Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa [1 ed.] 9781621008972, 9781621008538

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Copyright © 2012. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

Copyright © 2012. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

AFRICAN POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SECURITY ISSUES

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EDUCATION LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA

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Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

AFRICAN POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, AND SECURITY ISSUES

EDUCATION LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA

VITALLIS CHIKOKO Copyright © 2012. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved.

AND

KENNETH MØLBJERG JØRGENSEN EDITORS

Nova Science Publishers, Inc. New York

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

Copyright © 2012 by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means: electronic, electrostatic, magnetic, tape, mechanical photocopying, recording or otherwise without the written permission of the Publisher. For permission to use material from this book please contact us: Telephone 631-231-7269; Fax 631-231-8175 Web Site: http://www.novapublishers.com NOTICE TO THE READER The Publisher has taken reasonable care in the preparation of this book, but makes no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assumes no responsibility for any errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of information contained in this book. The Publisher shall not be liable for any special, consequential, or exemplary damages resulting, in whole or in part, from the readers’ use of, or reliance upon, this material. Any parts of this book based on government reports are so indicated and copyright is claimed for those parts to the extent applicable to compilations of such works.

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Independent verification should be sought for any data, advice or recommendations contained in this book. In addition, no responsibility is assumed by the publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property arising from any methods, products, instructions, ideas or otherwise contained in this publication. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information with regard to the subject matter covered herein. It is sold with the clear understanding that the Publisher is not engaged in rendering legal or any other professional services. If legal or any other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent person should be sought. FROM A DECLARATION OF PARTICIPANTS JOINTLY ADOPTED BY A COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND A COMMITTEE OF PUBLISHERS. Additional color graphics may be available in the e-book version of this book. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Education leadership, management and governance in South Africa / editors, Vitallis Chikoko, Kenneth Mxlbjerg Jxrgensen. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN:  (eBook)

1. Education and state--South Africa. 2. School management and organization--South Africa. 3. Educational leadership--South Africa. 4. Educational change--South Africa. 5. Education-Social aspects--South Africa. I. Chikoko, Vitallis. II. Jxrgensen, Kenneth Mxlbjerg. LC95.S68E37 2011 379.68--dc23 2011040280

Published by Nova Science Publishers, Inc. † New York Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

CONTENTS Preface

vii

Introduction

1 Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen and Vitallis Chikoko

Part One: Organizational Learning

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Chapter 1

A Postcolonial Storytelling Theory of Organizational Learning – Schools as Storytelling Organizations Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen and Anete M. Camille Strand

13 15

Part Two: Leadership and Management of Schools

31

Chapter 2

Leading and Managing Diversity in School Staffrooms Neil Avery

33

Chapter 3

Daring to Lead: The Possibility of Teacher Leadership in Kwazulu-Natal Schools Callie Grant

Chapter 4

What Teachers Understand about the Leadership of Pupils Reginald Dudley Forde and Vitallis Chikoko

Part Three: Gender Issues in Leadership and Management of Schools Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Gender, Educational Leadership and Change: Unsettling the Norms to Achieve Gender Equity Pontso Moorosi Women Managing Change in Zimbabwean Schools Irene Muzvidziwa

Part Four: Policy Implementation Chapter 7

School Principals’ Experiences of Policy-Practice Interplay at School Level: Perspectives from Schools Inkwazulu-Natal Thamsanqa Thulani Bhengu

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

51 69 105 107 125 143

145

vi Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Contents Policy on Educator Post Provisioning in Public Schools: A Critique of the South African Experience Inbanathan Naicker

163

Principals Influencing Education Policy Practice: A Case Study of Two Schools Sibusiso Douglas Bayeni

179

Part Five: School Governance

195

Chapter 10

Learner Involvement in School Governance: Where Are We? Vitallis Chikoko and Mangi Magadla

197

Chapter 11

School-Community Relations as a Case for School Governance Support in Rural Kwazulu-Natal Sandile S. Mbokazi

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Index

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

211 227

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PREFACE This book is useful to many consumers including teachers, school managers, education officials, students of Education Leadership, Management and Governance, academics and researchers. The book seeks to contribute some knowledge to South Africa’s transformation agenda in terms of how education is led, managed and governed. The book provides insights into education leadership, management and governance that the authors believe are useful in other education contexts of today’s global village. Whatever a society seeks to achieve, education would be one of the major instruments if not the most crucial in that regard. The book is couched in the post-apartheid education era in South Africa, characterised among others, by struggles to turn around dysfunctional schools, efforts to redress past inequalities such as gender, race etc and embrace and grow diversity in school staffrooms and classrooms, efforts to widen the ownership of the running of schools through greater involvement of learners, parents and other stakeholders. But if education is to contribute to societal transformation then it must be led and managed well. In the authors’ view, good governance is the missing link towards societal development, including education in most parts of the developing world. This book seeks to contribute knowledge towards improving the running of education in South Africa. The book includes a guest chapter on women in Education Management in one of South Africa’s neighbours-Zimbabwe. The book is made up of five important thematic areas: Organisational Learning; Leadership and Management of Schools; Gender; Policy Implementation; and School Governance. In Organisational Learning the authors contribute what they believe is a creative framework towards understanding schools as organisations. In the Leadership and Management theme the authors focus on the teacher and report on how teachers understand their role as leaders as well as how teacher leadership can be understood and promoted. The authors also examine how diversity can be promoted and celebrated in South African Schools. In the Gender theme the authors contribute both theoretical and empirical evidence regarding challenges and opportunities of achieving gender equity in education. South Africa’s education transformation agenda is incomplete without debates around policy implementation. In this book the authors provide a critique of the implementation of one South African education policy as well as discuss empirical evidence of school principals’ roles in policy implementation. In the School Governance theme, the authors examine the role of the usually marginalised-the learner and the community.

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

Copyright © 2012. Nova Science Publishers, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

INTRODUCTION Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen1 and Vitallis Chikoko2 1

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2

Aalborg University University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

This book contains chapters on education leadership, management and governance in South African schools. It also includes a chapter on gender issues in Zimbabwean schools. We have been committed to crafting this book for many reasons. It has been fifteen years since a new Constitution emerged in South Africa,which,recognizing the injustices of the past, built on fundamental human rights and justice for all regardless of race, ethnicity, and economic power. We witnessed the emergence of a new democratic and open society where every citizen was equally protected by the law. Since then, South Africa has moved a long way towards developing a fully democratic society. This book reflects this process and is the result of a collaborative effort of people with diverse cultural, social and ethnic roots, who share a common belief in the development of a just and equal society, and who share a specific interest in developing schools as a fundamental element in developing such a democratic society. However, there are many problems evident in developing a democratic society that works in a satisfactory manner. We still observe a lot of poverty, and subsequent crime in South African society. There are many dysfunctions in the education system and in schools, and there are great problems in producing the kind of basic skills that are so important in getting a democracy to work. Seen retrospectively, the initial expectations following the new constitution for a rapid resolution to suchproblems were probably too high, since the institutional structures, knowledge and skills that are required to build and run a modern society were absent. Furthermore, South Africa had to learn to find its own feet since its particularsocio-historical conditions are very different to most other so-called modern societies. We believe, however, that the challenges we see in South Africa today are not, in principle, so very different from the challenges that we see in other modern societies. It is important to note that we use the term “in principle” because the challenges are pushed to the extreme in the South African case. Here the vulnerable, young and emerging democracy has been founded and developed upon and across enormous social, economic, religious, cultural and ethnic differences. These differences must however never be accepted as an absolute truth in the sense of accepting that for black, white and coloured people are necessarily different. Michel Foucault

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has shown us that the truth and justice regimes of a particular society are not givens; they are the results of what he calls particular discursive practices. If one accepts Foucault’s key insights, it follows that categories such as black, white, coloured, and so on, and the assigned identity characteristics, are cultural products that have been created through a long complex history of interactions between institutions, economic and social circumstances, discourses, and material conditions (e.g. Jørgensen, 2007). When race, for example,supposedly made a difference this is because particular relations of power that were embedded in dominant discursive practices framed it this way, and it is definitively not because of particular essentialist characteristics related to being black, white or coloured. We will explore the writings of Michel Foucault a little more here, because he is important in assisting us in contextualizing thisentire book on leadership, management and governance. In some of Foucault’slectures he uses the term governmentality (Foucault, 2003) to describe the practices that modern societies use to try to lead, govern and control its citizens towards some desired ends and goals. Mitchell Dean (2008) notes that an analysis of governmentality is concerned with the qualitative and quantitative means of calculation, the authorities or actors of governance, the knowledge forms, techniques and other means that are used to govern specific objects. In this case the term “objects” refers to citizens. More specifically, Dean (2008: 61) argues that an analytics of governmentality focuses on four dimensions. 1) Certain ways of observing, seeing and knowing things. 2) Certain ways of thinking and asking based on certain concepts and procedures for the production of truth (that is, those that are delivered by the human, social and behavioural sciences). 3) Certain ways of acting, intervening and controlling, that are based on certain form of practical rationality (“expertise and know-how”) and which are founded on certain mechanisms, techniques and technologies. 4) Certain ways of constructing subjects, selves, identities, individuals or actors. Discursive practices do not just comprise linguistic dimensions such as talk and speech but are embedded in a complex apparatus of governance, which is inscribed “…in social institutions, in economic inequalities, in language, in the bodies of individuals” (Foucault, 2003: 16); and these produce what we know, how we know, and what we considerto betrue and just. To put it succinctly, power is embedded in the norms and standards for how we know, judge and value events, things and other people. Science also comprises sets of discursive practices for approaching, defining and solving problems in real life. There are many different types that can be applied under the heading of governmentality, the term used in this book for how modern societies try to lead, govern and control its citizens. Governmentality captures a diversity of rational practices and techniques that are put into use in running a country towards some end goals. Furthermore,governmentality can be described as a kind of instrumental rationality in the sense that citizens are treated as objects that can be manipulated and led in specific directions. Yet these practices are absolutely fundamental for running modern societies. This is the paradox of modern democratic society. In order to make democracy work,hence guaranteeing the freedom of its citizens a huge diversity of rational practices and techniques are put to work to regulate, govern and control. This is characteristic of even the most neoliberal

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Introduction

3

societies like USA and UK, and of the relatively well-functioning, if more social democratic, democracies in Europe,which are heavily institutionalized and organized. As such it can be argued that the creation of a well-functioning democracy in South Africaalso requires the build-up of such governmental practices. It requires building up organizational and institutional infrastructures, and it requires knowledge, expertise and know-how at all levels in order for South African citizens to participate in, mould, and develop such democracy. However, a well-functioning democracy not only requires organizational knowledge and other kinds of human capital; it also requires growth in the moral self-awareness of its citizens to become independent intentional actors with the right and duty to participate in the development of democracy as well as recognizing others’ rights and duties to also participate. This is yet another paradox of well-functioning democracies. It requires the build up of a huge diversity of rational practices and techniques, and is simultaneously dependent upon developing the independent thinking that might contradict, resist and change these governance regimes. The darkest experience of a governmentality regime, the Nazi-regime illuminates why. It used what Dean refers to as an authoritarian governmentality regime and was based on the total obedience of its citizens. This is a third paradox of democratic society. In order to build up a well-functioning democracy, the state apparatus has to ensure the growth of independent thinking; to protect its citizens from possible abuses, again paradoxicially, of the state itself. We will delve a little bit more into authoritarian governmentality and the Nazi-regime because it has some implications for understanding some of the major problems that we see in South Africa today. Zygmunt Bauman’s (1994) analysis of the Holocaust is an example of a governmentality regime, which was based on bio-political racism (Dean, 2008). Apartheid suggests somefamily resemblance, in Wittgenstein’s sense (Wittgenstein, 1983), to such authoritarian governmentality although it is definitely not the intention in any way to claim here that Apartheid was equivalent to the Nazi regime. It is only to say that some of the governmentality practices that were employed by the Nazi-regimehave some resemblance to what happened during Apartheid. The disturbing point made by Bauman is that the Holocaust was planned and carried through in our modern, rational society, at the height of our civilization and at the peak of our human and cultural performances and it is for this reason that holocaust constitutes a problem for modern society (Bauman, 1994: 11). As such holocaust was endogenous to the instrumental rationalization processes that characterises modern society rather than it was the result of an abstract psychological, social or political pathology (Dean, 2008: 231). And one of the important lessons we can learn in relation to Apartheid is the way Holocaust according to Bauman relied on the separation, isolation and concentration of particular people - the Jews - from the social sphere before extermination because otherwise Holocaust would not have been possible because of the ways morality works in ordinary everyday practice. As such the processes of socialization in Nazi-Germany consisted in a manipulation of the fundamental moral ability, not the production of it (1994: 235). Bauman argues, that morality is always pre-social and it is, therefore, not fundamentally socially constructed. Bauman refers to Levinas, who has argued that to be with other people – a fundamental characteristic of human being – implies first and foremost responsibility. I become responsible when the other looks at me without even having taken this responsibility. Responsibility is the only form in which the other exists for me – in the modus of his presence (Bauman, 1994: 240). And most importantly, responsibility is unconditional and

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Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen and Vitallis Chikoko

unlimited. It is independent of any prior knowledge of the subject or the object. Responsibility is thus a fundamental human characteristic. To establish oneself as a subject means to become responsible. The implicationis that morality becomes the primary structure of the inter-subjective relation and it is independent of own interests, utility calculations, and rational decision-making (1994: 241). Bauman thus concludes that what made Holocaust possible was that this basic moral responsibility was put out of force; it was neutralized into indifference. And the means to do this was the isolation, concentration and exclusion of one particular group from the rest of society. This is because responsibility requires presence and day-to-day interactions through which we come to know others as humans who are like me and who have similar commitments, interests and feelings. And it is here that we see the resemblance to Apartheid because this apparatus of governance worked – as the name indicates – through severing the bonds between people. This severing was made possible and legitimized through discursive practices that proclaimed essential differences between people of different races and ethnic origins. The end result was that social spheres were cut off from each other. We can discuss whether Apartheid is to blame because it can be argued that separation had begun long before the term Apartheid became official policy. But we will not go into this discussion in any great substantive detail but rather take Apartheid as the symbol of separation. In any case the Apartheid policy did amplify separation and hindered integration to a very large degree. The separation produced a widespread moral insensitivity within large sections of the population to people of a different race, and it congealed and materialized itself in huge differences in language, in bodies, in human capital, in institutions and in the distribution of economic wealth. The results are stigma, prejudice, lack of a shared culture and language and an impoverishment of large part of the population in terms of economic and human capital. These are some of most important problems that we see in South Africa today. They are the legacy of apartheid upon which a new democratic society has emerged, and a long recovery process is required. Based on the points above it is no real surprise that it has taken a long time to get here and that there is still a long way to go in achieving a democratic and just society. The chapters in this book comprise just one small step in the achievement of this democratic and just society. They focus on what we may call the micro-politics of one particular sphere in South African society; namely the educational systems and in particular the governance and leadership of schools. They share a common theme in touching some way or another on the relations between governance, educational leadership and school development. In this way it is related to governmentality in that governmentality analysis is directed not only towards practices of state governance but also practices of self-governance. Dean (2008: 46) notes that to analyse governance is to analyse those practices that seek to configure, mobilise and operate through individuals’ or groups’ choices wishes, hopes, needs and life styles. It is a perspective that combines questions of governance, politics and administration with questions of identity, self and the individual. Thus it combines an interest in governance and politics with what goes on in local communities and schools in terms of leadership and management. Considering governmentality as a guiding frame of reference here, the chapters invite us to consider and critically examine the relations between politics and what goes on in the local schools. This means also that we recognize that the relations between state governance and local school development are complex and often un-predictable. We do not find this point to be a problem in itself. Rather it is a result that power is not localized in one place – for

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

Introduction

5

example with the state or with the politicians. Rather, power is distributed in networks of alliances, institutions, languages and bodies. All actors participate in a political game from their position as legislators, politicians, principals, teachers, learners, parents and other groups in and around the schools (e.g. Jørgensen, 2007) and they participate from their position in very diverse socio-political contexts. It is the outcome of these complex interactions that ultimately determine what goes on in schools. This leads to a second shared ideological starting point of the group of authors in this book. We emphasize the importance of capacity building in the local schools in order to carry out educational policies. This demands an emphasis on leadership development, teacher development and organizational development. This accentuates a third point, which we call multiplicity. Our conception of power implies a focus on the multiple voices that are important in relation to school development. With multiplicity, we draw attention to the normative implications such as emphasizing inclusiveness and broad participation. Multiplicity and inclusiveness is important in any true democracy and obviously one of the other important counterweights against a potential development of a more totalitarian regime of governmentality. Finally, we return to one other key point, noted above, which is the importance of critical independent thinking. Critical citizenship is for us one of the cornerstones in practicing democracy no matter if we are talking about administrators, principals, teachers, school governing boards etc. Critical citizenship implies that actors gain an independent reflective and reflexive relationship to the activities in which they participate and that they thus gaina growing awareness of themselves as actors who participate actively in the development of their own society.

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STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF THE BOOK The chapters in the book contribute to the debates and discussions about practicing democracy in relation to school leadership and management. They touch on many different themes and issues in relation to governmentality by focussing on issues that are critical to the transformation agenda of democratic South Africa. These issues include organizational learning, leadership and management of schools, gender issues, policy implementation, and school governance. The chapters have different purposes. Some of the chapters have more analytical purposes and analyse the local experiences in regard to for example policy implementation or teachers’ perceptions of learners. Other chapters are more action-oriented in proposing models and guidelines for leadership and organizational development at the local levels. It is however important that the chapters should be seen as enabling debate about the relations between governance, leadership and management of schools. The chapters should enable a critical dialogue between the administrative levels and local schools. As the chapters indicate, there are many things that need further scrutiny and attention. We do not want to point fingers at anybody; in some sense nobody is to blame, or you can say that everybody is to blame. The point is that the problems are the results of complex interplays between many different actors located in different socio-political contexts.These contexts give very different conditions for framing intentions and for playing the game of educational leadership and management. Mapping the politics of problem is not to assign guilt or blame but to create an empathetic and open attitude and understanding of other peoples’ situations and perceptions.

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen and Vitallis Chikoko

And we believe that this is a basic condition for enabling and developing sustainable solutions in South African schools. We will briefly introduce the chapters below, and we have organized them into the following thematic areas: (1) organizational learning, (2) leadership and management of schools, (3) gender issues in leadership and management, (4) policy implementation, and finally (5) school governance. Note that this thematic organization is very overlapping due to the holographic nature of what takes place in South African schools.

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ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING In the chapter A postcolonial storytelling theory of organizational learning – schools as storytelling organizations, Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensenand Anete M. Camille Strand presents an overall framework for understanding school development. They use the concept of story for the reason that they wish to build up an alternative understanding of organizational learning that takes into account the multiple, diverse cultures and identities that are embedded and differentiated everyday in South African school life. The term story implies finding other ways for pedagogical and organizational development than the dominant ones in current rational Western-like ways of thinking about leadership and management in organizations and in schools. The framework consists of three steps. First, it presents and discusses the notion of story and its implications in regard to looking at schools as storytelling organizations. Then an organizational learning approach is sketched based on the notion of story. This includes a presentation of a model for strategic school development and description of some principles for making such a model work. This is followed by some concrete guidelines for organizational learning where storytelling is linked to problem-based learning. We have chosen to put this as the opening chapter of the book because it provides a general theoretical framework for understanding school development in an organizational context. The following chapters can be seen as providing more specific analyses and writings of the specific situation in South African schools.

LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS This second theme comprises three chapters, which are related to a leadership understanding of school development. Effective school leadership is often viewed as the ‘missing link’ in South Africa’s efforts to make schools more functional and productive. This theme is thus central for the capacity building and multiplicity that were identified in our discussion on the relationship between policy and practices in schools. Further it takes a distributive understanding of leadership in the sense that leadership is not viewed as the preserve of those in positions of decision making such as school principals and heads of department. Instead, leadership should be distributed across school structures. The term ‘leadership’ is however very complex and multi-faceted. The chapters in this book explore issues of leadership in relation to the role of the teacher. One of the key points is that leadership alone does not do it without attending to the management practices, which refer to daily routines, systems and procedures for running schools.

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Introduction

7

In the chapter Leading and managing diversity in school staffrooms, Neil Avery arguesfor a new approach to the leadership and management of diversity in South African school staffrooms. He offers a critique of rationalism as a conceptual lens for framing debate on issues of diversity. He suggests instead a more critical, integrated approach, which aligns and links Communities of Practice, a Capabilities Approach and Distributed Leadership /Teacher Leadership models. He also describes a Transformative Diversity Discourse, which helps clarify the suggested direction of change. He draws on his experience of working with schools and locates the argument within the context of change envisaged by policy. Finally he calls on school leaders, managers, teachers and others with an interest in matters of diversity to engage critically and reflexively on their practice. This is followed by the chapter Daring to lead: the possibility of teacher leadership in KwaZulu-Natal school. Here Callie Grant discusses the term teacher leadership as a form of distributed leadership in South African schools. She introduces the concepts of ‘education leadership’ and ‘education management’ and she explores the relationship between the two. She argues that an understanding of these concepts is critical to any discussion of teacher leadership because the leadership of teachers is but one dimension of the practice of leadership and because the processes of leadership and management need to work in tandem to be effective. Working from this understanding, she moves on to examine the literature on the change agency role of teacher leadership. Thereafter, she briefly sketches a study of teacher leadership. She then posits a model of teacher leadership and discusses the possibilities of teacher leadership according to zones, roles and indicators. Thereafter, two pre-requisites that are necessary for the development of teacher leadership are suggested and their implications for practice are determined. In the chapter What teachers understand about leadership of pupils, Reginald Dudley Forde and Vitallis Chikoko record the findings of a recent doctoral study into teacher leadership in the classroom. They pay particular attention to teacher understandings of that concept. They recognize that the practice of leadership is complex, ubiquitous and enigmatic. They initially discuss this practice with reference to current definitions and understanding. They find that the large majority of the study respondents were not aware of the legislated requirement that they should be leaders. Nor did they recognise any significant training to prepare them for that role.However, the teachers indicated significant understanding of teacher leadership in action. More specifically, seven aspects are drawn out that displayed teachers ‘being’ leaders. These aspects included role modelling, the vital importance of values, the place of emotional intelligence, being a person who serves, a person who stimulates intellect, a person of passion and energy, and being ‘surgent’. The ability to relate to others was recognised as involving communication, networking, touching people’s hearts, and building and maintaining inter-personal relationships. Further, it introduces certain ‘soft’ attributes such as care, compassion, trust and love into the teacher leadership mix.

GENDER ISSUES IN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT The third theme relates to critical gender issues in leadership and management of schools. Apart from racial inequalities inherited from the Apartheid era, South Africa also suffered severe gender disparities for many years in society in general and in education in particular.

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Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen and Vitallis Chikoko

To illustrate, men have occupied most positions of authority in both government and private sector for a long time. Although the situation has drastically changed most schools are headed by male principals despite that the majority of the teaching force consists of women. But gender issues are not simply about men and women. This book provides both theoretical and empirical evidence regarding cutting-edge gender issues in education. Although the book is mainly about South Africa, the book provides for some comparative experience to the reader through a chapter on women school managers in Zimbabwe. The section comprises two chapters. In the first chapter, Gender, educational leadership and change: Unsettling the norms to achieve gender equity, Pontso Moorosi uses a gender and organisational change framework to analyse gender and educational leadership and management in South Africa. She draws on Ely and Meyerson’s (2000) framework, which is based on the idea that gender inequity in leadership continues to exist because gender is framed on traditional regimes that link gender to sex-role socialisation. This conceptualisation of gender accepts the status quo as normal and fails to question and change the deeply entrenched gendered social practices and the divisions of labour that lead to gender inequity. The framework suggests a non-conventional approach to gender conceptualization to challenge these gendered practices. She uses case studies of women principals to illustrate how the suggested approach could work in the South African context. The suggested approach proposes strategies that question the ways schools operate; ways that appear gender neutral on the surface but impact differently on women and men and perpetuate gender inequity. This is followed by the chapter Women managing change in Zimbabwean schools, where Irene Muzvidziwa highlights some of the issues that are taken for-granted in educational leadership and management, where leadership previously has been perceived in masculine terms. She examines notions of gender, culture and the impact of management theory in light of the empirical research done on women primary school heads’ experiences as educational leaders within the Zimbabwean context. She employs a qualitative phenomenological approach to investigate the lived experiences of the women school heads as they ventured into domains that were predominantly male. Her purpose is to find out how the women heads approached leadership, especially during the times when schools were going through restructuring and were facing economic challenges. She finds that leadership cannot be conceived in gender-neutral terms. Drawing on the women’s experiences, the chapter illuminates how change in schools was managed, the challenges that were faced and how those challenges were addressed. Creativity, innovation and nurturance as a form of empowerment of subordinates were identified as important in the process of leading schools.

POLICY IMPLEMENTATION This fourth section is specifically concerned with policy implementation and thus the practicing of policy in new democratic South Africa. The advent of democracy came with the need for the crafting and implementation of new education policies to guide a new type of education for all regardless of race, gender, political affiliation, socio-economic status, etc. Because many practices have had to be changed, and because human resource capacity was low, policies have not always been adequately understood. Other policies have not served the

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purposes for which they were intended. There is therefore a huge interest about education policy implementation. This book contributes some insights in this regard. The section comprises three chapters. In the chapter School principals’ experiences of policy-practice interplay at school level: Perspectives from schools in KwaZulu-Natal, Thamsanqa Thulani Bhengu explores how school principals in rural communities implement government policies where they have to balance between being mindful of national imperatives and accountabilities on one hand and local expectations at the other hand. He uses data from a small-scale qualitative study in five primary and secondary schools to analyse leadership styles. Findings show that to respond to new realities, principals used mainly three leadership styles, which I call ‘Open-participatory’, ‘Authoritative-participatory and Closed-participatory’ leadership. Findings indicate that none of the three typologies demonstrated superiority in terms of school effectiveness or learner performance. Subsequently the chapter concludes that none of the three typologies yields better results in terms of learner outcomes. What is evident though is that open-participatory leadership has goodpotential to contribute to various aspects of leadership and management. In the chapter Policy on educator post provisioning in public Schools: A critique of the South African experience, Inbanathan Naicker examines educator post provisioning in post apartheid South Africa. He maps the legislative mandates that inform funding of educator posts and he examines the ideological underpinnings of policy on educator post provisioning. The policies and processes in the distribution of educator posts within a province as well as the resource allocation model termed the post-provisioning model are critically reflected upon. The link between educator post provisioning and learner-educator ratios is also examined in some detail. The chapter ends with a critical account of the implementation of the post provisioning norm at school sites. Finally, in the chapter The principals’ influence on education policy practices: A case study of two schools, Sibusiso Douglas Bayeni deals with policy implementation in schools. He argues that policy implementation is fraught with several contestations and disputes among key stakeholders, which emanate from different political agendas. He argues also that although principals may not have contributed to these contestations, they are eventually accountable for the things that go wrong in the schools. He draws on interviews with two school principals on how they made decisions in the midst of disputes. More specifically, he examines how school principals’ powers play out in influencing the process of decisionmaking in schools in the midst of disputes. Second, he documents the school principals’ understandings of exercising their powers on the staff to ensure that ‘proper and right’ decisions are made. He finds that principals emphasized different strategies and leadership styles to persuade teachers to follow their instructions.

SCHOOL GOVERNANCE The fifth and final section of the book is concerned with school governance. In its agenda to democratise society in its entirety, South Africa increased the participation of various stakeholders such as teachers, school principals, parents, learners (in the case of secondary schools) and other co-opted community members in the making of decisions about the governance of schools. This move has been successfulin achieving a decentralisation of

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school decision making to the school level. This book contributes knowledge about the efficacy of participatory decision making in school governance. The theme comprises three chapters. In the chapter Learning involvement in school governance: where are we?, Vitallis Chikoko and Mangi Magadla are concerned with the effort to democratise school governance and improve school effectiveness. They are especially concerned with School Governing Bodies (SGB) and the learner representation in these bodies. They simply ask, where we are in the debate by presenting and examining interview responses from learners, parent school governors, school principals and teachers (all SGB members) from four secondary schools near Durban regarding three issues: learners’ understanding of their school governance role; the extent of learner participation in school governance; and the challenges learners face in school governance. They find that teachers, school principals and parent school governors generally view learner involvement in school governance as inconsequential and fraught with many challenges. They find that power plays an important role in determining the way stakeholders view learner participation. They conclude that meaningful learner involvement in the SGB is ideal but it still seems as if it is far from being achieved. Schools need to become learning organisations to be able to see learners as an asset in the SGB as opposed to a liability. In this regard, the importance of effective school leadership cannot be overemphasised. In the chapter School-community relations as a case for school governance support in rural KwaZulu-Natal, Sandile S. MBokazi is concerned with the relationship between schools and their surrounding communities. He argues that schools are embedded in society and can therefore be seen as important educational structures that serve communities in which they are located. It is argued however, that this is not always so. In a number of instances an unhealthy relationship between schools and their communities exists, which often leads to poor governance of schools. The chapter demonstrates some of the current experiences of school governance in rural communities, using three examples within KwaZulu-Natal context. The realities of school governance are presented in vignettes, to demonstrate how selected school-communities have experienced the influence of traditional leadership on school governance. A case is made for the important role that school-community relations can play in promoting effective school governance in KwaZulu-Natal. Then some recommenddations are made on what can be done to support school governance in rural schools in terms of aligning policy and practice.

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REFERENCES

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Bauman, Z. (1994). Modernitet og holocaust. København: Hans Reitzels Forlag. Translated from Bauman, Z., 1989, Modernity and the Holocaust. Cambridge: Polity Press. Dean, M. (2008). Governmentality – Magt og styring i det moderne samfund. Frederiksberg: Forlaget Sociologi. Translated from Dean, M., 1999. Governmentality – Power and rule in modern society. London: Sage. Ely, R. J. & Meyerson, D. E. (2000) Theories of Gender in Organisations: A new Approach to Organisational Analysis and Change. Research in Organisational Behaviour. 22: 103151. Foucault, M. (2003). Society must be defended – Lectures at the Collège of France. London: Allen Lane. Jørgensen, K. M. (2007). Power without glory – A genealogy of a management decision. Copenhagen: CBS Press. Wittgenstein, L. (1983). Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

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PART ONE

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ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING

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In: Education Leadership, Management and Governance … ISBN 978-1-62100-853-8 Editors: V. Chikoko and K. M. Jorgesen © 2012 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 1

A POSTCOLONIAL STORYTELLING THEORY OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING – SCHOOLS AS STORYTELLING ORGANIZATIONS Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen1 and Anete M. Camille Strand2 1

Department of Learning and Philosophy, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, Denmark 2 Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg East, Denmark

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ABSTRACT This chapter presents a postcolonial storytelling theory of organizational learning. ‘Living Story’ is used as the central concept to develop an alternative understanding of organizational learning. This understanding takes into account the multiple, diverse cultures and identities that are embedded and differentiated in the multiplicity of stories that are configured, created and materialized every day in South African schools. The chapter consists of three sections. First, the notion of living story and its implications in regard to viewing schools as storytelling organizations are presented and discussed. Then the overall principles of an organizational learning approach that is based on the notion of story are developed. This is followed by a description of some more concrete guidelines for organizational learning where the storytelling approach is linked to problem-based learning.

INTRODUCTION The chapter presents a postcolonial storytelling theory of organizational learning that is applied in relation to school development in South Africa. The concepts of living story and 1 2

Fibigerstræde 10, DK-9220 Aalborg East, Denmark. Phone: +4530623009 , E-mail: [email protected] Kroghstræde 3, DK-9220 Aalborg East, Denmark. Phone: + 51719587, E-mail: [email protected]

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Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen and Anete M. Camille Strand

storytelling are used to build up an alternative understanding of organizational learning that takes into account the multiple, diverse cultures and identities that are embedded and differentiated in everyday school life. These cultures and identities are differentiated in terms of race, language, religion, economy,and a number of other aspects and they become visible in the stories that are configured, created and materialized every day in South African schools. Story is highly relevant because it implies finding other ways for pedagogical and organizational development than those dominant in current rational Western-like ways of thinking about leadership and management in both organizations and schools. Stories are important because they are memory sources that are important for both the internal cohesion and dynamics of a particular community (Benjamin, 1999; Tally, 2001). In Tally’s analysis of the Afro-American storyteller Toni Morrison’s writing, she notes that Morrison’s work “… is at once homage to a cultural background whose values have been communicated for thousands of years through an oral tradition and a firm belief that these stories are vital for the preservation of her tradition as well as a force for positive changes in pervasive attitudes that have been pernicious for her people” (Tally, 2001: 17). For Morrison, storytelling is the means of the oppressed and it is opposed to rationalist discourse that is referred to as dead language that thwarts the intellect and suppresses human potential. Such “…oppressive language does more than represent violence; it is violence; does more than represents the limits of knowledge; it limits knowledge” (Morrison in Tally, 2001: 17). Stories are the means of the oppressed through their ability to create and sustain alternative visions and other realities (Tally, 2001: 18). When a school is seen as a storytelling organization, it means that it is configured through a mutual relationship with local stories and identities in such a way that school and pedagogical development are nurtured from these stories instead of being opposed to them, and in such a way that the stories created through school and pedagogical development create and sustain alternative possibilities and other realities for both teachers and students instead of them being submitted to a rationalist oppressive discourse that was never their own in the first place. The chapter is organized in three sections. First, the notion of living story is presented and discussed and then some implications are teased out of viewing schools as storytelling organizations. Then the overall principles of an organizational learning approach that is based on the notion of living story are described and discussed. This includes a presentation of a model for strategic school development and a description of some principles for making such a model work. Finally some more concrete guidelines for organizational learning are described where the storytelling approach is linked to problem-based learning.

LIVING STORY As noted, the concept of story is highly relevant for organizational learning because stories are viewed as important memory sources for the configuration of individual and collective identities. Boje (1991) notes that in storytelling, experiences are recounted socially to formulate lessons that serve as precedents for individual assumptions, decisions, and actions. Similarly, Sims (1999) has argued that experience has little value if it not fused with stories. The link to memory and identity is a central argument for using story as an alternative

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entry into working with organizational learning. But before we go on we have a word of caution about the use of the terms story and storytelling. In this chapter story is used in an ontological sense. This means that story describes something essential about how we create meaning and how we know and come to know particular things. Stories are inherent in how we talk and act in everyday life. It is not a special literary or artistic genre such as when we ask people to tell a good story. Story is not a prepared performance (e.g. Taptiklis, 2010: 110). It is a spontaneous performance that occurs with other people in specific materialdiscursive circumstancesaswill be made clearer later. Accordingly, humans perform stories all the time as a central part of who they are and what they do; they are homonarrans by nature (Tally, 2001: 13). Storytelling theory is a theory about what people do together, how they experience the world,and what governs what people do and experience. So what are the characteristics of story?Walter Benjamin argued that an orientation towards practical interests is characteristic of many born storytellers (1999: 86). The storyteller finds her source of inspiration in the practices of everyday life; in the seemingly lowly, pitiful, dull and grey practices of everyday life. Benjamin thus links storytelling directly to practical activities. We would go a step further and argue that what goes on in these practices of everyday life is living stories at work (e.g. Jørgensen and Boje, 2010). Living story comes from Derrida’s notion of story,which accordingly has no borderlines. Story is at once larger and smaller than itself, entangled in a play with other stories, becoming part of the other, making the other part of itself etc. And story is utterly different from its homonym narrative (Derrida, 2004: 82). It follows that organizational performance at any given time is a here-and-now storying that contains multiple voices (voices of institutions, governments, professional communities, voices of men, women and children, of generations, of cultures, of dialects, etc.). It is through their entangled intra-action that organizations are configured. A plurality of voices is present in living stories, which are thus affected by innumerable conflicting wills and intentions. This is, in fact, why actions never achieve their purpose; nobody is the sole author or producer of her own life story (Arendt, 1998: 184-185). The configuration of the organization is thus contingent on specific relations of what the American philosopher Karen Barad (2007) terms“spacetimematter”.We also appropriate the term “intra-action” from Barad. Over recent timeswe have workedwith colleagues on re-conceptualizing “story” through the lens of Barad’s philosophy (Jørgensen and Strand, 2011; Jørgensen, Thomassen and Strand, 2012) and some of the key points are presented below. Barad is inspired by quantum physics and uses the term intra-action to illustrate that phenomena never exist in themselves;phenomena must always be seen in relation to each other, that is, to other phenomena. Barad uses the term“entanglement” to capture this aspect. Entanglement does not simply imply being intertwined with one another “…but to lack an independent, self-contained existence” (Barad, 2007: ix). This is why she does not use the terms interconnection or interaction because they implicitly assume that the world consists of separate entities that interact with each other. Intra-action denotes the dynamic mutual constituent forces of meaning/matter and time/space; and it is this dynamic, according to Barad,which is the motor of change and learning. Viewedfrom this perspective story implies a more balanced and complex understanding of organizational practices; such practices now to be viewed as emerging from complex multi-voiced mutual constituent agencies embedded in spaces, bodies, artifacts and discourses. As beings we are not outside the world (observing and manipulating it from a distance) or in-the-world; rather we are of the world (Taguchi,

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2010: 47).This means that we are made from the same substances as the rest of the world: “In other words we cannot produce knowledge and learn about the world without being totally dependent on it” (Taguchi, 2010: 42). Barad’s work is important because it twists the notion of story towards a materialdiscursive onto-epistemology where a more balanced understanding is achieved of what constitutes story. Akey point emphasized by Barad is that language has been granted too much power (Barad, 2007: 132) in relation to understanding what goes on in every-day social life. In our view this also holds for our notion of storytelling,where the presumption has been that the source of memory and identity resides in language. Benjamin, for example, claims that storytelling is not a job for the voice alone, but none-the-less experience that is passed on from mouth to mouth is the source from which all storytellers have drawn (1999: 86). And Tally (2001: 61) states that collective memory is contained in linguistic expressions preserved in culture. David Boje had earlier argued that storytelling was a domain of discourse (Boje, 2001, 2008), which implies that language is hegemonic to matter in the attribution of agency. Such viewpoints areprobably due to the influence of the linguistic turn that has come to dominate leadership and organization theory over the past two decades or so. Instead, one of the key implications of Barad’s work is that story is a multimodal configuration of the world that is configured through the intra-action of oral stories, spatial stories, stories of the body, and stories of the artifacts. As such matter and materiality play a far more important agential role in organizational performance. Such performance is now to be viewed or conceptualized as emerging from diffractive interferences of different material, natural, linguistic or bodily forces that combine in a mutual constituent relationship whereby the world and its boundaries are enacted through what Barad calls “agential cuts”. Through these agential cuts the world is configured in spatial, temporal and material terms. These agential cuts emerge themselves from complex intra-actions of spatial, temporal and material forces, and it is due to the intimate mutual constitutive relationships that she prefers to use the term spacetimematter instead of space, time and matter. Barad’s work thus has dramatic consequences since terms like intentionality, memory and identity are reconsidered as something that do not belong to, or be possessed by, individuals. Further, they are not solely discursive constructs. Barad argues (2007: 22) that when we attend to the complex material conditions that are needed to specify intentions, we are prevented from assuming that intentionality belongs to an individual and that it can be meaningfully assigned to an individual. From this seminal alternative perspective, intentionality, memory and identity are attributable to a complex network of human and nonhuman agents including historical sets of material conditions. This also means that our notion of story needs to be reconsidered dramatically. To understand it we need to address the notion of “mattering” that is one of Barad’s significant building blocks. Barad argues that matter has usually been viewed as a passive product of discursive practices. Instead matter should be seen as an active agent in its ongoing materialization; matter is “… not a thing, but a doing, a congealing of agency.” Further it is “… a stabilizing and destabilizing process of iterative intra-activity.” Matter is intra-active becoming implicated and enfolded in its iterative becoming. She emphasized these points in a recent key-note presentation at an international conference (Barad, 2011): 1) matter is not stuff, 2) matter is a congealing of action, 3) matter is a doing, 4) matter is not the other of liveliness, 5) matter is not a static without history, meaning and identity, 6) matter is an ongoing differentiation of the world in their

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transmateriality, 7) matter is a cutting together-apart, and finally, 7) concepts are not abstractions, they are specific material arrangements. As such matter is not a linguistic construction but rather a discursive production in the important sense that discursive practices are themselves material reconfigurings of the world (Barad, 2007: 151). Discursive practices are thus fully implicated in the dynamics of intraactivity through which phenomena come to matter; mattering, therefore, “…is a dynamic articulation/configuration of the world (Barad, 2007: 151). Materiality and discourse are mutually implicated in the dynamics of intra-activity. Materiality is discursive since material phenomena are inseparable from apparatuses of bodily production and discursive practices are always already material. Materiality and discourse do not stand in a relationship of exteriority to each other (Barad, 2007: 151-152). Story performances are thus iterative material-discursive intra-activity. In other words, stories are matter – and matter is story performance. They rely both on particular spatial and material configurations as well as discursive practices. Stories are a congealing of agency that cut together-apart. They are iterative intra-activity that becomes through multiple and multimodal intra-acting agencies and they have temporal, spatial and material effects. Viewed in relation to the storytelling literature in management, the result is the most explicitly radical approach (Boje and Baskin, 2010: 31-32) in terms of overthrowing the old Newtonian world-view that has dominated the sciences. It is radical in stressing relationality of the configuration of meaning and matter, in that she argues that the world is configured through intra-acting entangled agencies embedded in discourses, spaces, bodies and artifacts. They are iterative intra-activity that becomes through multiple and multimodal intra-acting agencies. In the here-and-now storying of reality that is embedded in organizational performance we, in other words, don’t just see the voice or the action of an individual storyteller. Rather, multiple temporalities, spaces and artifacts are threaded through one another in any single performance. The material-discursive configuration that enacts stories is the organization’s apparatus of storytelling. Barad argues that apparatuses are material-discursive practices that are formative of meaning and matter. They are productive of and part of the phenomena produced and they are continuously reconstituted as part of the ongoing intraactivity of the world. Apparatuses are considered to be material configurations that reconfigure spatiality and temporality as well as mattering (Barad, 2007: 146). In other words, apparatus of storytelling implies that stories are configured from the apparatuses that make up the organizations. These apparatuses contain a multiplicity of voices that push and pull stories in many different directions. Relations of power are embedded in the apparatus of storytelling in the sense that some voices have more weight than others and push stories in certain directions; hence,dominating material-discursive practices emerge where some stories become considered as true and legitimate while others are discounted as illegitimate and unworthy. Now it is time to summarize the characteristics of story before we go on to discuss the implications in relation to school development in South Africa. We have identified six characteristics of story above: • •

Storytelling is concerned with the concrete practicalities of life. These practicalities of life are living stories at work. Stories are configured from material-discursive intra-action. Stories are thus configured from the intra-action of space, time and matter; hence spacetimematter.

