This paper reports upon the perceptions of 23 senior women in Education Queensland on the impact of School-Based Management (SBM) on their ways of leading and on their career opportunities. The women interviewed were all graduates of a Women in Management course run by the Queensland University of Technology. Those women working in primary schools and in secondary schools trialling SBM felt that SBM would legitimize the way they led their schools and provide them with further opportunities to challenge the accepted discourse of educational administration. The women working in secondary schools were sceptical about its introduction. However, almost all the women felt that it would not enhance their future career prospects as the culture and make-up of the central bureaucracy remains masculinized.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Acker, S.
(ed.) (1989) Teachers, Gender and Careers. London: Falmer.
2.
Adler, S.
, Laney, J. and Packer, M. (1993) Managing Women: Feminism and Power in EducationalManagement.Buckingham: Open University Press.
3.
Astin, H.S.
and Leland, C. (1991) Women of Influence Women of Vision: A Cross-Generational Study of Leadership and Social Change. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
4.
Bass, B.M.
and Avolio, B.J. (1994) ‘Shatter the Glass Ceiling: Women may Make Better Managers’, Human Resource Management33(4): 549–560.
5.
Bates, R.
(1983) ‘Educational Administration as an Ideology of Control’, in R. Bates (ed.) Educational Administration and the Management of Knowledge, pp. 8–14. Geelong: Deakin University Press.
6.
Baxter, J.
and Gibson, D. (1990) Double Take: The Links between Paid and Unpaid Work. Canberra: AGPS.
7.
Biklen, S.
(1995) School Work, Gender and the Cultural Construction of Teaching. New York: Teachers College Press.
8.
Bittman, M.
(1991) Juggling Time: How Australian Families Use Time. Canberra: AGPS.
9.
Blackmore, J.
(1993a) ‘“In the Shadow of Men”: The Historical Construction of Educational Administration as a Masculinist Enterprise’, in J. Blackmore and J. Kenway (eds) Gender Matters in Educational Administration,pp. 27–48. London: Falmer.
10.
Blackmore, J. (1993b) Where’s the Level Playing Field? Women and Educational Restructuring, Working paper 96044. Geelong: Deakin Centre for Education and Change, Faculty of Education, Deakin University.
11.
Blackmore, J.
(1996) ‘Doing Emotional Labour in the Education Market Place: Stories from the Field of Women in Management’, Discourse17(3): 337–349.
12.
Brown, G.
and Irby, B. (eds) (1998) Women and Leadership: Creating Balance in Life. New York: Nova Science.
13.
Caldwell, B.
and Spinks, J. (1992) Leading the Self Managing School. London: Falmer
14.
Caldwell, B.
and Spinks, J. (1998) Beyond the Self Managing School. London: Falmer.
15.
Chodorow, N.
and Contratto, S. (1982) ‘The Fantasy of the Perfect Mother’, in B. Thorne and M. Yalom (eds) Rethinking the Family, pp. 54–75. New York: Longman.
16.
Dickinson, J.
(1998) Survey of Women in the Queensland Public Sector Focusing on Career Development.Brisbane: Queensland Government Publications.
17.
Education Queensland
(1997) Education Views6(13). Brisbane: Queensland Department of Education.
Grogan, M.
(1996) Voices of Women Aspiring to the Superintendency. New York: SUNY Press.
20.
Hall, V.
(1996) Dancing on the Ceiling: A Study of Women Managers in Education.London: Chapman.
21.
Hall, V.
(1997) ‘Dusting Off the Phoenix: Gender and Educational Leadership Revisited’, Educational Management and Administration25(3): 309–324.
22.
Kofodimos, J.
(1993) Balancing Act: How Managers Can Integrate Successful Careers andFulfilling Personal Lives. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
23.
Limerick, B.
(1991) Career Opportunities for Teachers in the Queensland Department of Education with Special Reference to the Under-Representation of Women in Senior Management Positions.Brisbane: Queensland Department of Education.
24.
Limerick, B.
(1995) ‘Accommodated Careers: Gendered Paths in Education’, in B. Limerick and B. Lingard (eds) Gender and Changing Educational Management,pp. 68–78. Sydney: Hodder.
25.
Limerick, B.
and Cranston, N. (1998) ‘En/gendering Leadership: Reconceptualising our Understandings’, in L.C. Ehrich and J. Knight (eds) Leadership in Crisis? Restructuring Principled Practice: Essays on Contemporary Educational Leadership, pp. 36–42. Flaxton: Post Press.
26.
Limerick, B.
and Ehrich, L. (1996) The Dilemma of Management Programmes for Women, 2nd edn.Brisbane: Centre for Policy and Leadership Studies, Queensland University of Technology.
27.
Limerick, B.
and Heywood, E. (1993) ‘Training for Women in Management: The Australian Context’, Women in Management Review8(3): 23–30.
28.
Limerick, B.
and Heywood, E. (1994) ‘The Family—Mum, Dad and 2.2 or a “Flexible Ordering of Social Relationships”?’, Journal of Home Economics Institute of Australia1(1): 17–24.
29.
Limerick, B.
, Heywood, E. and Ehrich, L. (1995) ‘Women-Only Management Courses: Are they Appropriate in the 1990s?’, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources33(2): 81–92.
30.
Lingard, B.
(1995) ‘Gendered Policy Making Inside the State’, in B. Limerick and B. Lingard (eds) Gender and Changing Educational Management,pp. 136–149. Sydney: Hodder.
31.
Loden, M.
(1985) Feminine Leadership or How to Succeed in Business Without Becoming One of the Boys.New York: Times Book.
32.
Matthews, J.J.
(1984) Good and Mad Women: The Historical Construction of Femininity in Twentieth Century Australia. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
33.
Mayer, J.
(1943) Max Weber and German Politics. London: Faber & Faber.
34.
McMaster, M.
and Randall, S. (1995) ‘Issues in Changing the Gendered Culture of Educational Organisations’, in B. Limerick and B. Lingard (eds) Gender and Changing Educational Management,pp. 57–66. Sydney: Hodder.
35.
Mohrman, S.A.
, Wohlstetter, P. and Associates (1994) School-Based Management Organizing for High Performance. San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
36.
Newmann, F.
and Wehlage, G. (1995) Successful School Restructuring: A Report to the Public and Educators.Madison: Centre on Organisation and Restructuring of Schools, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
37.
Ozga, J.
and Walker, L. (1995) ‘Women in Educational Management’, in B. Limerick and B. Lingard (eds) Gender and Changing Educational Management,pp. 34–43. Sydney: Hodder.
38.
Russell, R.
(1995) ‘Learning from Survivors: Women Leaders who have Stayed the Course Share their Stories’, in C. Reynolds and B. Young (eds) Women in Leadership in Canadian Education, pp. 127–144. Calgary: Detselig Enterprises.
39.
Shakeshaft, C.
(1989) Women in Educational Administration, 2nd edn.Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
