Dorothy Heathcote: A Model for Alchemical Leadership

Abstract

This thesis explores the possibility of using a drama in education classroom model of practice, to construct a leadership model that may be used in commercial organisations and in schools. Using a case study approach of the Manx Myth, Mantle of the Expert approach to teaching, devised by the late Dorothy Heathcote the researcher attempts to demonstrate that not only was she an inspirational pedagogue, but that within her work lay seeds of a leadership model which the researcher has named the Alchemical Model of leadership. Data, consisting of two interviews alongside fourteen transcripts was subjected to thematic analysis. The study is concerned with exploring the chronological development of the leadership theory continuum to see where the classroom practice of Dorothy Heathcote may be placed among the recognised models of leadership. The researcher will make the analogy of Dorothy Heathcote as the teacher, leading learners in a constructivist classroom, to leaders leading a workforce in an organisation. Reference throughout is made to the importance of finding a new model of leadership that can contribute to the many changes facing the leading of organisations in the twenty first century.