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• •

•

•

Any story is an entangled becoming that has a before and an after (time), and that emerges in particular spatial circumstances and through the application and use of material objects. Stories are matter, a congealing of agency. They are iterative intra-activity. Stories are plural in the sense that multiple temporalities, spaces and artifacts are threaded through one another in anyhere-and-now storying. There is always a plurality of human and non-human voices speaking; that is,a plurality of entangled living stories that come together in the story. Stories are non-linear, unfinished and open. Stories do not follow a logical path. They are continuously configured and reconfigured according to the historical, geographical and material circumstances in which they emerge. Stories give privilege to particular voices instead of others.Relations of power are always embedded in the configuration of stories. This implies the presence and emergence of dominating stories and narratives that frame certain truths and moralities and give privilege to particular voices instead of others. Relations of power are also embedded in technologies, systems, objects, spaces, etc.

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SCHOOLS AS STORYTELLING ORGANIZATIONS What does the concept of story imply for understanding schools in the South African context? The concept of story represents an ontological understanding of what it is that we are confronted with. Teachers, learners and other stakeholders are entangled becomings, whose story performances are penetrated by stories of spaces, artifacts, discourses, bodies, etc. If we accept the proposition that stories are important memory sources and that they are the means through which identities are expressed and configured we gain a complex understanding of the enormous task that we have before us in terms of transforming schools to a new postapartheid era. The legacy of apartheid and indeed of other local cultures and relations of power are still playing around in the stories of schools. Don’t get us wrong. Apartheid has been abolished in the Constitution, which is known to be one of the best in the world, and we think that South Africa has moved a long way towards a democratic society based on social justice and equal rights. But we do propose that South Africa’s troubled history is visible and plays an important agential role in the stories that are performed in schools. This past becomes alive in the stories of spaces, artifacts, the distribution of wealth, of language, of bodies, in institutional arrangements etc. These stories are alive and made alive everyday in story performances. Together these agencies provide a complex memory system and means of identification because this is what the apparatus of storytelling is all about. This implies also that in these apparatuses of storytelling politics are played out in often subtle, invisible and indirect ways, where they give access to desirable futures for some people while others are marginalized and maintained in an un-privileged position. Again this point should not be misunderstood. The intention here is not to make a political statement that point out the huge social differences and injustices in the configuration of South African society, and where guilt and blame is distributed to particular groups. Such a statement has a tendency to fix people in particular positions towards one another instead of providing creative solutions to work together to

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provide a more equal and just society. The troubled history of South Africa is being played out and materialized daily in talk, attitudes, actions, positions etc. The point is that these are the conditions from which an approach to organizational learning needs to be built because such an approach needs to be configured within the practicalities of life in which the entangled stories of teachers, learners, parents and other stakeholders are taken seriously. This is an approach that is built from “below” where we recognize and appreciate the stories that are performed no matter what they sound and look like. Empathy and understanding is not just to listen to these stories; it is actually to try to understand why they were framed like this in the first place (Jørgensen and Strand, 2011). This last question deepens the insight into the socio-political circumstances that framed the stories and it gives access to qualitatively different approaches to substantive attempts to do something about the problems that we see today in South African schools. Schools as storytelling organizations requires what we might call an inside-out bottom-up driven approach where it is the stories that actually go on in the schools that are the starting point for an organizational learning approach. It is an inside-out approach because organizational learning should be driven from within. This is opposed to an outside-in topdown approach where learning in schools is driven from outside the socio-political context of the schools. Outside-in approaches are typically policy driven approaches formulated by politicians and the government. It is characteristic that such approaches are configured far away from the local school context and they are therefore often detached from the actual circumstances in which the schools are located. Of course, this is not a question of either-or because the configuration of the schools needs to be supported by state policies. The point is, however, that we need an emphasis on capacity building in the schools because it is here that democracy is actually practiced in everyday life. In recent years some attempts have been made that focus on capacity building in schools through conceptssuch as teacher leadership and schools as learning organizations (e.g. Grant, 2009; Forde, 2010). The storytelling approach that is advocated heresupplements these approaches but also has its distinctive characteristics. The storytelling approach is based on the ethical implications of the ontology of story. In particular, story calls for a basic responsibility and answerability to the other, where the notion of the other is expanded. Barad describes this as an ethics of mattering where the “I” and the “Other” are always relationally and mutually constituted. They are inevitably entangled, intertwined and weaved with each other in a way in which the dualism “I-Other” is dissolved. Matter is already entangled with the other. Accordingly the human subject is not the locus of ethicality in the sense that we are always already responsible to the others with whom or which we are entangled. Ethics is therefore a fundamental responsibility and accountability for the lively material-discursive becoming of which we are part (Barad, 2007: 393). In other words, school development must correspond to the fact that responsibility is much greater than the immediate here-and-now I-other relationship. Barad notes (2007: 394) that if responsibility comprises an ongoing responsiveness to the entanglement of time, space and matter, then what seems far away in time or space, may be very close and much closer due to the complexity of temporal and spatial connections that produce what matters and what is excluded from mattering in what takes place in the here and now. In this way the storytelling approach is to some degree consistent with what Shrivastava (2010: 445) calls eco-centrism. He argues that this approach is different from anthropocentrism in the sense that non-human nature is viewed as inherently valuable, beautiful and

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sacred as human beings. This is however not exactly a contrast to anthro-pocentrism in that human beings are still of central concern along with nature. We say this because human beings are often treated as “things” which have only instrumental value as a resource in the leadership and management literature, and where the discourses embedded in policies and strategies often imply a severing of discourse from the body. So while eco-centrism clearly involves an expansion of our notion of otherness to include non-human others, humans, along with nature, are still of central concern in the approach advocated here. This also implies that the notion of eco-centrism and thus of sustainability is not just a concern for nature but also integrates concerns such as the fight against poverty, gender equality, human rights, education for all, human security, intercultural dialogue etc. that are mentioned in UNESCO’s official description of sustainable development (UNESCO, 2010). As such non-human nature, materiality, socio-political conditions, economic conditions etc. are viewed as the fount of human life in organizations and in schools and we cannot by-pass this in an approach for school development. Rather we should work with these forces and change them from within if this is necessary to accomplish a desirable school organization. As noted above, Taguchi has argued that we are of the world and made up of the same substances as the rest of the world. We are not distinct from nature or the world; we are not in nature or the world. We are of the world and therefore we must take responsibility for this world. In addition, the notion of intra-action points to the mutual constitutive relationship of people, animals and nature including materiality. We need a holistic approach to organizational learning, which focuses on understanding and acting within an intra-active material-discursive practice. It involves being out there dealing with real life problems and taking into account different human and non-human voices in understanding and solving problems. It means experiencing and sensing the matters of the world with your whole body, and it means that humans, materials and nature should be allowed to “kick back” to strategies and policies of learning. It is the body (including the brain) that learns. Understanding the context is an “…experiential embodied understanding that anchors abstract conceptual understanding in practices and real-life activism” (Shrivastava, 2010: 445). In the following section is described the specifics of such an approach to organizational learning.

STORYTELLING AND ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING To begin with, it is important to note that there is an inherent danger in using story as a starting point for developing a strategy of organizational learning. Jo Tyler (2010: 61) describes this as the danger of regarding stories as levers, hammers or other additions to a toolbox. It is often seen in the management and consulting business, that new insights are immediately transformed into a simple instrumental approach. And it is often done with the excuse that these new insights need to become practically applicable. We have seen storytelling applied in consulting, where managers and employees are asked to tell the good and positive stories of the company; for example the best story of the day and things like that. We cannot argue strongly enough against such an approach. It destroys stories. It is about taking charge of stories and manipulating them so that they fit our own goals and suit us (Tyler, 2010: 61). It takes stories out of their natural habitat. Such an instrumental approach is more

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like an instrument of torture - to use an expression from Derrida (2004: 72) –which does violence to the people actually inhabiting, performing and living the stories in organizations. Stories are not our subjects and they are not our servants. They have a life of their own and they require respect, appreciation, recognition and understanding. They don’t want to be hailed as either valuable for the organization’s effectiveness or otherwise discarded as unworthy and destructive of company spirit. Story is not a quick fix and the point is not that people should learn how to tell good stories. But this does not mean that we cannot use storytelling for some instrumental use. As noted by Jo Tyler, stories can be used to make a point, clarify, to think differently and to introduce new possibilities. And it can also be done in sound and ethical ways. Jo Tyler prefers the term “working with stories”, which means that we are in alignment with stories. They are to be considered as our allies; and we as theirs. This implies care, respect, empathy and insight into the stories (Tyler, 2010: 62). Further it would be a mistake to try to use storytelling to create an organization that is carefully and systematically organized and aligned perfectly around a single goal. This sounds like a simple point; yet most leadership and management models explicitly or implicitly take this position and have taken it since the days of scientific management and the human relations school (e.g. O’Connor, 1999). We may refer to this as a social engineering approach similar to the ones that are criticized above. In social engineering people are reduced to functions and units in securing company goals – in this case school goals derived from policies of education. Organizational learning is not a strategy for securing the smooth implementation of policies and school goals formulated from the outside of the organization. These may serve as guidelines and overall abstract principles; but there is always a translation process (Czarniawska and Joerges, 1998) whereby these guidelines and principles are adapted to local circumstances. And in this translation process, policies are contradicted, transformed, resisted and changed. This is not a critique of the implementation process. It is a natural process in the sense that every interpretation of a new policy always involves some kind of transformation whereby the new policy becomes something that can be worked with within the socio-political context of the local school. The key point is that human beings are actors, not puppets in a game. It follows that we need to develop an approach based on the idea of developing the self of the people performing the stories in schools and where the school becomes stronger by making the people stronger. The focus is, in other words, on identity transformation where focus is on the development of the actors’ skills, competencies and perceptions of self towards the other. A good way of doing this is through working with practical problems in the local schools. Our approach to organizational learning is thus based on problem-based learning (Jørgensen, Strand and Thomassen, 2012) as a collective endeavor where stories are nurtured and develop one another, and which also involves personal development. First, however storytelling is related to a model of strategic development in organizations that was first developed by David Boje (2008: 100-101), and which has been applied on some of our writings on organizational learning (e.g. Jørgensen, 2011). Boje refers to his model as a strategy narrative, where narrative describes a linear relationship of actions and consequences in organizations which, according to Boje, is an embedded presumption in most strategic models. The model contains six elements:

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Logo: The symbol of the organization. Motto: The sentence that connect the logo with the strategy (Nike: “Just do it”, IBM: “Think”) Plot: The sequence that describes the actions that will bring the organization from mission to vision; for example in relation to the implementation of school strategy. • • • • •

By collaborating with local community leaders. By focusing on continuous pedagogical development of teachers. By creating communities of practice across race, religion, gender etc. By implementing new pedagogical principles. By focusing on continuous leadership development.

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Mission: The sentence that answers questions like: “who are we?” “Why do we exist?” Vision: The sentence that answers the question: “Where are we going?” Founding narrative: The sentence that answers the question: “where do we come from?” The model is useful in creating a vocabulary for strategic school development that may guide school leaders in developing their schools. To have an impressive strategy narrative is, however, not enough if we follow the implications of story. Actually, most strategy narratives only represent the voices of a few dominant stakeholders, which means that the legitimacy and power of such strategies are lost. A strategy narrative would thereby violate the principles of plurality, responsiveness to otherness and dynamism that are implicit in the notion of story. Furthermore, we have to remember that the power of a strategy narrative relies on it being performed and practiced in everyday life. What schools are actually doing – e.g. decisions made, pedagogies used, variety of leadership principles applied etc. – agentially cuts what the school is all about. Relations of power are embedded in such everyday story performances in governing who are privileged and disadvantaged; who gets the resources, attention, prestige etc. Strategy narratives may be very romantic and beautiful but at the same time they may be detached and abstracted from everyday life. It is what schools do that is decisive; not their policies and strategies. These are just guidelines for action. If strategy narrative should contain effective guidelines for action, there are specific conditions or principles that need to be met in the configuration and performance of a strategy narrative. We will pinpoint four such principles below. First, we have the ethical principle, which states that schools need to face the requirements of its stakeholders in appropriate and responsible ways. In schools, these stakeholders may be principals, teachers, community leaders, school governing boards, parents, children, citizens, nature, the state, local administration etc. This is by no means an easy task because there are probably conflicts of interest and differences in regard to the significance and weight with which specific stakeholders talk and act. In other words, schools continuously have to balance their performance against a variety of potentially conflicting wills and intentions. This is not a problem that can be solved. This is a condition of organizational life and of action in general. We follow Derrida here, who has argued that no matter what people do, they will always do violence in the sense of favoring and privileging some voices instead of others. It follows that we can never attain a perfect balance between different stakeholders. But this should be seen more like a continuous challenge and invitation

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to do better instead of seeing it as a problem. In any case, it is no excuse for non-inclusiveness and it is no excuse for not trying to be responsible to other human and non-human voices. We can always try to do better and follow other ways of doing things so that the plurality of voices becomes embedded in the best possible ways in school actions and school policies. This leads to the second principle, which is the principle of participation. This calls for broad participation from stakeholders in developing and performing the strategy narrative. This directs our attention towards the institutionalized structures in schools; that is where the school actually makes decisions about its mission, vision and plot. These institutionalized structures include structures for making decisions about leadership principles, organizational structures for making decisions about curriculum planning, development and evaluation, school infrastructure, safety policy etc. The critical question is whether these institutionalized structures actually meet the requirements of broad participation or if school policy and strategy actually reflects the voices of the few. To become vibrant and alive and in conjunction with what goes on in schools and in the local communities, it is important that these institutionalized structures are inclusive at all levels in school performance so that a strategy narrative becomes polyphonic in representing the voices of the people instead of representing the voices of a dominant elite. The third principle states that an effective strategy narrative needs to be aligned with the multimodal configuration of stories in schools. Stories are configured from the intra-action of space, time and matter. This implies an appreciation and respect for how spaces, bodies and material artifacts configure stories in schools. This includes, for example, how teaching materials, spatial designs and stories of teachers, learners and principals intra-actively configure what is going on in schools. The material-discursive configuration of a school provides specific conditions for the configuration of an effective strategy narrative. A deep insight into the forces of this material-discursive setting is a precondition for developing intelligent and sustainable solutions. Finally, the fourth principle is the principle of continuous organizational learning. In a dynamic community, a strategy narrative has to evolve continuously to meet the requirements of its stakeholders. The principle of organizational learning directs our attention towards the need to continuously deconstruct and reconstruct the school policy and organization so that the stories that go on in schools are aligned with what goes on in the local communities. Below we will advocate for a problem-based learning approach to organizational learning that we think also meets the requirements put forth by the first three principles that we mentioned above. Problem-based learning is a collaborative effort between stakeholders and it situates learning within the multimodal configuration of stories in schools.

PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING Problem-based learning has a long tradition that stems from American pragmatism (Dewey, 1916, 1991), emancipatory or critical pedagogy (Freire, 1996) and more recently storytelling pedagogy and intra-activepedagogy (Jørgensen and Strand, 2011; Jørgensen, Strand and Thomassen, 2012; Taguchi, 2010). The common idea is that learning has to be concerned with the practical matters of the world with all it complexities, paradoxes, value conflicts and pluralistic human and non-human voices (Dewey, 1916; Schön, 1983). More

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specifically, the idea is that learning is not something that goes on away from the actual story performances in schools. Learning is instead situated within these material-discursive practices. Organizational learning is thus centered on the practical problems of everyday life in the schools. This may relate to many different issues such as: translation of a new policy to school practices, pedagogical or curriculum development, securing a healthy and secure learning and working environment in schools etc. In other words learning is centered on problems as they emerge in their natural habitat and in which many different actors have something at stake. Problem-based learning thus calls for a collaborative effort among the stakeholders to develop sustainable solutions to the problems that schools are faced with. Wehave been working on developing a storytelling approach to problem-based learning. We have argued (Jørgensen and Strand, 2011: 258) that storytelling implies that learning has to emerge in intra-action with the concrete matters of the world. The learners – in this case school principals and teachers etc. – are joint storytellers that simultaneously need to adapt to the matters of the world and change them in a joint effort with other storytellers. Learning to co-configure the world is the image of learning offered by a storytelling approach to organizational learning. Further, we have argued that this co-configuration of mattering implies being able to do something, to build, and to act within the contexts provided by specific material-discursive conditions. Therefore it is not a naïve quick-fix solution that is being offered here. Rather the point is that we cannot make solutions that disregard the practical circumstances such as school violence, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the lack of school materials, language difficulties, economic and social inequalities etc. Rather we have to work within these conditions to find creative and sustainable solutions that fit the specific needs of the local schools. Further, the storytelling approach to problem-based learning is not just focused on the product of learning – the proposed solution. It is equally important to learn how to collaborate, to negotiate, to communicate, to argue, to make alliances etc. In short the storytelling approach focuses on creating a culture for learning. This implies that the learners are trained to work in groups and with groups of people. There is no point in configuring a solution to a specific problem if the organization falls apart afterwards. A storytelling approach to organizational learning implies a holistic approach where the focus is on developing the whole person as well as developing the organization. Further, we have noted that it implies what we have called critical reflexive inquiry (Jørgensen and Strand, 2011: 259). With critical reflexive inquiry, we suggest that problems are seen as the results of complex, multi-voiced living storytelling in which many different voices, intentions and interests are intertwined and unequally distributed. To inquire into a problem thus implies mapping the political situation that produced why the problem was configured like that in the first place. As such people need to see problems as “political problems.”This does not imply a negative perception of what a problem is. Rather it means to identify what is at stake and how people and groups of people are positioned in relation to the problem that we are dealing with. Further it means inquiring into how problems are influenced by the specific configuration of spaces and materiality. The inventor of narrative therapy Michael White (2007: 27) has suggested revealing the politics of the problems that brings people to therapy. This is a history of the power relations that have shaped people’s negative perceptions of their lives and identities. His intention is to deconstruct dominant narratives of self in order to allow for other stories to emerge. Even if the storytelling approach is not therapy, there are obvious similarities in that the proposed mapping of the politics of human and non-human voices that framed the problem may lead to the reconfiguration of personal and organizational stories

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through calling into question the status of “truth” of these stories. Thereby is invited the exploration of other territories of personal and organizational lives. Mapping the politics of a problem in other wordsproduces an alternative memory that might lead to new creative solutions instead of reproducing the old ones. Mapping the politics of problems points to a depersonalized understanding of them in the sense that they are seen as complex and multi-voiced phenomena. They are entangled and intertwined phenomena that are configured by many non-human and human voices. For example, problems in relation to teaching do not only reside with teachers alone. Teaching as a story performance emerges as the entanglement of many different forces: the teachers’ competencies, leadership styles, support from other teachers, parents’ support, learners’ background and abilities, economic resources, spatial arrangements, material artifacts like books, tables, boards, and the socio-economic and political context in which the school is embedded. Therefore organizational learning is not a subject for individuals but must take into account the whole apparatus of storytelling. A problem-based learning strategy thus calls for broad participation and collaboration between many different people. The question of who should be involved in a learning project depends on the character of the problem; for example it depends on who has something at stake. There are of course also practical issues here in the sense that not all stakeholders necessarily need to be part of a learning project. But in these cases it is important with a configuration of people that represents the different stakeholder voices in appropriate ways. Inspired by the material storytelling methodology (Strand, 2010, 2011) and together with Thomassen (2012), we have been working with a more multimodal design of organizational learning, where we take the stories of spaces, bodies and artifacts seriously. This implies that we do not only work with the perceptions and attitudes of people in learning. We look at their stories as configured by the apparatus of storytelling as noted previously in this chapter. It also implies more than just being aware of the spatial-material configuration of stories. It implies experimenting and integrating spaces, bodies and materiality in the learning process. This kind of intra-active learning process (Taguchi, 2010) also requires continuous spaces for feedback loops of reflective and reflexive inquiry, where learning goals can be continuously transformed and modified because learning processes never progress as planned. The design of a project of learning needs to take unexpected factors and circumstances into consideration. Reflective inquiry here refers to the process whereby progress is evaluated and goals modified without changing the basic conception of what the problem is all about. Reflexive inquiry refers to a process whereby conceptions of problems and solutions are changed (Jørgensen and Keller, 2008: 535-536). We think that it is important that there are spaces for both types of inquiry during a learning process. Finally, even if we have advocated that problems are complex, multi-voiced and thus collective, we see personal development as an important part of a storytelling approach to organizational learning. As noted previously, we see a storytelling approach as a development of the self. But this self is also configured in intra-action with others in specific materialdiscursive contexts. To change stories in schools is also to change how individual actors such as principals and teachers relate to one another. Therefore personal development is extremely important for organizational learning because the latter requires a reconfiguration of identities and relationships. This process of personal development is thus a reflective and reflexive process where stories of self and of personal goals, aspirations and achievements are confronted systematically by partners in conversation, by historical scrutiny of why one’s

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stories look the way they do, or by what takes place in the here-and-now. The personal development process aims at a growing awareness of self in relation to, for instance, the strategy narrative and the learning objectives of the schools. At the same time this process also aims at a questioning of the self in the sense of questioning the truths that have come to be taken for granted. It thus invites for the exploration of other territories of personal and organizational lives that I emphasized above.

CONCLUSION We have argued strongly for and described a postcolonial storytelling theory of organizational learning. We have argued that this constitutes a new bottom-up approach for working with capacity building in South African schools. The reconfiguration of living story from a material-discursive onto-epistemology is a central part of the storytelling approach presented in this chapter. This directs attention to the multimodal configuration of story and it calls for new ways of working with organizational learning. We have argued that the framework presented here points towards a problem-based learning approach based on the development of the self. Wehave also described an overall model for school development within which problem-based learning can be understood and applied.

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REFERENCES Arendt, H. (1998). The Human Condition. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the Universe Halfway - Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Duke: Durham & London. Barad, K. (2011). Connecting Materiality to Imagination and Memory. Key note presentation at the Third International Symposium on Process Organization Studies- Theme: How Matter Matters: Objects, Artifacts and Materiality in Organization Studies. Corfu, Greece, 2011. Benjamin, W. (1999). The Storyteller - Reflections on the Work of Nikolai Leskov. In H. Arendt (Ed.), Illuminations: 83-107. London: Pimlico. Boje, D. M. (1991). The Storytelling Organization: A Study of Storytelling Performance in an Office-Supply Firm. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36, 106-126. Boje, D. M. (2001). Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research. London: Sage. Boje, D. M. (2008). Storytelling Organizations. London: Sage. Boje, D. M. & K. Baskin (2010). When Storytelling Dances with Complexity. In D. M. Boje & K. Baskin (Eds.). Dance to the Music of Story – Understanding Human Behavior through the Integration of Storytelling and Complexity Thinking: 21-37. Litchfield Park, AZ: Emergent Publications. Czarniawska, B. & Joerges, B. (1998). Winds of organizational change: How ideas translate into objects and actions. In N. Brunsson, & J. P. Olsen (Eds.), Organizing organizations: 197-236, Bergen: Fagboklaget.

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Derrida, J. (2004). Living On. In H. Bloom, P. D. Man, J. Derrida, G. H. Hartman & J. H. Miller (Eds.). Deconstruction and Criticism: 62-142. London: Continuum. Dewey, J. (1916). Democracy and Education. New York: The Free Press. Dewey, J. (1991). How we think. New York: Prometheus Books. Forde, R. D. (2010). Minds and Hearts: Exploring the Teachers’ Role as a Leader in a Class. Ph.D. dissertation. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban. Freire, P. (1996). Pedagogy of the Oppressed. London: Penguin Books. Grant, C. (2009). Distributed Teacher Leadership in South African Schools: Troubling the Terrain. Ph.D. dissertation. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg. Jørgensen, K. M. (2011). Futures and Strategic Learning – Strategy Narrative and Storytelling. In D. McGuire & K. M. Jørgensen (Eds.). Human Resource Development – Theory and Practice: 141-158: London: Sage. Jørgensen, K. M. & H. D. Keller (2008). The Contribution of Communities of Practice to Human Resource Development: Learning as Negotiating Identity. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 10(4), 525-540. Jørgensen, K. M., & Boje, D. M. (2010). Resituating narrative and story in business ethics. Business Ethics: A European Review, 18(3). Jørgensen, K. M. & A. M. C. Strand (2011). Towards a Storytelling Ethics for Management Education. Submitted to C. Wankel & A. Stachowich-Stanusch (Eds.). Effectively Integrating Ethical Dimensions into Business Education: 249-267. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Jørgensen, K. M. & A. M. C. Strand (2012). Stories of Material Storytelling. In A. Marks & D. Jeremelniak (Eds.). Managing Dynamic Technology-Oriented Business: High-Tech Organizations and Work Places. IGI Global. Jørgensen, K. M., A. M. C. Strand & A. O. Thomassen (2012). Conceptual Bases of ProblemBased Learning. In J. Groccia, M. Alsudairi & W. Buskist (Eds.). The handbook of College and University Teaching: Global Perspectives. London: Sage. O’Connor, E. (1999). The Politics of Management Thought: A Case Study of the Harvard business school and the Human Relations School. Academy of Management Review, 24(1), 117-131. Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York, NY: Basic Books. Shrivastava, P. (2010). Pedagogy of Passion for Sustainability. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 9(3), 443–455. Sims, D. (1999). Organizational learning as the development of stories. In M. EasterbySmith, J. Burgoyne, & L. Araujo (Eds.). Organizational learning and the learning organization: Developments in theory and practice: 44-58. London: Sage. Strand, A. M. C. (2010).Material storytelling as identity rework. Paper presented atthe Sc’Moi conference, 25-27 March, 2010. Alexandria, VA Strand, A. M. C. (2011). Creating an Oasis with a Good Conscience: Posing Material Storytelling as Intra-active Identity Rework. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation), Department of Communication and Psychology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. Taguchi, H. L. (2010). Going beyond the theory/practice divide in early childhood education: Introducing an intra-active pedagogy. New York, NY: Routledge.

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Tally, J. (2001). The Story of Jazz – Toni Morrison’s Dialogic Imagination. Forecaast: Hamburg. Taptiklis, T. (2010). Dancing to the Music of Story: Surrendering to the Flux of Time. In D. M. Boje & K. Baskin (Eds.). Dance to the Music of Story – Understanding Human Behavior through the Integration of Storytelling and Complexity Thinking: 101-114. Litchfield Park, AZ: Emergent Publications. Tyler, J. (2010). Story Aliveness. In D. M. Boje & K. Baskin (Eds.). Dance to the Music of Story – Understanding Human Behavior through the Integration of Storytelling and Complexity Thinking: 63-79. Litchfield Park, AZ: Emergent Publications. Unesco. 2010. Education for Sustainable Development, http://www.unesco.org/en/esd/ White, M. (2007). Maps of Narrative Practice. New York: Norton.

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PART TWO

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LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS

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In: Education Leadership, Management and Governance … ISBN 978-1-62100-853-8 Editors: V. Chikoko and K. M. Jorgesen © 2012 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 2

LEADING AND MANAGING DIVERSITY IN SCHOOL STAFFROOMS Neil Avery University of KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

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ABSTRACT This chapter argues for a new approach to the leadership and management of diversity in South African school staffrooms. It offers a critique of rationalism as a conceptual lens for framing debate on issues of diversity and suggests a more critical, integrated approach, aligning and linking Communities of Practice, a Capabilities Approach and Distributed Leadership/Teacher Leadership models. It also describes a Transformative Diversity Discourse, which helps clarify the direction of change suggested. The chapter draws on the author’s experience of working with schools and locates the argument within the context of change envisaged by policy. Finally it calls on school leaders, managers, teachers and others with an interest in matters of diversity to engage critically and reflexively on their practice.

INTRODUCTION This chapter considers the leadership and management of diversity in South African school staffrooms. I argue that there is a need to adopt a more critical approach when attempting to understand what diversity means in this context and to reflect on the limitations of the more traditional, rational approach to its management. I follow Gunter in suggesting that a capabilities approach offers real possibilities for leaders and managers of schools dealing with changing cultures and identities in their staffrooms. I also use Wenger’s notion of Communities of Practice (COP) as a framework for examining the relationships between identity, power and diversity within a South African school staffroom. After sketching a brief background, which explains my interest and involvement with diverse school staffrooms, the chapter is organized around three major focus points. First I expand on a Communities of Practice framework to analyse the context of growing diversity

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in school staffrooms and later to ground a critique of rationalism as an appropriate foundation for thinking about diversity. I take this further to consider how a more critical perspective questions this dominant position and points towards the need for an integrated approach to managing diversity. Secondly, I consider the context of change in South African schools and outline how attention is shifting towards the staffroom. I link this to the impact of policies that have bearing and influence on issues of diversity in school staffrooms. Thirdly, I explore how an integrated perspective, which considers models of teacher leadership, a capabilities approach (following Sen and Nusbaum) and a transformative diversity discourse might have significant implications for how leaders and managers of schools conceptualize and benefit from diversity.

A BRIEF BACKGROUND Education in the Spotlight

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South African Education has attracted significant coverage in the media in recent times, unfortunately too often for the wrong reasons. Perceptions about the failure of the curriculum to deliver what the country needs; teacher professionalism (or lack of it) and strike action; questions around the matric results; violence in schools and racial tensions are all indicators that the process of change is long and difficult. The media’s exposure of challenges like these is not only appropriate, but also instrumental in calling for action to be taken by those who ought to be held accountable in the system. However, sometimes change happens more covertly, unnoticed until something bursts into public notice.

A Focus on the Staffroom The focus of this chapter, thus, shifts attention from some of the more obviously visible and widely publicised issues to one that has received relatively little, but possibly more deeply disturbing coverage, and that is the challenge of dealing with increasingly diverse teacher groupings in schools. This is not to suggest that the previously mentioned issues are not interrelated, but the following case (fig1.), widely covered in local newspapers, points towards a deeply rooted systemic challenge that has been slower to emerge but which, nonetheless, has powerful implications for all who teach and learn. The author’s experiences of being requested (with a colleague) by the Provincial Department of Education to address the fallout of this crisis (albeit a year later), and other highly charged sites of conflict in schools, has prompted my focus on the challenge of leading and managing diversity in school staffrooms. I use the term ‘staffroom’ as a kind of collective noun to describe the teachers and others who work in schools, such as administrators and cleaners. I recognise, however, that many schools in South Africa do not have the physical structure of an actual staffroom. For the purposes of this chapter, I also understand diversity to mean differences in race, language, culture, religion, gender, sexuality, age or any other defining factor of difference among teachers (and others in the staffroom). It is abundantly

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clear to me that any attempt to repair rifts in racially and culturally diverse staff complements, after the event, is only treating the surface of a condition that has the potential to cause immense damage. My work with schools which have experienced problems relating to the diversity of teachers occupying the same staffroom suggests that, in at least one case, the school - and the Education Department - were caught off-guard by something they didn’t see coming and didn’t understand – the challenge and tensions of bringing together people from diverse communities, backgrounds, experiences and life views. This is disturbing because the potential for the same scenario to play itself out in other schools seems highly likely unless school leaders are able to creatively manage the challenge of changing demographics, cultures, identities, power relations and communities in their schools, and specifically in their staffrooms. A brief case study of teachers in conflict

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A local newspaper broke the news in 2007 that a former model C primary school was in a state of turmoil because of tensions between members of the staff at the school. The principal had been suspended allegedly because of racist treatment of a worker. Factions divided largely along racial lines within the staff complement were brought into open and direct confrontation and the extent of simmering discontent was brought into sharp relief by a variety of comments and actions. One alignment of teachers accused another of a lack of professionalism for arriving later at school and for using corporal punishment, among other issues. In response there were heated accusations of racism and a bigoted resistance to change. The polarisation of the teachers was so intense that it resulted in the physical intimidation of a staff member who was allegedly forced off the road by a colleague in a car. In another instance teachers reported receiving death threats from colleagues.

Simple observation of the demographics of learner populations in some State schools shows very clear evidence of change in the past 15 years, and while there have been related challenges and problems, the process of moving from racial segregation in schools to wider racial and cultural diversity among learner populations has happened quite rapidly in a number of schools. But what is the situation in school staffrooms? Casual observation when I visit schools suggests that the change here has been much slower, and the paucity of data available on this phenomenon suggests it has not been a strong focus of attention. Clearly there is a challenge to create schools that rise above the crude divisions or classifications of race, language, culture, religion, sexuality, gender or any other characteristics that help shape the identity of unique human beings. In a society that is slowly coming to terms with a constitution that seeks to break down the barriers readily associated with apartheid, but also those more deeply rooted in a complex social structure, the role of school leadership seems an obvious focal point. This is widely acknowledged if the efforts to train, develop and skill school managers/leaders are anything to go by (for example the ACE qualification in school leadership, suggested as a prerequisite for appointment as a principal). Commentaries from sources that examine the performance of South African schools invariably cite poor

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management and leadership as endemic to the system (DBSA, 2008; Ministerial Committee report on ‘Schools that Work’, 2007). However, if we scrutinise policy or the curricula of programmes designed to empower those who lead and manage, will we find something different from the widely generic, rational approaches that might equally be found in similar programmes anywhere else in the world? We should do this to avoid the very situation we are describing in the example referred to earlier. The South African experience widely heralded as a unique example of the success of a democratic alternative to revolution brings with it unique and particular demands. I suggest that we need to look at the challenge of making the most of our diversity in a different way, where we critically question what we understand about learning, identity and power. I think that Wenger (1998) and Wenger and Lave’s (1999) Communities of Practice (COP) concept provides a framework that will support such a change in thinking.

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COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE - A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK While the body of literature on Communities of Practice (Lave and Wenger, 1999; Wenger, 1998) has a relatively short history (John, 2010), it significantly spans the history of the newly democratic South Africa. It is a social theory of learning, focusing on how individuals learn through their everyday interaction with others in an informal way, but as a result of their shared activities and practices. Wenger (1998) characterizes a community by means of three dimensions: mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire. Thus, in relation to what I am presenting as a relatively new and unreported phenomenon in South Africa, namely diverse school staffrooms, Community of Practice theory establishes a framework for examining how newcomers to a school staffroom enter into a community and how the practices they bring with them may become a source of new learning and practices for the community. Inextricably linked to the learning and practice referred to above is the concept of identity formation which is ‘bound to the system of activity in which it is enacted and recreated’ (John, 2010, p57).

