Start and course of life and professional career of School Headmasters

This theoretical and empirical thesis focuses on career and life paths of headmasters of Czech secondary schools. Its aim is to capture and analyse data about different phases of eadmaster's career: from its early beginnings, throughout critical moments which could influence certain decisions, as whether to stay in the position or leave, up to the discrepancy between individual career expectations and the eventual reality. The theoretical part of the thesis defines terms such as life path, career, headmaster of a secondary school and school management. The research is using the method of a so-called life story, which provides answers to the research questions. Main data was collected using half-structured interviews with individual headmasters and supplementary data was collected using document analyses and managerial testing method GRID. By looking at the results in the thesis, we can observe that life paths and careers of individual headmasters show some common elements, such as family background, which is considered as an important prerequisite that can determine individual performance in this role. As far as gender is concerned, years of experience or legal subjectivity of the school, no significant elements were detected which would have some greater impact on the career or life path itself...