School Location Shapes What Crises Principals Face, Study Shows
A new study reveals that wealthy schools and disadvantaged schools experience fundamentally different types of controversies—poverty and crime in vulnerable areas versus classroom debates in privileged ones. The finding suggests that school leadership training and crisis management strategies must be tailored by community context to be effective.
Originaltitel: Exploring leadership practices in relation to controversial issues in schools: the role of institutional habitus
<p>This article presents findings from a qualitative study of schoolprincipals, focusing on the controversial issues they encounterand handle in their work. Drawing on the theory of institutionalhabitus (McDonough, 1996; Reay 1998) we offer insights into theways in which a school´s habitus shapes the content of the con-troversial issues that arise, depending on its social composition. Thefindings show that schools in socially vulnerable areas tend toexperience controversial issues connected to poverty, migration,criminality, and contact with external authorities, while more privi-leged schools primarily encounter classroom-oriented issuesrelated to pedagogy and differing viewpoints. The article arguesthat institutional habitus shapes not only school culture, but alsothe character and intensity of the controversial issues rincipals mustmanage. At the same time, leadership practices can partly chal-lenge the effects of institutional habitus by developing collectiveand supportive school environments.</p>