Identity Formation It is probably the issue of identity formation within the social learning process that is most significant for this chapter, relating as it does to a growing diversity of individuals operating as a community, or communities, within school staffrooms. Even in the context of a largely homogenous social grouping, (in terms of characteristics such as language, culture, religion and race), endemic in apartheid era schools, entry into a community of practice, identity formation and increasing participation begins with legitimate peripheral participation, a term spawned in Lave and Wenger’s earlier collaboration (1991) on situated learning theory. The simple fact that apartheid legislation on schooling declared participation across racial lines illegitimate makes it unsurprising that a slowly changing sector of society that includes school staffrooms has been particularly resistant to change. The reasons for this slow rate of change are explained shortly as I examine why the body of learners and body of teachers

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change at dramatically different rates, and what the implications are for diversity management. Intriguingly, some groupings that may be found within school staffrooms regulate the legitimate peripheral participation so closely that they become impermeable to outsiders, and will remain so until the process of learning includes shared practices which enable a new coherence to emerge. Only then can identity be created (or recreated) within a community and only then would this constitute a COP in Wenger’s terms. The contextual history of South African education, which not only reflected boundaries between communities, but also overtly taught for the legitimation of such boundaries, has deeply influenced the way communities of practice evolve in schools. Critically, if we want new communities to emerge and invite participation, learning and identity formation across the boundaries that are reflected in current thinking about diversity, we need to move away from rationalism and its monocultural roots and adopt a more critical, integrated approach as suggested in the introduction to this chapter. Similarly we need to be reminded that if we want to examine social learning in a context such as a school staffroom, we need to ‘treat’ the community of practice, rather than individuals or institutions, as the primary unit of analysis (John, 2010, p. 59). Jørgensen and Keller (2008), following Wenger (1998) suggest that ‘identity in social learning theory is viewed as a pivotal point between the societal and the personal.’ (p. 526). Whatever the context or history of a school, learning is always partly about negotiating identities. The temporal significance that individuals attach to the activities in which they are engaged frames the construction of their identities (Jørgensen and Keller, 2008). They go on to say, ‘it does not make sense to talk about individual identities—individuals identify by something and with something that is out there—in the collective.’ (p. 529). This basic principal of Wenger’s Communities of Practice, is thus appropriate for analysing the experience of teachers in a staffroom, where ‘individuals learn by gaining access to culturally specific forms of participation (living in the world, membership, acting, interacting, mutuality, etc.)’ (Ibid, p. 529). Thus for an organisation such as a school to develop an integrated or shared culture among its teachers it needs to acknowledge the mutual development of diverse individuals, and communities of practice within the organisation as a whole. This presents a significant challenge for the leadership of all schools.

Integration or Assimilation – An Issue of Power? A Community of Practice view of learning is fundamentally different from many of the cognitive theories, which, I suggest, inform a rational view that individuals learn on their own through processes, which occur in their minds. Hence a COP framework mitigates for a more critical approach to issues of how schools integrate or assimilate new staff members. These seem to be misunderstood concepts in some schools facing the challenge of growing diversity. If the goal of transparency of the socio-political organization of practice is genuinely desired, a new understanding is required. The changing demographics of learner populations in some schools have been quite rapid (as explained more fully shortly), and the resulting visible cultural and racial mix is often passed off as full integration, which in a COP perspective would imply shared practice and learning and new identity formation. Full integration in this sense, would reflect a state where the differences that define diversity serve as sources of extended knowledge, learning and

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creative energy supporting a more collegial identity. However, what passes for true integration of cultures and communities may stem from confusion with what might rather be a case of assimilation, or subjective induction into a dominant culture that is maintained by those in positions of power. Crucial to the development of new Communities of Practice, which reflect integration, is an understanding of how power works in practice, ‘both constructing truth and in excluding other truths; the latter related to masking, filtering, marginalizing…’ (Jørgensen, 2007, p. 14). In following Foucault, Jørgensen points out that power is ‘culturally embedded and embodied’ (Ibid) in the traditions and norms that constitute everyday life and the ways we think, feel and act and thus in the way we interact with others. The way power plays itself out, particularly in school staffrooms that have observed changes on the outside, but not meaningfully internalized them within, still expects and obliges people to speak and behave according to the alliances that construct the truths and moralities that are taken for granted. A more critical analysis by school leaders and managers of how they think about and exercise power might allow for greater reflection of their own behaviours, beliefs and actions. A model of leadership in schools that is prepared to critically reflect in this way is something that I suggest is not well developed at present, albeit within a policy framework that is nothing if not supportive of changes which call for reflexive competence.

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The Limitations of Rationalism I have already suggested that a rational approach to the management of diversity, linked at it is to cognitive theories of learning is not appropriate in the context of a changing South Africa. The question I raised earlier in the chapter about the approaches taken in leadership and management programmes for South African school leaders is taken further here. The conceptualisation of organisational practice appears to be shaped by both British and American writers and as Gunter points out, in the UK, the field has a diverse heritage in regard to knowledge, knowers and knowing, and ‘what remains problematic for the field is that it has tended to handle this complexity of models, methods and membership through rationalism overlaid with communitarianism’ (Gunter 2006, p258). She describes how rationalism is an enabling framework, which favours organisational structures focussing on divisions of labour, job descriptions and formal management positions (line management), with the purpose of efficient, effective and economic resource deployment. Organisational unity is reflected in the associated outcomes. Consequently, the role of leadership is a formal directing and evaluating of subordinates. Some of the features commonly associated with rationalism are management-directed activities such as strategic planning, budgetary and human resource management. This bureaucratic approach, (still very evident in many South African schools), was widely challenged in The UK and led to a makeover in the form of ‘communitarianism’ (Ibid). This trend, however, still seeks to control people and keep order however, it restricts divisive agency through culture, thus allowing a wider diversity of people to participate. Hence the selecting, appointing and placing of people is done in such a way to ensure that the identity of the follower is connected, often through teams, to the school’s vision and mission. It takes little imagination to see that the locus of power and control is still fundamentally directed towards maintaining existing structures and cultures and does not favour the development of new, shared learning and practices. The focus on teamwork encourages ‘participation without autonomy’ (Gunter 2006, p259). The Task Team Report (DoE

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1996), with its focus on collegiality and self-managing schools is easily recognisable here as a form of communitarianism which, however, stops short of suggesting how it can begin to reshape the culture of schools in need of change. The emergence of distributed leadership as a model currently being researched in South Africa (Grant 2010), is in Gunter’s term, a ‘hybrid model’ of communitarianism (Gunter 2006, p259) which, although it legitimates and empowers a wider leadership base, remains firmly located in formal leadership roles because people in formal positions remain supreme and the extent to which leadership is distributed is dependant on the choices these leaders make, whether to relinquish some of their leadership role or not. Gunter contends that both rationalism and communitarianism are exclusionary: ‘rationalism excludes through an overemphasis on formal roles: and communitarianism through privileging values’ (Ibid p259). Despite the suggestiveness of its name, transformational leadership may also be said to be exclusionary, in that it relies on a formal leadership position to build commitment to the school’s vision and mission. Following James MacGregor Burns’ (1978) original use of the term ‘transformational leadership’, this approach has the potential to transform perceptions and values and changes aspirations of followers, but only through the agency of a leader who is able to articulate a vision for the future through his/her particular personal example. It is somewhat ironic that a model that is supported and advocated as a tool for change may serve to maintain rather than challenge the hierarchies of how things are done in an organisation, and what is considered important and by whom. Gunter makes the point that in the field of educational leadership in The UK, ‘this approach to educational leadership is premised on the overt sameness of the rationality role overlain with communitarian compliance’ (Gunter 2006 p259). I suggest that South African students of leadership and management are essentially exposed to similar approaches and herein lay a challenge for those wanting to effect concepttually more fundamental change. It seems evident that rationalism has its roots in monocultural systems, or where equality is deeply entrenched, however for a strongly divided and unequal society such as South Africa, its value as a conceptual framework for developing agency for change and teacher identity seems limited. So it seems prudent to think differently about how we conceptualise leadership and management in the South African context. The effect of the conceptual limitation of rationalism is to retain the privileged position and advantage of those who espouse and promote a particular culture and identity. Those who do not fit remain outsiders, whose ‘otherness’ confines them to the margins of involvement, or even beyond the organisational boundaries. Rationalist and communitarian models of leadership operate within a mono-cultural and monological understanding, even within countries far more homogenous that South Africa, often destroying human potential rather than fostering it. Thus ‘group differences are “embedded”, in the sense that they are reproduced throughout our culture. That is, they are not only perceived, but also experienced in ways that make them appear justified to those who are privileged’ (DiTomaso and Hooijberg, 1996 p. 173). The inclusion of new teachers into a staffroom that reflects such a limited opportunity for new learning and new practices similarly limits the way they might be able to identify with and integrate into communities of practice. This is a concern for the field of educational leadership in that diversity becomes a problem to be managed and thus leaders who have been inducted into leadership and management programmes turn to the ‘embedded’ rationalism that informs their thinking when they look to ‘manage’ the diversity that surrounds them.

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THE CONTEXT OF CHANGE AND DIRECTION OF POLICY Without doubt, South African Education policy points us in the right direction. The Constitution (1996), which earns much praise around the world, is very clear in how it spells out a quest for human rights and non-discrimination, and how it sets the scene for diversity to be a fundamental strength of political, economic and social structures. The South African Schools Act (1996) attempts to institutionalise the moral imperatives set out in the supreme legislation - see the Preamble to The South African Schools Act (84/1996). The often-quoted Task Team Report on Education Management and Development (1996) is unequivocal in its support for collegiality, team leadership and self-reliant organisations. The plethora of policies, reports, guidelines and circulars that frame the operations of our schools are all likely to stand close scrutiny too, in theory. For example the Norms and Standards for Educators (National Education Policy Act 27/1996) outlines the Roles and Competences that teachers are expected to embrace. Arguably, the reflexive competence, as described in the policy is the most critical for life-long learning. In this sense, reflexivity refers to the teachers’ ability to respond, and take action in relation to the situations they are reflecting on. Why then, does the practice in so many schools bear such little resemblance to the model thus anticipated? Graham Bloch’s publication The Toxic Mix (2009) attempts to give some answers, and signals a direction if we are to stem what some see as the headlong plunge of South African education. Essentially the country is facing an extremely complex problem, as Wedekind’s review of Bloch’s publication points out. ‘Bloch’s book is an important starting point for thinking about schooling, but there is a lot more thinking to be done before we can confidently declare that we know how to fix the system.’ (p. 10 The Witness, 15 January 2010). Two of Bloch’s recommendations, to strengthen management and create a social compact on education have a bearing on this chapter. I suggested earlier that the school referred to in the clipping didn’t see its problem coming and neither did the Department of Education; consequently they could not manage it. So what, precisely didn’t they see coming? Perhaps more correctly stated, what they might not have recognised was the full effect of expanding, complex diversity that accompanied the changes happening in the school. The school had apparently dealt with a changing learner population quite successfully (something I also contest), but the change in the staffroom was another matter.

Changes in the Classroom and Staffroom In the years since the opening of South African schools to all citizens, with the advent of Model B (1991) and Model C (1992) schools, and since the scrapping of the Tricameral Parliament and its Houses of Assembly, Delegates and Representatives (1994), formerly White, Indian and Coloured schools became accessible to learners of all races and cultures (significantly, from the former DET and Departments of Education and Culture). With successive generations of learners entering and exiting formal schooling, the turnover of learner populations is regular and relatively rapid. (A Secondary school offering grade 8 to grade 12 experiences a complete learner turnover in 5 years). Thus it has not been surprising to witness the magnitude of change amongst the learners in some schools. It is tempting for

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schools and communities to think of this as full integration, but without other, more significant changes elsewhere in the system, especially in relation to issues of identity, power and legitimate entry into Communities of Practice, change at a fundamental level remains incomplete. One feature of this scenario is that the change in composition of those who occupy the staffroom has not matched that in the classroom. What might contribute to this situation is that teachers don’t move through the system in the way learners do, and a permanent post attached to a school is a sought after position which is not easily relinquished. There is also a popular notion that teachers, recently burdened by extensive curriculum change, also resist cultural mixing which contributes to more modest changes in former ‘Model C’, ‘Indian’ and ‘Coloured’ school staffrooms, where the race and culture of the teaching cohort appear to have remained comparatively homogenous. However, empirical data to support this notion is not readily available, thus we must treat this view with circumspection. Ironically, some policies impact negatively on the rate of change amongst teachers, for example, the appointment of temporary teachers to permanent posts is most strongly affected by the length of time such a temporary post is held within a school. If indeed demographic change is slow to happen in such schools, such a policy is likely to slow it further. This begs the question that while operating within the National Policy framework, delivering the National Curriculum and observing the Norms and Standards, the culture of some schools appears to remain relatively unchanged. Is this because the power to resist a cultural revolution lies in the hands of the dominant group - the principal and teachers (and in some cases, the parents)? Rationalism does not support the kind of critical reflexivity about the past we are emerging from and which would encourage a new analysis of power relations in practice because of its focus on the bureaucratic role of formal management and leadership. Ironically, the provisions of the South African Schools Act (1996), designed to open schools to inclusion and participation by the wider communities they serve have, in some instances deepened resistance to change. For example the power given to School Governing Bodies (SGBs) has favoured those schools most advantaged previously as they retain the support of educated and powerful professionals (OECD, 2008). They are often able to elect members with considerable professional expertise who can leverage maximum benefit from the power afforded to SGBs. This may have the effect of minimising change and retaining the status quo that reflects the views of the dominant group. Retaining the services of teachers from the same group is one feature of this scenario, which acts to retard the progress towards an integrated and diverse community of teachers. By contrast, SGBs in many previously disadvantaged schools, particularly those situated in rural areas, have a paucity of human resources to draw on, thus, however willing they may be to embrace change and development they are often hamstrung by less than functional SGBs (OECD, 2008). In both cases, I would hesitate to say that COPs in such schools would operate to accommodate diversity through legitimate peripheral participation, which for me, is a critical feature of real integration. While there might be a perception that the phenomenon of assimilation is limited to previously elite or minority schools, the power relations that exist in all schools render them susceptible to marginalisation or exclusion of individuals or groups. Despite the very significant transformations that have happened in education, the majority of South African Schools have changed very little (Chisholm and Sujee, 2006). Great numbers of schools, particularly those in rural areas, remain largely homogenous with respect to the demographics of the classroom and, significantly for this chapter, the staffroom and thus the power relations are

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seldom the subject of reflection. However, we should be cautious in assuming, because they are dominated by the presence of Black Africans, that there is no diversity of culture or community, and that a common, or shared identity exists. It is becoming increasingly evident that teachers from neighbouring African states, e.g. Zimbabwe and Mozambique, are taking up posts in South African Schools. The issue of identity formation is central to the understanding of how diversity can become strength within a school staffroom if it is well managed, rather than a dangerous force for conflict. Recent history suggests that xenophobia is an unwelcome feature of communities resistant to change. This speaks loudly for changing the way we view diversity, especially in schools.

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Unmanaged Diversity? The danger of neglecting to recognise diversity in any organisation, and particularly in schools in a changing South Africa where individual and group rights are being more widely acknowledged, is that people begin to assert those rights in ways that are not anticipated or expected. With slowly changing demographic patterns in some school staffrooms, and growing numbers, individuals, or groups who have either not been recognised by those who dominate the power relations, or who have been marginalised or forced into assimilationist subservience begin to ‘find’ their voice and identity. The expression of strengthening voices or developing communities of practice may begin to challenge the norms of those who hold power, and threaten the standards that define the organisation. The conflict that can arise from the changing patterns mentioned above is precisely what effective school leadership would hope to avoid by ‘managing diversity’ successfully, and herein lays the rub. What exactly does it mean to ‘manage’ a phenomenon such as diversity? When unique human beings interact, there are issues of identity, ‘with patterns of both sameness and distinctiveness’ (Gunter 2006, p. 257) that impact on organisational life. Gunter suggests that how one understands and presents oneself is as important as how one understands and recognises others and this is a crucial determinant in how power structures are created and maintained. Who we are, is not what Gunter calls ‘a normalised truth’ (p. 257) and the classifications of race, class, age, gender etc. are constructed notions, which carry perceptions of authority and legitimacy into an identity.

TOWARDS A NEW WAY OF THINKING ABOUT DIVERSITY Traditions of Managing People and Diversity What then are alternative ways of conceptualising or thinking differently about how educational leadership and management in South Africa should approach the challenges of diversity in schools and particularly in staffrooms? Perhaps a starting point should be to consider the international traditions of managing people and equity issues and how they impact on South African. Gunter (2006), citing Gagnon and Cornelius (2000 p79) points to three traditions:

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A Liberal Tradition: is an approach based on the principle of equality of opportunity aimed at eradicating disadvantage. This is evident in policies entrenching support and encouragement, recruitment procedures to eliminate discrimination, monitoring of activity and specific training. A Radical Tradition: is an approach using affirmative action appointments and quotas to effect change. Legislation and Employment equity plans characterise this method. Managing Diversity: this approach favours the recognition and maximisation of individual potential so that the diversity adds value to the organisation. There is a focus on vision statements, development plans for which organisations are accountable, and structured cultural change.

The liberal and radical traditions are strongly supported in South Africa by legislation in the form of the Constitution (1996) with its powerful Bill of Rights, the Employment Equity Act (1996), SASA (1996) and a plethora of other policies and regulations which provide protection for workers and opportunities to air grievances, often driven by vigorous Trade Union support. Diversity management is probably the least developed approach in the country and relatively few efforts have been made to promote awareness training and to challenge how and why we do things in particular ways and how this gives recognition to peoples’ lives. While diversity management might appear to be different to the liberal and radical approaches, they are all still essentially the products of rationalism (with a communitarian mellowing), and focus on control through culture and categorisation. This chapter will now propose how we might begin to think differently about diversity and what it means for leaders and managers in schools. The categorisations that underpin particularly the liberal and rational approaches find favour in South African organisations because they lend themselves to a statistical demonstration of how the demographics give evidence of change. Diversity management is a useful political expedient to soften the edges of affirmative action policies and it can be done internally, yet advertised more widely. The burning question is how organisations conceptualise the purpose of doing diversity management and what the consequences are. Lorbiecki and Jack (2000. p23ff), cited in Gunter (2006 p261) note that ’diversity management might appear doable but in reality it has generated resistance to the mechanisms and the processes of compliance.’ This may be attributed to the rational imperative to control, because to recognise diversity, identification and categorisation and boundaries, which represent difference, must be established. It is on the basis of these differences that ‘management’ does the managing of the diverse people who are really no more than objects to be managed. Significantly, in my opinion, South African school leaders and managers have not been well prepared or trained to effect and manage changing staffrooms. There is much evidence (Bush and Oduro, 2006) to suggest that the majority have had no training whatsoever for their complex and demanding job! The only frame of reference such leaders have is what they have themselves experienced and what they see around them. This serves to highlight the inherent dangers of expecting them to manage people on a scale of complexity that is potentially overwhelming, without the tools to assist them. Consequently this chapter now starts to explore alternative ways to empower school leaders to face the challenge of maximising the potential and value of diversity in the staffroom.

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Why a More Critical Approach? The challenge of helping school leaders think differently about diversity calls for a more critical approach to the question of identity and how it is conceptualised - as something either fixed - or open to change in the way that I suggest a COP approach might point. A current focus in the field of South African Leadership and Management is teacher leadership and Grant (2005) argues that it is critical in the transformation of South African Schools. She suggests that the concepts of teacher leadership and distributed leadership are implicit in education policy in the country, with a clear focus on collegiality, teamwork and shared management. I concur with this view and see Grant’s PhD thesis (2010) as a significant contribution to the transformation of school leadership which recognises diversity as an inherent strength, in that it suggests that all teachers have the potential to lead in one way or another – a view that has hitherto been underutilised in practice. However, Gunter’s (2006) compelling argument about the underlying influence of rationalism and its emphasis on securing unity suggests we need to consider an alternative tradition as a means to question how social, political and economic power is replicated or changed in school cultures and organisational structures. If teacher leadership can be understood differently from the limiting power relations that currently characterise many South African schools, it may well provide the key for maximising the benefits of diversity. What this calls for is a conscious shift from the rational paradigm towards a more critical view where diversity can be seen less as ‘difference’ and more as added value. The reticence of leadership to engage with diversity that was noted by Morrison, Lumby and Sood (2006), is similarly a problem in South African schools and it is not unusual to hear comments that reinforce the concept of otherness. References to ‘they’ and ‘them’ and talk about contexts and cultures that are ‘not like ours’ hardly require confirmation by research. Morrison et al (2006) report that participants in their study often suggested that professional development was for ‘them’, because ‘they’re not confident enough to speak out’ (p. 289). All good professional development should be linked to institutional priorities, and if diversity management is not identified, particularly for leaders, it will not be a strong feature of development programmes. Similarly, if leadership and management programmes which are available to schools leaders are still underpinned by rationalism, which inevitably precludes the learning and practice that Wenger writes compellingly of, the opportunities to trouble the terrain of diversity management will remain, at best, limited, and at worst, might provoke greater resistance. Morrison, Lumby and Sood (2006) also suggest that paradoxically, the rhetoric of engagement with diversity management is not matched by forward-looking critical theory or practice. Their research, albeit conducted in a British context, has relevance for South Africa in that it points towards a need for contextualised understandings of what diversity management means. Then it might be possible to explore strategies to manage change in a more critical and constructive way. In changing South African staffrooms, particularly in former White, Indian and Coloured schools, the diversity reflected is most notably in terms of race, language, culture and religion. This raises important issues about the need for a critical and reflexive approach to systems that might have established and perpetuated impermeable boundaries to learning, new practices, access to power and identity formation. Social, political and economic advantage and disadvantage are frequently replicated in organizations such as schools and, as

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Gagnon and Cornelius, (2000), in Gunter (2006) suggest, can be countered by a capabilities approach ‘based on the principle of human dignity and underpinned by explicit freedoms’ (Gunter 2006, p. 261). By creating opportunities to have different life experiences and being able to exercise choices, one has the ‘freedom to achieve’ that Sen (1999, p. 75), talks about. Similarly, the way Nussbaum (1999), examines agency through the identification of basic, internal and combined capabilities suggests that diversity management should foster a real capacity to create supportive, enabling spaces to allow the legitimate expression of a hesitant or unrecognized readiness to act, and thus establish and express a unique identity. I suggest that the COP framework, which underpins this chapter, is largely consistent with a capabilities approach.

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The Rationale for a Critical, Integrated Approach Thus I make a case for an interlinked rationale that can be aligned with a capabilities approach, and with the developing field of distributed leadership and teacher leadership, within a COP framework. The theoretical underpinnings of a capabilities approach are not necessarily conceptually in conflict with the practice of distributed leadership, provided that it is freed from its rational roots. The challenge of this approach is for school leaders to move their thinking away from the dichotomy of ‘same’ or ‘different’ and the limitations and prejudice this inevitably leads to. The capabilities approach has the potential to create this shift in thinking and, in practice to work towards ‘equality through diversity’ (Morrison et al, 2006, p291). Gagnon and Cornelius (2000) frame Nussbaum’s three types of capabilities, in the following way: basic capabilities - which a person may inherently or intuitively possess, but which they may or may never have had the opportunity to use or develop; internal capabilities - which refer to the readiness to act, developed either through training or experience and which allows the person to act in a number of roles within and beyond the school; and combined capabilities where the internal capabilities combine or inter-relate through the external opportunities and structures the school may provide - or sanction - for individuals. South African schools in which there have been significant racial, cultural and linguistic changes in the staff complement face the associated challenges of reflecting on how they conceptualise learning, new practices, power and identity. A capabilities approach might serve as a liberating dialogical space for thinking differently about diversity and in enabling communities of practice to flourish. This approach requires that schools be recognized as organizations in which all people are entitled to exercise their explicit freedom as a legitimate form of agency for change and where they may do so with dignity and respect. In essence, they must have the freedom to exercise choice in how they are able to lead their lives, rather than being limited to what they are allowed to do. Essentially this calls for a form of teacher leadership that is not bound by leaders’ fear of challenges to the status quo. Nussbaum’s (1999) argument is that all three capabilities need to be nurtured and supported in an organization, so that an individual who has innate abilities can be encouraged to sustain a readiness to act, which in turn will be underpinned by organizational structures to legitimize the actions. The implications of such an approach are significant for school leadership. As Morrison et al (2006) point out, there is often a disjuncture between equality of access and equality of

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outcomes that ‘frequently ignores the social construction of education, its complex institutional arrangements and external influences’ (p. 280). Gunter (2006) too, warns that ‘the normality of rationalism could lead to capabilities being integrated within the communitarian approach in ways that pull towards control and hence sameness (p. 262). Thus if we want to avoid the pitfalls of assimilation and move towards integration, we might need first to practice inclusion, which suggests a celebration of difference as an empowering individual and organizational driver. Of course, pseudo inclusion is nothing more than assimilation in another set of clothing! Gunter (2006) is correct in suggesting that what is needed is a ‘rethinking of what we mean by leadership, and hence who or what leaders are and what leadership is about. (p. 262) This implies the need for a close look at what we currently offer to students of leadership and management in South Africa. Although Morrison et al (2006) warn that distributed leadership has only recently begun to address the issue of power as it relates to its dispersal, largely because it has focused on values and approaches related to organizational aims, rather than on the diversity of individual persons or communities of practice, if we extend our understanding of teacher leadership, we may well move closer to what diversity management could and should be. Recent research conducted by Grant and her students (2010) points towards a growing acknowledgement that teacher leadership is emerging as a positive factor in changing South African schools, even if conceptually it is still at the level of description and perception. Her study examines teachers’ perceptions of teacher leadership through the lens of distributed leadership, working towards an understanding of the differences between authorized distributed leadership (which may be confused with delegation) and dispersed distributed leadership, which she suggests, in its ideal form is truly democratic and can pave the way for unique individuals to live out their agency for change in a meaningful way. I think that this focus on democratic principles generally lies at the heart of managing diversity in South African schools, and particularly the diversity that is emerging in the teaching community.

Diversity Discourses In moving towards how a new perspective might begin to influence practice, Blackmore (2006) describes a discourse of diversity, which is helpful in clarifying the direction of change I am suggesting in this chapter. She identifies, ‘Transformative Diversity’ (Blackmore, 2006, p. 185) as premised on social justice and which ‘argues against the assumption that effective organizations require consensus.’ (p. 185). She suggest that the creativity implicit in diversity is rather based on dialogue over difference. Thus a respect for and acknowledgement of the value in difference creates a democratic imperative, which challenges the often articulated need for social cohesion. The implication for school leaders who recognize growing diversity among the teachers in their schools is significant. Following Blackmore (2006), leaders who operate from a conception of management of diversity tends to favour those who have power and encourage assimilation, while those who manage for diversity celebrate multicultural harmony while implementing a curriculum that focuses on common outcomes and standardized tests. Neither approach truly challenges the leadership to reflect on their own lack of transformation as leaders and managers. She suggests that what is missing in the literature and policy, and thus in practice, is ‘a transformative discourse to diversify management and leadership’ (original

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emphasis p. 192). This reinforces the point we raised earlier in the chapter, about the inappropriate rationalist paradigm that apparently characterizes much thinking about leadership and management practices in South Africa. Blackmore suggests that a transformative discourse would put this dominant paradigm under more critical scrutiny. It would mean a shift in thinking, within a broader conceptual framework, to consider how schools deal with the diversity among staff members. It would require ‘deliberate practices that enable agency’ (Blackmore, 2006, p192). The representation of different voices would necessitate the negotiation of capabilities (as discussed earlier). This discourse would also call for a consideration of who manages and leads within a school, and the asking of questions about the values and power that underpin leadership. Hence, I believe that the growth of interest in distributed leadership/teacher leadership, argued from COP and capabilities approach, provides an appropriate platform for engaging in such a transformative discourse. The challenge to those who work in the field of leadership and management in schools is to promote the debate.

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CONCLUSION This chapter has highlighted an element of change in South African schools that either has the potential for positive, creative energy or for seriously destructive divisiveness. The growing diversity of teachers in some schools presents a challenge for school leaders and managers, particularly if they wish to avoid potential conflict and maximize the advantage of this phenomenon. I have made the point that it is a subtle change, progressing less obviously than the conspicuous alteration in the demographics of the classroom, and thus its importance might be obscured until it emerges as a problem. This suggests that it is an issue that the leadership and management of schools need to consider seriously and ‘manage’ wisely. I have also attempted to explain how a rational approach to education leadership and management fails to recognize the key constituents of diversity, which include learning, new practice, power and identity, and what the implications are if we do not begin to shift our thinking. I make a case for a more critical engagement with what it means to manage diversity and suggest that an integrated approach based on a community of practice framework, models of teacher leadership, a capabilities approach and a transformative diversity discourse has the potential to facilitate the change in thinking I think is necessary. What I don’t do is suggest how this should find its way into policy and the conceptualization of leadership and management programmes. That would be premature because it will take the synergy of a great many people for this to become systemic. However, individual teachers, leaders and managers, and others who play roles in human resource development in schools must begin to reflect critically on their practices in ways that recognize the need to challenge their own paradigms and to begin to act on their convictions.

REFERENCES Blackmore, J. (2006). Deconstructing Diversity Discourses in the Field of Educational management and Leadership. Journal of the British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society, 34(2), 181- 199.

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Bloch, G. (2009). The Toxic Mix: What’s wrong with South Africa’s Schools and how to fix it. Cape Town: Tafelberg. Burns, J. M. (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row. Bush, T. and Oduro, G. (2006). New principals in Africa: preparation, induction and practice, Journal of Educational Administration, 44(4), 359 – 375. Chisholm, L. and Sujee, M. (2006). Tracking racial desegregation in South African schools. Journal of education. 40, 141-159. DBSA. (Development Bank of Southern Africa). (2008). Education roadmap: Focus on schooling system. Background document to the Education Roadmap Process. Accessed 15 August 2010. http://www.dbsa.org/Research/Roadmaps1/Education%20Roadmap.pdf. Department of Education. (1996). Task Team Report on Education Management and Development: Managing Change to Change Management. Pretoria: DoE. Department of Education. (2007). Report of the Ministerial Committee on Schools that Work. Pretoria: DoE. DiTomaso, N and Hooijberg, R. (1996). Diversity and the demands of Leadership. Leadership Quarterly 7(2), 163 – 187. In Gunter, H. (2006). Educational Leadership and the Challenge of Diversity. Journal of the British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society, 34(2), 257-268. Gagnon, S. and Cornelius, N. (2000). Re-examining Workplace Equality: The Capabilities Approach. Human Resource management Journal 10(4), 68-87. In Gunter, H. (2006). Educational Leadership and the Challenge of Diversity. Journal of the British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society, 34(2), 257-268. Grant, C. (2010). Distributed teacher leadership in South African schools: troubling the terrain. Unpublished PhD Thesis. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal. Grant, C. (2005). Teacher leadership; gendered responses and interpretations, in Agenda, 65, pp. 44-57. Gunter, H. (2006). Educational Leadership and the Challenge of Diversity. Journal of the British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society, 34(2), 257-268. John, V. (2009). Communities of Learning and Action? - A case study of the Human Rights, Democracy and Development Project, 1999- 2005. PhD Thesis. . Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal. Jørgensen, K. M. (2007). Power without Glory – A Genealogy of a Management Decision. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press. Jørgensen, K. M. and Keller, H. D. (2008). Advances in Developing Human Resources: The Contribution of Communities of Practice to Human Resource Development: Learning as negotiated identity. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 10, 525-540. Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1991). Situated Learning: legitimate peripheral participation. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. Lave, J. & Wenger, E. (1999). Legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice. In R. McCormick & C. Paechter (Eds.), Learning and knowledge. London: Paul Chapman. Lorbiecki, A. and Jack, G. (2000). Critical Turns in the Evolution of Diversity Management. British Journal of Management 11, special issue: S17-S31. In Gunter, H. (2006). Educational Leadership and the Challenge of Diversity. Journal of the British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society, 34(2), 257-268.

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Morrison, M. Lumby. J. & Sood, K. (2006). Diversity and Diversity Management. Messages from recent research. Education Management Administration and Leadership, 34(3), 277-295. Nussbaum, M. (1999). Women and Equality: The Capabilities Approach. In Gunter, H. (2006). Educational Leadership and the Challenge of Diversity. Journal of the British Educational Leadership, Management & Administration Society, 34(2), 257-268. OECD. (2008). Review of National Policies for Education. South Africa. Paris: OECD. Republic of South Africa. (1998). Employment Equity Act 58/1998. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. (1996). Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 108/1996. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. (1996). National Education Policy Act 27/1996. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. (1996). South African Schools Act 84/1996. Pretoria: Government Printer. Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wedekind, V. (15 January 2010). What to do about the schooling crisis in SA. Pietermaritzburg: The Witness. Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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Chapter 3

DARING TO LEAD: THE POSSIBILITY OF TEACHER LEADERSHIP IN KWAZULU-NATAL SCHOOLS Callie Grant University of KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

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BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT It is commonly agreed that the practice of leadership “cannot be extracted from its sociocultural context” (Spillane, Halverson and Diamond, 2004, p. 22). In other words, leadership is likely to vary depending on the historical, cultural and institutional settings in which it is situated. And, as Christie suggests, the South African apartheid legacy with its dysfunctional schooling system has “not simply disappeared with the replacement of the apartheid government with a new government” (1998, p. 284). On the contrary and as a direct result of the Apartheid legacy and its authoritarian control, the majority of South African schools does not thrive, but merely survives in relatively poor socio-economic circumstances. This numeric norm is usefully referred to as “the mainstream” (Christie, Butler and Potterton, 2007, p. 100). In these mainstream schools, many of which are located in the province of KwaZuluNatal, this inheritance continues to be “determinative in shaping and accounting for the character of current social behaviour in the country, including the performance of children in schools” (Soudien, 2007, p. 183). Against this backdrop, the purpose of this chapter is to explore the possibility of teacher leadership as a mechanism for change in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) schools. Teacher leadership is a concept which is currently in vogue in many countries and has “emerged as a new buzzword for how to cure schools” (Troen and Boles, 1994, p. 40). As a concept, it has appeal because of its democratic leaning and because of its potential as a mechanism of change. However, to ensure that it will not be a passing fad, one has to engage with it beyond mere rhetoric to ensure its operationalisation in schools. This chapter works from the premise that teacher leadership has potential as a mechanism of change in schools. However, given South

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Africa’s apartheid history, it acknowledges that leadership and teacher leadership are not the norm in many of the mainstream schools. The chapter begins by introducing the concepts of ‘education leadership’ and ‘education management’ and explores the relationship between the two. It does this because an understanding of these concepts is critical to any discussion of teacher leadership because the leadership of teachers is but one dimension of the practice of leadership and because the processes of leadership and management need to work in tandem to be effective. Working from this understanding, the chapter moves on to examine the literature on the change agency role of teacher leadership. Thereafter, the study itself is briefly sketched. A model of teacher leadership is then posited and the possibilities of teacher leadership according to zones, roles and indicators are discussed. Thereafter, two pre-requisites necessary for the development of teacher leadership are suggested and their implications for practice are determined. I now move on to a discussion of the terms ‘leadership’ and management’ as they pertain to this chapter.

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DEFINING THE CONCEPTS OF ‘EDUCATION LEADERSHIP’ AND ‘EDUCATION MANAGEMENT’ AND EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM Like many concepts in the field of education, the concepts of ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ are contested terms (Grant, 2009, p. 46) and “their usage varies at different times, in different countries and in different professional cultures” (Coleman, 2005, p. 6). However, it is generally agreed that education leadership and management “are fields of study and practice concerned with the operation of schools and other educational organisations” (Bush, 2008, p. 1). Furthermore, ‘education leadership’ and ‘education management’ are not ends in themselves; rather their core purpose is to “facilitate effective learning through effective teaching” (Thurlow, 2003, p. 34). For the purpose of this chapter, I work from the assumption that ‘education leadership’ and ‘education management’ are distinct processes (Grant, 2009, p. 46). In line with the thinking of Astin and Astin (2000), I work from the premise that ‘leadership’ is the process which works towards movement and change in an organisation while its complementary term ‘management’ refers to “the process which works towards the stability, preservation and maintenance of the organisation” (Grant, 2009, p. 46). Within this understanding of leadership as a process which brings about change in the organisation, Donaldson explains how leadership “mobilizes members to think, believe, and behave in a manner that satisfies emerging organisational needs, not simply their individual needs or wants or the status quo” (Donaldson, 2006, p.7). In contrast, management involves “holding the organisation” (Davidoff and Lazarus, 2002, p. 169) and maintaining the status quo of the current organisational arrangements in the most effective way possible. Whilst ‘education leadership’ and ‘education management’ are distinct processes, like Kotter (1990), I contend that both processes are needed for an organisation to prosper. Thus the processes of ‘leadership’ and ‘management’ constitute two sides of the same coin (Davidoff and Lazarus, 2002) and hold each other in creative tension as they work together for the effective functioning of an organisation. My contention is that schools require leadership which moves the school forward, giving it a sense of direction through the

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development of a vision for the future in order that it can adapt to the demands of an ever changing, complex society. Simultaneously, I argue that schools also require stability, certainty and security and they develop this through “clear, consistent, firm management, provided by managers and staff who know that management is not the goal of the school but the stable bedrock that supports the fertile conditions where leadership and learning can be cultivated” (Donaldson, 2006, p.182). However, during the period of Apartheid in South Africa, leadership, conceptualised as the process which works towards movement and change in a school, was actively opposed in a bid to control and manipulate the education system to perpetuate an unfair, unequal and discriminatory education system along racial lines. Instead, when the term was used, it was “understood in terms of position, status and authority” (Grant, 2006, p. 512) and, in reality, involved only the managerial and administrative tasks which the principal performed which worked to preserve the status quo in schools. In contrast, post 1994, the South African education system underwent a process of decentralisation which was evident in the institutionalisation of organisational structures such as the school management team (SMT), the school governing body (SGB) and the representative council of learners (RCL) in government schools. The introduction of these organisational structures enabled, at least in theory, a distribution of leadership in schools and the possibility of teacher leadership. However, research indicates that despite well-intentioned national policies, acts and reports which underpinned this decentralisation process, the goals of democracy, equity and redress have remained largely at the level of rhetoric and ignored the “realities on the ground” (Sayed, 2004, p. 252). As a consequence, this disjuncture between policy and practice has resulted in school change in South Africa remaining at the level of ‘form’ but not ‘content’ (Sayed, 2003; Soudien, 2007; Ramphele, 2008). So how does real change happen in schools? I argue that one of the ways to ensure real change in schools is to call upon the agency of humans, both individually and as a collective. This call to agency is not limited to leaders in formal management positions but goes out to all educators working in schools, including teachers.

