions of professional roles surfaces as a second theme, with a strong sense of teaching as an active choice existing alongside distinctly negative perceptions of the role of principal, along with participant’s own expectations of the principal. Lastly, principalship and gender intersect as participants reveal their how lived experience frames their worldview, including their career trajectory. A worldview predicated upon assumptions about gender, a gendered distribution of domestic and/or caring responsibilities, as well as a tendency to devalue their own self-concept pillar this theme and inform subsequent key recommendations. The conclusion of this study presents key recommendations relating to policy and practice. These include the importance of acknowledging teacher workload and counteracting negative perceptions of principalship, as well as necessity of mentoring networks for teacher-mothers. Additionally, awareness raising around gendered patterns of thinking and practice, as well as the gender imbalance at principalship level is highlighted. Finally, suggestions for future research are made based on findings of this study and identified gaps in current literature.