‘In the back of our minds always’: reflexivity as resistance for the performing principal

The objective of this paper is to examine how principals are constituted by the discursive practices of an expanding culture of performance accountability in public education. Analysis of new empirical evidence, collected from interviews of nine high school principals and public documents from their respective districts, demonstrates two consequences of working within this culture of market-based reforms: principals are devoting much of their time to public relations management, and they are becoming increasingly immersed in the competitive ethos of school ranking systems. Foucault’s theory of disciplinary power is used to understand the way principals have become normalized by accountability regimes, which function as technologies of surveillance. Ultimately, this paper argues that principals who would engage in productive resistance to performative culture must exercise a critical reflexivity with their school communities, problematizing a policy culture that has become taken-for-granted. An additional implication is that leadership preparation programmes must offer pre-service school administrators opportunities to acquire the analytical tools associated with post-structuralist theories. This need for critical perspectives becomes more urgent as an increasing array of public educators’ functions, including assessment of students, evaluation of instruction, and development of curriculum, becomes outsourced to private interests.