TEACHER LEADERS: THE CHANGE AGENCY ROLE If leadership is conceptualised as the process which works towards movement and change in a school, then it stands to reason that teacher leaders are those teachers who work towards movement and change in their classrooms and schools. Any educator, regardless of designation, can be described as a teacher leader so long as they teach while, simultaneously, using their agency to achieve some sort of change. Thus, teacher leaders can operate at various levels within the organisation (Harris and Lambert, 2003). For example, in the South African schooling context, classroom based teachers (described as post level one teachers), as well as SMT members who also teach, can be included in the category of teacher leader so long as they operate as agents of change, making the things happen that they “believe in or envision” (Barth, 1990, p. 124).

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The notion of a teacher operating as a leader should not be entirely foreign to South African educators. To illustrate, the Government Gazette of the Norms and Standards for Educators (2000) highlights, as one of the seven teacher roles, the role of leader, administrator and manager. This role is described in the gazette in the following way:

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The educator will make decisions appropriate to the level, manage learning in the classroom, carry out classroom administrative duties efficiently and participate in school decision making structures. These competences will be performed in ways which are democratic, which support learners and colleagues, and which demonstrate responsiveness to changing circumstances and needs (2000, p. 13).

From this description, it can be seen that South African educators are required to participate as decision makers, both in the classroom and beyond. In so doing, they are challenged to work democratically as change agents in response to a range of complex, diverse and altering contexts. Change agency as a central idea within the concept of teacher leader is common across many of the definitions in the literature. For example, Howey (1988) emphasises the visionary and affective dimensions of teacher leadership. For him, teacher leadership is “ultimately proven in the efforts of others to attempt to scale heights of human achievement and plunge depths of human caring not otherwise envisioned” (Howey, 1988, p. 28). More recently, teacher leadership has been defined as “a form of agency that can be widely shared or distributed within and across an organisation, thus directly challenging more conventional forms of leadership practice” (Harris, 2003, p. 315). Therefore, as Crowther, Kaagan, Ferguson and Hann (2002) argue, teacher leadership is not solely about professionalism, passion, commitment and enthusiasm. While all of these are needed from our educators, teacher leadership involves something more. It is a form of leadership “suited to the imperative that schools transform themselves, and, in so doing, demonstrate for communities how that transformation can be managed positively and effectively” (Crowther et al., 2002, p. xvii). As an agent of change, each teacher is unique and brings her own identity and way of doing things to the construct of teacher leader. It stands to reason that each teacher is defined by identity factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, socio-economic class and life history and these identity factors impact on her level of leadership take-up. This is particularly pertinent in a country like South Africa with its legacy of apartheid and resultant inequality determined along racial, gendered and socio-economic lines. In combination with identity factors, Glickman asserts that a teacher leader also brings her “talent, energy, thought and knowledge” (2002, p. 93) to her leadership practice. Arguably, courage and risk-taking are two personal attributes that are essential to the change agency role. Courage and risk-taking are needed as teacher leaders willingly “promote new ideas that might seem difficult or threatening to their colleagues” (Lieberman, Saxl and Miles, 1988, p. 150). However, personal attributes are but one aspect of a successful teacher leader. Research has shown that, for teachers to function as leaders, a healthy mix of personal attributes and interpersonal factors are necessary (Glickman, 2002) together with an understanding of the power and authority that accompanies teacher leadership (Zimpher, 1988). Interpersonal factors include, but are not limited to, the ability to be “strong, yet caring and compassionate” (Lieberman, Saxl and Miles, 1988, p. 150) as they “work collaboratively with peers” (Harris

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and Muijs, 2005, p. 24). This necessitates that teacher leaders develop “an understanding of their own interpersonal relationships with others, particularly their colleagues” (Zimpher, 1988, p. 57). This emphasis on interpersonal relationships brings to mind the African concept of ubuntu which centres on “the acute consciousness of the interconnectedness and interdependence of human beings” (Ramphele, 2008, p. 117). The question that I turn to later on in this chapter is whether our mainstream schools are indeed places of interconnectedness, enhanced by the spirit of ubuntu, where teacher leadership can prosper. Having explored the notion of change agency within the concepts of leadership and teacher leadership, I now briefly describe the study out of which this chapter is drawn.

THE STUDY

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This chapter is drawn from a publication-based doctoral study which aimed to ‘trouble’ the terrain of teacher leadership – at the level of both theory and praxis, in the South African schooling context. Eight academic, peer-reviewed, independent articles, what I refer to as chronicles, constituted the ‘core’ of the study. These eight chronicles were underpinned by six research strands and connected through the following three emergent research questions: 1) How is teacher leadership understood and practiced by educators in mainstream South African schools?; 2) What are the characteristics of contexts that either support or hinder the take-up of teacher leadership?; and 3) How we can theorise teacher leadership within a distributed leadership framing? One of the significant outputs of the study was a model of teacher leadership and I present the model in the next section. In relation to the model, I then move on, in the section that follows, to present a few of the pertinent findings of the study.

ENABLING TEACHER LEADERSHIP: A MODEL OF POSSIBILITY In order to determine the possibility of teacher leadership in schools, I developed a model of teacher leadership which evolved gradually over a five year period. The value of the model lies in its synthesis potential as well as in its heuristic potential (after John, 2009). In addition, it also operates as a tool for expansion and development as we learn more about the enactment of teacher leadership in schools (Grant, 2010). The significance of the model is that it may assist in stimulating educators, regardless of designation, to think about the four semi-distinct areas or zones in which they currently (or in the future) might wish to lead in a school. In addition, the two levels (zones and roles) of the model offer a tool to describe the practice of teacher leadership in terms of the places where teacher leaders are most likely to lead and the roles they are most likely to take up. In the discussion that follows, each of the roles with the four zones is then further expanded to include some indicators of leadership.

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Zone 4 Zone 3 Zone 2 Zone 1 Teacher as a leader In the classroom Working with other teachers

In whole school development

Beyond the school into the community

1. Collaborative culture 2. Distributed leadership 3. Associated values

Figure 1. Model of teacher leadership with zones and roles (Grant, 2008b, p. 93).

Zone One: Teacher Leadership Can Exist within the Classroom as Teachers Lead and Manage the Teaching and Learning Process

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Within the zone of the classroom, the teacher concentrates mainly on Role One which is about continuing to teach and improve one’s own teaching. The indicators of leadership within this role may include, but are not limited to: 1) The centrality of expert practice (including initiating new and appropriate teaching and assessment strategies and extending their knowledge); 2) Keeping abreast of new developments (attendance at workshops and further study) for own professional development; 3) Designing of learning activities and improvisation/appropriate use of resources; 4) Innovative processes of record keeping and reflective practice; 5) Engaging in classroom action research; 6) Maintaining effective classroom discipline through a range of innovative strategies and developing meaningful relationship with learners (evidence of pastoral care role); 7) Taking initiative and engaging in autonomous decision-making to make change happen in classroom to the benefit of learners. It stands to reason that the take-up of teacher leadership will be the largest in the first zone. This is because teacher leaders should first and foremost be expert teachers who spend the majority of their time in the classroom as they interact with and lead their learners during the teaching and learning process (Harris and Lambert, 2003). Within the private space of their classrooms, teachers have relative freedom to lead this teaching and learning process as they see fit.

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However, whilst the teacher interacts with her learners as she leads the teaching practice in this first zone, she is fairly isolated from her colleagues for much of the time. Thus, if teacher leadership is limited to this first zone, I argue that it is restricted in scope because the leadership is not owned as an organisational phenomenon. For teacher leadership to have more of an impact, it should ideally begin in the zone of the classroom as expert teachers continue to teach and improve their own teaching, following which it should extend beyond the classroom into zone two as teachers work in collaborative and dialogic ways with colleagues in the pursuit of improved teaching and learning.

Zone Two: Teachers Can Also Lead Beyond the Classroom as They Develop Working Relationships with Other Teachers Within this second zone, three roles are significant as teachers operate: as curriculum leaders, grade heads, or leaders of various committees, either formally or informally. Role Two, in other words, is about providing curriculum development knowledge within one’s own school and is evidenced by indicators such as: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5)

Joint curriculum development (core and extra/co curricular); Team teaching; Taking initiative in subject committee meetings; Working to contextualise curriculum for own particular school; Attending DOE curriculum workshops and take new learning, with critique, back to school staff; 6) Extra/co curricular coordination (e.g. sports, cultural activities etc).

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Role Three is concerned with leading in-service education and assisting other teachers within one’s own school and is associated with the following indicators: 1) Forging close relationships and build rapport with individual teachers through which mutual learning takes place; 2) Staff development initiatives; 3) Peer coaching; 4) Mentoring and inducting; 5) Building skills and confidence in others; 6) Working with integrity, trust and transparency. Role Four constitutes participating in performance evaluation of teachers in one’s own school, evidenced by the following indicators: 1) Engaging in IQMS activities such as peer assessment (involvement in development support groups); 2) Informal peer assessment activities; 3) Moderation of assessment tasks; 4) Reflections on core and co/extra curricular activities.

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I believe that teacher leadership across the first two zones is a considerable improvement on teacher leadership restricted to the classroom because there is more chance of the leadership practices of teachers impacting on small learning communities which operate within the school. Furthermore, the existence of teacher leadership in zone two is an indication of some devolution of power and shared decision-making in the school, particularly in the provision of curricula and co/extra-curricular development and innovation. It stands to reason then, that teacher leadership is inextricably linked to issues of power and, as we all know, power ultimately resides with the positional leader, the principal, in a school. Thus, the principal’s role in either facilitating or stifling teacher leadership is crucial and I discuss this in more detail later on in the chapter. Suffice to say that if we want the full impact of teacher leadership to be felt by the school as a whole, then it must be recognised as an organisational phenomenon (Yukl, 1994).

Zone Three: Teachers Can Become More Involved in Whole School Development Issues Such as Vision Building and Policy Development

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Within this third zone, two roles may be taken-up as teachers lead staff development programmes at a whole school level: becoming significantly involved in whole school policy development, and participating actively in school-based planning, decision-making and whole school evaluation. Role Five is about organising and leading peer reviews of school practice in one’s own school. Associated indicators include: 1) Organisational diagnosis (Audit – SWOT) and dealing with the change process (School Development Planning); 2) Whole school evaluation processes; 3) School based action research; 4) Formal and informal mediating as well as union representation; 5) School practices such as fundraising, policy development, staff development, professional development initiatives etc); 6) Membership of teams such as the School Development Team (SDT). Role Six constitutes participating in school level decision-making within one’s own school and incorporates the following indicators of leadership: 1) Awareness of, and non-partisan to, micropolitics of school (i.e. working with integrity, trust and transparency); 2) Participative leadership where all teachers feel part of the change or development and have a sense of ownership; 3) Problem identification and resolution; 4) Conflict resolution and communication skills; 5) School-based planning and decision-making. It becomes self-evident that if teachers are also able to lead, not only in zones one and two, but also in issues of whole school development (zone three), then the opportunities for school improvement and transformation are far more likely. This is because teacher leaders Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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are involved in authentic decision-making which impacts not only on their work at a classroom, grade or phase level, but also at a school level. This requires some degree of relinquishment of power by the SMT to the teachers and I refer again to this in the next section. In addition, a school culture of mutual trust and support, collective commitment and good communication is essential so that teachers are able to initiate and lead in innovative ways.

Zone Four: Teachers Can Extend Themselves Beyond the School and Lead in Community Life and Cross-School Networking Within this final zone, two roles are significant. These two roles, Role Two and Role Three, have already been discussed in relation to the second zone. However, in this fourth zone, their indicators do not relate to in-school activities but rather to across-school activities. In the context of across-school activities, Role Two concerns the provision of curriculum development knowledge and is evidenced by indicators such as:

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1) Joint curriculum development (core and extra/co curricular) at learning area meetings; 2) Liaising with and empowering parents about curriculum issues (e.g.parent meetings, visits, communication – written or verbal); 3) Liaising with and empowering the SGB about curriculum issues (e.g. SGB meetings, workshops, training); 4) Networking at circuit/district/regional/provincial level through committee or cluster meeting involvement. Similarly, in the context of across-school activities, Role Three is concerned with leading in-service education and assisting other teachers and is evidenced in school networks, school partnerships and district or cluster forums. The associated indicators are listed under role three in the earlier part of this discussion and do not need repeating here. Thus it can be seen that the model of teacher leadership offers a tool to describe the various tasks or functions within four areas in which teachers can take up leadership. Having presented the model, I now move on to present some of the pertinent findings of the wider study referred to earlier, as they relate to the model and the possibility of teacher leadership.

LEADERSHIP PRACTICES IN MAINSTREAM SCHOOLS AND THE NEED FOR CHANGE There were exemplars of teacher leadership across all four zones in the study. There was evidence to suggest that educators’ understandings of teacher leadership were that teacher leaders were first and foremost successful teachers who paid careful attention to the teaching and learning process in the best interests of their learners. They were innovative practitioners who demonstrated high levels of knowledge competence and a variety of effective teaching methods. As teacher leaders, they were involved in a range of learning communities within zone two. Examples included the more formal communities such as grade or learning area committees, extra-curricular committees, phase meetings, school tasks teams, school

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committees as well as teacher professional development teams. Further examples were more informal in nature and included informal group discussions as well as informal in-service education. Across the chronicles, teacher leadership was also evident in zone four (leadership beyond the school into the community), although to a much lesser degree than teacher leadership in zones one and two. Examples included teachers engaged in leadership activities within district learning area committees and union structures. In contrast, while there was a commitment to teacher leadership in zone three in the study, there was little evidence of this in the practice of leadership at a whole school level. The natural emergence of teacher leadership, based on the strengths and experiences of teachers, was largely absent in this zone. Instead, the interactions between the SMT members and the teachers in school-based decision making operated along a chain of command. In these situations, power was firmly located at the organisational level and controlled by the SMT within a hierarchical system of relations. Leadership tasks were delegated to a select group of teachers, either through SMT appointment or through formal committee nomination. In this zone, teacher leadership was thus largely understood in relation to formal, democratically constituted structures or communities such as school task teams, the school development team and the school governing body. However, it is well documented that school structures are not always enabling and can instead “militate against teachers attaining autonomy and taking on leadership roles within the school” (Harris, 2003, p. 319). In this regard, findings revealed that “teacher participation in school decision-making processes highlighted the mere rhetoric of collegiality” (Chronicle 6, p. 298). Furthermore, under the guise of participatory decision-making, important leadership decisions were made unilaterally by SMTs who “paid lip-service to teacher participation and dialogue in decision-making, indicating a ‘lack of valuing’ of teacher voice and authentic dialogic space in the school” (Chronicle 6, p. 298). Thus, relationships amongst educators in many of the mainstream KwaZulu-Natal schools in the study remained hierarchically organised with power and decision-making still centralised in the hands of the principal and the SMT. This posed a barrier to the emergence of teacher leadership in all zones and roles as encapsulated in my model and thus prevented it from being institutionalised in schools. To conclude, educators in the study demonstrated a restricted understanding of teacher leadership (Harris and Muijs, 2005), based on a common sense perception of the term. This was no different to Wasley’s research where “most of the teacher leaders and their colleagues had not given much thought to teacher leadership, how it might be defined, or what it might look like in practice” (1991, p. 145). As a consequence, the educators in my study exhibited no real insights into the transformative power of teacher leadership and were ignorant of their role as change agents in the transformation of schools. The discussion so far indicates that the need for change in the practice of leadership in many mainstream schools is crucial if there is any hope of transforming them into effective places of teaching and learning. However, how we go about effecting this change in the practice of leadership in a country wracked by poverty, illiteracy, HIV/AIDS, vastly varying socio-cultural practices and rampant inequality in educational provision, is the critical question.

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THE CONUNDRUM

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In an attempt to respond to the critical question posed at the end of the previous section, we are faced with a conundrum. To reiterate, research in the majority of mainstream KwaZulu-Natal schools in my study rendered a rather bleak picture of restricted teacher leadership. These schools did not present as places of interconnectedness, and an apparent lack of care, fundamental to an ethos of ubuntu, permeated the schools. This begs the question: can we realistically expect mainstream teachers, victims of Apartheid, to become leaders when the odds (personal, interpersonal, institutional and societal) are stacked against them? And, if this is a realistic expectation, how can we go about supporting educators meeting it? I am persuaded that this is a realistic expectation because to think otherwise would be to surrender permanently to the unjust forces of Apartheid. However, I acknowledge that challenging the entrenched leadership practices of schools is no mean feat and will require much courage and risk taking on the part of all educators concerned over a sustained period of time. The journey will not be easy because it is likely to require a radical change in identity and way of being in the institution of the school for many South African educators, both teachers and SMT members alike. However, in line with Hannah Arendt’s concept of ‘natality’, I believe in the potential capacity of human action to begin something new (Arendt, 1958 in Smith, 2001, p. 45). Because of the creative action of individuals and the “web of human relationships” (Arendt, 1958 in Smith, 2001, p. 172), I believe that the journey towards inclusive leadership practices will begin and the smallest of steps in this evolutionary journey are significant. But how do we encourage educators to take even a first small step, to think about themselves as change agents – leaders in their schools?

PRE-REQUISITES FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHER LEADERSHIP Figure 1 suggests three pre-requisites necessary for the development of teacher leadership. These include a willingness to distribute leadership on the part of the principal, along with a collaborative and trusting school culture, underpinned by a set of values which encourage inclusivity and authentic participation in decision-making. In this final section of the chapter I discuss two ideas emerging from this list of pre-requisites; firstly, distributed leadership theory and what it means for the practice of teacher leadership and secondly, the critical role of the principal in enabling teacher leadership.

Theorising Distributed Leadership through a Community of Practice Lens In its simplest form, distributed leadership theory incorporates the notion of multiple leaders (either leading formally or informally) who interact with followers in dynamic ways. For Bennett, Harvey, Wise and Woods, distributed leadership is a way of thinking about leadership which can be described as “not something done by an individual to others” (2003, p. 3) but rather “an emergent property of a group or network of individuals in which group members pool their expertise” (2003, p.3). For them it is a form of leadership which is “fluid

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rather than located in specific formal roles or positions, blurring the distinction between leaders and followers” (Bennett et al., 2003, p.6). Implicit within this idea of the fluidity of leadership is the notion that leadership flows, it meanders; it is variable and flexible. Thus, it can surface from an assortment of people, in an array of different forms and at a range of different times. At times, therefore, the leadership may emerge from teachers while at other times it may emerge from those educators holding formal management positions within a school. In addition to a leader-plus aspect (multiple leaders), Spillane (2006) argues that the practice aspect is also crucial to the distributed leadership perspective. It is at this juncture that we can bring Communities of Practice theory to further elucidate our understanding of distributed leadership as practice in a schooling context. Sites within the field of ELM can be conceptualised as communities of practice where learning happens through the mutual engagement of participants who embark on a joint enterprise and develop a shared repertoire (Wenger, 1998). These communities of practice, according to Wenger, are important places of “negotiation, learning, meaning and identity; they are about knowing but also about being together, living meaningfully, developing a satisfying identity, and altogether being human” (1998, p. 134). Learning takes place within these communities as the participation of people in the practice increases (Lave and Wenger, 1999). However, it is important to note that social participation is a process, over time, of “being active participants in the practices of social communities and constructing identities in relation to these communities” (Wenger, 1998, p. 4). However, adopting Wenger’s (1998) Communities of Practice theory to conceptualise, for example, an ELM site as a community of practice is not without problems, particularly for example, in a context such as South Africa. A criticism of Wenger’s community of practice theory is that it does not embrace difference and instead takes “a relatively homogenous notion of community, assuming a fixed core of norms, belief, and values, into which to socialise others” (Shields, 2003, p. 40). By doing so, Wenger’s conceptualisation of community “does not offer sufficient insights into understanding inequalities and disadvantage that may be peculiar to individuals within a community” (Maistry, 2008, p. 143). This oversight within the theory is particularly important when applying the theory to education in a country like South Africa with its legacy of inequality and disadvantage inherited from the Apartheid era. However, while Wenger does not adequately acknowledge the importance of difference in community and instead assumes a high degree of commonality, he does warn that communities of practice should not be romanticized because they also have the potential to “reproduce counterproductive patterns, injustices, prejudices, racism, sexism, and abuses of all kinds” (1998, p. 132). Ranson (2000) takes the idea of Communities of Practice (after Wenger, 1998) but emphasises more strongly the importance of difference in communities and argues that communities of difference are critical in the postmodern world. Globally, communities are increasingly being made up of different cultures, different races as well as different ethnic and religious groups, as is the case in South Africa. However, not only are communities made up of difference in terms of their membership but they are increasingly driven by different and often competing purposes as the effects of globalisation come into play. Thus, to my way of thinking, an ELM site must develop the organisational maturity to incorporate these notions of difference. This requires the nurturing of creative communities with differing purposes which are dependent on the unique attributes which its members bring. Acknowledging and

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working with the notion of difference, I believe, presents the chance of new learning and change and, as such, should not be something that is feared. This requires that “as educational leaders we have to question our taken-for-granted assumptions about sameness and difference; be honest about who we exclude and who we include; and develop the courage to lead and learn differently” (Chronicle 8, p. 187). Thus, our challenge, as members of the ELM field, is to make “conscious, deliberate use of differences in social class, gender, age, ability, race, and interests as resources for learning” (Barth, 1990, p. 168). Guided by this notion of the importance of difference within communities, the work of Jorgensen and Keller (2008) has significance. They suggest that adopting a community of practice approach implies that we need to see the organisation (or, alternatively, our ELM discipline) as “a network of different activities that crisscross and are related to each other in many different ways, where many different people and personalities participate in many different ways, creating a range of different stories and learning trajectories” (Jorgensen and Keller, 2008, p. 534). Thus Jorgensen and Keller argue for “a more nuanced relationship between the individual and the organisation because the term community also comprises people participating in different ways and having many different relationships with one another” (2008, p. 534). Working with this idea of communities of difference within the leadership practice, it stands to reason that individuals can be variously positioned, either as core members or as newcomers to the practice. In conceptualising the practice of leadership as a community of difference, Lave and Wenger’s concept of ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ is useful in relation to the positioning of people, such as SMT members and teachers, within the practice. For Lave and Wenger, ‘legitimate peripheral participation’ refers to the gradual process by the newcomers of “both absorbing and being absorbed in”, as well as assembling “a general idea of what constitutes the practice of the community” (Lave and Wenger, 1999, p. 22). The intention is that, with time and through interactions with more-experienced others, the newcomers, such as the teachers, will be on a learning trajectory towards becoming full participants or insiders in the practice of leadership. However, I agree with Gunter that the newcomer’s “entry into, and participation within, a community of practice is a dynamic power process” (2005, p. 83) which may also result in participation remaining peripheral or marginal, depending on “the relations of participation” (Wenger, 1998, p. 167). Said slightly differently, if the locus of the power is located only at the centre of the leadership practice and remains tightly controlled by the school principal, then teachers’ attempts to lead across the zones described earlier, will be stifled. However, if the principal actively distributes power and decision-making to teachers, their leadership is more likely to expand beyond the classroom into the zones of the school and the community where it is likely to impact more on the transformation process. It is to a discussion of the critical role of the principal in enabling teacher leadership that I now turn.

The Critical Role of the Principal in Enabling Teacher Leadership Engaging teachers in the practice of leadership does not mean that the role of the principal becomes redundant. On the contrary, the role of the principal is crucial in creating opportunities for teachers to lead within a distributed practice. Essentially, the work of the principal is to hold “the pieces of the organisation together in a productive relationship”

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(Harris and Muijs, 2005, p. 28). This necessitates that schools become learning organisations (after Senge, 1990), places of learning for both learners and educators. Here the focus is not solely on individual learning but also on learning as social practice within a professional learning community (Katzenmeyer and Moller, 2001). This requires that schools build a climate of collaboration based upon “communication, sharing and opportunities for teachers to work together” (Harris, 2003, p. 321). The principal’s work begins with “spending time – lots of it – with teachers, in and out of classrooms, engaged in conversations about teaching and learning” (Ash and Persall, 2000, p. 18) As they get to know their staff better, principals will be able to identify the strengths and talents of individual teachers and relinquish power by inviting them to lead in areas where they have the potential to succeed. In so doing, principals should offer them the necessary support and mentoring so that the dormant, creative powers of their teachers can be released (Barth, 1988). However, I assert that the practice of teacher leadership involves a bi-lateral and reciprocal relationship between the principals and the teachers themselves. Not only are principals required to create the space for teachers to take-up their leadership, but the onus is also on teachers to exercise their agency and take-up leadership roles as the opportunities present themselves, regardless of any resistance from their teacher colleagues. Nonetheless, we should not deceive ourselves into thinking that the enablement of teacher leadership is not without risk on the part of principals. The risk involves entrusting teachers who may not have the expertise, interest or commitment to the task at hand with the authority to lead. In my study, it emerged that the risk was too high for many of the principals which resulted in them operating as barriers to teacher leadership. This was because they were unwilling to entrust their teachers with leadership, particularly within the zone of the school (zone three). In these situations, principals “simply rely on their senior management team to support them in leadership and decision-making, regardless of the expertise, or lack thereof, of their senior members of staff” (Chronicle 2, pp. 55- 56). As a consequence, decision-making remained firmly in the hands of the principal, supported by the SMT, who understood power to be more about “control of others than about enabling participatory decision-making” (Ramphele, 2008, p. 121). So how does a principal go about developing a culture of trust in a school whilst still holding in focus the issue of accountability? MacBeath (2005) suggests that one ought to tread cautiously, working within the existing culture and history of the school and only over time should one become more strategic. This strategy includes identifying expertise and then supporting and developing potential teacher leaders through dialogue and staff development with the aim of building both confidence and mastery. This requires ‘emotional maturity’ on the part of the SMT by which is meant the “insight to know when you do not know, the confidence to admit this, and the ability to access the necessary information (or experience) and support from the broader professional community” (Graven, 2004, p. 207). In addition, a further risk to engaging the leadership practices of teachers on the staff may emanate from other teachers who themselves refuse to lead or refuse to accept the leadership of their colleagues. These teachers position themselves on the periphery of the leadership practice because they work from the assumption that they have no right to lead and that it is also not their job to lead. In my study there were those teachers who elected to remain on the leadership periphery and intentionally resisted the leadership opportunities that opened up for them. This was because they did not want to take on additional work, as the following excerpt

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depicts: “Like they have been asked to do extra and they feel it is the SMT’s responsibility to lead and they are just there to do the minimum or what they’re expected to do between the four walls of their classroom” (Chronicle 1, p. 527). From this discussion, it becomes apparent that certain attributes are required by both principals and teachers alike in the journey towards the development of teacher leadership as an organisational phenomenon in schools. These attributes include the courage to take on, or the courage to let go of, humility, intuition, patience, trustworthiness and emotional maturity.

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CONCLUSION The purpose of the chapter was to explore the possibility of teacher leadership as a mechanism for change in South African schools. My study indicated that teacher leadership did indeed exist in many of the schools involved in the various research projects. However, in many instances it was restricted to the first and second zones, described earlier, and was not taken up as an organisational phenomenon. I have, therefore, argued that if teachers lead within and beyond their classrooms into zones two, three and four, as and when the need arises, the scope for successful teacher leadership is significantly enhanced because of its potential to transform teaching and learning through its impact on the whole school. Thus, as educators, we need to investigate the transformative power of teacher leadership and we can initiate this exploration using the model of teacher leadership presented in Figure 1. I am of the view that the model can assist in assessing the existing levels of teacher leadership in schools whilst also operating as a tool for looking forward. Furthermore, it offers educators and researchers a language of description to be able to converse with each other about the possibilities of teacher leadership in a particular context, as well as offering a framework for school change. We need to teach about the transformative power of teacher leadership at a range of levels. Firstly, an understanding of teacher leadership from a distributed leadership perspective should inform higher education curricular for educators at both the in-service and the pre-service levels. Secondly, it should permeate practice-based qualifications such as the Advanced Certificate in Education: School Leadership. Thirdly, it should be “facilitated and embraced as a cultural norm within the school” (Harris and Muijs, 2005, p. 120) through the support from the Department of Education. Finally, and as one very practical suggestion, I propose that a forum be introduced in addition to the traditional school staff meetings, which revolves around professional conversations. I suggest that it occur on a regular basis, rotate its leadership and, rather than prescribe a formal agenda, suggest a topic or a reading for discussion in the pursuit of ongoing professional development. If we can attend to the above recommendations, I believe that the transformatory power of teacher leadership can indeed be tapped in our mainstream schools.

REFERENCES Ash, R.C. and Persall, J.M. (2000) ‘The principal as chief learning officer: developing teacher leaders’ in NASSP Bulletin May, pp. 15 – 22.

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Astin, A. and Astin, H. (2000) Leadership reconsidered: engaging higher education in social change. Available at www.wkkf.org/Pubs/CCT/Leadership/ Pub 3368.PDF Barth, R.S. (1988) ‘Principals, teachers and school leadership’ in Phi Delta Kappan, May, pp. 639 – 642. Barth, R. S. (1990) Improving schools from within: teachers, parents and principals can make a difference. San Francisco: Jossey–Bass. Bennett, N., Harvey, J.A., Wise, C. and Woods, P.A. (2003) Distributed leadership: a desk study. Available at www.ncsl.org.uk / literature reviews. Bush, T. (2008) Leadership and management development in education. London: SAGE. Christie, P. (1998) ‘Schools as (dis)organisations: the breakdown of the culture of learning and teaching in South African schools’ in Cambridge Journal of Education, 28(3), pp. 283 – 300. Christie, P, Butler, D & Potterton, M. (2007) Report of the Ministerial Committee: Schools that work. 13 October 2007. Coleman, M. (2005a) ‘Theories and practice of leadership: an introduction’ in M. Coleman, and P. Earley, (Eds.), Leadership and management in education: culture, change and context. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1 – 25. Crowther, F., Kaagan, S.S., Ferguson, M. and Hann, L. (2002) Developing teacher leaders. Thousand Oaks, Ca: Corwin Press. Davidoff, S. and Lazarus, S. (2002). The learning school: an organizational development approach. (2nd Edition) Kenwyn: Juta. Donaldson, G.A. Jr. (2006) Cultivating leadership in schools: connecting people, purpose and practice. (2nd edition) New York and London: Teachers College Press. Glickman, C.D. (2002) Leadership for learning: how to help teachers succeed. Alexandria, Virginia: ASCD. Grant, C. (2006) ‘Teacher leadership: some South African voices’ in Education management, administration and leadership. 34 (4), pp. 511 – 532. Grant, C. (2008) ‘We did not put our pieces together: Exploring a professional development initiative through a distributed leadership lens’ in Journal of Education, Vol. 44, pp. 85 – 107. Grant, C. (2009) ‘Towards a conceptual understanding of education leadership: place, space and practices’ in Education as change, 13(1), pp. 45 – 57. Grant, C. (2010) Distributed teacher leadership: troubling the terrain. Unpublished PHD thesis. Pietermaritzburg: University of KwaZulu-Natal. Graven, M. (2004) ‘Investigating Mathematics teacher learning within an in-service community of practice: the centrality of confidence’ in Educational studies in mathematics, vol. 57, pp. 177 – 211. Gunter, H.M. (2005) Leading teachers. London: Continuum. Harris, A. (2003) ‘Teacher leadership as distributed leadership: heresy, fantasy or possibility?’ in School leadership and management, 23(3), pp. 313 – 324. Harris, A. (2004) ‘Distributed Leadership and School Improvement’ in Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 32 (1), pp. 11-24. Harris, A. and Lambert, L. (2003) Building leadership capacity for school improvement. Buckingham: Open University Press. Harris, A. and Muijs, D. (2005) Improving schools through teacher leadership. Maidenhead: Open University Press.

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Howey, K.R. (1988) ‘Why teacher leadership?’ in Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), pp. 28 – 31. John, V.M. (2009) ‘Communities of learning and action?: a case study of the human rights, democracy and development project, 1999 – 2005’. Unpublished PhD thesis: University of KwaZulu-Natal. Jorgensen, K.M. and Keller, H.D. (2008) ‘The contribution of communities of practice to human resources developmet: learning as negotiated identity’ in Advances in Developing Human Resources, 10(4), pp. 525 - 540. Katzenmeyer, M. and Moller, G. (2001) Awakening the sleeping giant. Helping teachers develop as leaders. (2nd edition). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Kotter, J. (1990) A force for change: how leadership differs from management. New York: Free Press. Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1999) ‘Legitimate peripheral participation in communities of practice’ in R. McCormick and C. Paechter (Eds.) Learning and knowledge. London: Paul Chapman. Lieberman, A., Saxl, E. and Miles, M. (1988) ‘Teacher leadership: ideology and practice’ in A. Lieberman, E. Saxl and M. Miles (Eds.) Building a professional culture in new schools. New York: Teachers’ College Press, pp. 148 – 166. MacBeath, J. ( 2005). Leadership as distributed: a matter of practice. School leadership and management 25, pp. 349 – 366. Maistry, S.M. (2008) ‘Transcending traditional boundaries for teacher professional development: exploring a community of practice approach to CPD’ in Journal of Education, 43, pp. 127 – 153. Ramphele, M. (2008) Laying ghosts to rest: dilemmas of the transformation in South Africa. Cape Town: Tafelberg. Ranson, S. (2000) ‘Recognising the pedagogy of voice in a learning community’ in Education Management and Administration, 28(3), pp. 263 – 279. Republic of South Africa (2000) Norms and Standards for Educators. (No. 20844, 4 February 2000) Sayed, Y. (2003) “Education exclusion and inclusion: key debates and issues” in Perspectives in education, 21(3), pp. 1 – 12. Sayed, Y. (2004) “The case of teacher education in post-apartheid South Africa: politics and priorities” in L. Chisholm (Ed). Changing class: education and social change in postapartheid South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press, pp. 247 - 265. Senge, P. (1990) The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organisation. New York: Doubleday Currency. Shields, C. (2003) Good intentions are not enough: transformative leadership for communities of difference. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press. Smith, D. (2001) Norbert Elias and Modern Social Theory. London: SAGE. Soudien, C. (2007) The ‘A’ factor: coming to terms with the question of legacy in South African education in International journal of educational development, 27, pp. 182 – 193. Spillane, J.P., Halverson, R. and Diamond, J.B. (2004) ‘Towards a theory of leadership practice: a distributed perspective’ in Journal of curriculum studies, 36(1), pp. 3 – 34. Spillane, J.P. (2006) Distributed leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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Thurlow, M. (2003) ‘The management of schools’ in M. Thurlow, T. Bush and M. Coleman (Eds.) Leadership and Strategic Management in South African Schools. London: The Commonwealth Secretariat, pp. 21 - 41. Troen, V. and Boles, K. (1994) ‘A time to lead’ in Teacher Magazine, 5(2), pp. 40 – 41. Wasley, P. A. (1991) “Teachers who lead: the rhetoric of reform and the realities of practice”. New York: Teachers College Press. Wenger, E. (1998) Communities of practice: learning, meaning and identity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yukl, G. (1994) Leadership in organisations (3rd edition). Englewood Cliffs NJ: PrenticeHall. Zimpher, N.L. (1988). ‘A design for the professional development of teachers’ in Journal of Teacher Education, 39(1), pp. 53 - 60.

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Chapter 4

WHAT TEACHERS UNDERSTAND ABOUT THE LEADERSHIP OF PUPILS Reginald Dudley Forde and Vitallis Chikoko South Africa

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ABSTRACT This chapter records the findings of a recent doctoral study into teacher leadership in the classroom with particular reference to teachers’ understanding of that concept. The practice of leadership – which is complex, ubiquitous and enigmatic, and requires understanding – is initially discussed with reference to current definitions and people’s general understanding of it. While the large majority of the study’s respondents were unaware of the legislated requirement that they be leaders, nor did they recognise that they had had any significant training to prepare them for that role, they did however indicate a significant understanding of teacher leadership in action. This understanding is recorded here under the following headings: Knowing, Doing, Being, and Relating. The teacher respondents recognised the importance of both subject knowledge and knowledge regarding the personal circumstances of the pupils that they teach. They catalogued what teacher leaders ought to do in the classroom situation as including inspiring pupils, taking charge of the situation (in a disciplinary and control sense), providing goals and a vision of a possible future, and ‘empowering’ and ‘enabling’ their pupils. Seven aspects displayed by teachers ‘being’ leaders included: role modelling, the vital importance of values, the place of emotional intelligence, being a person who serves, being a person who stimulates intellect, being a person of passion and energy, and being ‘surgent’. The ability to relate to others was recognised as involving communicating, networking, touching people’s hearts, and building and maintaining inter-personal relationships. In addition it also introduces into the teacher leadership mix certain ‘soft’ attributes such as care, compassion, trust and love.

