This book is a longitudinal life history of the lives and work of primary school principals in
Ireland. It provides a unique opportunity to peer inside the realities of leading schools in
changing times. In a system that until recently did not prepare principals for the onerous
roles and responsibilities a small system with limited mobility inter-personal relationships
emerge as critical frequently privileged over professional relationships. Consequently
principals struggle to bring about change to build trust in order to cultivate a
transformative leadership agenda while several aspects of systemic structures and processes
emerge as constraints on leadership capacity building. In the absence of comprehensive
leadership portfolio development classroom teachers catapulted into the principal's office
tend to be cautious and careful in ways that tend to perpetuate the status quo while putting a
premium on the exercise of soft power and an over-reliance on the good will of colleagues.
Several of the 'leadership lessons' that emerge from this in-depth analysis concur with an
increasing international consensus that due to complexity and increasingly performative policy
demands learning about leadership for all is an absolute necessity. However care must be
taken to avoid overly scripted programmes. Critical to the cultivation of a professionally
responsible leadership disposition rather than capitulation to 'technologies of control ' is
professional renewal cultivated through adequate attention to the Zone of Proximal Distance.
