This policy implementation study examines the experiences of four elementary school principals using photomethods. We employ Rancière and Merleau-Ponty’s theorizations on democracy and making sense to understand the lived policy experiences of school principals and these individual’s potential for practicing democratic politics. At its heart, implementation by local actors is a political undertaking. Our results indicate implementation is a spatially inhabited practice involving negotiation and strategy, where local actor’s experiences moderate and appropriate policy. Thus, we point out that attention to these spatially inhabited practices requires a fundamental shift in the frameworks and methodologies deployed in the investigation of policy implementation.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the literature on the many dimensions of the principal's positionality by using a unique research approach to link the experiences of the policy implementing principal to embodiment. Design/methodology/approach -The researchers employed a form of critical policy analysis that utilized photovoice to examine the experience of two principals in South Carolina, USA. Findings -The findings suggest that these two principals do feel, beyond a cognitive emotional level, the experiences of being the policy implementing principal, where the multiple physically imprinted identities typified one principal's experiences and the highly entropic world of her high school causes another principal to physically and metaphorically integrate situations into her physiology. Originality/value -In this paper, the authors are able to expand discussions of the principals' engagement with policy by using a unique theoretical and methodological approach.