“Where are you from? What is your title? What is your gender?” – middle managers’ intersectional identities in UK universities

Purpose This paper aims to examine how educational leadership identities are constructed and negotiated at the intersection of immigration, academic status, gender, ethnicity, culture and language within UK higher education by giving voice to the non-Western European minority of female middle managers. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a combined narrative and multiple case study approach to gather data from ten participants. To fully explore the complexities of intersectional leadership identity construction, the study adopts a unique four-stage analysis, consisting of thematic, positioning and narrative parts. Findings With gender as a central focus, this study reveals dilemmatic identities that oscillate between resistance to and compliance with institutional and patriarchal discourses, including gender norms, intellectual hierarchies and cultural stereotyping. As middle managers, participants’ identities are further destabilised by institutional neglect, intensified workloads and role uncertainty. Practical implications The findings have implications for policymakers in higher education, middle management, human resources and mentorship within the under-researched field of leadership in Institution-Wide Language Programmes (IWLPs). It makes a compelling case for leadership development in the age of austerity for foreign language education. Originality/value This study makes an original contribution to educational leadership scholarship by revealing the complexities of intersectional identity construction of middle-level leaders in the previously unexplored context of IWLP. The triangulation of feminist poststructuralist, critical race, dilemmatic identity and social role theories adds theoretical value to the study.