Balancing Acts uses life history and ethnography to examine the lives and work of three female elementary school principals and highlights their daily use of personal and professional skills. Smulyan examines the principals' personal backgrounds and its effect on their work within the community they serve, their school, and the historical and social structures which frame their actions and interactions. What emerges is a fascinating personal view of the dilemmas, decisions, and consequences faced by the female principalship.

Lisa Smulyan is Associate Professor of Education at Swarthmore College. She is the coauthor, with Andrew Garrod, Robert Kilkenny, and Sally I. Powers, of Adolescent Portraits: Identity, Relationships and Challenges, and, with Sharon Nodie Oja, of Collaborative Action Research: A Developmental Process.