INTRODUCTION That a teacher could be expected to display and utilise leadership abilities becomes evident through a consideration of the etymology of the word ‘educate’, which is derived

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from the Latin words e (meaning ‘out’) and duco (meaning ‘to lead’). It is from these two words e and duco that the third conjugation verb educere emerges, which means to lead away from, as in leading children out of childhood and away from a lack of knowledge. Another derivative is the first conjugation verb educare, which means to bring up or to lead into adulthood. It would appear therefore that in both educere and educare the notion of education involves embracing leadership. The term ‘teacher leadership’ is conceived and used here to convey the exercise of leadership by teachers as they perform their duties in relation to their pupils. In his PhD thesis, Forde (2011) (first author of this chapter) sought to explore leadership of pupils by South African school teachers. Forde aimed to find out what it is that teachers actually understand about leadership, and discover how and why teacher leadership does or does not happen in a class with a view to understanding and appreciating better the role of leading in teaching. In this chapter we focus on the findings connected to the first critical question of that study, namely ‘What do teachers understand by leadership of pupils in a class to mean?’ Dictionaries variously define ‘understand’ as a realisation “of [the] intended meaning of words – or a speaker” (Oxford English Dictionary, 2005) or as having come “to comprehend, grasp the significance of” (Collins, 1960) something. Both these definitions suggest the cognitive exercises of ‘grasping with the mind’ and ‘perceiving significance’. Our use of the word ‘understand’ will be informed by the above-mentioned definitions. All the teacher respondents in Forde’s study were selected from state, Section 21 (largely self-financing) schools within the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. Such schools were previously designated as Model C (i.e. state-aided) schools. Having always enjoyed considerable advantages, these schools have a history of notable educational success. This success can be attributed to the enormous financial advantages that they enjoy, as well as to the quality of their people, plant and educational resources. It can also be attributed to good leadership from principals and other staff members (the acquiring of such excellent staff is the result of the schools’ tradition of excellence over many years). Those teachers identified by their principals as being teacher leaders were asked to be involved in the study. The teachers’ involvement took the form of interviews, focus groups, film stimulus groups, and classroom observations. In terms of the interviews, five one-on-one interviews were conducted. Four of these five interviewees took turns to have the researcher sit in on one of their lessons in order to observe their teaching practices. It was hoped that by observing four teachers from privileged and advantaged situations the researcher would gain unique insights into what is possible in terms of teacher leadership within schools. In addition to the individual interviews and classroom observations, five focus group interviews and five film stimulus groups were convened. This chapter opens with teachers’ expressions of general unawareness with regard to the legislated requirement that teachers be competent leaders. It also pursues the comments that were made regarding their understanding of leadership within a teaching context. These latter observations are framed under the following four broad headings (which were inspired by both the literature and the data that emerged): ‘What teachers know’, ‘What they do and how needs are met’, ‘What they are’, and ‘How they relate’.

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Understanding the Term ‘Leadership’ “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” (Winston Churchill. Radio broadcast, 1 October 1939)

The development of comprehensive leadership theories has occurred over aeons. Socrates (c. 469-399 B.C.), Xenaphon (c. 430-354 B.C.) and Lao Tzu (6th century B.C.) are generally considered as the earliest recorded thinkers on the issue (Adair, 2002). The work of the personality and social science theorists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries predominantly dealt with the ‘great man’ and ‘trait’ leadership theories. The concepts of ‘power and influence’ and ‘leader behaviour’ dominated research and literature after the onset of the Second World War (1939-1945) as well as into the early 1960s. Situational theories (the context in which leadership takes place), contingency theories (recognising leadership’s contingency on behaviour, personality, influence and situation) and transformational theories (leadership being dependent upon what Sadler (2003, p.12) calls “role-differentiation and social interaction”) have all dominated the last years of the twentieth century. The leadership theories of the new millennium have been preoccupied with relationships, technology, knowledge, information and connections (Adair, 1989; Bass, 1981; Bell, 2006; Mickleth waite, 1996; Sadler, 2003). The practice of leadership is complex, ubiquitous and enigmatic, and the acceptance of it is elusive. It is a multi-faceted and expansive concept and one that is forever evolving. Much of it is “invisible and intangible” (Bell, 2006, p.33). It cannot be taken to mean only one thing and it is seemingly impossible to pin it down by any one definition.

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Few topics in the study of organizational life can have inspired such a range of prescriptions, nostrums and intellectual constructs. (West-Burnham, 2003, p.3)

Any search for an understanding of the concept of leadership raises questions for which it appears there are no answers, and answers for which there are no questions. Bennis and Nanus (1985, p.1) write: Leadership is a word on everyone’s lips. The young attack it, and the old grow wistful for it. Parents have lost it and the police seek it. Experts claim it and artists spurn it, while scholars want it. Philosophers reconcile it (as authority) with liberty and theologians demonstrate its compatibility with conscience. If bureaucrats pretend they have it, politicians wish they did. Everybody agrees that there is less of it than there used to be.

The nature of leadership modifies as our understanding of it grows and as the lifefulfilment requirements of each generation evolve. When, for example, a large number of societies around the world were affected by the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September 2001, the need for a ‘new’ leadership emerged. Leadership as a phenomenon has, over the aeons, been a matter of great concern and interest to mankind; the notion of the leader and leadership has accordingly been studied, pondered and written about for centuries. However, the conceptualisation of leadership remains unfathomable.

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Reginald Dudley Forde and Vitallis Chikoko If we know all too much about our leaders, we know far too little about leadership, […] leadership is one of the most observed, and least understood phenomena on earth. (Burns, 1979, p.2)

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Maxwell (1993) postulates that a leader is someone who has the ability to obtain followers. Macoby’s (2007b, p. xvi) definition, though worded slightly differently, is fundamentally similar: “There is only one definition of a leader, and that is someone people follow.” The derivation of the English words ‘leader’, ‘lead’ and ‘leadership’ can be traced back to the ancient Anglo-Saxon word laed, which spoke of ‘a path’ or ‘a road’ along which people travel. The word laed in turn derived from the word laeden, which means ‘to travel’ or ‘to go’. It was also used in reference to the journey travellers would take along a road or (because of the sea-faring nature of the Anglo-Saxons) across a sea. The concept of a leader evolved in order to refer to the person who points out or finds the way to proceed on a journey. Laed was a word common to all the northern European languages, such as AngloSaxon, German, Dutch, Norwegian, Danish and Swedish. It is a word that has reached modern times more or less unchanged. The original metaphor (and the word itself) is also to be found in the Persian and Egyptian languages, as well as in the Mashona language of Zimbabwe (Adair, 1988; Adair, 2002; Kets de Vries, 2006a). Change is endemic to leadership. Bacon (1930) has suggested that any leader who will not apply improved and different remedies to old problems must expect more problems, for time itself is a great creator and innovator. For Kotter (1990b, 1998), leadership is primarily about generating change. “Good leadership moves people in a direction” (Kotter, 1988, p.17). The differing metaphors of leadership – one being that of the ‘head’ and the other that of a ‘journey’ – take on importance when one comes to understand the derivation of the word ‘leader’ and its common usage in the English language. Adair (2002, pp.59-60) comments: The two metaphors have very different connotations. One is vertical and the other is horizontal. The head sits on top of the body and it is the most important member. The image lends itself naturally to a hierarchical understanding of tribes or societies […]. By contrast, ‘leader’ does not have hierarchical undertones. Leaders and followers are the same size, and on the same level.

Leadership describes the state, activities, competencies and/or functions of a leader. It is not only about the charisma-filled, remarkable performances of a few on a world stage, but it is also concerned with the daily activities of ordinary people who are comfortable with themselves and who set out to make a difference in the lives of others. Leadership can and does exist at all levels in organisations, not just at the top; the larger the organisation, the greater the number of levels of leadership that could potentially exist. There is a popular and widely published ‘definition’ of leadership that simply says “leadership is influence” (Maxwell, 1993, p.1). Such a definition is, however, more a synonym than a definition. A cognitive approach to defining leadership posits that it “originates in the human mind” (Gardner, 1995, p.15) and “affect[s] the thoughts, behaviours and feelings of a significant number of individuals” (Gardner, 1995, p.84). Such a definition resonates with the teacher’s pedagogic responsibilities towards the pupils in his/her class, as does the definition suggested and framed by Adair’s Action Centred Leadership theory: “Leadership is a process in which a leader influences a group, made up of individuals, toward

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the achievement of a task, in a given situation, by meeting the needs of the task, the group and the individuals” (Forde, 1992, p.36). Montgomery (1961, p.11), famous for his military leadership in the Western Desert and in Europe during the Second World War, introduced a now well-used phrase that Forde incorporated into the title of his PhD thesis: “the beginning of leadership is the battle for the hearts and minds of men.” Covey (2004, p.98) has offered an important definition which warrants consideration in the context of teaching and learning: “Leadership is communicating to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves.” Another definition (widely quoted but whose originator is anonymous) that resonates strongly when it comes to the teacher-pupil imperative is: “The function of the leader is to create an environment in which all people can reach their full potential.” Heifitz (1994, p.27) says that leadership is the “activity of mobilising people to deal with their tough issues”. This is an attractive definition in a teaching/learning context in that it describes leadership as an activity that is more than just influence and that is free of the leader’s sole will. This definition is geared towards socially positive outcomes that not only meet the needs of the followers but also elevate them to a ‘better place’ or to “higher levels of motivation and morality” (Burns, 1979, p.20). It is also concerned with inspiration, intellectual stimulation and personal consideration (Bass, 1985), and thus incorporates the higher tenets of the transformational leadership theory whilst also encapsulating the most important aspects of the other definitions already mentioned. In addition, this definition reflects the African-community style of leadership, which uses patient dialogue to define community needs and utilises human talent and potential so that people will happily work beyond their normal contribution. Such leadership is good at “encouraging full participation and shared leadership of every member of the community” (Ngambi, 2004, p.128). These definitions together provide an understanding of the concept of leadership as it is to be considered in the context of the teacher in the classroom.

A LEADERSHIP ROLE: WE WERE UNAWARE OF THAT POLICY Many of the forty-seven teacher respondents who participated in the study, particularly those who began their teaching careers prior to the promulgation of the South African Schools Act of 1996 but also those who were more recent entrants to the profession, claimed that they were unaware of the policy that calls for teachers to be leaders, managers and administrators. “I hadn’t heard of that,” claimed Garnet 1. Another respondent said: I had never heard that [policy] statement before about every teacher being a manager, leader and administrator. (Topaz 5)

Although the following respondent was aware of this requirement from her training days, she did not know that it had been legislated: I didn’t know that was in the legislation, but we briefly touched on it in our PGCE course about five years ago. (Garnet 4)

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One respondent, who had mentored and observed younger teachers, expressed doubts that the majority of teachers perceive themselves as leaders: I certainly don’t believe the young teachers see themselves as leaders at all. They see themselves still very much as followers. Maybe that is part of their learning process – I don’t know, but they do not see themselves as leaders at that point. (Opal 5)

Underscoring the impact of a lack of awareness of the policy, respondents (after learning of the policy for the first time) noted the need for teachers to understand the expectation of their leadership role: Maybe as teachers are made to realise they have responsibility, they need to realise their leadership role. (Topaz 3) If you look at it, every teacher – every good teacher – must be a leader in the classroom. If you are not that, you are not a teacher. (Opal 4)

A focus group discussion pursued this same issue and this is what two of the respondents had to say on the matter: You are a leader every day as a teacher; from the time you walk into the classroom you are influencing those children. Your behaviour and your actions every single day affect those pupils. (Emerald 1) Because you are automatically a leader – and if you are not, you are not much of a teacher. (Emerald 1)

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One respondent clearly recognised her own leadership role within the classroom: Well, being a teacher itself is a leader. Just in the classroom I consider myself as the leader of that ship […]. The children have minds. You guide that. A leader guides, and you try to show them the right path, and you try to pass on the skills – a good leader passes on skills that will allow you to cope with whatever life hands you. (Sapphire 1)

The view that teacher leadership is a function and duty of members of the school management team was noted insofar as the following respondent felt that the teacher’s leadership role is overshadowed and underestimated because the school’s management team is generally perceived as meeting all of the school’s leadership needs. I think it is important that a teacher be a leader. You can’t be a teacher if you are not a leader at the end of the day […]. They just see the headmaster and the deputies as being leaders of the school, not realising that you need leadership in the classroom. They only see it at the top level and not as leadership at every level. (Garnet 4)

It was, however, suggested that some teachers do not display leadership tendencies: I think sadly some teachers aren’t leaders; they stand in front and tend to impart information without standing up as a leader. (Opal 3)

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A respondent in one focus group further posited that often people outside the profession do not recognise the teachers’ leadership role: I think people sometimes think that teachers – not all the time, but sometime – that teachers are lovers, they help people – and they almost see leaders as strong and not about necessarily – I think they have the wrong perception of what leadership is. They think that maybe it is someone who is at the top, and they make decisions and people respect them; they almost forget about the relationship part. And yet teachers are seen as people who care for kids, who want them to be better – yet that is not associated with leadership. It is like a big divide. (Garnet 4)

The above quotes clearly suggest that there is a general unawareness with regard to the policy expectation that South African teachers be competent leaders. It took some external probing for respondent teachers to begin to understand and appreciate their role as leaders. We now examine the concepts of leadership as expounded by the respondents in order to gain clarity as to what it is that teachers actually understand about teacher leadership. This examination, as already mentioned, is conducted under the following four headings: Knowing, Doing, Being, and Relating.

LEADERSHIP: KNOWING

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If leadership does indeed involve having superior knowledge, as has been suggested in the literature (Gardner, 1990; Adair, 2002), or at least having an ‘awareness’ that is beyond that of one’s followers, how do teachers gain the necessary knowledge to lead? It is noted from the collected data that the two areas of knowledge considered by respondents to be significant in terms of the teacher as a leader are (1) knowledge of the subject being taught and (2) knowing the children being taught.

Having Subject Knowledge For some of the teacher respondents, the term ‘leader’ suggested someone who has the answers. Knowledge was clearly recognised by them as a source of and reason for respect: [A leader is] someone who commands respect with skills and knowledge. (Opal 7) Leaders and teachers need to be knowledgeable about their subjects and as much else related to their situation, so they need to extend themselves all the time in that regard. (Topaz 2) You have to be the person who has the answers or can find the answers […] to be able to take command of a situation […] to have the expertise and knowledge necessary to do this effectively in a situation. (Opal 4)

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Reginald Dudley Forde and Vitallis Chikoko Subject knowledge was also recognised as being something that helps motivate pupils: Being knowledgeable about your subject shows them [i.e. the pupils] that you have got to take these things seriously. They know you are prepared. (Sapphire 1)

The early situational theories of leadership focused on the value of a leader having knowledge of the specific technicalities with which his/her task team is involved. In the case of the teacher leader, this would mean having knowledge of the technicalities of the subject matter being taught, of its significance, and of its place within the curriculum. Socrates was the first to teach that the person possessing knowledge tends to be the leader (Adair, 1989).

Knowing the Children, and Knowing About Them The importance of knowing the children in one’s class is similar to the importance of a leader knowing the people he/she leads. This concept was recognised by the respondents as being important. Topaz 1 and Sapphire 1, for instance, indicated that they adhere to this view. They expressed the idea that knowing the children in one’s class is important if one is to encourage growth in each child:

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I take that very seriously in my classroom because I need to get to know the children I am working with in order to make their education more real in terms of their lifestyle – that’s why I feel quite strongly that if I do not know what a child is going through at home or what their lifestyle is how am I going to relate the learning experience to them. In the first term I take a huge amount of effort to get to know the children on an individual basis as best I can, and I have individual interviews with my children. (Topaz 1)

Sapphire 1 suggested that coming to know one’s pupils includes finding out about their strengths and weaknesses in order to be able to work more effectively: Get to know their strengths and weaknesses and try to use their strengths to their advantage, and try to work on their weaknesses. (Sapphire 1)

Two of the respondents argued that having personal, specific knowledge of each child is indispensable if you are to handle that child with sensitivity: You have to get to know the kids; get to know them as people, not just a ‘bunch of irritating creatures’. [Laughs.] (Ruby 2) You can’t do anything unless you actually get to know them, and learn a little bit about them. Some of them have quite a lot of hardship. They come from home angry, or upset – and if you know nothing about the kids that you teach, you cannot do anything with them. It is important. (Ruby 3)

In commenting on the performances of the teachers represented in the films that were watched as part of the film stimulus group discussion and on the type of leadership that they portray, the respondents noted that coming to know the children as individuals enhanced their leadership abilities within the classroom. Two of the respondents had the following to say:

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He [i.e. the teacher] identified [in pupils] what their role was, what their strength was – or where they were comfortable, and he made them grow in that. (Opal 5) She [i.e. the teacher] invests much time and effort in getting to know each of her students personally, building on their strengths and challenging their weaknesses. (Ruby 5)

The implication of knowing the children individually in terms of those children’s ability to learn was perceived by Sapphire 3, who referred to the concept of ‘multiple intelligences’ and the different ways in which individual children learn (Gardner, 1983): In managing and leading in the classroom it is important to remember that different children learn in different ways. So we must allow all of them to experience learning in their own ways. (Sapphire 3)

Amethyst 2 had the following to say about the skill shown by the teacher portrayed in the one film in terms of dealing with a pupil who was showing signs of personal problems: Knowing where they [the pupils] are at is hugely important. The film gave it to us so clearly with that one girl in particular. “Why haven’t you done your homework? Why haven’t you?” Then we saw her home life, you can then very well understand. In dealing with the learners we teach it is also important, hugely important.

Hybels (2008, p.24) has the following to say about leadership:

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A key responsibility of the leader is to know what season the organisation is in, to name it, and then to communicate the implications of that season to his or her followers.

Forde observed the incident described below whilst sitting in on a class where the overexcited children required careful handling by their teacher. This situation illustrates what Hybels refers to as a ‘season’: it shows the teacher handling her pupils in a positive manner, having, through her knowledge of them, recognised the ‘season’ in which they were in: Teacher: “I think you are all very hyped up from practising in the hall. Put your pens down, please. Take a few deep breaths – in – and out – and in – and out.” [To one boy who was giggling] “You need an extra one, you are still not ready.” (Sapphire 1)

It can be seen from the above comments that the respondents recognised knowledge of one’s pupils as an important function of leading and as such they endeavour to practise this as part of their teaching. Knowing one’s pupils has been shown to be more than a once-off matter, hence the notion of seasons.

LEADERSHIP: DOING In this section we examine the data that was received in response to questions such as ‘What would you recognise as leadership within the classroom?’ and ‘What does the term ‘leadership’ mean to you?’ The data revealed four main practices that the respondents felt that they as teachers ought to execute whilst leading in the classroom. These four practices are: inspiring others, taking charge, providing a vision, and empowering and enabling others.

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Inspiring Others The data gathered for this study reveals that there was an understanding and recognition by the study’s respondents of the need for teachers to inspire and motivate their pupils. This understanding and recognition is consistent with Heifitz’s (1994) definition of leadership as an act of mobilisation. Providing inspiration – in a literal sense to ‘breathe into’ something (from the Latin inspirare) (Oxford English Dictionary, 2005) – was recognised by the following four respondents as something that leaders do: Leadership is inspiring others. (Emerald 2) Leadership is the ability to inspire others toward positive action and bringing about meaningful change in the system. (Emerald 4) You have to be able to inspire people to go along with you and accept what you say. (Ruby 3) The one leadership quality I really admire is the ability to inspire. I think as the teacher inspires, he is leading, not merely teaching. Teaching is a task; inspiration and motivation are the mission – that is the primary function, to inspire. The teacher is on a mission. If you are a leader in the classroom you are on a mission. The mission is to bring across the principle that we are all living a life of purpose. (Diamond 4)

Opal 8 and Opal 1 expressed their mutual hope that their teaching is inspirational, which is an indicator of the importance that they attach to teachers inspiring their pupils: When it comes to inspiration, I hope I inspire my pupils. (Opal 8) I would be devastated if in teaching I wasn’t inspiring. (Opal 1)

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Another respondent said: You are the inspiration – you, the leader, are the inspiration. If you have got inspiration it is contagious, they will see it. […]. It is you that is the example, you that is the inspiration and they will take the lead from you. Ja! I think inspiration is very important. (Garnet 3)

Opal 6 expressed the view that inspirational teaching (and leadership) does not just happen effortlessly: I also think to be inspiring you have to put energy into it and you have to do some research, and be prepared. You can’t … you can’t just walk in and be inspiring, but if you want to take your class to higher levels you need to prepare for it. Be it for information, materials, research or whatever it is. (Opal 6) I just think of my children and how in Grade 5 they grow to love their poetry lessons, because I enjoy poetry, and they love their poetry. It is amazing for young boys to want to read poetry. It is one area in which I do feel I inspire them. (Opal 4)

Inspiration, as with all leadership abilities, however, begins with the person who is leading. One respondent spoke as follows of the importance he believes is attached to the nature of the person who teaches and leads:

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I think when you are going to inspire your class it comes from within you; and the children must feel that you are so caught up with whatever you are putting across to them. I think that is so important. And if they feel you are living whatever you are doing, they will be inspired. (Opal 2)

The place of inspiration in teaching has been well identified by the above respondents. Opal 7 recognised that there are inevitably going to be some teachers currently teaching who do not have the will to inspire. The concern expressed below is that maybe the inspirational teachers are in the minority: I think that there are a lot of teachers who don’t think they should be inspiring people. I think there are wonderful, inspirational teachers out there, but I think they are more in the minority than the majority.

Such a situation, if correct, suggests that there is a problem for the teachers concerned in terms of their understanding of the possibilities of inspirational teaching, which may well be a consequence of their experience, training and/or management. The teachers’ responses presented in this section suggest that the ability of teachers to inspire their pupils requires a compendium of energy, self-confidence, knowledge of the subject and the pupils, sound preparation, and a personal passion for the topic, for teaching and for children. This is a rare mixture.

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Taking Charge The concepts of discipline, control and ‘being in charge’ were referred to frequently during Forde’s interviews with the respondents, and they also suggested themselves to him when he sat in on lessons as an observer. The issue of ‘taking charge’ emerged during one focus group discussion. Two of the respondents in that group argued that taking charge is a fundamental part of teacher leadership: I think there is one thing missing so far [in the discussion], and that is a ‘take charge’ type of scenario – with all of those characteristics we have mentioned, a leader needs to be able to step in and take charge. (Topaz 3)

While all the respondents agreed upon the need for teachers to take charge or be in charge of the class or situation, it was noted that taking charge can take on various forms. The archetypal image of the commanding, heroic, ‘great man’ leader who arrives to take charge and deal effectively with the situation at hand by making strong decisions, issuing instructions and just generally overseeing all operations still persists: If you take one hundred children out there and they are unorganised – put a teacher there, and within ten minutes things are sorted out and moving along. (Topaz 5)

For Garnet 3, there are a variety of ways in which a teacher could take charge, and the way that is chosen depends upon the situation: Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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Reginald Dudley Forde and Vitallis Chikoko You are using all the different forms of leadership depending on the situation – sometimes you are more authoritative, other times you are more democratic. (Garnet 3)

Three respondents described taking charge as being similar to directing and deciding: - Is it not directing? (Garnet 1) - Ja! Directing. (Garnet 4) - [The leader] makes decisions – sometimes difficult decisions. (Topaz 5)

It can be seen from the data above that the leader-teacher needs to control the pupils, guide them, make decisions, and direct them, and the ability to do this is recognised by the respondents as being one of the tasks of the leader.

Providing a Vision

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Providing one’s followers (or one’s pupils, as is the case with a teacher) with a vision was noted by several of the respondents as being a key feature of leadership. Vision has become something of a “catchword, perhaps the catchword of the 20th century” (Sweet, 2004, p.12). The importance of providing a vision when teaching was noted by the following two respondents as a prerequisite for any type of achievement: [A leader is] someone with vision. If you don’t have a vision, you won’t be able to lead people forward – if you don’t have an aim. You know exactly where you want to take people, an organisation or that particular class. (Ruby 4) The thing is as well, if you don’t have a vision, you are like a ship sailing without a rudder and you go round in circles […]. Think of your teaching – you have to know where you are going to get your end result; otherwise you could just be going round in circles. (Ruby 2)

In admiring the achievements of the teacher portrayed in the film Freedom Writers, one respondent commented on the way in which that teacher repeatedly articulated to her pupils her vision for them. This respondent believed the teacher in the film was a successful teacher because of this: I think she had a vision, and that was to change people; and she definitely did that; she inspired them and got people to follow her. I think that is what leadership is about. We saw how the children wanted her to teach them the next year again. In terms of my take on leadership, she did very well. (Diamond 4)

One respondent from the film stimulus group clearly thought Jamie Escalante, as portrayed in the film Stand and Deliver, was an effective teacher, commenting: [He was] visionary. (Amethyst 2)

Vision breeds commitment, perseverance, and excitement towards accomplishment. A Harvard research study carried out by Kotter (1998) into multifaceted organisations concluded that effectual leaders create an agenda for transformation, develop a vision as to Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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what is desirable and possible, and devise the means to achieving it. This conclusion is supported by the views of the respondents as relayed above. Teacher-leaders create a shared vision when they involve their pupils in their vision. To put it more generally, those leaders that communicate and share their vision encourage their followers to buy into it and a group commitment to the leader’s vision consequently develops (Bell, 2006). If the presentation of such a vision is compelling, if a sense of meaning is given to all, and if the vision that is imparted becomes a shared vision, then the necessary energy will be there for a change to be made to the current reality.

Empowering Others Two of the respondents proposed that the empowerment of pupils by a teacher is an act of leadership by that teacher. Topaz 2 expressed the view that the all-encompassing goal of teaching is the empowering or preparing of people for the roles they must eventually play: Leaders need to empower people so that when there is a need they can step up [...]. (Topaz 2)

In commenting on the representation of Lou Johnson (a real person) in the film Dangerous Minds, one respondent in a film stimulus focus group noted that empowerment occurred within Johnson’s classroom:

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If leadership is about empowering others […] then the teacher […] has accomplished this. (Ruby 6)

Empowering others is an act of trust by a leader. It provides opportunities for others to become involved in decisions and activities that affect their work and their lives. Empowerment encourages creativity and the development of skills and it ensures that followers take responsibility for their lives and activities. From the commentary of the teachers in the one focus group discussion, the empowering of her students was clearly achieved by Johnson. Leaders, suggests Zander (2000), set out to make other people powerful. They do not simply seek to remain powerful themselves. The nature of the teaching/learning process demands that each teacher gains his/her pupils’ attention, instigates their involvement in their own education, and encourages them to make an effort with their schoolwork. Empowerment involves the dispensing of power to others as opposed to the act of management, which involves holding on to control and power.

LEADERSHIP: BEING In this section we consider the leader as a person, as someone alive with virtues, skills and competences, yet also possessing human frailties. The person a leader is perceived to be and the person that leader actually is, are as significant as anything he/she might say or be seen to do. Those who follow (or who are deciding whether or not to follow) someone may well ask themselves one or many of the following questions to do with that leader: Who is

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this person really? What does he/she really stand for? Is he/she really interested in me and my welfare? Can this person be trusted? Does this leader have what it takes to make a difference? These questions are invariably answered in terms of who the leader is and who he/she presents himself/herself to be. The answers from the respondents of the study revealed seven different categories in terms of their understanding of teachers ‘being’. These seven categories are: (1) being a role model, (2) the vital role of values, (3) the place of emotional intelligence, (4) being a person who serves, (5) being a person who stimulates intellect, (6) being a person of passion and energy, and (7) being ‘surgent’.

Walk the Talk: Being a Role Model The idea of the role model is best discussed through examples. A role model is: Someone who is prepared to do what they ask others to do. (Opal 3)

Several respondents recognised the power of the role model in the classroom to influence and thus lead. This recognition reflects the almost intuitive realisation by the thoughtful that what is expected of followers must first be displayed by their leaders. Some of the respondents spoke of role modelling as a synonym for leading within the classroom:

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I think leadership in the context of teaching means being a role model to the people under your care. (Topaz 3) We have to be the right kind of role model – walk the talk. (Emerald 2) [A leader is] someone who … I wouldn’t say perfect, someone you hope to be more like, someone who has definite goals, is able to get through tasks, and it’s a really broad category – but someone who is a role model. (Sapphire 1)

Role models were recognised by Ruby 1 and Garnet 3 as a source of motivation and influence: […] they can always see you […] and you must behave in the way you perceive they should be. If you want to encourage them to be the best then you must behave in that model. (Ruby 1) Leading by example … if you want them to do their work, you should be doing your work. If you want them to be on time, you must be on time. (Garnet 3)

Several of the respondents commented on the importance of “shaping the ethical and moral fibre of our young generation via the example we lead in our everyday interaction with them” (Samuel, 2008, p.6). Diamond 1 and Sapphire 1 ruminated as follows on the lessons pupils learn from just watching and being with their teacher-leaders: Teaching is not just a matter of theory […] I think a lot of life lessons will come out as well from how you react and that sort of thing. I think this is something that rubs off on the boys, which is a good thing […]. To see your motivation and that sort of thing toward work and what you want to do – this is a big thing. (Diamond 1) A skill like coping strategies […] hopefully one imparts this as a leader as a role model – when they see me with other teachers and other adults, with other children for

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that matter […] I hope to show them, to lead them into that, to be a good role model. (Sapphire 1)

The importance of the teacher as a role model was emphasised by Diamond 1, who recalled the influence of his one schoolteacher on him. As a child, this respondent took note of his teacher’s grooming, his sense of humour, his professionalism, and his strong presence: As teachers go, I remember in my younger years a teacher, Mr F___, who is now teaching at ____ School, and I remember how he told me about an essay I wrote and it was great. He was always well groomed, well turned out, professional, and also on the other side he could have a good laugh and joke around, but the line was the line, and you won’t step over the line, and he had a presence with him that you could respect. (Diamond 1)

Opal 5 similarly noted how children can develop respect for a leader as a result of that leader simply being the person that he/she is (versus respecting that person based on his/her position or title):

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Going back to the word ‘leader’, children will look at a person and respect them as a leader, not because of rank or position, but just because of the way that person, in front of them, will be a role model. And they can respect that that person is leading them whether it may be in thought process, whether it be in analysing, whether it be in faith, or whether it be in the message that that person in front [is conveying]. So leadership is not about a title – you can be that person without any rank – but you can still lead by your philosophy. (Opal 5)

Being a teacher who is also a role model begins with the person that that teacher is, though a willingness and ability to do and behave as he/she expects others to behave greatly enhances his/her ability to lead. Giuliani (2002, p.209), in recounting the lessons in leadership that he learned from being the Mayor of New York City, had the following to say about setting an example: You cannot ask [others] to do something you’re unwilling to do yourself. It is up to you to set a standard of behaviour.

The responses of the study’s participants suggest that they possess a good understanding of the significance of teachers being role models. The ethics Forde saw displayed by all of the four teachers that he individually observed reinforced his opinion that they had a good understanding of and regard for this principle.

The Essential Role of Values Human values consist of a body of self-imposed emotional standards and norms that people embrace and use to govern their judgments, decisions and behaviour. Values, in their more formal context, are thought of as ethics. Values and ethics instil in people a sense of integrity, honesty and diligence, and determine for them what is good and worthy, a determination that often comprises the assumptions that they make about their world. Values

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exert a powerful influence in terms of who one chooses to relate to and the way in which to relate to those people. In addition, values determine one’s reaction to change and innovation in one’s life. Values “are embodied in [a] society’s religious beliefs and its secular philosophy […] every healthy society celebrates its values […] they are expressed in art, in song, in ritual” (Gardner, 1990, p.13). Rokeach (1973, p.5) has provided a useful definition of values: A value is an enduring belief that a specific mode of conduct or end-state of existence is personally or socially preferable to an opposite or converse mode of conduct or end-state of existence.

One of the respondents had the following to say about the significance of values in the lives of teachers playing out their leadership role: I think that leadership with values is leadership that impacts positively on the world, and leadership without values only produces hollow men. (Diamond 5)

Comment was made as follows by some of the respondents as to how values guide the teacher-leader in terms of setting an example through his/her personal behaviour:

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I cannot walk around and tell a child not to use foul language and then go and do that myself […] you have got to live your own values to lead. (Sapphire 4) And you need to portray good values. The child in the classroom looks at these values and they want to emulate you – so a leader is someone that can be emulated, and he needs to portray attitudes and values that he feels would mould society in the future. (Sapphire 3) Teachers must have their own value system. We have got to behave absolutely above board. You cannot do something which is not acceptable […] a leader simply cannot behave from a way that is not from good values. (Ruby 3)

One teacher spoke as follows of how her values assist in guiding her charges: When the children ask, “Why must we do this? Why must we do that?” I say, “If we have no laws where is it going to lead to? If there are no values what is it going to lead to?” […] To me in my classroom those values are fundamental. They give structure to everything. (Garnet 1)

In one of the focus group interviews, the members of staff from a fully multicultural school discussed the challenges they face in dealing with differing cultures and values: I think that to have a sound knowledge of your own value system and then to understand different cultural groups’ value systems and then to respect these as well. (Sapphire 2) And an important thing in our curriculum and in our policy documents is all about values […]. (Sapphire 3)

One teacher expressed a clear view about leadership and integrity: [A leader is] someone who displays integrity. (Opal 1) Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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The respondents also referred to other values that they consider important in leaderteachers. Amethyst 2, in referring to Jamie Escalante in the film Stand and Deliver, commented: “He was brave.” This statement smacks of Winston Churchill’s assertion that: Courage is rightly esteemed the first of human qualities, because, as has been said, it is the quality which guarantees all others. (Churchill, quoted in Talbot, 1996, p. ii)

In one focus group discussion the respondents’ understanding of teacher leadership was discussed. Three further qualities were noted, indicating other leadership values applicable to teachers: It is very important to be flexible, able to adapt to change because we are living in a changing world. (Topaz 2) Tolerance, I mean there are so many different cultures we are dealing with now; we need tolerance. (Topaz 5) We must be open-minded – open to changing times. (Topaz 2)

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Other respondents listed further values, such as experience (Opal 8), innovation (Opal 8 and Garnet 3), and determination and compassion (Opal 6). Two domains exist side by side in a school: one is the mechanical, process-driven, instrumental domain of timetables, lesson plans, teaching aids, methods, programmes and policies, and the other is the domain of values. These were differentiated by Habermas (1987) as “systems world” and “life world”. When the life world – with its values domain becomes central to the vision and ideals of the school, that school becomes a unique, more significant and meaningful place of learning (Sergiovanni, 2000). “Education is inherently and inevitably an issue of human goals and human values” (Gardner, 2007, p.13). Values are indeed the driving force behind commitment, exuberance, energy and worthwhile outcomes at a school.

Being Emotionally Intelligent At one point the respondents discussed their understanding of the role that emotional intelligence (EI) plays in their lives as teachers and leaders. Reference was made by one of the respondents to the important role that emotional management plays in the life of the teacher-leader: Leaders must have good emotional intelligence. (Emerald 2)

Two of the focus group respondents referred as follows to what they perceive as the emotional control of Mr Holland in the film Mr Holland’s Opus: The classes were big, and yet he was able to single out the people who needed help. He was able to deal with the different temperaments and personalities of those children. (Opal 4) He kept his patience, and there was one moment when he became angry, but he resolved it; to me his calmness and his ability to stay calm through all disappointments and frustrations […]. (Opal 5)

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Another film stimulus focus group, having viewed the film Stand and Deliver, commented that Jamie Escalante’s self-control – which is an aspect of EI – was evidenced through his classroom performance: He was certainly firm, but never out of control. (Amethyst 2) When the one kid lost control and threw the desk over he just carried on. (Amethyst 4) It was control […]. (Amethyst 2)

Forde observed the ability of one young teacher to read the emotions of her excited Grade 7 children and thus remain calm in her dealings with them. This illustrated her EI with regard to the class. She remained admirably self-controlled when there were outbursts from the pupils (such as shouting out and talking during the lesson) and realised that it was time to stop the lesson: We will stop there; I can see you will not be concentrating on the next bit. (Sapphire 1)

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Some of the respondents were aware of the concept of EI in teacher leadership, but their understanding of it appeared vague and their comments suggested that it was not something they thought of often in terms of their own teaching: We have had various people come and talk to us on EI so I think most of our staff, except the very new ones, should be aware of emotional intelligence. I am not sure if they apply it, if they consciously apply it or they just realise that it is important to apply it for the children; perhaps more important than IQ because of the children today – so I think we need to be very much in tune with EI. (Opal 1) I think you don’t consciously think of EI, I think of street smart and intelligence in the classroom. (Opal 7)

Possessing a sense of humour is noted as an important facet of EI (Goleman, 2002). Commenting on the teacher portrayed in the film Dangerous Minds, one respondent said: The teacher had a sense of humour. On the whole she did not allow the lack of cooperation to stop her – she responded with good humour. (Ruby 7)

The importance of teachers having a sense of humour when leading pupils was well illustrated by those teachers that Forde observed: Teacher [pointing to a smart board illustration]: “This here is the pituitary gland … who has heard of the pituitary gland?” Pupil: “It looks like a cherry.” Teacher: “Looks like a cherry – let’s see what the cherry’s responsibility is.” [Laughter.] (Topaz 1) And in the same lesson:

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Teacher: (explaining a slide on the smart board) “[…] so that is your brain, pretty cool, eh? Now [changes slide] this is the pretty version of what your brain looks like.” [Laughter.] (Topaz 1) Teacher: “What is the purpose of the brain stem?” Pupil: “To keep the head in place.” Teacher: “Did I ever say that?” Pupils [in chorus]: “Noooo.” [Pupil, teacher and class laugh.] (Topaz 1)

An experienced teacher (who had previously held a management position in a large, boys-only school and who was now teaching in a large, girls-only school) discussed her experiences of leading a class and the role that humour plays in terms of relating to her pupils: The longer you teach the more aware you are of what you do; it’s a big responsibility. I also give them a tough time teasing them, and they give me a tough time, but you must have a sense of humour […]. (Ruby 1)

Her sense of humour was evident in the lessons she taught. For example, she asked the children to provide the periodic table symbols for ice and water, thereby catching out any unwary pupils, to everyone’s amusement. People with a higher degree of EI tend to be able to develop more meaningful interpersonal relationships. Such people are often self-starters and tend to be more capable than their counterparts of motivating others and being creative and innovative. People with a high level of EI are often proactive, better able to deal with change, pressure and their own inadequacies, and, as a consequence, are more effective leaders (Kets de Vries, 2006a).

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Being of Service Notions of service pervade the world of leadership. The motto of the Sandhurst Military College for the training of military leaders is “Serve to lead”. The motto of the Prince of Wales is “Ich Dien” (i.e. “I serve”). One of the titles of the Pontiff in Rome is “Servant of the Servants of God”. One of the study’s respondents had the following to say concerning the role of the servant in the context of leadership: Leadership is only effective if the leader is able to serve. (Emerald 1)

Another ruminated on this idea as follows: If we go back to biblical times, Jesus was a servant, washing feet; and he was the greatest leader of all times. I don’t know if we consciously think of ourselves as servants. We might think we are serving the community as teachers, but in teaching children. I don’t know if we regard ourselves in a servant role. (Opal 1)

One colleague, who was also part of the focus group discussion, was quick to respond, because she equated the role of servant to that of the paid domestic servant and so wanted to differentiate the concepts ‘service’ and ‘servant’:

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The word ‘pedagogy’ is derived from the story of the Greek slave whose function it was to ‘lead’ (agogos) a young ‘boy’ (paides) to his schooling each day and then watch over him throughout the day, caring for him and ensuring he behaved well. The term ‘pedagogy’ thus implies ‘servanthood’, caring for the welfare of the child assigned to the pedagogue, and leading that pupil in his learning as opposed to simply teaching him.

