Something lost along the way: changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools

This article considers changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools through the life histories of those who have undertaken leadership roles in the sector over the past 50 years. A case is made for the relevance of life history methods in offering a rich picture of the lived reali...

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Main Author: Mark Smith
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: CELCIS 2015-07-01
Series:Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care
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author Mark Smith
author_facet Mark Smith
author_sort Mark Smith
collection DOAJ
description This article considers changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools through the life histories of those who have undertaken leadership roles in the sector over the past 50 years. A case is made for the relevance of life history methods in offering a rich picture of the lived realities of residential child care over time. The stories are analysed to identify some features of leadership in the schools, locating these within the changing external policy environment. General trends from innovation towards regulation and from personalised towards standardised leadership practices are identified. The article employs wider theoretical insights to offer some evaluative comment on these changes, concluding that the path has not necessarily been one of untrammelled progress and that much of the value base and creativity that characterised earlier expressions of leadership has been lost along the way.
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issn 2976-9353
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publishDate 2015-07-01
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series Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care
spelling doaj-art-e9b1eb74f64e46d2b09f294f77e4a1df2025-08-20T01:58:27ZengCELCISScottish Journal of Residential Child Care2976-93532015-07-0114210.17868/strath.00084878Something lost along the way: changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schoolsMark SmithThis article considers changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools through the life histories of those who have undertaken leadership roles in the sector over the past 50 years. A case is made for the relevance of life history methods in offering a rich picture of the lived realities of residential child care over time. The stories are analysed to identify some features of leadership in the schools, locating these within the changing external policy environment. General trends from innovation towards regulation and from personalised towards standardised leadership practices are identified. The article employs wider theoretical insights to offer some evaluative comment on these changes, concluding that the path has not necessarily been one of untrammelled progress and that much of the value base and creativity that characterised earlier expressions of leadership has been lost along the way.residential schoolsscotlandleadershiplife historiesregulation
spellingShingle Mark Smith
Something lost along the way: changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools
Scottish Journal of Residential Child Care
residential schools
scotland
leadership
life histories
regulation
title Something lost along the way: changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools
title_full Something lost along the way: changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools
title_fullStr Something lost along the way: changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools
title_full_unstemmed Something lost along the way: changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools
title_short Something lost along the way: changing patterns of leadership in Scottish residential schools
title_sort something lost along the way changing patterns of leadership in scottish residential schools
topic residential schools
scotland
leadership
life histories
regulation
work_keys_str_mv AT marksmith somethinglostalongthewaychangingpatternsofleadershipinscottishresidentialschools