Best lessons in leadership may comefrom 'evil' heads, not Harry Potter

HARRY POTTER'S Dumbledore is a rare exception – fictional head teachers are usually "evil", new research shows.

And only rarely do they have any positive qualities when they can be “wise”, “moral” and even “god-like”.

Now it is suggested that books about schools and headteachers should even be used as part of leadership courses.

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The characteristics of some 19 head teachers – in works by JK Rowling, Roald Dahl and 17 other authors published in the last 35 years – have been dissected by Pat Thomson, of the University of Nottingham.

While the stylised depictions may seem fanciful, she argues that there is more than a grain of truth to the novels’ presentation of the headteacher as the embodiment of power, which can be used for good or ill.

His research found headteachers are frequently portrayed negatively in literature for the young such as the “sadistic, child-hating” Miss Trunchbull of Roald Dahl’s Matilda.

Nine heads were described as either “evil”, “sadistic”, “messianic”, “authoritarian”, “child-hating” and six were “remote” figures of power.

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But only one – Professor Dumbledore of Harry Potter – had positive characteristics.

Many of the books also show power can be used corruptly, according to the research to be presented at a teaching conference this week.

Ms Thomson says that the books’ willingness to encourage children to think about power and relationships may help to make the stories more truthful than many adult discussions.

“Power” is often regarded by real headteachers as a “dirty word” according to Ms Thomson, while serious texts on running schools try to avoid admitting that the main role of a school head is the exercise of power.

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She believes children’s books could be used as part of school leadership courses.

“Children’s stories come clean about head teachers’ work in ways that mainstream educational leadership texts often do not,” she said.

“The implied reader of children’s books is a child who recognises that power can be used wisely and to ethical ends – or not; who understands that pupils can use their individual and collective power to challenge school/headteacher authority; and who sees that the judicial use of power is preferable to symbolic or actual violence.

“By contrast, the implied reader of educational administration texts is arguably someone who prefers to avoid questions about power.”

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