Passion and Energy The respondents identified passion for one’s task as being a significant attribute of teacher leadership. Passion may be for the subject being taught and/or for the process of teaching. “I always thought passion made a teacher great,” writes Palmer (1998, p.120), “because it brought contagious energy into the classroom.” In response to the interview question “What do you as a teacher understand by the term ‘leader’?” the respondents expressed their views on passion as a facet of leadership as follows:

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I think it is about passion. You have got to have a passion. A lot of leaders don’t have passion. You need that passion in education. (Opal 7) It’s your passion for whatever you are doing; it’s your total passion. You are always talking about it – always doing it … Teachers who are leaders display a passion. (Garnet 3)

One respondent commented as shown below on the passion shown by the character of Jean Brodie in the film The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie: I think her character comes from a position where she is passionate. (Emerald 3)

Another respondent displayed the following understanding of passion, extolling excitement and vibrancy: What I would see in a class well led is excitement – both from the pupils and from the teacher. There is nothing worse than a teacher walking in with a dreary face – the teacher must be vibrant, not to entertain the class, I am not talking about an entertainment factor; she must be excited about her lesson – there must be passion. I think that is a better word. (Ruby 2)

The teacher-leader must possess zest in order to lead in the classroom: One of the biggest fears for me is to see the expiry date on leadership, and I am not talking about teachers reaching the end of a successful career. I am talking about young, old, middle-aged, when that person loses the zest to lead … they lose that energy, they lose that passion – because then again, leadership, the title, you stop leading those you are trying to influence or guide around you. (Opal 5)

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Teacher-leaders must also have energy: [Inspiration in teaching] comes from your energy, your energy levels and your passion … (Garnet 1)

The passion displayed by the teacher Jamie Escalante (a real teacher who is portrayed in the film Stand and Deliver) for his subject was noted by two of the focus group respondents: He was passionate about maths – I just get that impression. Passion allows you to have that internal drive – that motivation. (Amethyst 1) Maybe he is just passionate about teaching … (Amethyst 4)

Passion and energy, which were identified by the respondents of this study as important attributes in teacher-leaders, relate closely to the quality of leadership described in the study as ‘surgency’. We discuss the idea of surgency below.

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Being Surgent We have borrowed the term ‘surgent’ from Kets de Vries (2006a) and used it in this chapter to describe the qualities that were identified by the respondents as needful if one is to be accomplished and determined and have the will to succeed. Surgent leaders are people who are able to inspire others to do things that they did not believe they could (Kets de Vries, 2006a). Surgent leaders are achievement-oriented. They possess passion, energy, determination, have a domineering and assertive nature, and possess a sense of urgency. These are people who ensure that plans are implemented and that ideas materialise. They demonstrate a “bias for action” (Peters & Waterman, 1982, p.119). The respondents, when viewing the films Mr Holland’s Opus, Dangerous Minds and Stand and Deliver, recognised that the determination shown by the teachers portrayed was strongly focused on the academic success of their pupils: He took a firm stand with what he was doing with music and he wouldn’t let any student just give up. (Opal 12) She did not tolerate apathy. (Ruby 6) He basically pulled them all in around him while he was wading his way through all the stuff, he took them with him. He was committed, he was dedicated, he was going to teach them calculus whether they liked it or not and thankfully quite a few of them decided they did enjoy it. (Amethyst 4) He had to fight the system to actually make it happen […] he was so determined to make it happen. He wasn’t just going to become a puppy dog and be squashed and swallowed by the system. (Opal 5) He was very hard on people who wanted to give up. I mean he wasn’t just “there, there, there” he was rather “fine, it is your decision, but I am not accepting the fact that that you are giving up.” […] He was very aggressive in trying to get them to come back into the classroom […]. I mean that time when someone wanted to leave at the end; it was, “Sit down.” (Amethyst 4)

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Forde observed teachers setting high standards in terms of accuracy and application: Teacher: “Make sure you are accurate, hey guys. When it comes to tests and that sort of thing, we must be as accurate as possible.” (Diamond 1) Today this group seems to be working the best. (Sapphire 1)

These remarks and observations demonstrate an understanding by the teachers observed of the place of determination and drive with regard to helping their pupils succeed. This determination and drive in turn demonstrate that these teachers possessed leadership qualities.

LEADERSHIP: RELATING

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“I suppose leadership at one time meant muscles, But today it is getting along with people.” (Indira Gandhi, b. 1917)

The ability to relate to others involves communicating, networking, touching people’s hearts, and building and maintaining inter-personal relationships. It also introduces into the leadership mix certain ‘soft’ attributes such as care, compassion, trust and love. De Pree (1989, p.28), in commenting on leader-and-follower relationships, has said: “Relationships count more than structure”. The need to reach out and build trust and relationships as well as respect, the emotional context of ‘touching hearts’, talking to and listening to children, and an identification of presence in teachers were further identified by the study’s respondents.

Reaching out and Building Trust Trust – acknowledging that humans are inter-dependent and share values – is basic to all relationships. [Trust] is the glue of organisations. It is the cement that holds the bricks together […] trust is the fruit of the trustworthiness of both people and organisations. (Covey, 2004, p.147)

Interpersonal trust arises when one individual chooses to extend to another a belief in and value for that person. Trust that is given most often begets trust in return; trust is shared and reciprocated. Trust is also one of the four basic tenets of invitational leadership. One respondent clearly saw trust as fundamental to the teaching and leading process:

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You must have good relationships with your pupils, and trust. (Topaz 2)

In commenting on the success of the teacher in the film Dangerous Minds, one respondent simply noted that: She showed trust in them [the pupils]. (Ruby 7)

Trust starts with the teacher-leader and then extends to the building of relationships between the teacher and his/her pupils, as claimed by these two respondents: I think trust is the foundation of a relationship. You want to have a relationship with someone you have to have trust. You have to give a little to receive a little… Once we have established trust, then we can establish a relationship. (Garnet 4) You have to give of yourself – you really give of yourself, your emotions as well. You are trusting them with that, and they respect it. You may have a good day, you may have a bad day – they respect that too and realise that you are human – and that also helps building relationships and trust between them. (Garnet 1)

One respondent noted that when a trust relationship exists, it enhances the performance of the pupils: Trust goes a long way. I think those people who will feel they must perform as expected they must be given responsibility and told “I trust you – I trust that you know you can come to me at any time for support.” Most of the time these people end up performing very well. (Ruby 4)

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It was noted by another respondent that a lack of trust will undermine one’s efforts to teach: As a leader you have to build that trust with the children… If they don’t trust you, they subvert your ability to teach them. (Opal 7)

Teachers need to be trusted. They need to be worthy of being a confidante. Trust is a factor. If the children know they can trust you in the way of building up relationships – if they can confide something in you – they must know that they must be able to trust you not to spread it all over the school; so there must be trust. (Ruby 2) You, their teacher, must be the person they will speak to when they don’t want to speak to their parents. That would suggest a huge amount of trust. And it is like that – there are many children who speak to teachers in preference to speaking to their own parents, and that would suggest a huge amount of trust. (Topaz 3)

Ruby 3 noted, as is shown below, that the building of trust relationships may only happen after the teacher has invested in those relationships over quite some time: I think one builds up trust over the years. I don’t think you can stand up and say, “Now I am going to be honest with you from now on,” because one is not. It is a matter of building up all this by the way you treat people. (Ruby 3)

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When introduced into a teaching/learning context, trust (which is found in all successful teams, families and working groups) has the potential to ensure positive relationships, remove unnecessary fear, and create a climate for unprecedented success. The respondents in this inquiry noted the fundamental importance of trust in the classroom.

Reaching out and Building Relationships Senge (1996, p.1) argues: “Being a leader has to do with the relationship between the leader and the led.” The importance of good relationships within the classroom was widely and readily recognised by the respondents of the study: Relating to the pupils is absolutely a leadership role. (Topaz 1) It is all about relationships, relationships at every level from top to bottom. (Ruby 2) What is the right word, a ‘relator’, someone who can relate? (Garnet 4)

Opal 3 thought that the majority of teachers set out to create good classroom relationships; she connected this to the teacher’s leadership role:

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I think teachers do go out of their way to create good relationships and trust – that is one aspect that teachers do. I think it is only rarely that teachers don’t try to build a relationship with their children – and trust. And I think it goes back to that whether you are a standout leader, a community leader or a school leader, as an educator you are always a classroom leader. That is one aspect, that of building relationships, that teachers do particularly well. (Opal 3)

A young teacher, previously the head prefect at the school at which she now teaches, said the following about her own experiences in leading: It all starts with relationships; relationship – that would be the first thing I would see to… The most important thing in leading, in my opinion at least, is relationships. There has to be relationships at every level. If you get people on your side, then people are working with you – then that is it, it is all you really need. (Garnet 4)

Two other respondents in the focus group pursued this same idea with the view that good relationships can contribute to positive control: Interestingly, those who battle with discipline are not the leaders in the classroom, because they are teaching their subject and not leading ninety percent of the time. Ninety percent of the time when you have a major discipline problem it is where the kids don’t relate to the person in the classroom – other people can walk in and there is no problem and the learners follow. They accept the leader, they accept the challenges, they accept what the person is doing – [for] others one plus one is more important than who I am. (Garnet 3)

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If there is not a relationship in the class, it shows. (Garnet 1)

Ruby 3 endorsed this view, having the following to say about the outcome that arises when there is a lack of leadership and good relationships: The teachers who have no leadership [are the ones who] have no relationship with the children… There are some teachers here, who make comments, and they don’t have that relationship – the children don’t tolerate them. (Ruby 3)

Yet other respondents saw relationships in terms of connecting with the children: I think that is what happens with many of our good teachers – there is a connectedness between teacher and pupil … there is that connectedness in teaching – it is a relationship thing not an overt thing; it is not done deliberately. It’s a natural sort of thing. (Diamond 2) [Leadership involves] being able to really connect with whom you lead. (Emerald 2)

A respondent commented as follows on Lou Johnson (the teacher in Dangerous Minds): She built personal relationships with the pupils. (Ruby 7)

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The responses of the following two teachers reflect their own sensitivities with regard to the importance of good relationships within the classroom: It is also the way he spoke with them, the way he bantered with them, using humour, talking about people. I mean the second lesson he arrived there with his apples and his little chef’s hat and his cleaver. They all sat there, and after the shot with the cleaver … “Okay, is he going to murder us?” … He was probably establishing himself in the class. (Amethyst 4) [He was] establishing a rapport. (Amethyst 3)

The same focus group respondents discussed Escalante’s leadership further, illustrating as they did that their own understanding of ‘relating’ goes further than just having a teacherand-pupil relationship; they believe that the teacher-leader ought to be ‘allied’ with his/her pupils by engaging with them on their level (i.e. understanding where the pupils are at, what is important to them, and what they enjoy and like): He was often in their space. He didn’t just stand in front of the room; he called on them for responses. (Amethyst 1) He did that right from the word go, when he walked in. He got into their space straight away… He was in their space and he interacted with them, right from the word go, right to the end. (Amethyst 2)

Whilst the nature and quality of relationships could differ in as many ways as there are teachers, the teachers involved in the study noted the importance of sound relationships to good teaching and positive leadership.

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She Gave Respect Respect is one of the four fundamental principles of the theory of invitational leadership, a theory that assumes that people will never lose their motivation to improve their own lot as well as contribute to the good of others; and they will do so in a climate that is conducive to their giving (i.e. an invitational climate). Implicit in the concept of respect is the belief that each individual person, as well as his/her culture, is unique, valuable and richly complex. It also involves the belief that every individual is a responsible person with ability and as such needs to be treated accordingly (i.e. with respect). Respecting others involves treating them with civility and courtesy, acknowledging them for who they are, valuing their contributions and their original points-ofview, being willing to engage with them, and also having care and concern for their welfare. Leaders will appreciate how crucial respect for themselves and others is dependent upon the extent to which they remain aware that their ability to succeed is dependent upon others. Respondents in the one focus group shared their understanding of respect in a school situation as such: Respect means accepting people for what they are – their values, their morals. (Sapphire 4) [Respect] is kindness. (Sapphire 3) It comes across in your tone, how you speak to people, all that comes across as respect. It shows whether you respect or not. (Sapphire 2)

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The respondents recognised that in order to gain respect it is necessary for one to first respect others. You have to build a relationship with the children of mutual respect…. (Ruby 3) You turn it around, with the teacher respecting the children, not only the children respecting the teacher. You can see a good teacher when they handle a child. (Topaz 2)

The attempts by the teacher portrayed in Dangerous Minds to build her pupils’ selfrespect by demonstrating respect for them was noted by one of the members of the focus group: She makes [the pupils] realise that no-one is above them, or has the right to look down on them, that they too are worthy of respect. (Ruby 5)

The teachers in the study acknowledged that one of the roles of the teacher-leader is to demonstrate respect towards one’s pupils. The respondents emphasised that this is the way to gain mutual respect and as such is a crucial aspect of teacher leadership.

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Touching Hearts The respondents expressed their agreement that showing your pupils you care about them and are genuinely interested in them is integral to being a successful teacher-leader. One respondent talked about the principal who had been her teacher in earlier years: Teachers like Mrs M___, she was around at everything that was happening and so that you saw that she genuinely cared… If people know that you genuinely have their interests – no matter what it is, whether it’s an athletics meeting and you are in charge of the house and they know you are standing there wanting the best thing – they will do it to achieve. (Ruby 1)

Jamie Escalante’s behaviour showed that he cared for and was concerned about the wellbeing of his students; this was noted by focus group respondents as they spoke about incidents that had occurred during Escalante’s teaching: Individual caring – there was plenty of that […] that example when the girl left the class and he went to go and check up on her. Every time there was a child in that class … that had a problem, there was a cut away when he can devote time to them. (Amethyst 3) Even at the beginning when that guy was headed toward that fight, he spotted someone from his class – he was running in and he stopped him, just to stop him getting involved. (Amethyst 4)

The notion of love as an aspect of caring was also noted by the respondents:

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A lot is about how you care and do what has to be done as a leader with love for the people you are leading. (Topaz 5)

One respondent, who was a high school rugby coach and who also taught primary school children, commented as follows about his belief that there is a universal craving for love: You don’t have to touch physically; you can touch a heart – without touching … It is alarming to see how those high school children I have been dealing with [while coaching sport] are crying out to have a relationship – even more so than our primary school children. That is one of the aspects I have noticed in coaching – I am doing more loving than coaching. (Opal 5)

The respondents interpreted care, concern and interest as loving one’s pupils, as can be seen through the following statements: You have to lead with love, because the way you feel towards those children, they sense it so; and you don’t have to control them in any other way when they know that you really are loving them. (Opal 2) I had a little boy that I gave a hug and a love and a cuddle today, because he was upset with life, and it helped him, it helped him. He knew he was having a bad day, and it had already happened when I met him, but I calmed him down, and we chatted and I gave him a big hug. He left a happier boy. (Opal 8)

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In a one-on-one interview, one respondent (Diamond 4) described the way she relates to the boys in her classes when she declared her commitment to her pupils thus: Teacher: I think I just love the boys – that’s it. Interviewer: Is that your secret? Teacher: I love them, I do. They know I want what is best for them.

Sapphire 1 explained that it is important to her to at least not hurt any children through her words or actions: At the end of the day, when I sit back and think about the day, I don’t want there to be any one incident where I hurt someone, where they go home and not be able to forget that incident. When I might shout at the odd child for not doing something, I don’t want to cause pain to someone.

Wheatley (1999, p.40) writes: “We would do well to ponder the realisation that love is the most potent source of power.” She refers also to the power of shared leadership at all levels in an organisation and how that power can lead to widespread energy and enthusiasm. The value of love as expressed through care and compassion was noted by the respondents above.

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Communicating with Pupils Communication, in terms of the transmission of thoughts from one person’s mind to the mind of another, is fundamental to life and living. It is a basic human activity that is vital to interpersonal relationships and is essential if there is to be any progress within communities and indeed within civilisation. It is also crucial to man’s basic survival. Communication can take on many forms, such as the use of one’s voice to make sounds and form words and sentences while another or others listen. Communication can also take place through nonverbal behavioural activities that convey meaning and symbolism. Perceptions and paradigms, attribution, attitude and worldview, level of motivation, individual experience, personality, education and personal development all affect the processes involved in day-to-day communication. Levels of trust affect the quality of communication, and the context and climate in which it takes place can affect the accuracy of transmission as well as the accuracy with which ideas and information are received. The business of education is entirely dependent upon communication, and so too is the art of leadership. Teachers, just as with leaders and managers in general, communicate in three aspects of their common role – on a formal and informal interpersonal basis, on an informational basis, and in the decisions they make. In terms of interpersonal aspect they act as leader in the classroom, figurehead, and source of inspiration, they provide support and good order, and they are in contact with the school authorities and other teachers and parents. In the information realm, they are the source of knowledge, policy and procedure, and they make the best use of available resources. Whilst as decision maker, the teacher-leader creates work routines, initiate projects, handle disturbances, distribute resources, and negotiate on behalf of the class or group (Mintzberg, 1989).

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The following respondents recognised the importance of good communication when teaching: You are treating people properly when you communicate. (Ruby 2) I just think if we are not communicating we are failing – horribly. (Opal 1) You can’t be a teacher if you can’t communicate. (Topaz 3)

The role of communication was discussed by three of the respondents in a focus group as follows: The world lives on communication. (Garnet 2) One miscommunication and things fall apart. (Garnet 4) In other words, communication is vital. (Garnet 3)

Diamond 1 and Garnet 2 commented as follows about how communication is related to the development of trust and relationships: Communication is very important; if you can’t communicate with each other, and it goes back to the relations and trust issue, it will break down. (Diamond 1) You can’t develop relations or trust or vision without spending a lot of time thinking about how you are going to put it together and communicate it to people. (Garnet 2)

Opal 2 drew attention to the link between communication and leadership in teaching thus:

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When it comes to communication, teachers who are leading put a huge emphasis on good communication.

Storytelling is a form of communication, as was observed by the following respondents: If they can remember a story that goes along with a bit of knowledge – all the better, and at least it will remind you about the facts. (Sapphire 1) One thing that I love is that I do believe that leaders are storytellers, teachers are storytellers. I read that somewhere in one of my books about leadership. As I watched the film [The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie] I thought she was a real storyteller. Some of our best teachers do share their life experiences with the children; by doing that one is imparting all sorts of knowledge. They can learn from that. (Emerald 2)

Listening to Pupils People tend to listen from “within their own frame of reference […] to truly listen means to transcend your own autobiography, to get out of your frame of reference […] and to get deeply into the viewpoint of another person” (Covey, 2004, p.192). Listening as a component of communication was referred to during one focus group discussion. Sapphire 3 suggested that listening is one of the roles of the teacher-leader:

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Reginald Dudley Forde and Vitallis Chikoko The leader is one who is supposed to listen to different views and at the end bring about some consensus and come out with a view that is acceptable to everybody.

Listening, reading, writing, non-verbal symbolism and speaking: all these together make up the various modes of communication. While listening takes up between 40% and 50% of normal human communication time (Covey, 2004), it was barely mentioned by the respondents in conjunction with either communication or leadership. Kline (1999, p.228) stresses the importance of parents and teachers listening to children thus: The best thing you can do for children is to listen to them. Give her [i.e. your child] attention as if she were a work of art – she is […]. Ask her what she thinks every day and then listen like mad […]. The importance of listening to your children cannot be stressed enough.

Presence in Teachers ‘Presence’ has been described as the place where the inner world of the ‘self’ engages with the outer world of action (Coats, 2007). The tenets of leadership presence, as described by Halpern and Lubar (2003), incorporate being present with people, reaching out to others, being expressive, and self-knowing. Parks (2005, p.100), in describing the phenomenon of presence in leaders, speakers, teachers, and musical or other performers, notes that:

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The elusive quality of presence affects one’s ability to attract and hold attention, to convey trustworthiness and credibility, to inspire and call forth the best in others, to intervene effectively in complex systems, and to be the conduit of creative change.

In discussing effective teachers who do manage to lead their pupils, the respondents outlined certain characteristics that these teachers appear to display and that they described as presence, which involves being present in the moment: She commands attention from the pupils. (Ruby 3) There is such a thing as charismatic presence … there are certain people that when they walk into a gathering people turn their heads and they all look – they feel a presence. (Garnet 2) She did have a lot of presence; a lot of good leaders have that. (Emerald2)

This characteristic also emerged in one of the focus group discussions, as is shown below: The teacher is around. (Garnet 2) All over the place… (Garnet 3) Chatting to the kids … (Garnet 2) Interacting all the time, seeing something there, seeing somebody here, going to someone else and interacting all the time … (Garnet 1)

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The respondents in the film-stimulus focus group recognised that Mr Holland (as seen in the film Mr Holland’s Opus) demonstrated an ability to be ‘in the moment’: What inspired me is that he was willing to get down to his students’ level. Where the drummer needed to learn the dance steps – he stood with him and he danced with him. Where the girl needed to play the clarinet he sat next to her … by the way he positioned himself, his presence, encouraged her to actually persevere. (Opal 5)

This ability to be present in the moment was also displayed by Jean Brodie according to the respondents in another film-stimulus focus group: She had the ability to turn the moment; when the girl was reciting The Lady of Shallot and they were giggling, she turned it round and took it back to what it was supposed to be, and turned it into a beautiful poem. (Emerald 3)

Ruby 3 noted that self-knowing is a characteristic possessed by those who have leadership presence: Presence means knowing yourself, confidence in yourself and accepting yourself and that often only happens when you get older – it’s who you are.

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The four teachers that Forde observed whilst teaching in their classrooms revealed a degree of presence. All were very focused on the lesson and the class (i.e. they were present in the moment). They achieved this in spite of distractions. They all came to class neatly dressed, confident and prepared for the lesson, and they all then ‘reached out’ to the pupils when they arrived at the start of the lesson. Coats (2007, p.2) highlights the leadership aspect of presence by saying: “Presence, as an important characteristic of emotional intelligence, is an indispensable quality of the Invitational Leader.”

A SYNTHESIS Not all the respondents immediately and readily accepted the notion that a teacher has a leadership role to play; a number claimed to be unaware of the current South African legislation in this matter. During and after the related discussions most embraced the concept with the enthusiasm of a convert. The discussions therefore acted as a catalyst to awaken the otherwise dormant or limited understanding of their role as leaders. This suggested to us that sometimes an external catalyst is necessary to mobilise the potential of people in an organisation, such as teachers in a school. Insofar as being a leader is concerned, it should be expected that role modelling, setting an example, and possessing passion for one’s job should be part of teacher training lore. These were readily recognised by the respondents and in some cases demonstrated. Although the notion of servant leadership is as old as any writing or philosophy that has concerned itself with leadership, it resurfaced with the publication of Robert Greenleaf’s Servant Leadership. An appreciation of the concept of service in leadership (as opposed to the related meeting of needs) was barely evident amongst the respondents of this study, and it was noted only briefly in two of the focus group discussions.

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Whilst having a sense of humour (an aspect of emotional intelligence) was recognised by the respondents and was also evidenced by those teachers that were observed teaching in their classrooms, it was apparent (in that these were neither observed nor spoken of) that little or nothing was understood by the respondents in terms of a number of current priorities in leadership literature and practice. An understanding of these priorities, or at least knowledge of them, could reasonably be expected from professionals involved in leading others. These priorities include concepts to do with authentic leadership (e.g. good stewardship and dealing with realities), values such as dependability and empathy, and strategic intelligence (i.e. comfort with ambiguity and being able to deal with change within organisations). A further aspect that was not evident in the data was personality intelligence (i.e. understanding and responding to various types of people, being able to engage in deep listening, and having clear mind usage). Finally, another attribute that was barely evidenced was a good and necessary understanding of such aspects of emotional intelligence as realistic self-assessment, the management of one’s own emotions, and the reading and management of the emotions of others. Insofar as leaders’ knowing is concerned, the respondents readily spoke of the need to know answers and be knowledgeable about one’s subject areas. The pastoral nature of teaching and of those attracted to the profession dictates that knowing the children and knowing about them are also important aspects of teacher leadership and they were spoken of by the respondents as well as observed. An appreciation for the knowledge of the arts and methods of didactics was implied, and it was also recognised by those in the film stimulus focus groups who had seen effective teaching represented in the movies watched. Its importance, however, to the leadership role was not raised even once by any of the respondents. Surgency and emotional intelligence were barely noted by the respondents in response to the questions asked, although aspects such as self-control and a sense of humour were noted as well as evidenced. The doing aspects of the teacher’s professional life in terms of leadership were more fully recognised by the respondents. Their responses evidenced their awareness of the need to: create a vision and goals (although there was no indication of them realising the need to develop a shared vision community), provide inspiration and motivation, and meet the needs of their pupils. Aspects that were only sparsely mentioned and barely discernable through observation were: the empowering of others and the concept of leaders mobilising others. Most of the aspects relating to leaders relating were understood by the respondents, who both discussed and demonstrated the following attributes of teacher leadership: affirmation, communication, presence, building trust and relationships, respect and caring. The respondents clearly recognised these attributes as belonging to a teacher’s store of competencies, functions and characteristics. Listening, receptiveness, and the use of persuasion were not, however, identified by the respondents during the interviews. “All is data” (Glaser, 1998, p.8). The respondents’ failure to recognise or demonstrate certain leadership skills, together with their clear understanding of and display of others, is in itself evidence. It has not been possible to note any examples of profound learning, where deep leadership would demonstrate creativity, and lead to innovative and varying applications of such deep leadership knowledge.

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Glasser (1998b, p.9) comments as follows on the issue of teachers knowing how to do their job (which includes knowing how to lead) and the opportunity to do it in a way they deem best:

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In any field, and this certainly should include teaching in a school, professionals not only know how to do the job they are hired to do, but they are also given an opportunity to do that job the way they believe is best.

The first decade of the twenty-first century has been labelled, amongst other labels as the era of the ‘connection economy’. This tag arose as a result of the greater realisation of the inter-connectedness of people in terms of the global economy. ‘Teaching by leading’ assumes an apposite approach to connecting to those of previous eras. It requires that there be a clear and comprehensive understanding (i.e. a deep and profound knowledge) of the nature and working of leadership by all professionals where leadership plays an important role in the delivery of service. This understanding was barely evident through the data we reported in this chapter. The findings we reported suggest that the respondents’ understanding of leadership in the classroom ranged from tacit (i.e. their understanding has been gleaned mostly from life’s lessons as contained in and represented by the media, their discussions and their minimal training) as when they recognised leadership attributes, to a more sound understanding and self-reliant usage of it, which is derived from a more explicit understanding. The majority of the respondents were in the latter group (i.e. they had a more sound knowledge of teacher leadership), whilst only a few were in the former group (i.e. those who had a shallow knowledge of teacher leadership). Those respondents with a more sound knowledge of teacher leadership evidenced this knowledge through their recognition of the leadership competencies that were displayed by the teachers portrayed in the films used in the filmstimulus exercises. These teachers were also able to both verbalise and demonstrate sound leadership. That some issues – such as listening, being receptive and displaying affirming behaviour – were demonstrated and not (or only minimally) discussed in the interviews could be attributed to personal leadership qualities that are practised even if they are not known, recognised, understood or perceived as such. This would be a further example of tacit understanding.

REFERENCES Adair, J. (1988). Developing Leaders. (1st ed.) Guildford: The Talbot Adair Press. Adair, J. (1989). Great Leaders. (1st ed.) Guildford: The Talbot Adair Press. Adair, J. (2002). Inspiring Leadership. (1st ed.) Guildford: The Talbot Adair Press. Bacon, F. (1930). Essays. (1st ed.) New York: Macmillan. Bass, B. (1981). Stodgill’s Handbook of Leadership. (2nd ed.) London: Collier Macmillan Publishers. Bass, B. (1985). Leadership & Performance Beyond Expectations. (1st ed.) New York: The Free Press. Bell, A. (2006). Great Leadership. (1st ed.) Mountain-View: Davies Black Publishing.

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Bennis, W. & Nanus, B. (1985). Leaders: The Strategies for Taking Charge. (1st ed.) New York: Harper & Row. Burns, J. (1979). Leadership. (2nd ed.) New York: Harper & Row Publishers. Churchill, W. (1939). Broadcast to the nation. London: BBC. Coats, K. (2007). The Inconvenient Truth for Leaders. Retrieved 3 February, 2008, from http://www.tomorrowtoday.biz. Collins, J. (2001a). Level 5 Leadership. Harvard Business Review, January 2001, 67-76. Covey, S. (2004). The 8th Habit. (1st ed.) London: Simon & Schuster. DePree, M. (1989). Leadership is an Art. (1st ed.) New York: Dell Publishing. Forde, D. (1992). The Patrol System. (3rd ed.) Cape Town: Boy Scouts of South Africa. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. (1st ed) New York: Basic Books. Gardner, J. (1990). On Leadership. (1st ed.) New York: The Free Press. Gardner, H. (2007). Five Minds for the Future. (1st ed.) Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing. Gardner, H. (1995). Leading Minds. (2nd ed.) London: Harper Collins. Giulani, R. (2002). Leadership. (1st ed.) London: Little Brown. Glaser, B. (1998). Doing Grounded Theory: Issues and Discussions. (1st ed.) Mill Valley, C.A.: Sociology Press. Glasser, W. (1998b.) The Quality School Teacher. (2nd ed.) New York: Harper Collins. Goleman, D. (2002). The New Leaders. (1st ed.) London: Time Warner Books. Habermas, J. (1987). Lifeworld and System: A critique of functional reason (T. McCarthy, Trans.). The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 2. Boston: Beacon Press. Heifetz, R. (1994). Leadership without Easy Answers. (1st ed.) Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Hybels, B. (2008). Axiom. (1st ed.) Michigan: Zondervan. Kets de Vries, M. (2006a). The Leadership Mystique. (2nd ed.) Harlow: Prentice Hall. Kline, N. (1999). Time to Think. (8th ed.) London: Cassell Illustrated. Kotter, J. (1988). The Leadership Factor. (1st ed.) New York: The Free Press. Kotter, J. (1990b). A Force for Change. (1st ed.) New York: The Free Press. Kotter, J. (1998). Winning at Change. Leader to Leader, (10). Macoby, M. (2007b). Narcistic Leaders: Who succeeds and who fails. (2nd ed.) Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Maxwell, J. (1993). Developing the Leader within You. (1st ed.) Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc. Micklethwaite, J. & Wooldridge, A. (1996). The Witch Doctors. (1st ed.) London: Mandarin Paperbacks. Mintzberg, H. (1989). Mintzberg on Management. (1st ed.) New York: Collier McMillan. Montgomery, B. (1961). The Path to Leadership. (1st ed.) London: Collins. Ngambi, H. (2004). African Leadership: Lessons from the Chiefs. In T. Meyer & I. Boninelli (Eds.), Conversations in Leadership. (2nd ed.) Randburg: Knowledge Resources (Pty) Ltd.

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Oxford English Dictionary (2005). (10th ed.) Oxford: Oxford University Press. Palmer, P. (1998). The Courage to Teach. (1st ed.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Parks, S. (2005). Leadership Can Be Taught. (1st ed.) Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Peters, T. & Waterman, R. (1982). In Search of Excellence. (1st ed.) New York: HarperCollins. Rokeach, M. (1973). The Nature of Human Values. (1st ed.) New York: The Free Press. Sadler, P. (2003). Leadership. (2nd ed.) London: Kogan Page Limited. Sweet, L. (2004). Summoned to Lead. (1st ed.) Grand Rapids: Zondervan. Talbot, F. (1996). Churchill on Courage. (1st ed.) Nashville: Thomas Nelson Inc. West-Burnham, J. (2003). Leadership. In B. Davies (Ed.), Handbook of Educational Leadership & Management (2nd ed.). London: Pearson. Zander, R. & Zander, B. (2002). The Art of Possibility. (2nd ed.) New York: Penguin Books.

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PART THREE

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GENDER ISSUES IN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT OF SCHOOLS

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In: Education Leadership, Management and Governance … ISBN 978-1-62100-853-8 Editors: V. Chikoko and K. M. Jorgesen © 2012 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 5

GENDER, EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND CHANGE: UNSETTLING THE NORMS TO ACHIEVE GENDER EQUITY Pontso Moorosi University of Warwick, U.K.

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ABSTRACT This chapter uses a gender and organisational change framework to analyse gender and educational leadership and management in South Africa. The framework, drawn from Ely and Meyerson (2000), is based on the premise that gender inequity in leadership continues to exist because gender is framed on traditional regimes that link gender to sexrole socialisation. This conceptualisation of gender accepts the status quo as normal and fails to question and change the deeply entrenched gendered social practices and the divisions of labour that lead to gender inequity. To challenge these gendered practices, the framework suggests a non-conventional approach to gender conceptualisation that attempts to disrupt gendered social injustices as and when they happen. The chapter uses case studies developed from the data collected on a study of women principals (Moorosi, 2006a) to illustrate how the suggested approach could work in the South African context. The suggested approach proposes strategies that question the ways schools operate, ways that appear gender neutral on the surface but impact differently on women and men and perpetuate gender inequity.

Keywords: educational leadership; gender equity; social practices; sex-role socialisation; work culture.

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INTRODUCTION Mrs Nzama’s Story Mrs Nzama is a principal of a large rural boarding high school. She became the principal of the school in 2000, but has been working in the school since 1983. As a newly appointed principal, she received a great deal of support from the school and the district including attending some management workshops. She believes that her appointment may have been facilitated by affirmative action policies even though she was well qualified. She says that she was the first female principal of a high school in her area. Although she has a helper at home, Mrs Nzama feels that the work of the principal is too much since she has neglected her family and has no social life. As a school principal, she is at the school from 7:00am till 10:00pm. She normally arrives home around 11:00pm since she has to supervise study time at the boarding house, which ends at 10:00pm. It takes her one hour to drive home. Sometimes when she gets home she finds gates locked and she just knows that her husband is angry. She works very hard to improve the school and when the results came out last year her circuit manager phoned her husband and said to him, “it’s because of you that the results are like this. If you did not allow your wife to work overtime, to spend many many hours at work, this would not be the case”. Mrs Nzama is actually not the only person working hard at the school. Her school is very competitive and beats many other local schools in sports and results. Asked how she does it, she says “our teachers actually compete with each other and put in extra hours in their work. It is the excellence and the commitment that is rewarded in the school. We don’t tolerate laziness”. According to Mrs Nzama, this work ethic leads to good relations even in the staff room where, “the men make all the jokes and the ladies laugh”.

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Mrs Mlipha’s Story Mrs Mlipha is a principal of Phumlani secondary school, where the parents and the community as a female school principal did not accept her. Mrs Mlipha’s school is located in a deep rural area, “where people do not understand much about the changes suggested by the government. When I am asking to have a meeting with parents”, she says, “they tell me they have given me the learners to talk to, and so I should leave them alone because they are not learners”. Mrs Mlipha has actually had many problems at the school even with disciplining the teachers but she says all those problems have made her stronger. She says her staff and parents would only listen to her male deputy and not to her. “Whenever I made a point, nobody took it seriously but the same point made by my deputy principal, everybody takes it seriously”, she explains. This even affects relations in the staffroom where some male teachers are not very friendly with female colleagues and say they cannot be “ruled by women”. Mrs Mlipha just does not know how to handle this and believes she needs more training on managing human relations. She was one of the few women principals with a Master’s degree. But in spite of her qualifications she stayed in an acting principal position for seven years because the school did not want to appoint women in the principalship position. “They said the school had a history of violence and only a strong man can handle it”. However, she stayed acting for seven years and during this period, Mrs Mlipha was shortlisted twice as the only candidate who qualified but even when she was the only candidate, she was only appointed in her third attempt in 2003. Asked why

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she never considered going elsewhere, she says she wanted to prove a point and use the experience to advance herself even more. During her term as acting principal, Mrs Mlipha attended many workshops offered by the provincial Department of Education. She recalls that one of them was on assertiveness where two men trained them. She was also a member of a programme that was launched few years ago called “Women in Management”. Asked how she balances work and family Mrs Mlipha says, “Frankly speaking I am failing to serve my role as a mother and a wife. I really can’t. Because I stay at school supervising study from 4.30 to 6.00 pm and my husband used to complain because I come home late, tired and I cook fast food. I don’t have time to even supervise my own children’s work because I have to do school work at home. I can’t balance. It feels too much”.

These case studies are drawn from the data on a study of women principals and their career-paths (Moorosi, 2006a). The study referred to used in-depth interviews to explore career paths of women holding school principalship positions. The data were rich and covered women’s experiences from childhood until the stage they were at the time of the interview. The findings showed that women had experienced discrimination throughout their career phases and even after their appointment. Although 28 women principals were interviewed for the study, this chapter only draws case studies from live narratives of two women, which were thought to best reflect some of the experiences of gender inequity. These case studies are used to illustrate the use of a framework that offers an alternative approach to tackling gender inequity in educational leadership. This chapter has begun with a presentation of the case study extracts followed by a brief note on methodology. From this point, it provides a background to gender inequity in South Africa and across the globe and a brief theoretical overview of the sex role socialisation theory. Then an outline of the four different approaches of Ely and Meyerson’s (2000) framework is presented. The first three approaches are informed by sex role socialisation and are illustrated with a desk-top analysis of some South African literature. The last approach is presented as an alternative to sex role socialisation and uses the case studies above to illustrate how it would work in the South African situation. Finally, the chapter draws conclusions highlighting the significance of the analysis in understanding the application of the proposed alternative model.

