From heroic leadership myth to street-level management: School principals’ experiences of sensemaking and creative insubordination under incomplete autonomy

OpenAlex English

The normative ‘heroic leadership’ discourse positions school principals as transformative visionaries, yet in highly centralised systems this narrative breaks down, giving rise to the twin challenges of ‘incomplete autonomy’ and ‘street-level management’. This phenomenological study examines how 15 principals in Türkiye's centralised education system respond to structural disempowerment: how they make sense of authority gaps and develop creative insubordination practices to keep their schools running. Data were collected through in-depth interviews and analysed using reflexive thematic analysis informed by phenomenological reduction. Three themes emerged: (1) Structural Siege and the Experience of Incomplete Autonomy, (2) Sensemaking and Creative Insubordination Under the Grip of Incomplete Autonomy, and (3) Lack of Psychological Safety and the Bureaucratic Vice. Principals are not passive implementers; when rigid regulations clash with urgent educational needs, they act – moving along a continuum from legitimate discretion to creative insubordination – to prevent schools from grinding to a halt. Yet these informal practices come at a cost: persistent investigation threats generate psychological insecurity and emotional exhaustion; a negative case reveals that relational trust with superiors can transform this adverse climate. When principals bear full accountability yet lack the tools to act, an unsustainable autonomy paradox emerges; reforms placing institutional trust and structural flexibility at their core are essential.