A view from the inside : an ethnographic study of three years in the life of a primary school

"A view from the inside" is based upon my three years as headteacher of Redland Primary School. A participant-observational, ethnographic methodology is employed to communicate the richness, complexity and reality of the headteacher's existence and my overarching aim is to "tell it like it really is". Chapter One introduces the principal actors involved in the ensuing social drama and describes the nature of the stage and the props. In short, the human and non-human components of the situation. Chapter Two maps the positive interaction of intra-institutional participants, providing an account of curriculum change and staff development. The headteacher's evolving management style is also catalogued. The negative aspects of these social processes are examined in Chapter Three and a number of conflict biographies are considered in some detail. A discussion of the headteacher's conflict management strategies provides a natural postscript to this section. Chapter Four marks a change of focus, moving from analysis of Redland School as a self-contained microcosm to a consideration of its location within its broader social context. The influence of extra-institutional personnel upon the school is rehearsed. Chapter Five involves a reversal of the same telescope, analysing how intra-institutional actors influence significant others within the supporting social network, by creating an "image". The disparate threads of the study are drawn together in Chapter Six and the headteacher's view from the inside is presented. A natural history of my research and an overview of ethnographic methodology is provided in Chapter Seven. Finally, the Conclusion summarises the main findings of the study and identifies fruitful directions for future research.