This is a no-holds-barred account of school leaders' lives and work as they juggle with competing and often conflicting policy initiatives.

Ciaran Sugrue, Professor Ivor Goodson

Introduction, Ivor Goodson Section 1: Passionate Principalship 1. Putting 'Real Life' into School Leadership: Connecting Identities, Leadership and Life History, Ciaran Sugrue Section 2: People in Principalship: Stories of Engaged Selves 2. Sustained Motivation Embedded in Place: Living with Accountability and Mandated Change, Colin Biott and John Spindler 3. Old Metaphors, New Meanings: Being a Woman Principal, Jorunn Møller 4. Memberships and Relationships in a Changing Context, Lejf Moos 5. Creating Continuity through Change: Comfort with Uncertainty, Ciaran Sugrue Section 3: Passionate Principalship: Learning from Life Histories 6. Coping with Accountability - Tensions between Reason and Emotion, Jorunn Møller 7. Regulation and Trust: Negotiating Relationship, Lejf Moos 8. Immediacy and Distance: Inter-generational Professional Learning, John Spindler and Colin Biott 9. Being Principal: Leadership Inside Out, Ciaran Sugrue Section 4: Beyond Passion in Principalship 10. Principalship: Beyond Pleasure, Pain and Passion, Ciaran Sugrue