Women Challenging Managerialism: Devolution dilemmas in the establishment of co-principalships in primary schools in Aotearoa/New Zealand

How are women faring within the restructured educational environment, where professional leadership is being increasingly beleaguered by market and managerial forces? This paper draws on ongoing case studies of primary school women's initiations of collaborative co-principalships to discuss some of the dilemmas that have been encountered within the contradictory environment of 'centralised decentralisation'. Issues of accountability have emerged as significant as, in one school, the women and their board have been radically reconstructing traditional and managerial notions of 'the principal'.