The cosmologies of Irish primary principals' identities: between the modern and the postmodern?

Through the substantive theme of ethos, and the theoretical lens of identity construction, this paper provides a fine-grained analysis of the identities of primary principals in Ireland as they are buffeted between the conserving forces of tradition and a rhetoric of reform that relentlessly colonizes their work. Ethos, understood as a metaphor for change, indicates that transforming the past by developing principals' capacities for risk and imagination as they reshape their identities and reconstruct schools in tune with 21st century needs is a challenge to principals in general as they navigate between past, present and future. The authors conclude that risk and imagination are habits of mind that require urgent cultivation as important elements of principals' professional learning, for the future of schooling depends on it.