Chapter 6 Narratives of Embodied Practice
Using Portraiture to Study Leadership
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Abstract
Seeking to develop a theoretical framework to help guide leadership development in post-secondary institutions, we presented common characteristics, models, terms, and dimensions – identified in the literature – to educational leaders at a mid-sized Canadian university. While the research reflected leaders’ experiences in one way or another, it did not resonate with the complexity of their experiences and practice – how they engage and react, even reversing themselves mid-stride in their effort to reach goals, influence people, and inspire change. Leaders’ practices involve highly contextualized tacit knowledge (Janson & McQueen, 2007; Nonaka & Van Krogh, 2009), not easily unearthed using research methods such as questionnaires or structured interviews, or analysis of models and terms.
This chapter explores the use of a form of narrative research called portraiture (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffman Davis, 1997) to explore the situational, relational, and uncertain nature of leadership, uncovering fundamental tensions leaders face. Through storytelling, analysis, and re-storying among a leader and two researchers, we identified a number of thresholds or bottlenecks, ultimately expressing these findings through interwoven first-person narrative and commentary situated within the broader literature, while detailing lessons learned, challenges, and limitations.