Pat Thomson is Professor of Education and Director of Research at the School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK. She has worked as a headteacher in disadvantaged schools in South Australia, and has published several books, including Helping Doctoral Students Write and Doing Visual Research with Children and Young People.

"The cover of this book says it all - the impossibilities of leadership within the current education policy regime. Pat Thomson outlines in graphic and sometimes shocking detail the complexities of school headship. The book blows away the complacent niceties of leadership theories in an account of the risks, stresses and dissatisfactions of real leadership in real schools." - Stephen J Ball, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, University of London"Those responsible for principal preparation programs and professional development will benefit from the book’s research related to the stress and satisfaction experienced by principals." -The School Administrator

• 1. Introduction 2. Becoming a head 3. Heads in fiction 4. Heads in management texts 5. Heads and the standards agenda 6. Headship as risky work 7. The difficult work of improving learning 8. Taking a collective position 9. Getting real about school leadership

Pat Thomson is Professor of Education and Director of Research at the School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK. She has worked as a headteacher in disadvantaged schools in South Australia, and has published several books, including Helping Doctoral Students Write and Doing Visual Research with Children and Young People.

"The cover of this book says it all - the impossibilities of leadership within the current education policy regime. Pat Thomson outlines in graphic and sometimes shocking detail the complexities of school headship. The book blows away the complacent niceties of leadership theories in an account of the risks, stresses and dissatisfactions of real leadership in real schools." - Stephen J Ball, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, University of London"Those responsible for principal preparation programs and professional development will benefit from the book’s research related to the stress and satisfaction experienced by principals." -The School Administrator

• 1. Introduction 2. Becoming a head 3. Heads in fiction 4. Heads in management texts 5. Heads and the standards agenda 6. Headship as risky work 7. The difficult work of improving learning 8. Taking a collective position 9. Getting real about school leadership

Pat Thomson is Professor of Education and Director of Research at the School of Education, University of Nottingham, UK. She has worked as a headteacher in disadvantaged schools in South Australia, and has published several books, including Helping Doctoral Students Write and Doing Visual Research with Children and Young People.

"The cover of this book says it all - the impossibilities of leadership within the current education policy regime. Pat Thomson outlines in graphic and sometimes shocking detail the complexities of school headship. The book blows away the complacent niceties of leadership theories in an account of the risks, stresses and dissatisfactions of real leadership in real schools." - Stephen J Ball, Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education, University of London"Those responsible for principal preparation programs and professional development will benefit from the book’s research related to the stress and satisfaction experienced by principals." -The School Administrator

• 1. Introduction 2. Becoming a head 3. Heads in fiction 4. Heads in management texts 5. Heads and the standards agenda 6. Headship as risky work 7. The difficult work of improving learning 8. Taking a collective position 9. Getting real about school leadership