BACKGROUND TO GENDER INEQUITY Gender inequity in educational leadership is a multi-faceted problem that has been in existence for a long time: On the one hand, there is the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions (in a context where the majority of women are teachers). On the other, there exist the masculine cultures of the organisations that make it difficult for women to penetrate the leadership sphere and stay in these top positions. Many studies have been conducted across the globe in the last three decades interrogating this issue and all appear to suggest similar gender barriers (Coleman, 2007). These gender barriers are well documented and include cultural and traditional stereotypes that dictates roles of men and women in society and the dual responsibilities that women play in the home and at work (e.g. Shakeshaft, 1989; Grogan, 1996; Hall, 1996; , Mahlase, 1997; Mathipa and Tsoka, 2001;

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Chisholm, 2001; Coleman, 2002; Oplatka, 2006; Kaparou and Bush, 2007; Diko, 2007). Recognizing the continuation of gender inequity, many interventions, such as the creation of equal opportunities have been put in place. These interventions may have yielded some positive outcomes such as increasing the female applicant pool for leadership positions. For example in 1997 women made only two percent of school principals and nine percent of heads of department (HoD) (Chisholm and Napo, 1999) but in 2004 their representation had increased to 26percent of principals, and the majority of 61percent of HoDs (Moorosi, 2006a citing national statistics). However, as previous studies have shown (e.g. Chisholm 2001, Moorosi, 2010) the qualitative experiences of women on the ground suggest that the situation of women in school leadership has improved only minimally. While gender equality usually denotes equal treatment, gender equity in this chapter is used to refer to fairness and justice that are experienced on the basis of gender. This understanding acknowledges the interplay between gender, race, ethnicity and other forms of diversity amongst women and men in school leadership. Although the chapter draws examples of gender discrimination from school based experiences of women principals, educational leadership is used broadly to refer to the practice of leadership across the different levels in the institutions of education. Also, although the chapter uses South African experiences to illustrate the arguments made, the literature is drawn from across the globe and from other sectors including business. This global literature suggests that women have made significant strides leading education across continents (Sobehart, 2009), however, the qualitative experiences of women suggest that stereotypes about men and women leaders are still prevalent (Coleman, 2007; Stratchan et al, 2010; Moorosi, 2010), implying that gender still remains a way in which people are marginalized. In trying to understand why gender inequity persists in organizations, Ely and Meyerson (2000) have argued that many initiatives put in place remain largely unsuccessful because they have been directed towards working within the system to achieve quick change and with minimal disruption. These initiatives, they argue, are informed by sex-role socialisation theories that imply that the male image of leadership (the public sphere) is the norm, and that women are the “deficit model” (Schmuck, 1996). In order to achieve gender equity within this theory, the remedy is to re-socialise women so that they can fit into the world of men. Ely and Meyerson (2000) argue that it is the conceptualisation of gender that is problematic and not the concept of gender itself. Their proposal to gender equity advocates an alternative perspective that defines gender as a “system of oppressive relations reproduced in and by social practices” (2000:107). This conception of gender locates the gender inequity problem in the gendered social practices that “uphold gender as fixed and ranked oppositions” and privilege men (p.107). The authors’ contribution to the field in this regard has been based on a model that unsettles the discourse of what is regarded as normal and goes unchallenged within organisational operations. In this chapter, I use this model to examine its possibilities for addressing gender inequity in educational leadership in South Africa. I have used this model before (see Moorosi, 2007) in exploring the work-life balance of women principals. However, in this chapter, the model is applied in much more detail than previously. The model is based on the premise that gender inequity in organisational leadership continues to exist because gender is framed on traditional regimes that link gender to sex-role socialisation. The sex-role conceptualisation of gender accepts the status quo as normal and fails to question and change the deeply entrenched gendered practices and divisions of labour. To challenge these gendered divisions

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of labour and practices, the model suggests a non-conventional approach to gender conceptualisation, which should disrupt gendered social injustices as and when they happen. But how do we begin to identify and disrupt these social practices when they are so deeply entrenched?

GENDER AND LEADERSHIP: THE ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK In their framework of analysis, Ely and Meyerson (2000) identified four frames for examining gender inequities within the workplace that have yielded different outcomes. For Ely and Meyerson, women have generally made significant progress in accessing the leadership positions within organizations, but progress has been slow and biased towards the already privileged women. The argument is that organisational leadership continues to be male dominated and remains hostile to women, leaving them even more powerless because organisations themselves fail to question and change their own operations that include how work is defined and how work is accomplished. Ely and Meyerson argue that these unquestioned practices support the deeply entrenched divisions of labour and disparities between men and women and continue to uphold differential roles for men and women. They suggest a model of analysis that looks into the approaches to gender equity in organisations leading to a frame within which the deeply entrenched gendered practices can be dealt with as and when they occur. These approaches are outlined in detail below, highlighting their vision of gender equity and possible explanations for why they have been ineffective thus far in the South African educational leadership contexts.

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ASSIMILATION APPROACH The first approach is known as the “fix-the-women” or assimilation approach. This approach is regarded as? the most common approach to achieving gender equity. It is informed by the liberal feminist approach, which suggests that inequalities within the work place have been inherited from sex-role socialisation. Sex-role socialization produces “individual differences in attitudes and behaviours between men and women, which have rendered women less skilled than men to compete for executive positions” (Ely & Meyerson, 2000:105). The thinking behind this approach is that if women could acquire the skills that men have, and learn how to play the game (Cubillo and Brown, 2003), they would be able to compete on a par with men. The solution to gender inequity is therefore to “fix the women” by training and equipping them to be able to compete with men (Ely and Meyerson, 2000; Meyerson and Fletcher, 1999; Blackmore, 1999). Efforts that are informed by this approach always target women only as the beneficiaries of such initiatives. Influenced by this approach, governments and other relevant authorities have trained women on assertiveness, leadership development and decision making with the aim of increasing the applicant pool of women to fill the educational leadership and management positions. But to what extent have these been useful? In South Africa, many women have benefitted from programmatic interventions informed by this approach (see Karlsson, 2010). For example the national and provincial governments have run some workshops for women

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teachers that were meant to help them become more assertive and give them more decision making skills. Grants and scholarships were made available for women to improve their qualifications and training was provided in leadership and management and many other areas to which women did not have access traditionally. Training workshops have been run by provincial governments on assertiveness and other skills that it was felt women lacked according to the Gender Equity Task Team (GETT) report in 1997 (Wolpe et al, 1997). Also as a recommendation from the GETT report, gender focal desks were established and in some provinces oversaw women empowerment programmes that offered a series of modules on assertiveness, decision-making, effective communication and others under the umbrella of the Women in Management initiative of the former National Department of Education. In Gauteng, the Mathew Goniwe School of Leadership and Governance also offered an exclusive programme for women in leadership. These programmes were meant to address the skill based needs of women leaders and managers in education3. These initiatives have in most cases helped women acquire the necessary skills to be on equitable positions with men. However, even with these interventions women have still not gained significant presence in leadership positions of educational institutions. “Significant gender and cultural obstacles remain, and there seems to be a gap between political aspirations and social change” (Diko, 2007:108). But why have these interventions not achieved gender equity? Analysis of possible responses to this question shows that many of these interventions are underpinned by several assumptions, which reflect the main criticisms of the assimilation approach. Firstly, its vision of gender equity is based on the assumption that women and men are the same and that gender equity will be reached by giving women the same skills as men. Assertiveness is an attribute that women stereotypically do not have and so training women to be assertive (like men) is a typical strategy in this approach. However, the greatest pitfall of the approach is that it aims to achieve full equality of opportunity in all spheres of life without radically transforming the existing social order. The second assumption made by interventions in this approach is that women are passive recipients and have similar needs while in reality they address the needs of a minority and may further create class differentials amongst women by benefitting those already advantaged. Women teachers are a heterogeneous group with different needs and backgrounds. Moreover, they work in different contexts that require different skills. Thirdly, the assimilation approach is underpinned by the assumption that empowering a critical mass of women will produce cultural change, while in reality the approach promotes individualism rather than collectivism. As the oldest model to gender equity the assimilation approach has received these criticisms over the years. Critics showed that it is not the answer to gender inequity for women to enter the public world in men’s terms (Schmuck, 1996; Blackmore, 1999). While it is acknowledged that in many parts of the world, the approach resulted in educational policies informed by gender equity considerations and that it has enabled some women to acquire some useful skills that enabled them to compete on par with men, it is argued that changing individual women to be more like men does not enable change to happen if the social order benefiting men is not disrupted. Women generally remain 3

The degree to which this programme and similar ones were successful is not established in this analysis, but a critical analysis of policy frameworks also suggested that policies addressing gender equity play a more symbolic function (Moorosi, 2006b) and lack a procedural enactment.

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marginalised and disempowered because the existing power relations remain untouched. Thus, although the assimilation approach has led to a number of significant positives, interventions in this frame have largely left existing structures and cultures intact, making it difficult for women to make a lasting breakthrough.

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CELEBRATION APPROACH The second approach taken to rooting out gender discrimination posits that instead of fixing the women to fit into the male dominated fields, women should be accommodated with their differences. Similar to the first approach, this approach still views the root of differences as a socialization process, but argues that instead of eliminating women’s differences, they should be celebrated. This approach is informed by a view of feminism that posits that in order for women to receive their full autonomy, they have to celebrate their womanhood because women share more in common with other women than with men regardless of race, class or age (Beasley, 1999). Its vision for gender equity is creating a world where differences between men and women are recognised, valued and preserved. Typically, leadership models that have been associated with women are more collaborative, interactive and less competitive (Coleman, 2007). Unlike the assimilation approach, the celebration approach does not regard women as flawed due to their feminised differences, but suggest that those differences must be celebrated. Consciousness raising and training to make people aware of the differences between men and women such as their ability to collaborate and listen to people’s concerns in the work place are some of the interventions suggested in this approach. To illustrate, it was noted that the leadership and management of HIV/AIDS in South African schools requires a more collaborative, open and compassionate approach (Moorosi, 2009). A traditionally celebrationist approach would render women leaders more suitable for the management of HIV/AIDS due to their compassionate and caring attributes stereotypically associated with femininity. A celebration approach would encourage women to celebrate their differences instead of viewing them as weaknesses. For example internal barriers such as lack of confidence and fear of failure are viewed as strengths that women could utilize for effective management and leadership. Women could use their lack of competitiveness to solve conflicts, a skill needed for effective management, unlike men who would be less likely to employ such strategies (Cubillo and Brown, 2003). However, while the aim of the celebration approach is to give women a voice and platform to articulate their own ways of being and doing, it may be problematic in that it pushes women into traditionally stereotypical jobs. Ely and Meyerson (2000) argue that a fundamental flaw of the celebration approach is “its failure to recognise that the feminine itself has been partly constituted by its existence within the male-dominated social structure it ostensibly seeks to oppose” (2000:110). Hence, the approach may actually channel women into dead-end jobs and reinforce unhelpful stereotypes. The authors see this as a clear attempt to refuse to criticise the feminine, which ironically assumes that women have not in some ways been damaged by their social experiences. The wish to celebrate women’s goodness ironically seems to perpetuate their subordination and could even lead to more sophisticated forms of sex segregation. Ely and Meyerson (2000) posit that the attempt to preserve women’s difference is problematic

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because it does so at the expense of women’s liberation from the oppressive conventions of femininity. Telling people to value the differences does not necessarily mean that they will, and women who use their feminine skills and styles are only valued at a minimal and marginal level (Meyerson and Fletcher, 1999). In the school context, women who are more caring and collaborative are found in the leadership of primary schools and in secondary schools, they are given more pastoral roles, which do not count much for promotion (Coleman, 2007). This results in the applause of women for holding teams together and being told how valuable their contributions have been but when promotion and rewards are distributed, individuals who assertively promoted their own ideas or came up with a onetime technical fix are the ones recognised (Meyerson and Fletcher, 1999). Interventions in this approach target a limited group of women and most likely those who already have advantage due to their privileged social status. The particular versions of feminine they are based on are assumed to be “universal and enacted in the same way with the same meaning across all groups of men and women” (Ely and Meyerson, 2000:110) but in the process they actually ignore the majority of women’s attributes who may not be so privileged. Such interventions are informed by conventional images and definitions of femininity and masculinity that do not cater for all diverse groups in society and differences amongst women themselves. The celebration approach has therefore clearly not yielded desired outcomes in addressing gender equity in educational leadership but perpetuates gender differences even more. Celebrating women’s differences in leadership styles does not challenge the deeply entrenched systems that created those differences in the first place, but deepens the gender stereotypes. The question of whether men and women lead differently which would have strengthened the focus on gender differentiated styles has been rejected on the grounds of essentialism (Coleman, 2007). The celebration approach has therefore not been used that much in South African interventions for gender equality in education, perhaps due to its limited approach that reinforces stereotypes while still leaving in place, the processes that produce the differences.

EQUAL OPPORTUNITY APPROACH The third approach focuses on equal rights and equal opportunities through the elimination of structural barriers to women’s recruitment and advancement. These structures include hiring and promotion processes that reflect sexist attitudes toward women. In the equal opportunity framework, gender is still framed as sex differences but these differences are seen as a result of differential structures of opportunity that block women’s access and advancement. The equal rights and equal opportunities notion in education is supported mainly through advocacy for formal laws and policies that outlaw discrimination against women and dismantle barriers to equality. Equal opportunity approach interventions tackle these structural barriers in an attempt to level the playing field for women and men. This framework has generally influenced many interventions in the South African context, since 1994 mainly through the provision of equal rights in employment as carried through the Employment Equity Act of 1996 and formal policies on affirmative action. Ely and Meyerson (2000) observed that some organizations informed by equal opportunity strategies have been able to attract and promote more women but mostly at entry

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and middle management positions. Similarly, as shown earlier, South African women in educational leadership have been able to access middle management positions and are in the majority at middle management but the majority of principalships are still in the hands of men. Although legal frameworks are in place, women still play on an unequal playing field since the approach makes no suggestions for tackling the deeply entrenched gendered practices. These policies were placed on unchanged systems that benefitted men and the already privileged women. This reinforces sex stereotypes and generates backlash amongst men who feel excluded from such programmes. In South Africa, gender backlash is exacerbated by the historical past that excluded all black people, both men and women, from economic and educational resources. Although it targets organizational policies and structures, the major flaw of this approach is that it presents insufficient challenge to the fundamental sources of power and social interactions between men and women that reinforce inequalities. It is perhaps not surprising that success in interventions informed by the equal opportunity approach have been minimal. The approach is informed by liberal feminism that tends to use terms such as under-representation of women in leadership positions. It has been argued that the use of such terms produce a discourse in which the most acceptable answers are those that are unlikely to make too many overtly threatening demands on a largely sceptical (and male) educational status quo (Acker, 1994). Liberal feminists argue for the removal of barriers to women’s full potential, which they presume will result in equal distribution of genders across various divisions of labour in existing social hierarchies (ibid). The assumption that providing equal numbers of women and equipping women with the necessary skills will achieve gender equity is a short-sighted one. The successes of such policies however, is not underestimated in any way, but the argument is that even though to some extent they appear to provide role models for girls in education and other women leaders, the issue of women’s under-representation appears to be more complex than a mere addition of numbers through policy interventions. The explanation for what seemed to have been and continues to be blocking women’ progression into school leadership and management goes beyond a mere provision of the legal reforms for equal opportunities since these continue to be in place. The interventions in this approach are informed by a limited conception of gender that has not “matured” and defines gender equity as nothing more than the mere inclusion of women in school leadership (Diko, 2007). Further, the male image of leadership and management continues to influence those who make policies and appointment decisions. This conception is unlikely to change the status quo because by implementing policies within existing systems, it does not profoundly challenge existing power relations within educational organisations. Rather, an approach that looks beyond provision of legal reforms and policies but more into social practices that prevent policies from reaching the desired goals is needed. This is where the fourth approach comes in.

THE WORK CULTURE APPROACH The analysis above has attempted to show the limitation of the approaches informed by sex-role socialisation, which are regarded as traditional in their outlook (Ely and Meyerson,

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2000). The fourth and last approach takes a non-traditional route to understanding gender inequities and draws mostly on some post-structural feminist strands. A post-structural feminist approach suggests looking at the power relations, systems and the gendered nature of society in shaping possibilities for action (Weedon, 1987; Blackmore, 1999). This approach would also look at systems that are oppressive to both women and men and argue that it is those systems that need to be changed in order to achieve gender equity. Informed by this view, the work culture approach basically seeks to link the culture of leadership and management work to organisational effectiveness by suggesting a constant assessment and revision of the way work is done and accomplished. The idea is to tackle gender inequity through means and ways that make organisations more effective in their operations. For this approach gender is not regarded as a basis for discrimination, but a complex set of social relations enacted across a range of social practices that exist both within and outside formal organizations. These social practices range from formal policies and procedures (work rules, labour contracts, managerial activities, job descriptions, etc.) to informal patterns of everyday social interactions within formal organizations (organisational norms about how work is done, relationships required to do the job, distribution of roles and responsibilities, etc.). According to Ely and Meyerson (2000), these social practices tend to reflect and support men’s experiences and life situations by placing higher value on masculine identity, since they have been created largely by and for them and are based on male experiences (also Blackmore, 1999). These social practices are deeply embedded in the culture of organizations and are therefore perceived to be gender neutral and regarded as a natural way organizations operate. It is these social practices that are left intact by the interventions informed by the first three approaches, resulting in unsustainable progress that only benefit some individuals. However, the fourth approach sees these social practices as cunning and sinister sources of gender inequity that must be rooted out of the organizations (Ely and Meyerson, 2000). In the work culture approach the problem is identified to be within the traditional notions of male and female, masculine and feminine, and private and public dichotomies (also Reiger, 1993) that are reflected by the daily social practices inherent in all organisations. These social practices appear to be neutral but uphold gender as fixed, ranked oppositions. This representation of gender as oppositions preserves male privilege and views leadership and management as part of the public domain associated with men and thus disadvantages women (also Fitzgerald, 2003). The work culture approach acknowledges the difference in the way women and men are affected by these social practices, which are determined by their historical background, race, ethnicity, social class and other issues of diversity. The conception of gender in the first three approaches is linked to sex role socialisation, but in the work culture approach, gender is conceptualised as a set of social relations that define meaning and shape experiences of men and women within and outside organisation. This conception acknowledges that the way gender is understood favours male experience over female experience through “subtle and insidious” gendered social practices (Ely and Meyerson, 2000). It is these social practices that Ely and Meyerson argue should be uprooted and dismantled in order to achieve gender equity in organisations. The work culture approach therefore starts on the premise that gender inequity is deeply rooted in our cultural patterns and organizational systems and can only be repaired by a persistent campaign of incremental changes that discover and destroy the deeply embedded roots of discrimination driven by both men and women together. The target is to benefit both men and women by creating a world where gender does not serve as a basis for inequity. The intervention therefore starts with the

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identification of the problem and the premise that unless these gendered social practices are acknowledged as problems and therefore disentangled, gender inequity will not be uprooted from the organizations. It acknowledges the differences in experiences shaped by these social practices, and therefore suggests no single solution to all gender problems within organizations, but suggests that gendered social practices in the work place must be tackled as and when they happen. This fourth approach is provided as an alternative that could potentially offer solutions to gender inequity. It conceives of gender as a system of oppressive relations reproduced in and by social practices and therefore non-traditional as opposed to the first three that are traditional and define gender in terms of sex-role socialization. These approaches fail to provide long term solutions because of their limited conception of gender that only tackles the surface of the problem. Ely and Meyerson argue that for as long as gender is seen as the basis of oppression, (and not a complex set of social relations enacted through a range of social practices across the organisation) appropriate measures will not be reached in fighting the gender inequity in the work place. In this conception, organisations are seen as powerful structures that shape gender and it’s meaning and shape the experiences of employees and their success. But how do we begin to identify gendered social practices and how do we apply the work culture approach in school leadership? The following section uses the case studies presented at the beginning of the chapter to analyse the work culture approach in a little more detail.

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THE WORK CULTURE APPROACH AT WORK: DISRUPTING GENDERED SOCIAL PRACTICES Disrupting gendered social practices as and when they arise seems an easy practice on the surface but how does it actually work and how can it be sustained when it declares no universal solutions and no end product? How would we know we have got it right? Ely and Meyerson, (2000:114) divide the social practices into broad categories, which summed up include; formal policies and procedures, informal work practices, narratives and patterns of social interaction. I use these broad categories to analyse the case studies presenting the female school principals’ experiences to illustrate what gendered social practices would typically look like in a school setting and how they can be tackled and disrupted. Over and above identification and revision, Ely and Meyerson suggest an approach that uses research to inform practice in assessing the gendered nature of these social practices. It is perhaps appropriate to acknowledge at this point that the analysis in this chapter is only limited to identifying social practices in the first instance as the scope does not allow for further expansion.

I. Formal Policies and Procedures The formal policies and procedures include work rules, labour contracts, managerial directives, job descriptions and performance appraisal systems. These policies and procedures have become part of the school culture and in most cases regarded as the norm and are not

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challenged. In the case study of Mrs Mlipha, she experienced the prejudice on the basis that the school had a history of violence and only a strong man can handle it. This is blatant discrimination that is deeply rooted in the conception of what women cannot do as compared to what men can do. It is a description that calls for masculine traits and is used to ignore other traits that may be equally or more important in that job and in dealing with similar situations. However, looking at Mrs Mlipha’s situation, there is something even more sinister: that Mrs Mlipha was in an acting position for seven years but regarded inexperienced to run the particular school and was not appointed even when she was the only candidate shortlisted. Mrs Mlipha’s persistence brought a fundamental change to the otherwise seemingly accepted practice of not considering women for appointment into principalships. This could be one practice that has gone on for many years and Mrs Mlipha’s appointment broke the pattern and disrupted this normality. Perhaps the employment equity policies facilitated this transformation but even with such policies in place, the more fundamental issue is to identify and deal with the sexist attitudes on the ground. Attaching experience to appointment and disregarding potential also is regarded as problematic as women would not have the experience given the history and traditional leadership practices. Merit and suitability for the job is in this case linked to experience in a particular school. Blackmore et al (2006) problematized merit and viewed it as a social construct that reflects the experiences of those already in the job and those who define it. In Mrs Mlipha’s case clearly the committee is influenced by the male image of leadership and refuse to see potential. It is likely that other men who would not have the desired work experience could be disadvantaged by this practice. The work culture approach suggests that it is important to assess the degree to which the social practices affect men and women and different groups of men and women differently so that they could be revised. Thus, the discourses informing formal procedures of appointment in this case privilege men and they need to be challenged.

II. Informal Work Practices, Norms and Patterns of Work The informal work practices would include norms and patterns of work that suggest the way work should be done. These become gendered and problematic when they uphold the masculine way of working or producing work at the detriment of femininity. The supervision of study for boarders until 10pm in Mrs Nzama’s school is a practice that has probably been in the school for a long time and has always been the responsibility of the school principal. On the surface, this appears a normal school practice but it impacts differently on Mrs Nzama than it would on her male predecessor and other principals who may not have home or other responsibilities outside work. This practice is clearly dependent on the availability of the study supervisor and strongly built onto the roles and responsibilities of a school principal. Inability to perform such a role would probably imply lack of commitment and implicitly denote underperformance, which would not work in favour of the principal. Women with home responsibilities and single parents would be most unlikely to perform this role in these terms. This work practice would have to be identified as gendered and problematic and once this has been done, the next step would be to collectively look into alternative ways of study supervision that are not so detrimentally bound to the role of principalship. Perhaps even more fundamentally, the questioning exercise would question the very nature and time of supervised study.

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The same treatment would apply to competitiveness encouraged by the approach to rewarding those who succeed in their academic and extra-mural tasks in Mrs Nzama’s school. This appears gender neutral on the surface, however, it does promote individuality based on heroic models that recognise best performance as that built on the male norm that has implications on how work is produced. Typically, in a male dominated world, it is men who would stay longer with sports teams or debate clubs at school because they are not rushing home to cook or take care of children, which is another gendered practice within the home. Putting in extra hours at work appears a good thing if schools are to achieve good results. But it is problematic in that it has differential impact on men and women and between men who may be taking some share of home responsibilities or generally the non-work lives of the teachers and the principal. As seen in the case study, Mrs Nzama has compromised her social and family life but has dedicated all her time to the school life. In a context of balancing work and life it becomes problematic to measure commitment based on longer hours spent in schools as clearly, teachers who have more family commitments would put less amount of hours in the school. In addition, this type of competition, while it enhances performance in sports and academic results, it promotes individuality amongst staff and may have negative impact on sustainability as success is intricately linked to the performance of the individual. The concept of ideal worker in both schools seems to be tied to putting in extra hours in the school work, which clearly is not suitable for teachers who have life outside work.

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III. Narratives, Rhetoric, Language and Other Symbolic Expressions Mrs Nzama and Mrs Mlipha and their families have learnt to live with and accept that spending long hours at the school comes with the territory in spite of how they both feel about neglecting their families. But what is more peculiar in Mrs Nzama’s case is that when the matriculation results came out at the end of the year, her circuit manager acknowledges the hard work by calling her husband and thanking him for “allowing his wife to put in the hard work”. On the surface, this appears a good gesture of appreciation but it becomes another expression that elevates male recognition at the expense of female effort. Mrs Nzama does not see anything wrong with this but its sinister nature lies in the way the department recognises and appreciates achievement. The practice of recognising and encouraging competition amongst teachers is ignorant of differential effect this may have on men and women teachers as well as teachers who may not be in a position to put in extra hours of work. That laziness is not tolerated assigns value judgement to such teachers and the narrative of a winner, while it may appear gender neutral, it does have different impact on men and women. While competition might be a good thing to drive standards, in some ways it reinforces individuality instead of collaboration and this becomes a highly gendered split when it is linked to the time spent at work outside normal work hours.

IV. Informal Patterns of Everyday Social Interaction Informal patterns of everyday social interactions can also take oppressive forms that are significant in the gendered process of organisations. The fact that teachers in Mrs Mlipha’s school respond to male authority and not to female authority reveals patterns of social

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interaction not only in the school but also perhaps in the broader society outside the school. In Mrs Nzama’s school, work seems to be central to how people interact, but the men making jokes and women responding, is a pattern of interaction that seems to suggest that males are always listened to and encourages women teachers’ subordination. At Mrs Nzama’s school, this is not seen as a problem, and it may be even more normal as it could be linked to cultural practices where it is a sign of respect to men to give them space to talk and particularly in public. It is however, another problematic split that is linked to the public-private dichotomy that polarises ways in which men and women do work and interact. Everyday social relations are also seen in the expectations of roles at both women principals’ homes. They have husbands and helpers but cooking for their husbands (and dishing for them) still remains one thing that is done by them. There is something fundamentally unjust with such practices that need to be problematized as gender oppressive socialisation behaviours.

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SUMMARY The work culture approach is underpinned by the connection of gender equity to organisational transformation and change, which may possibly lead to schools being more effective. The approach is driven by the assumption that if gendered social practices are identified and subverted, the school will simultaneously be working towards a more positively changed environment. Revising the school regulations on long working hours and changed attitudes towards work and achievement, it is argued, would enable teachers and leaders to have more time for planning and reflection. The success achieved from changing any one of these oppressive social practice is regarded as a small win (Meyerson and Fletcher, 1999) and the school should work collaboratively to achieve more small wins. Thus, the approach does not advocate a revolutionary strategy, but a series of incremental changes that act as local school-based interventions. Current literature on effective school leadership suggests collaborative and shared approach to leadership that de-focuses from traditional heroic models to more interdependent approaches. Collaborative leadership advocates the interaction of leadership as a social process that can be performed by different individuals and at different levels within the school. It is within this approach that stakeholders can work collaboratively to question practices that are often taken for granted and perpetuate gender inequity. In the two case studies above, it is evidently not questioned that school principals are expected to arrive early and perhaps be the last one to leave on a daily basis. It is just the way things are, yet the impact of these unquestioned practices is different on men and women. While there may be an argument for both school principals to delegate some responsibilities and use their own time more effectively, revising the whole culture of long extra hours spent at work would not only benefit women but men as well who might have home responsibilities or would like to spent time with the children.

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CONCLUSION It has been argued that the first three approaches to gender equity are underpinned by various strands of liberal feminist theory (Ely and Meyerson, 2000). While interventions informed by liberal feminism are responsible for a significant number of changes in the work place, including the increased number of women in school leadership positions, they have been “insufficient to disrupt the pervasive deeply entrenched imbalance of power in social relations between men and women” (p.113). The last approach takes a non-traditional route to understanding gender inequities and draws mostly on some post-structural feminist strands by for example, suggesting a holistic approach that includes disrupting systems and injustices that are also experienced by men. The scope of this chapter does not allow for a more robust and research-focused analysis of the gender and organisational change that is suggested by Ely and Meyerson. However, what has been achieved above is the first phase of identifying some of the gendered social practices that would then be revised and disrupted. The vision of gender equity is to have systems where gender is no longer affiliated with power. Perhaps it is important to note what might be regarded as a limitation of the fourth approach namely, that its continuous assessment identifies no clear end points and therefore cannot say what a truly transformed gender equitable work place should look like. Although this approach appears to have the ability to tackle the gender discriminative social practices identified as problematic in the first three approaches, its limitation is linked to resistance to change and difficulty of sustainability (Ely and Meyerson, 2000), since it makes no attempt to identify the endpoint, but continuously disrupts the social order and revises the structural practices and regards the process of change as both means and ends. This disruption begins when teachers and principals in a school context question their own assumptions about how work is done, who plays what roles and how, and what constitutes effective leadership and success in a school. This analysis has attempted to provide an alternative approach to achieving gender equity in school leadership, using some case studies of women principals’ experiences. The analysis has shown how the work culture approach may not only help achieve gender equity by revising the ways in which schools work. It is believed that a continuous assessment and revision of gendered social practices in addition to the existing gender equity legal frameworks is a significant step towards achieving gender equity in school leadership.

REFERENCES Beasley, C. (1999) What is Feminism? An Introduction to Feminist Theory. London: SAGE Publications. Blackmore, J. (1999) Troubling Women: Feminism, Leadership and Educational Change. Buckingham: Open University Press. Blackmore, J. (1989) ‘Educational Leadership: A Feminist Critique and Reconstruction’, in J. Smyth, Critical Perspectives on Educational Leadership. London: The Falmer Press. Blackmore, J., Thomson, P. & Barty, K. (2006) Principal selection: homosociability, the search for security and the production of normalised principal identities, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 38 (3): 297-319.

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Chisholm, L. (2001) Gender and Leadership in South African Educational Administration. Gender and Education. 13 (4): 387-399. Coleman, M. (2007) Gender and educational leadership in England: A comparison of secondary head teachers’ views over time. School Leadership and Management, (27(4): 383-399. Coleman, M. (2002) Women as head teachers: Striking the balance, London: Trentham Books. Diko, N. (2007) Changes and continuities: Implementation of gender equality in a South African High School. Africa Today, 54 (1): 107-116. Ely, R. J. & Meyerson, D. E. (2000) Theories of Gender in Organisations: A new Approach to Organisational Analysis and Change. Research in Organisational Behaviour. 22: 103151. Fitzgerald, T. (2003) Changing the deafening silence of indigenous women’s voices in educational leadership. Journal of Educational Administration. 41 (1): 9-20. Grogan, M. (1996) Voices of Women Aspiring to the Superintendency. Albany: SUNYP. Hall, V. (1996) Dancing on the Ceiling: A Study of Women Managers in Education. London: Paul Chapman Publishing. Kaparou, M. & Bush, T. (2007) Invisible barriers: the career progress of women secondary school principals in Greece. Compare 37 (4): 221-339. Karlsson, J. (2010) Gender mainstreaming in a South African provincial department: a transformative shift or technical fix for oppressive gender relations. Compare 40 4: 497514. Mathipa, E. M. & Tsoka, E. R. (2001) Possible barriers to the advancement of women in positions of leadership in the education profession. South African Journal of Education 21 (4):324-330. Meyerson, D. E. & Fletcher, J. K. (1999) A modest Manifesto for Shattering the Glass ceiling. Harvard Business Review. Moorosi, P (2006a) Policy and practice related constraints to increased female participation in education management in South Africa. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of KwaZuluNatal, Pietermaritzburg. Moorosi, P (2006b) Towards closing the gender gap in educational management: A gender analysis of educational management policies in South Africa. Agenda 69: 58-70. Moorosi, P. (2007) Creating linkages between public and private sphere: challenges facing women principals in South Africa. South African Journal of Education. 27 (3) 507-521. Moorosi, P. (2009) Leading together: the changing face of school leadership in the age of HIV&AIDS. In Mitchell, C & Pithouse, K. Teaching and HIV & AIDS. Johannesburg: Macmillan Moorosi, P. (2010). South African women principals’ career path: Understanding the gender gap in secondary school management, Educational Management Administration and Leadership, 38 (5) 547-562. National Department of Education (2004) Educators Disaggregated according to Gender and Race as at 31st August 2004 Oplatka, I. (2006) Women in educational administration within developing countries: Towards a new international research agenda, Journal of Educational Administration, 44 (6): 604-624.

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Reiger, K. (1993) “The Gender Dynamic of Organisations”, in Blackmore and Kenway (eds) Gender Matters in Educational Administration and Policy: A Feminist Introduction. London: Falmer Press. Schmuck, P. (1996) “Women’s place in educational administration: Past, present and future”, in Leithwood, K. et al (eds) International handbook of Educational Leadership and Administration. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Press. Shakeshaft, C. (1989) Women in educational administration. California, Newbury Park: Corwin Press. Stratchan, J., Akao, S., Kilavanwa, B. & Warsal, D. (2010) ‘You have to be a servant of all’: Melanesian women’s educational leadership experiences. School Leadership and Management, 30 (1): 65-76. Soberhart, H. (2009) Women leading education across the continents. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Education. Van Deventer, I. & van der Westhuizen, P. C. (2000) A shift in the way female educators perceive intrinsic barriers to promotion. South African Journal of Education, 20 (3): 235241. Weedon, C. (1987) Feminist practice and poststructuralist theory. New York: Basil Blackwell Wolpe, A., Quinlan, O. & Martinez, L. (1997) Gender Equity in Education: A report by the Gender Equity Task Team. Pretoria: Department of Education. Young, M. D. & Lopez, G. R. (2005) ‘The nature of inquiry in educational leadership’. In F. W. English, The Sage Handbook of Educational Leadership: Advances in theory, research and practice, Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

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In: Education Leadership, Management and Governance … ISBN 978-1-62100-853-8 Editors: V. Chikoko and K. M. Jorgesen © 2012 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 6

WOMEN MANAGING CHANGE IN ZIMBABWEAN SCHOOLS Irene Muzvidziwa University of KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

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ABSTRACT This chapter seeks to highlight some of the issues taken for-granted in educational leadership and management, considering that previously leadership has been perceived in masculine terms. The notion of gender, culture and the impact of management theory are examined in light of the empirical research done on women primary school heads’ experiences as educational leaders within the Zimbabwean context. The study employed a qualitative phenomenological approach to investigate the lived experiences of the women school heads as they ventured into domains that were predominantly male. The purpose was to find out how the women heads approached leadership, especially during the times when schools were going through restructuring and were facing economic challenges. The study findings on the experiences of women school heads, show that leadership cannot be conceived in gender neutral terms. Drawing on the women’s experiences, the chapter illuminates how change in schools was managed, the challenges that were faced and how those challenges were addressed. Creativity, innovation and nurturance as a form of empowerment of subordinates were identified as important in the process of leading schools.

Keywords: Leadership, Managing change, Creativity, Nurturance, Gender.

INTRODUCTION The chapter discusses Zimbabwean women primary school heads’ success stories of how they thrived and succeeded during the times of major educational reforms in the late 1990s and post 2000 period. In this chapter the term ‘school head’ will be used interchangeably with

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“school leader’ and ‘school principal’ to represent the women school heads. The chapter is based on a study which sought to discover whether women who enter into leadership positions previously dominated by males, transform themselves to fit into pre-conceived roles -‘roles associated with male hierarchies and privileges or redefine leadership in terms of their own experiences and ways of thinking and knowing. Women’s experiences of their role as educational leaders are examined against the framework on gender role socialization and the issue of culture and received tradition. Leadership and the concept of power will also be examined. The impact of organization theory is explored in order to deepen our understanding of the context in which Zimbabwean women school leaders in general operate. The last sections examine how women overcame challenges of change and how they managed conflicts in their schools. Women educational leaders face both institutional and cultural constraints. Having assumed leadership positions, women are “forced to operate in a terrain they did not create” and they struggle to be functional (Enomoto 2000:376). In Zimbabwean schools, more than half of the teaching population in primary schools are females however few women are currently in headship positions. The Zimbabwe Teachers Association (ZMTA 1994:36) pointed out that “women generally were employed in subordinate positions”. Similar trends have been observed in other African countries. In South Africa for instance black women have faced and are currently facing a dual challenge in attaining top educational management positions (Booysen 1999). This is simply because gender in South Africa is racially and culturally segmented as it takes on a particular apartheid-related characteristic (Mathur-Helm 2005). The issue on gender representation in South Africa has also been explored by Moorosi (2006) who identified existing gaps between men and women in educational leadership positions. These highlights serve as a basis for understanding the historical background of the gender inequality in educational leadership across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region including Zimbabwe. A regional update on women in decisionmaking at a workshop held in Zimbabwe on organizational development revealed also that although the Zambian constitution does not bar women from holding positions of authority, very few women occupy such positions (McFadden 1997). This situation has not changed much across the region more than ten years after the workshop. However, despite efforts by government and the existence of a women’s promotional policy (Public Service Circular 4 of 1991) in favour of women in Zimbabwe, school leadership has remained male dominated. The issue of women’s under-representation in Educational leadership positions has received little attention in the post 2000 era in Zimbabwe. Muzvidziwa (2001) is among the few that have taken an interest to explore the issue on women’s under-representation in educational leadership. In this chapter I argue that women in positions of authority despite facing many challenges, they strategize and often succeed to overcome them.

