A headteacher recruitment crisis continues in the primary education sector (Howson & Sprigate, 2011; Rhodes et al., 2008). This research offers a voice for an increasingly marginalised group and synthesises the experiences of 15 primary headteachers, including retired, experienced and new school leaders against the changing educational scenery of four decades. An extended metaphor describing a changing epistemological landscape is utilised (Pascale, 2011), including dramaturgical discourse (Goffman, 1974). The research assesses whether the lived experiences of school leaders evidence a supposed movement away from the ‘freedom’ of the ‘secret garden’ of the pre-National Curriculum era to a time of reducing freedoms for headteachers under a central panoptic gaze (Foucault 1979; Ball 2006) and then to a new ‘supported autonomy’ as suggested by ‘Education Excellence Everywhere’ (DfE, 2016). The thesis assesses the capacity of phenomenological methodology to address the research questions and distinctions are made between approaches to phenomenology. A case is made for ensuring critical rationalism within the methodology and difficulties of attaining ‘epoche’ and ‘phenomenological reduction’ are debated. Findings support the view that there have been significant changes to headship over time. Analysis of these changes does not support the concept of a linear movement from a time of freedom to a landscape defined by Panopticism. The research suggests that a new paradigmatic shift is significantly changing the nature of primary headship with new forms of executive leadership and structures for leadership progression. Recommendations call for a reduction in the frequency of change for school leaders, a simplification of the inspection grading system, provision of clearer pathways to headship and greater support for school leaders as local authority services decline and safeguarding for leaders from the growth of social media abuse. This research offers a unique insight into headship and addresses an identified gap in educational research.

Children's literature often does not hold the same weight in the studies of a culture as its big brother, the novel. However, as children's literature is written by adults, to convey information which is important for a child to learn in order to be a functioning member of that society, it can be analyzed in the same way novels are, to provide insight into the broad sweeping issues that concerned the adults of that era. Nineteenth-century British children's literature in particular reveals the deep-seated preoccupation the British Empire had with its eastern colonies, and shows how England's relationship to those colonies, particularly India, changed throughout the period. Beginning with the writing of Christina Rossetti's The Goblin Market in 1859, touching upon the Alice stories of Lewis Carroll in 1865 and 1871, and finishing with Frances Hodgson Burnett's The Secret Garden published in 1911, I show how these three works of children's fiction mirror the changing attitudes of Britain in regard to her eastern colonies. The orientalism found in these stories is a nuanced orientalism that reflects the pressures of the moment and the changing tide of public opinion.

BRYCE DALE ALLEN, for the Master of Fine Arts degree in Theater, presented on March 30, 2010, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: MANAGING THE MAGIC: TECHNICAL DIRECTION OF THE SECRET GARDEN MAJOR PROFESSOR: Robert Holcombe This project, Managing the Magic: Technical Direction of The Secret Garden, is a detailed description of the process I used as the technical director to help produce the Department of Theater's production of The Secret Garden at Southern Illinois University Carbondale in April 2009. This work is also a study of the artistic collaboration that took place between the design team and me during the execution of the production. Through this project I was able to polish skills that I had learned through careful goal setting and evaluation. Working on The Secret Garden also gave me the opportunity to broaden my experience and develop my strengths as a technical director.

This thesis traces the figure of the idealized child through three of Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's books: Editha's Burglar (1888), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), and The Secret Garden (1911). In all three books Frances Hodgson Burnett introduces child characters who have a nuanced understanding of the world around them that allows them to cure the brokenness in the adult world. Burnett's use of the child figure and of illness as a representation of flaws in society reflected increased focus on these topics in the nineteenth century; they also rose from her belief in mind cure. This thesis examines the source of the curative power each protagonist wields, the impacts of their cure, and what the need for cure says about the larger society and the characters themselves. It also emphasizes how this cure was shaped by the children's gender and socioeconomic status. I argue that throughout all three works Burnett's protagonists take on traits of the idealized child to restore the world to her view of the natural world order. In doing this, Burnett reaffirms traditional family structure, separate spheres ideology, and class hierarchy. / Master of Arts / This thesis traces the figure of the idealized child through three of Frances Hodgson Burnett's children's books: Editha's Burglar (1888), Little Lord Fauntleroy (1886), and The Secret Garden (1911). In all three books Frances Hodgson Burnett introduces child characters who have a nuanced understanding of the world around them that allows them to cure the brokenness in the adult world. Burnett's use of the child figure and of illness as a representation of flaws in society reflected increased focus on these topics in the nineteenth century; they also rose from her belief in mind cure. This thesis examines the source of the curative power each protagonist wields, the impacts of their cure, and what the need for cure says about the larger society and the characters themselves. It also emphasizes how this cure was shaped by the children's gender and socioeconomic status. I argue that throughout all three works Burnett's protagonists take on traits of the idealized child to restore the world to her view of the natural world order. In doing this, Burnett reaffirms traditional family structure, separate spheres ideology, and class hierarchy.