Identity positioning of experienced school principals when facing critical incidents

The study focused on experienced school principals' identity positions when facing critical incidents that arise over the course of a school year with the aim of better understanding their identity positioning. Ultimately, we intended results to inform on training proposals and school principals’ professional identity development. We used a dialogic framework and a longitudinal design to analyze the positioning processes that allowed four experienced school principals to solve the incidents they faced during their regular activity. Results confirm the dynamic nature of identity and suggest that the positive resolution of critical incidents involved interventions from main positions (core positions, promotor positions, and meta-positions) coalitions with prominent secondary positions, and creation of new positions. Such results indicate to what extent dialogue helped principals deal consciously and strategically with the incidents that configure their professional practice and ultimately contribute to the construction of their identities.