Purpose. This paper proposes a fresh analytical perspective to investigate how a school principal has initiated and sustained the “positive disruption” of the governance and structures of an inner-city primary school over time. Conceptualisation. The case study is informed by the philosophy of disruption which is deeply concerned with social changes that enhance and transform the practice and experience of everyday life of individuals and their institution (Manu, 2022). The conceptual strengths are twofold. First, the philosophy of disruption invites us to rethink disruptive change as a flowing, dynamic and organic process. As disruption unfolds to reshape the lives of a school organisation, it disturbs its systems, structures, practices and relationships at different levels, and functions as a catalyst for profound transformation in how individuals and teams envision the difference they want to make and how the organisation creates new cultures and structures upon which they operate to realise the new vision. Second, the philosophy redefines school leaders as positive disruptors who influence individuals and teams by challenging their current views and practices about education and by reshaping organisational structures, cultures, and opportunities to enable them to thrive. Methods. The case study has followed the ISSPP’s recently re-modelled research protocols. The team conducted three in-depth interviews with the principal and two in-person interviews with the current principal. We also interviewed three teachers with middle and senior leadership responsibilities, a class teacher, and a lead teaching assistant. Because of the small staff size (n=22), we are unable to present the teacher survey results in this paper. Findings. Success in this school has been an evolving, dynamic and resilient process of change and improvement. Relational capital, leadership capital, and the courage to disturb norms are essential ingredients of the change process. The portrait of a "positive disruptive" leader reveals the prevalence of the personal over the functional as an act of courage to tell vulnerability and create community. Over time the principal successfully transformed external accountability into an internally assumed and then collegially shared value. In this process, disruption of school cultures created, at times, uncertainties, not chaos. As we have showed through Christine’s leadership endeavor to turn around her school, when successful principals disrupt dysfunctional cultures, their vision, values and high expectations for the future of the organization set clear directions for the journey of success, and also, are fundamental to the sustainability of success.

Manu, A. (2022). The Philosophy of Disruption. Bingley, Emerald Publishing.