Who am I? – Exploring secondary education school leaders’ professional identity

This study explored school leaders’ professional identity by examining the guiding standards school leaders pursue in their jobs and the professional roles they identify themselves with. Using professional roles in school leadership that were formulated in (inter)national frameworks, 36 Dutch school leaders in secondary education provided their identity standards and their professional role identification. Standards were grouped per topic for each professional role. Role identification was visualized and grouped using radar charts. Results showed that in general ‘interactions and interpersonal contact’ formed significant aspects of these school leaders’ professional identities. Identity standards covered all professional roles and were mostly formulated in terms of contact and interaction. School leaders sometimes identified themselves primarily with a specific social or analytical role. Some school leaders identified themselves with multiple professional roles. Additionally, a new role, focusing on performing practical ‘hands on’ tasks, emerged. The identity standards as well as the identification patterns can be used in helping school leaders to gain more insight into their personal leadership preferences and their motivation for certain dimensions in their work and how these relate to specific demands and expectations in the work context.