A psychoanalytical examination of the experience of the Specialist Leader of Education in English secondary schools

Brooks, Lisa Zudita (2023) A psychoanalytical examination of the experience of the Specialist Leader of Education in English secondary schools. Doctoral thesis (EdD), Manchester Metropolitan University.

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Abstract

This thesis examines the role of the Specialist Leader of Education (SLE) in secondary schools in England and draws on Lacanian theory to examine the role within the context of a competition-driven school improvement policy agenda. The research incorporates both the experiences of the researcher, as participant-SLE, as well as the experiences of a group of SLEs, thus capturing the specific activities involved in school-to-school support today. Having identified the SLE role as a microcosm of a wider set of issues in current educational discourse, this research encapsulates the tensions experienced by many of those working in schools in England today. It claims that the SLE role is the current iteration of a succession of ‘expert teacher’ roles, and that the notion of the expert teacher is problematic for relationships in the school environment, since it can be seen as conflicting with dominant discourses of collaboration. The research presents the complexities of the role of a system leader and identifies the tensions they can experience (consciously and unconsciously) when working beyond their own institutions within a neoliberal school improvement agenda. A structured discussion and critique of neoliberal education policy is offered which allows the data to be analysed to examine how such policy emerges through the SLE role. The Lacanian lens examines the wider dominant discourses, the accounts given by participant-SLEs, and data collected from the research diary of the participant-researcher. A theory of illusory identities is proposed to explain how system leaders successfully carry out two roles (of teacher and of SLE, for example) with the potentially conflicting demands, expectations and values that are placed upon them in each. Neoliberal ideals of competition, choice and in particular accountability emerge through the research data, which, it is claimed, is symptomatic of the issues and tensions inherent in the neoliberal school improvement agenda affecting all areas of, for the purposes of this research, secondary education. This research establishes a framework for examining the wider school improvement agenda through a Lacanian lens to then understand how such discourses, and in particular ideas around competition and accountability, emerge through system leader roles.