Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

This article explores how leadership and gender are constructed by women principals of schools located in communities of multiple deprivation in two provinces of South Africa. Analysis of interview data uncovers a hierarchy of goals related to establishing a school, recruiting and retaining learners, ensuring they are ready to learn, developing learning and enhancing their life chances. The pursuit of these goals entails actions which both challenge and sustain gender disadvantage and offer both gains and losses for learners. A highly complex relationship between the material conditions of the school community, gender construction, the South African context and the individual principal’s history and characteristics is suggested. The article concludes that principals are both bound by and challenge the constraints of gender. It also suggests that heroic Anglophone notions of principals turning around schools in communities of multiple deprivation is a process of misrecognition which conceals the reality of the lives and possibilities for both principals and learners in schools in such locations.

Keywords

Administration gender leadership multiple deprivation rural schools South Africa

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Acker

(1995) Carry on caring: The work of women teachers. British Journal of Sociology of Education 16(1): 21–36.

Addi-Raccah

(2002) The feminization of teaching and principalship in the Israeli educational system: A comparative study. Sociology of Education 75(3): 231–248.

Barnes

Wright

Noble

Dawes

(2007) South African Index of Multiple Deprivation for Children. Census 2001. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC Press. Available at: www.hsrcpress.ac.za (accessed 13 August 2013).

Barnes

Noble

Wright

Dawes

(2009) A geographical profile of child deprivation in South Africa. Child Indicators Research 2(2): 181–199. Available at: at http://us-cdn.creamermedia.co.za/assets/articles/attachments/18944_hsrc5645.pdf (accessed 10 October 2013).

Becker

Eagly

(2004) The heroism of women and men. American Psychologist 59(3): 163.

Blackmore

(1996) Doing ‘emotional labour’ in the education market place: Stories from the field of women in management. Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 17(3): 337–349.

Books

Ndlalane

(2011) What the US could learn from South Africa about education and social justice. Educational Foundations 25(1–2): 83–102.

Campbell

MacPhail

(2002) Peer education, gender and the development of critical consciousness: Participatory HIV prevention by South African youth. Social Science and Medicine 55(2): 331–345.

Chisholm

(2001) Gender and leadership in South African educational administration. Gender and Education 13(4): 387–399.

10.

Chisholm

(2004) South Africa’s new education system: Great intentions—harsh realities. In: Nkomo

McKinney

Chisholm

(eds) Reflections on School Integration: Colloquium Proceedings. Cape Town, South Africa: HSRC pp. 143–151.

11.

Chisholm

(2005) The politics of curriculum review and revision in South Africa in regional context. Compare 35(1): 79–100.

12.

Chisholm

Sujee

(2006) Tracking racial desegregation in South African schools. Journal of Education 40: 141–59.

13.

Coleman

Haiyan

Yanping

(1998) Women in educational management in China: Experience in Shaanxi Province. Compare 28(2): 141–154.

14.

Corsun

Costen

(2001) Is the glass ceiling unbreakable? Habitus, fields, and the stalling of women and minorities in management. Journal of Management Inquiry 10(1): 16–25.

15.

Duke

(2004) The turnaround principal: High-stakes leadership. Principal 84(1): 12–23.

16.

Epstein

Morrell

(2012) Approaching southern theory: Explorations of gender in South African education. Gender and Education 24(5): 469–482.

17.

Eurostat (2010) Living conditions in 2008. Eurostat News Release. Brussels, Belgium: European Commission. Available at: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/3-18012010-AP/EN/3-18012010-AP-EN.PDF (accessed 01 October 2013).

18.

Fletcher

(1999) Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work. Boston, MA: MIT Press.

19.

Fletcher

(2004) The paradox of postheroic leadership: An essay on gender, power, and transformational change. Leadership Quarterly 15(5): 647–661.

20.

Fullan

(ed.) (2003) The Moral Imperative of School Leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

21.

Garner

Raudenbush

(1991) Neighborhood effects on educational attainment: A multilevel analysis. Sociology of Education 64(4): 251–262.

22.

Goldstein

(2005) Becoming a teacher as a hero’s journey: Using metaphor in preservice teacher education. Teacher Education Quarterly 32(1): 7–24.

23.

Harris

(2008) Distributed leadership: According to the evidence. Journal of Educational Administration 46(2): 172–188.

24.

Jansen

(1998) Curriculum reform since apartheid: Intersections of policy and practice in the South African transition. Journal of Curriculum Studies 31(1): 57–67.

25.

Jewkesa

Levin

Penn-Kekana

(2003) Gender inequalities, intimate partner violence and HIV preventive practices: Findings of a South African cross-sectional study. Social Science and Medicine 56(1): 125–134. Available at: http://www.africomnet.org/events/practicum/2007/resources/resource1%20(2).pdf (accessed 18 October 2013).

26.

Jones

Cunchillos

Hatcher

Hirtt

Innes

Johusa

Klausenitzer

(2008) Schooling in Western Europe: The New Order and its Adversaries. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan.

27.

