De-mystifying the 'Cinderella' leadership model: Premia in the practice of curriculum leadership

This qualitative research study explores the concept of curriculum leadership and how it is exercised by a multitude of actors at the school microlevel. Curriculum leadership has been recognised internationally as an under-researched leadership model that has frequently been confused with, and subsumed into, other general leadership models. Applying a multi-site, embedded case study approach within the Irish special school sector, this paper delineates how curriculum leadership is enacted across different positional levels within schools. Data were gathered from sixteen participants ( n = 16), occupying the roles of principal, curriculum coordinator and unpromoted teacher, across three schools ( n = 3). The findings evidenced two curriculum leadership premia that amplified the influence of those teachers in possession of either or both of them. First, principalship, or positional proximity to the principal, provided greater agency in exercising curriculum leadership. Second, the more experience a teacher had, the more professional capital it provided them with in influencing colleagues over how the curriculum should be enacted within the school. This paper provides important insights on how teachers leverage influence at school-level and also elucidates how distributed leadership manifests in relation to the curriculum.