The emotions of educational leadership: breaking the silence

This study examines the emotionality of educational leadership by exploring administrators' recall of key junctures in their lives as leaders, and was designed to begin to investigate the associations between an individual's philosophy of leadership and his/her experience of emotionality in leadership. Employing an interview method, the study uses stimulated recall of emotional experiences associated with leadership work. An assessment of the situations that evoked emotions, patterns associated with the emotions themselves and the act of reflection, led to noteworthy conclusions that may hold important implications for further research in the sociology of emotions and educational leadership theory and practice. Emerging findings support the position that our understanding of the role of the emotions may be fundamental to a fuller appreciation of the intra- and intersubjective realities of life in schools, in general, and of educational leadership in particular.