Khelan

E K

(2010) Gender logic and (un)doing gender at work. Gender, Work and Organization 17(2): 174–194.

28.

Kotter

(1999) Making change happen, in Hesslebein

Cohen

(eds) Leader to Leader. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

29.

Leithwood

Strauss

(2009) Turnaround schools: Leadership lessons. Education Canada 49(2), 26–29.

30.

Leithwood

Harris

Strauss

(2010) Leading School Turnaround: How Successful Leaders Transform Low-performing Schools. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley and Sons.

31.

Lumby

(2013) Valuing knowledge over action: The example of gender in educational leadership. Gender and Education 25(4): 432–443.

32.

Lumby

Azaola

(2011) Women principals in small schools in South Africa. Australian Journal of Education 55(1): 73–85.

33.

Lumby

Azaola

(2014) Women principals in South Africa: Gender, mothering and leadership. British Educational Research Journal 40(1): 30–44.

34.

Meintjes

Hall

Marera

Boulle

(2010) Orphans of the AIDS epidemic? The extent, nature and circumstances of child-headed households in South Africa. AIDS Care 22(1): 40–49. Available at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2840873/ (accessed 10 October 2013).

35.

Moorosi

(2010) South African female principals’ career paths: Understanding the gender gap in secondary school management. Educational Management Administration and Leadership 38(5): 547–562.

36.

Moorosi

(2014) Constructing a leader’s identity through a leadership development programme: An intersectional analysis. Educational Management Administration and Leadership 42(6): 792–807.

37.

Morphew

Hartley

(2006) Mission statements: A thematic analysis of rhetoric across institutional type. Journal of Higher Education 77(3): 456–471.

38.

National Poverty Centre (2012) Poverty in the United States. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan. Available at: http://npc.umich.edu/poverty/#4 (accessed 11 October 2013).

39.

Ngcobo

Tikly

(2010) Key dimensions of effective leadership for change: A focus on township and rural schools in South Africa. Educational Management Administration and Leadership 38(2): 202–228.

40.

Nicolay

(2006) HIV and AIDS Scenarios for South Africa: 2005–2025. Demographic Projections. Cape Town, South Africa: Metropolitan Holdings. Available at: http://www.livethefuture.co.za/docs/LIFE%20THE%20FUTURE%20-%20Demographic%20Projections.pdfv (accessed 07 January 2014).

41.

Pierce

Bozalek

(2004) Child abuse in South Africa: An examination of how child abuse and neglect are defined. Child Abuse and Neglect 28(8): 817–832.

42.

Polster

(1993) Eve’s Daughter: The Forbidden Heroism of Women. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

43.

Republic of South Africa (1996) Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Act No. 108 of 1996. Pretoria, South Africa: Government Printer.

44.

Ross-Smith

Huppatz

(2010) Management, women and gender capital. Gender, Work and Organization 17(5): 547–566.

45.

School Bag (2013) Providing Opportunities for Every Child to Achieve Full Potential. Available at: http://www.schoolbag.sg/story/providing-opportunities-for-every-child-to-achieve-full-potential (accessed 05 May 2014).

46.

Sherman

(2000) Women managing/managing women the marginalization of female leadership in rural school settings. Educational Management Administration and Leadership 28(2): 133–143.

47.

Smith

(2011) Which in and out of school factors explain variations in learning across different socioeconomic groups? Findings from South Africa. Comparative Education 47(1): 79–102.

48.

Statistics South Africa (2012) General Household Survey 2011. Pretoria, South Africa: Statistics SA.

49.

Thakathi

Lemmer

(2002) Community strategies of women in educational management. South African Journal of Education 22(3): 193–197.

50.

Thrupp

(1999) Schools Making A Difference: School Mix, School Effectiveness, and the Social Limits of Reform. Maidenhead, UK: McGraw-Hill International.

51.

Vandeyar

Killen

(2003) Has curriculum reform in South Africa really changed assessment practices, and what promise does the revised National Curriculum Statement hold? Perspectives in Education 21(1): 119–134. Available at: http://repository.up.ac.za/bitstream/handle/2263/5044/Vandeyar_Has(2003).pdf?sequence=1 (accessed 20 January 2014).

52.

Walker

Stott

(2000) Performance improvement in schools: A case of overdose? Educational Management Administration and Leadership 28(1): 63–76.

53.

Walkerdine

(1986) Progressive pedagogy and political struggle. Screen 27(5): 54–60.

54.

Ward

(2004) Improving Achievement in Low-performing Schools: Key Results for School Leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

55.

West

Zimmerman

(1987) Doing gender. Gender and Society 1(2): 125–151.

56.

Whelan

Layte

Maître

(2002) Multiple deprivation and persistent poverty in the European Union. Journal of European Social Policy 12(2): 91–105.

57.

You

Bastian

Wardlaw

(2013) Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation. Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2013. New York, NY: United Nations Children’s Fund. Available at: http://www.childinfo.org/files/Child_Mortality_Report_2013.pdf (accessed 10 December 2013).

Leading schools in communities of multiple deprivation

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References