FORCES OF CHANGE AND THE ZIMBABWEAN CONTEXT Social and political forces in Zimbabwe both combined to create a climate in which schools were pressured to change. Colonization led to delays in the recognition of women’s oppression as an issue deserving much attention. O’Callaghan and Austin (1977) observed that before Zimbabwe’s independence, schools were dominated by racial discrimination

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discourse, and later the discourse on black male advancement. Little was mentioned on gender equality or equity issues. From the early 1980s issues emerged concerning women’s careers, women undertook training in the lowest levels such as the infant and primary education. There were separate courses specifically meant for girls such as needlework and domestic science. Since 1980 various changes have been initiated that had a bearing on educational leadership in schools. The government aimed at eliminating inequalities, which had prevailed during the colonial era. The reforms involved not only social and economic processes, but also political. Driven by political forces, both external and internal pressures were exerted upon schools in Zimbabwe to democratise. The implications for these political processes had great impact on redistribution of power and material resources in the society. A number of education policies, Education Acts and Circulars were introduced to promote gender equality in schools. For instance, policies that had remarkable impact on Education in Zimbabwe were “Education for All” and “Affirmative Action”. These policy reforms ushered in fundamental changes in the national education. Women educational leaders who participated in this study became the pioneer group to be involved in the change initiative based on affirmative action. Affirmative action policy was introduced as a deliberate attempt by government to promote women on the basis of gender. The aim was to try and re-dress gender inequalities in positions of authority. The changes were meant to satisfying the demand for education by the Black majority and indeed at trying to create a more egalitarian and just society. In the 1980s education was made free for all children in all government schools. In order to cater for the increased enrolment at all levels, more schools had to be built and that could not happen overnight. The expansion of the education system to cater for everyone in the country meant that school organizations were going to be affected both positively and negatively. There was need for new infrastructures, human and material resources and time. Multi-shift, schooling was introduced to cater for two or more entirely separate groups of pupils during each school day. Each shift was taught by different teachers. This meant that one school head had more teachers to supervise and most of them were untrained. Quality education was compromised by engaging many untrained teachers. However, to overcome this problem, innovations in teacher education were put in place. More teacher training colleges were introduced. There was an introduction of in-service training of teachers at both primary and secondary levels. The University of Zimbabwe offered a two year part-time BEd degree course to upgrade secondary school teachers who had diplomas. A number of teacher training colleges were introduced offering diploma for primary school teachers. The most prominent innovation in teacher education was the Zimbabwe Integrated National Teacher education Course (ZINTEC). The programme involved two terms intensive residential courses at the initial stage. There-after, teacher trainees were placed in primary schools for three years of in-service distance education and their programme ended with students working their final stage on college campus. This shows that the whole programme was four year. In Zimbabwe the school year is divided into three terms. Although the major policy reforms and changes were intended to bring equal opportunity for all races of school going children and other disadvantaged groups, and despite the efforts by government-giving grants to district councils for educational projects, the net effect was a situation where in some rural schools, about 20 to 30 pupils would share one text book and had no writing exercise books but had to share sheets of papers. The pioneer women leaders-including those in my study found themselves swimming in such turbulent situations and were expected to manage the changes

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in their schools, and yet were expected to improve the conditions of their school environment by offering effective quality leadership.. This situation required thorough supervision by the head to ensure that classroom teaching and learning was well planned and implemented, therefore there was need for leadership skills that could enhance educational change.

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EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP A discussion of women school leadership in the Zimbabwean context needs to be premised on an understanding of what constitutes educational leadership. Leadership has become more difficult to define because of the many calls for a re-conceptualization of leadership, which is gender inclusive. This is because women educational leaders have their own understanding of leadership, which is different from that of men, and to some extent their view of effective leadership is also different. Leadership is not gender neutral. However, a central element in many leadership definitions is that it is a process of influence. Most definitions of leadership reflect the assumption that it involves social interactions with one or a group of people (Yukl 2002). Central to the current debate in leadership, management and gender, is the linking of leadership and expertise with a bureaucratic approach for the use of leaders, within a collegial structure. Batram (2005:114) observed that “the invisibility of women in management theories have been replaced by a lively debate contrasting and contesting women and men’s ways of managing”. Literature however, shows that male leadership tends to be more hierarchical, consisting of rules and procedures associated with ‘power over’ others (Hurty 1995, Myers & Murphy, 1995). With the prevailing view that leadership is a permeable and flexible process, widely distributed throughout the school and more reciprocal, indeed many talk about it as an empowering process, enabling others to exercise leadership (Dimmock, 1999). This definition leads to leadership, which is less vibrant about issues concerning hierarchy than it is with skills and expertise, to motivate followers and influence goal achievement. Leadership is about vision sharing and transformation of organizations such as schools. Literature (Fullan 2001, Theron 2007) shows however, that effective leadership is the drive towards school improvement, school effectiveness and school change. Fullan (2001:138) noted that “the principal is the gate keeper of change”. This suggests that the principal as a change agent and a leader within the school is responsible for the final outcome of the organisation failure or success. Management on the other hand is a set of activities directed towards efficient and effective utilization of resources to achieve organizational goals. It is concerned with practical action. While leadership and management cannot be separated, Dimmock (1999, p. 44) asserts that “school leaders experience difficulty in deciding the balancing” between management duties and leadership roles. However, both leadership and management are regarded as essentially practical activities, which according to Bush (2004) should be given equal prominence if schools are to be effective particularly when undergoing change process. Change involves learning new skills through practice, feedback and interaction.

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MANAGING CHANGE

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Change is a process that needs to be well managed. Theron (2007, p. 183) describes change as “the struggle between what is and what is desired”. The initial stage of any significant change normally involves anxiety and uncertainty. This leads to managing change especially in education presenting particular problems. The school principal, being the key person on whom much of the school activities revolve should have adequate skills and knowledge about how to manage change. It is not likely that these women had such skills at that point, however the way they strategized to cope with their school environments was quite unique. Theron (2007) referring to change in education sees school principals as experiencing new controls and regulations that reflects a shift from the traditional past. Although school principals to a large extent determine the success or failure of a school, commenting on change Diron (1994) acknowledged that change does not come easily since it involves attitudes and peoples’ beliefs. Changing beliefs is one of the most difficult leadership challenges of all, yet educational leaders deal more often openly and directly with peoples’ beliefs and thinking –reflecting a culture of that particular school, or group of people. As committed school leaders, principals should stress the need for schools to build and nurture the norms and values that contribute to academic growth. However differences in leadership approach and communication patterns contribute to variation in school cultures since culture is built through the day to day interactions. Culture is the way people live and it can only be understood and or changed through interactions, sharing ideas as well as other information. Interaction is a two way process requiring active involvement. Hence, by sharing ideas people acquire certain skills through social interaction and socialisation. To elaborate more on the issue of socialisation, skills acquisition I want to look at how gender and education impact on women leadership.

GENDER AND EDUCATION: IMPACT ON WOMEN LEADERSHIP Gender as socially constructed is not something people are born with, but relates to the cultural aspects of male and female roles. Mutare Teacher’s College in collaboration with The Women’s Trust (2009) considered gender as learned behaviour; personality and other social attributes that are expected of males and females and these social attributes become the basis of what is termed masculine and feminine roles. Through socialisation process individuals learn how to behave in what is perceived as proper and normal within a particular culture in a society. It can be argued that to understand and address the issue on gender and educational leadership, the influence of culture should not be taken for granted. To be clear with the context in which women principals come from, I need to examine literature to explore on the discourse on gender and education in general. By focusing on gender stereotype in education, the purpose is to try and find out how education has served largely to maintain the status quo in gender relations and how this has impacted on women educational leaders in Zimbabwe as is the case globally.

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The Ministry of Education Sports and Culture (MOESC) in association with UNICEF (1998) observed that there is gender stereotype in education especially in text books. Women are portrayed according to culturally accepted gender role definitions of masculinity and femininity (Sharma 2000). The implications for this approach to education have almost permanent psychological impact on pupils. Yet leadership has been conceptualized by focusing on traits associated with males such as “strength, toughness and decisiveness” (Eisler (1994:38). There is no gender neutrality in management. Management theory has shaped the belief system and values of leadership. Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital is important in contextualizing women in educational leadership since literature reflects them as one of the oppressed gender groups. From Bourdieu’s concept, knowledge embodied in the school curriculum is culture specific and reflect the views of the dominant group. While schools serve as agents of the society by transmitting societal values to pupils, Russell (2001:78) discussing the role of values in leadership, observed that “personal values affect moral reasoning. Ford (2005) observed that women are associated with feminine characteristics of caring, nurturing and sharing that are allegedly more appropriate for domestic and from this research it has shown that the women principals coped with the change by drawing on the strengths of these allegedly feminine traits. It is therefore important to link women’s experiences and their behaviour in leadership positions to the context in which they are coming from as well as operating under. However, literature reveals that focus should not be put only on formal education and societal influences as being problematic, but starting from the family.

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FAMILY INFLUENCES AND WOMEN LEADERSHIP The family is to a large extent a crucial determinant of people’s opportunities in life. Bourdieu’s concept of cultural capital suggests that the individual is socialized in the family and acquires linguistic and social competencies. The family equips the child with expectations of the future. The argument therefore stems from the notion that much of the social construction of gender roles takes place within the family, during the period of childhood parenting. Generally the foundation is seen to be the strongest of a whole building structure. Okin (1989) is quite articulate on the issue of family influences and believes that almost every person in society starts life in a family of some sort, and while the form varies, it is the potential place where people learn certain values which carry them through out the life cycle. This position of viewing the society and the family should help us to understand why principals should pull together with parents and the community if meaningful change is to happen in schools. Sharing a common goal with parents/caregivers facilitates positive change. She sees the family as the first “series of associations” in which we participate and from which we acquire the crucial capacity of a sense of justice, to value and see things from the perspective of others. Any mention of values requires close analysis of culture, since it gives meaning to certain behaviours and ways of thinking. On the other hand culture is built through the everyday interactions. Giligan’s study (in Soobrayan (1998:41) of female psychology observed that:

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Male children learn to put winning ahead of personal relationship or growth: to feel comfortable with rule, boundaries and procedures, and to submerge their individuality for the greater goal of the game. Females learn to value co-operation and relationships Thus the family is seen as the primary institution where learning of moral development takes place. For instance when one of the male acting head refused to surrender the office keys to the woman who was to take up the headship, the woman just thought “it was the male culture”. It is within families where societal values start. Literature suggests that the emphasis on relationships, shared responsibility and involving of others is what characterises empowerment (Capper Theoharis, and Sebastian2006).

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THEORETICAL AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK Empowerment according to Russell (2001, p. 80) “is the opposite of the historical management practices that emphasised manipulation” and “is relinquishing of the traditional means of power and the delegation of decision-making responsibilities”. Leaders who genuinely empower, operate from a different value foundations than leaders who retain power and control. To understand the women’ head’s approach to leadership, this study focuses on Hurty’s concept of power. While political and social forces have combined to create a climate in which schools are pressurized to change, empowerment is perceived as a central element in promoting change. The concept of ‘power with’ (an interactive approach) will be used to analyse the women’s approaches against the concept of ‘power over’ (the bureaucratic model). Hurty’s (1995) concept of ‘power with’ is a mode of power that is seen as a resource, which can be renewable and expanded. Hurty’s concept of ‘power’ resulted from a theoretical work that included studies of human interaction, conflict resolution and managing change in organisations. She believed that people grew and changed by talking through conflicts and differences and negotiating. Such negotiation processes do not rely on traditional notions of power as control or as the domination of decision-making (Hurty 1995). Women in Hurty’s study got tired, angry, frustrated and shared those feelings ‘with’ their subordinates. While men are perceived as the most suitable individuals in positions of authority, the “historical developments of educational leadership and management has led to the field of study that neither questions, nor reflects” on the place of women in the education system (Smulyan 2000:215). In the new context, management perspectives are being transformed and the long held criteria for evaluating organization and managerial effectiveness are being reinvigorated. For Jamali, Khoury and Sahyoun (2006) the classical and bureaucratic system worked well when markets, production and technology were slow to change. The problem with focusing on the early organizational thinking influenced by classical management theory and bureaucracy is made explicit by Lumby (2003) with reference to managing change in South African schools. In the hierarchy, if local relationships are not well maintained and if links with inspectors and other education officers are not good the change process gets affected negatively. This view sees organizations as structured entities composed of bureaucracies, roles, and a hierarchy of offices, positions, rules and regulations. These structures are designed to ‘regulate’ the activities of individuals in the organization.

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The term regulate has serious implications in an environment where good relationships are not maintained. Bureaucratic expectations are the obligations set by the organization and are the key building blocks of the organization (Hoy and Miskel, 1996). In a hostile environment the blocks could sometimes become ‘blocking’ blocks of the change process in an organization and this is why perhaps the women opt for a less hierarchical structure with flexible structures. From the bureaucratic view of organisation the leader is vested with all the authority and powers. Lumby (2003:102) from a South African context raised an important point about parents feeling disempowered because of and/or sometimes “limited education” and/or “by the conditions enforced by poverty” resulting in their reluctance to participate in their children’s education activities. Sometimes the feeling of inferiority arises when parents are not valued, or included at the initial stage. This applies even to teachers and other school community members responsible for the functioning of the school, hence the importance of good links and interpersonal relationship. In fact some of the women leaders in my study once had similar feelings of inferiority when they could not be given ‘space’ to practice as deputies participating in decision-making as part of the school executives. Grant (2006:512) focusing on leadership in South African schools also showed concern about schools being bureaucratic suggesting “a shift” to leadership that is more transformative. This is where the servant leader would apply, valuing others irrespective of their status. Owens argues that classical and bureaucratic approaches to organizations tend not only to emphasise organisational structure and hierarchical control over people, but reifies these concepts, treating them as tangible (Owen 2001:49). These concepts were generally adopted uncritically to create more efficient and effective humans as machine like system, and hence do not augur well with the current thinking and viewing of schools as flexible organizations honouring the human factor. As already mentioned, leadership is not gender neutral. However, there is growing interest in the relationship between gender and transformational leadership. Current thinking about educational leadership is strongly informed by Burns’ (1978) notion of transformational leadership which emphasizes empowerment of followers and their ability to transform organizations by working with followers’ value system. Kark (2004) observed that recent developments in leadership theory have shifted interest from earlier thinking of charismatic leadership that viewed the leader as extraordinary and followers as dependent on the leader, to theories that are concerned with the development and empowerment of followers to function independently and effectively. Greenfield and Ribbins (1993) believe that organizations are established by people and therefore people are and should be responsible for what happens in them. In Owen’s (2001:49) view, organizations are social conventions in which people interact. Literature shows that schools are ideally looked at as institutions that reflect shared expectations, norms, beliefs and values (Bush 2004). Leadership in schools needs to build and nurture on cultural norms that contribute to academic growth. The twenty first century is said to have taken new orientation capitalizing on fundamentally different approaches to managing employees, a good example being those advocated by women school principals in this study and this is why Hurty’s concept of power is important in understanding the phenomenon under current discussion. Hurty’s conception of ‘power with’ resonates with the concept of transformation in that women’s experiences in managing change reflected a shift from simply leading followers to treating them with dignity, respect, and empowering them to become leaders through the development of a relationship of mutual stimulation and trust. Leaders operating from such an orientation steer their followers towards self development and gain respect and trust from

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their subordinates. A phenomenological view of organisations stresses subjective experiences hence this study adopted a phenomenological orientation, which holds the potential to capture the subtleties of personal experience.

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METHODOLOGY The study adopted an eclectic phenomenological approach in an effort to understand the social meaning of women school heads’ lived experiences based on analysis of their own accounts. Having done all the ethical clearances and other formalities, five women principals were interviewed. The first woman principal was identified using purposive sampling. A ‘snowball’ sampling was used for selecting the other four research participants-the primary school heads. Patton (2002, p. 237) noted that snowball sampling is an approach for locating “information-rich key informants” that is those from which one can learn a great deal about issues of central importance to the purpose of inquiry. I used the main data-gathering tool in phenomenological research, which is the in-depth, semi-structured interview (Van-der Mescht, 2004). The inquiry was initiated through conversation as it unfolded. The use of indepth open ended interviews allowed the participants to describe their lived experiences. As a phenomenologist researcher, the focus was on (contextual) meaning making from one’s lived experience, rather than generalised rules, and thus valuing other people’s beliefs and understanding and avoidance of a ‘one size fits all’ situation. In fact perceiving educational leadership as gender-neutral tends to stem from the concept of generalisation and this has received contestation by other writers (for instance Soobrayan 1998; Enomoto 2000). At least three interview sessions per participant were held on completely different days and months to allow for a more rigorous attempt to collect rich data. The first sessions took more than one and a half hours with each participant, and the follow up sessions took at least forty-five minutes to an hour with each participant. The purpose was to find out their understanding and experiences of their role as women educational leaders. Data analysis was an on-going process guided by Giorgi (2003), who reminds us to identify ‘Natural Meaning Units’, specify their central themes and then articulate the structural coherence of those themes. To be more specific, a meaning unit is a statement made by the participant.

STUDY FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION The findings were organised according to themes. Some of the themes that emerged were resistance, interactive, role modelling and creativity. The first thing the women experienced in their new positions as educational leaders was resistance to women leadership. Describing her experience as educational leader one of participant said: “At first I was excited and felt I had done a great achievement. Unfortunately we were the first group of women to be in headship positions and as a result we received a great deal of resistance and that was a big challenge.” One of the major changes the women principals had to manage was changing people’s perceptions about women getting into leadership since this was a new development. The notion of normalization and the society’s perception of what is termed normal is the key

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factor that contributed to responses of other school teachers and the communities as a whole. They were used to seeing males as leaders as the first participant elaborated further; “On our arrival as substantive deputy heads, both the acting deputy heads and the heads did not like it . . . In my case I was more of a rubber stamp. The head and the so called deputy head would discuss school issues without telling me or consulting me. The head would just lock the office when ever he wants to go somewhere, and give the keys to an ordinary teacher without even telling you that he will be away. He didn’t want to accept my presents as his deputy”. Muzvidziwa (2007:32) discussing the influence of culture on gender noted that “socialisation that begins from family within a patriarchal framework” tended to “look down upon women” and “society” also “perceived male leadership as the norm”. The second woman also describing her story noted: “I was happy because it was an achievement, but I did not know that there were consequences behind. My first promotion as a deputy of a male head was a nasty experience for me. The head was not happy about having a female deputy. He would allocate the duties of a deputy to the senior teacher whilst I was there and would just ignore me. I used to cry and would blame my husband for encouraging me to take up the position.” Although the task was difficult, the women indicated that they had to exercise good role modelling in order to convince the community that they were capable. What came out of their stories is that these women started as deputy school heads and after some time reached the stage where they were promoted to substantive school heads. In continuation with her story the second woman described further her experience; “I was promoted to a head two post- (a position which is meant for heading a small school). This school had an acting head that wanted to mobilise the community and influence them to say, ‘How can you be led by a woman?’ I had experienced resistance before so I just thought it was the man’s culture. At first it was not easy because the man refused to leave the office. He just could not hand in the keys. We had to share the small office for some time until he finally adjusted to the new situation of a woman head.” Grant (2009:52) discussing distributive leadership, highlighted that “to lead in a school is to become a participant in the practice of leadership, initially as a novice and then, over time, as full participant in the practice”. Some of the women in my study did not have such opportunity while at deputy head level. The entry of women into headship positions was simply a change of culture and as Rutherford (2001) observed, change is a process inevitable in both human life and organizations, but if relationships and power are threatened, people tend to offer stiff resistance like that experienced by the women in the study. Uncertainty and fear of the unknown filled the communities and schools where these women principals were initially deployed. This was unplanned change and therefore people were not prepared, hence the resistance and the women were supposed to handle that scenario with care as indicated by one of the women: “I used to move around, pass on good comments on the work that he did, ‘as if to say he was better than myself’. I had to promote him through praise. Sometimes I would ask him how he did certain things and so on. So he felt supported, I am sure he felt secure also, because he ended up talking to me freely. And finally, we managed to share the duties and thus how we managed to work together”. Hurty’ concept of power with and not power over is seen from the way the women handled issues of hand over take over. It was done creatively, and without force. The main

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concern is about the issue of power prevalent in previously male dominated school organizations and the absence of theory that would offer new ways of understanding and perceiving power in changing educational leadership settings. Even Lumby (2003:105) referring to the schools in South Africa, acknowledge that “a collegial approach is the only way to achieve change” especially if one is thrown in the deep end as the women in this study initially experienced. I have already argued that women have many hurdles to overcome since they have taken positions previously perceived as male. I have also noted that the traditional view of leadership has not been of much use, in aiding the women to succeed in performing their new roles, because of its many flaws. The Weberian perspective is a bureaucratic model, and because of its emphasis on the issue of power, exploitation and contradiction, is subject to criticism by alternative views which seek to empower rather than use power over others. It is to these alternative approaches that the women turned to in order to deal with their challenging situations. It is not contested that all schools are bureaucracies with rules governing them and to some extent the behaviours of their members. However the school principal as an agent of change needs to have certain skills to be able to facilitate change. Such skills include good interpersonal relationships and communication skills. An important point raised by Theron (2007) which the women school principals adopted suggest the need to alter existing structures such that the implementation of change is organic rather than bureaucratic. Bureaucracy in this chapter is defined as “any system of administration in which matters are hindered by excessive adherence to minor rules and procedures” (Schwarz and Klein 1996:135). It is not likely the case that bureaucracy is always a barrier however it was not an option for these women leaders. Their presence in the system had become a dilemma, as highlighted in one of the cases, when one of the acting heads of school refused to hand over office keys to the appointed woman head and had convinced the School Development Committee (SDC) members to sign a document noting their rejection of her appointment. The women heads adopted what Houghton and Diliello (2010) perceived as important for organizations that seek to survive in times of turbulence-that is creativity and innovation. These women at times, by-passed some of the hierarchies and procedures allowing flexible channels of communication. One of the most important aspects of leadership for the women heads in this study was establishing the kinds of relationship in which their leadership could be expressed. Creativity was a common theme that emerged in the women’s approach to handling issues of resistance. Interaction is also another theme that characterised all the participants. What the women leaders did was to create an atmosphere, which finally built trust in both the community and the school staff. In this study communication and consultation was an important aspect of leadership. A similar study in the U.K. on managing change in schools, principals highlighted that it can be difficult sometimes to run a school unless you know your staff and one of them interviewed each member of staff as a way of trying to understand the school community, and hence displayed a relationship centred qualities and skills (Day, Harris, Hadfield, Tolley and Beresford 2003). In a similar way the women in this study at their initial entry into leadership in their different schools, though they received different forms of resistance-being barred from exercising leadership, duties not delegated to them, when they became substantive heads they acknowledged the discourse of leading, learning and establishing rapport with the whole community. Information sharing was done in a more

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creative way in an effort to bridge the gap between people beliefs, assumptions and values and the reality that was being practiced - peoples’ perceptions about women leadership. Most of the activities were approached in less formal ways, less hierarchical, less authoritative and that created what Jamali, Khoury and Sahyoun (2006) would call a post-bureaucratic school or organization. Moving around chatting informally to pupils, teachers, and parents was a very common style adopted by these women, trying to understand and appreciate their views first on the progress and other developments within the school. This approach can be linked to Lyold and Spears’ thinking that “motivation for leaders should be a desire to serve” (cited in Russell 2001:78). This advances the notion of servant leadership as I quote one of the women heads: “when a teacher comes with a problem...discuss. Assist them. Do not ignore the plight. Assess the problem but before that first talk to the person. Ask the teacher, what do you think about your problem? If the child is sick.... do you want to take your child to hospital? Give them emotional support. Sympathise with the teacher taking into consideration their individual differences” Russell identified three attributes of a servant leader which in my view these women applied and these are trust, appreciation of others and empowerment. The essential values of good leaders include “honesty and integrity” – these are values, which build “interpersonal and organizational trust” (Russell 2001). Positive change can be facilitated through giving others love, and appreciation and encouragement as these women did by perceiving their leadership roles as that of serving others. The creation of a supportive and welcoming environment for everyone was one of the achievements that provided a break-through for the women school heads in Zimbabwe. This approach gave them the opportunity to successfully implement creative ideas and develop in both teachers and the community a sense of belonging and ownership of the school vision and programmes. The major challenge in the change process experienced by the women school heads in Zimbabwe that they had to manage before they could make any other step was managing their own emotions. The women believed that by accepting criticism one is able to learn. Hence their vision was driven by their motto, leading and learning and accepting that change is a process, which is not achieved in one day. By treating the teachers as active participants in the school activities, the women school principals showed respect for them as leaders in a community of learners (Barth 1990). The multi-shift schooling that was introduced during their time brought another dimension of challenge that needed intervention. Schools were faced with shortages of qualified teachers; school infrastructures i.e. class rooms and financial resources to buy equipment, books and stationery. The next move was to improve teacher effectiveness particularly in terms of classroom instruction. An interactive approach was adopted by the women heads to solve this problem and to improve their schools’ situations. Interactive leadership is reciprocal and it involves two-way communication; talking with and listening to other people (Hurty 1995). Firstly they had to find a way of improving classroom teaching since the majority of the staff was untrained. Linked to the women’s role of supervising teachers was the introduction of staff development programs and workshops to try and equip the novice teachers with skills to deliver information to school pupils. Staff development enables teachers to gain appropriate knowledge and skills and attitudes that enhance their teaching and learning. Mentz (2007) sees staff development programs as the creation of instructional learning situations. The staff development programs in schools improved teachers and women’s relationships as they

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displayed good communication skills. The program gives teachers the opportunity to reflect on their practice; express their views about teaching and also display their expertise, just as Muzvidziwa (2003) noted that purposeful leadership occurs when the principal understands the needs of the school and is actively involved in the schools’ work, without exerting total control over the staff”. The bottom up approach by women school heads was more acceptable and powerful than the top-down approach to leadership. Teachers were more motivated and could work independently. These women leaders demonstrated how schools can become more collaborative. Muzvidziwa (2003) considered staff development as an exercise that assists teachers to develop strategies of solving problems through reflecting on their teaching practice. Some of the women principals were in farm schools where the challenges seemed unbearable, but the women were committed to a process of discussion that required revisiting the same people more than once, clarifying goals to parents, guardians and farmers. In these farm schools, children were reluctant to go to school, those who went to school could not afford even to decently clothe themselves for schooling purpose or buy uniforms. Most children stayed with either father and step mother due to many different reasons, or just a guardian who would not bother whether the child has gone to school or not, and at times the child would be left home to baby sit while they go to the fields. The life style in farms is just different and marriage is something that is not valued as much resulting in early pregnancies, many divorces and orphaned children due to AIDS related deaths. The woman head at this particular school approached the farmers around the area who organised their workers who were actually the parents, to meet with the woman head to discuss how they should come together as a community and why they should be supportive of their children. This approach yielded trust in both the people and the school as a whole. Rosener (1990) discovered that when subordinates are respected, information flow could be easily enhanced. The approach used by women motivated parents and the communities to come together and take responsibility in building up some of the school structures. Though they did not have enough resources, through collaboration, fundraising programs were introduced, other members of the community volunteered to assist in the actual building and yet others contributed through moulding bricks and this resulted in the building of new school blocks and toilets. For the women school heads, it was not as easy as the reading flows, the women worked tirelessly encouraging parents to participate in the school’s activities. The women school principals’ appointment initially as deputy heads, though it was the Ministry’ deliberation, enlightened them and equipped them with skills to identify what they perceived as weaknesses or gaps that the heads/acting heads were making. For instance on decision making, while they, as deputies were not involved, they however learned that shared decisions were more likely to be accepted and motivate people to participate in school activities. Deal and Peterson (1994) note that change creates conflict within and between levels, and among various groups. However, they acknowledged that a good leader who delegates duties created a peace-making room where disagreements would be negotiated by “well trained facilitators often served as mediators” (Deal and Peterson 1994:104). Working collectively as a team enhanced peoples’ understanding, reduced conflict and gave room for reconciliation. Although these principals acknowledged that their roles were challenging and very demanding, their ability to relate well and motivate teachers to develop positive attitudes towards school improvement was a great achievement.

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Women in this study believed in sharing a common vision. To be able to influence others, to motivate subordinates and bring together the community to work towards improving their school, women believed in distributing their power sharing it with others thus in the process empowering them. The women principals possessed what I may refer to as coaching skills such as those mentioned by Starr (2004) where followers are given room to demonstrate their expertise. With an authoritarian leadership, the followers are not given the opportunity for creativity; all activities are strictly structured and rigid. The concept that information flows from one direction, top-down approach’, making it difficult for subordinates to be motivated and sometimes even to be fully committed. One “by-product of sharing information” and encouraging participants has been noted by Rosener (1990:123) that subordinates “feel important” and when they feel important and included, they develop a sense of ownership. This is what the community in which the women principals worked did. Sharing power and information has its own risks – for instance people may reject, criticize or otherwise challenge what the leader has to say. Women experienced some of these downsides yet they perceived them as challenges and not as problems. For instance one of the women leaders within her school community planned to build the school toilets. When everything had been done and the toilets built, one of the members made an allegation that school money was being misused and built a case on that. The woman head had been keeping a good record of her income and expenditures, so she had to prove by showing the receipts and evidence that nothing was being misused. Mentoring is a form of support, which helps reduce frustrations and self-doubt. In the absence of such facility, the women’s experiences as deputy principals/heads equipped them with skills as they faced difficulties in trying to cope with administrative dilemmas during their time and hence the desire to close the gap and influence others to make positive change. The kind of atmosphere was one that caused frustration. Mentz (2007) links the organizational climate with the general atmosphere in the school, which results from teachers’ experiences of the work environment. As mentioned before, changes in the Zimbabwean context were both externally and internally driven in an effort to re-dress the inequalities that existed during colonial period. And as I indicated, the women noted that they were appointed at deputy head posts as an experimental group. Hence their promotion to heads was one of an automatic event also as a group, and I believe it was only for that particular group. The women became school heads at a time when the communities and the country at large were facing socio-economic as well as political challenges. Their approach to dealing with issues was more like mentoring. Through mentoring, the women believed they boosted teachers’ confidence and morale creating environments conducive to learning and positive school climate. While early organization theorists were influenced by classical management theory and bureaucratic approaches to leadership, women school principals in this study inevitably could not fit in the bureaucratic model as their channels of communication were not restricted to a hierarchy. Flexibility and negotiations, creativity and tolerance helped the women to succeed. Leadership is about morals and values. Yukl’s (2002:3) definition for example, reflects the assumption that leadership “involves a social influence process, whereby intentional influence is exerted by one person (or group) over other people (or group) to structure the activities and relationships in a group or organization”. The issue of moral and development of individuals is further explored by Russell (2001:77) in a review of literature regarding “values in leadership’ and reflecting on what influences personal values and the context in which they develop. Thus the influence of up-bringing has some form of impact on

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career development for both men and women. Hence the cultural capital that the school takes for granted acts as a most effective filter in the reproductive processes of a hierarchical society and its institutions and organizations. The hierarchical and bureaucratic nature of organizations has since been questioned. What characterized women’s leadership in this study was creativity, nurturance, human relations and good communication skills. The women’s experiences were that of being creative and sharing information as a way of power sharing and empowering both teachers, parents and the communities. Women communicated with both parties the education officers in the Ministry of Education and the local authorities. Their experiences were that the journey is tough but were happy with their achievements. What is important is that one or two things from these women in Zimbabwe can also be learned and possibly applied in a different way to other contexts. The open channels of communication adopted by the women school heads were useful in coping with the challenges of change in Zimbabwean primary schools.

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CONCLUSION The study on which the paper is based provides valuable insights into the women’s perceptions and their experiences of leadership situations. The issue of gender neutrality in educational leadership can be contested. There is definitely something to learn from feminine leadership approaches as exhibited by the women principals in my study. All the descriptions by the women and the stories that led to the unveiling of some of the taken-for-granted situations they endured were made possible because of the approach that allowed the researcher to listen empathetically in order to capture the essences of experience. The study highlighted the need for a number of strategies to be put in place in order to rectify the imbalances that affect negatively the spheres of education especially in the field of educational leadership during times of change. For instance educators should take active steps to incorporate women leadership views into education. Sterling and Davidoft (2000) indicated that people in leadership are often hampered by inaccurate perceptions of what effective leadership really means and how leadership can contribute to school improvement. There is a need to introduce leadership courses that target both male and female students/staff in Teacher’s Colleges and Universities. This would pave the way and address the issue of stereotyping in education leadership that contributed to constraining women. There is a need to develop gender-sensitive leadership courses that highlight women’s achievements. There is also need for dissemination of more information on women role models, especially those in the field of educational leadership. Yes it is true that when under siege and difficult changing situations as was and still is the case in Zimbabwe, women do rise the occasion if they happen to be in a leadership position. Is it not surprising that despite the collapse of Zimbabwe’s economy education has remained strong maybe a result of the majority of teachers are women and there has been a deliberate policy to promote women into leadership positions in schools. There is a need therefore to inspire researchers and more so other women researchers to take up the challenge of telling women’s success stories in changing times. The women’s emphasis was on maintaining good working relationship. They believed that they survived and managed to cope with change through being creative and sharing ideas.

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Hoy, K. W. and Miskel, G.C. (1996) Educational Administration: Theory, Research and Practice New York. McGraw-Hill Hurty, K.S. (1995) Women Principals-Leading with Power: In Schmuck, Pat and Diana Dunlop (eds). Women leading in Education pp.380-406 SUNY: New York. Jamali, D. Khoury, G. and Sahyoun, H (2006) From bureaucratic organizations to learning organizations. The learning Organisation, 13(4), 337-352. Kark, R. (2004) The transformational leader: who is (s)he? A feminist Perspective. Journal of Organisational Change Management, 17(2),160-176 Lumby J, (2003) Transforming schools: managing the change process: In M. Thurlow, T. Bush, and M. Coleman (ed) Managing Schools in South Africa: leadership and strategic management in South African schools. (pp 101-106). Commonwealth Secretariat: London Mathur-Helm, B. (2005). Equal opportunity and affirmative action for South African women: a benefit or barrier? Women in management review. 20 (1) 56-71 McFadden, P. (1997, May-August) Issues of power and contestation in the women’s movement. Woman Plus: Women in Decision Making. Zimbabwe Woman’s Resource Centre and Network (ZWRCN) pp26-29. Harare Mentz. P.J. (2007) Organisational Climate in schools: In PC van der Westhuizen (ed.) Schools as organizations. Van Schaik. Pretoria Myers, E. and Murphy, J. (1995) Suburban secondary school principal’s perceptions of administrative control in schools. Journal of Educational Administration. 33 (3): 14-37. Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture (MOESC) and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF)(1998) Gender Sensitivity: A Handbook for School Heads. Harare. UNICEF. Moorosi, P, C. Policy and Practice related constraints to increased female participation in education management in South Africa. Unpublished Thesis. Edgewood: University of KwaZulu Natal. Muzvidziwa, I. (2001) Women’ under-representation and their perceptions as deputy primary school heads in Zimbabwean: South South Journal of Culture and Development 9(2), 2647 Muzvidziwa, I. (2003) Staff and school development: Implications for teacher productivity, motivation and commitment. In V.N. Muzvidziwa and P,. Gundani (eds) Management and the human factor: lessons for Africa. Zimbabwe Publications: Harare (pp111-120). Muzvidziwa, I. (2007) Socialisation, culture and school development: The Zimbabwean context: South South Journal of Culture and Development 9(2), 26-47 O’Callaghan, M. and Austin, R. (1977) Southern Rhodesia: the effects of a conquest society on education, culture and information. UNESCO. Okin, S.M. (1989). Justice, gender and the family. Book, Basic Books Owens, R. G. (2001) Organisational behaviour in education: instructional leadership and school reform. (7th ed.) Boston. Allyn and Bacon. Patton, M. Q. (2002) Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods. (3rd Ed,) London: Sage. Rosener, J.B. (1990) Ways women lead. Harvard Business Review Nov.- Dec. pp.119-125 Russell, R. F. (2001) The role of values in servant leadership. Leadership and Organisational Development Journal, 22(2), 76-83. Rutherford, R.(2001) Organisational cultures, women managers and exclusion. Women in Management Review, 16(8),371-382. Schwarz, C and Klein V, (1996) Giant Paperback Dictionary. Chambers; London

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Sharma, A. (2000) An inquiry into the incorporation of a multicultural approach in contemporary textbooks in South Africa. Unpublished dissertation. Grahamstown: Rhodes University. Smulyan, L. (2000) Balancing Acts: Women principals at work. New York press, Albany: New York Soobrayan, V. (1998) Gender Neutral Leadership: A myth nurtured by leadership. In Drake, P. and Owen, P. (eds.) Gender and Management Issues in Education. Trentham, Oakhill. Starr, J. (2004) The manager’s role in coaching: Overcoming barriers to success, Development and Learning in Organisations, 18 (2), 9-12 Sterling, L. and Davidoff, S.(2000) The courage to lead a whole school development approach. Cape Town: The Women’s Trust (2009) Gender awareness in Teacher Education training module: The Women’s Trust; Harare Theron A. M.C. (2007) General characteristics of the school as an organization: In PC van der Westhuizen (ed.) Schools as organizations. Van Schaik. Pretoria Van der Mescht, H. (2004). Phenomenology in education: A Case study in educational leadership. Indo-Pacific Journal of Phenomenology, 4,(1), 1-16. http://www.ipjp.org/ august2004/mescht4e1.pdf Weber, M. (1947) The theory of social and economic organization. (Translated by A.M. Parsons and T. Parsons.) New York: Free Press. Yukl, G. A., (2002) Leadership in Organisations (5th edition) Upper Saddle River, NJ. Prentice-Hall. Zimbabwe Teachers’ Association (ZIMTA) (1994) Study: Circle: The Golden Handbook For Teachers. Harare: MCS

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PART FOUR

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POLICY IMPLEMENTATION

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Chapter 7

SCHOOL PRINCIPALS’ EXPERIENCES OF POLICY-PRACTICE INTERPLAY AT SCHOOL LEVEL: PERSPECTIVES FROM SCHOOLS INKWAZULU-NATAL Thamsanqa Thulani Bhengu University of KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

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ABSTRACT This chapter explores how school principals in rural communities implement government policies, being mindful of national imperatives and accountabilities on one hand and local expectations on the other. On assuming power in South Africa in 1994, the government identified school principals as agents and drivers of the social transformation process in all South African communities. To achieve effective management and school governance goals, the Department of Education in line with its vision made it clear that it wanted to devolve certain powers to the school level within a decentralised structure. Strong emphasis was placed on the need for principals to always bear in mind that the main goal still remainsthe promotion of effective teaching and learning. Leadership and management approaches had to change from being authoritarian and centralised around principals to a shared-power format where school management teams (SMTs) and teachers participate in decision-making processes at school level. The data used in writing this chapter was drawn from a small scale qualitative research conducted in five primary and five secondary schools located in five rural communities of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. To respond to new realities, the findings show that principals used mainly three leadership styles which I call ‘Openparticipatory’, ‘Authoritative-participatory’ and ‘Closed-participatory’ leadership. Furthermore, the findings indicate that none of the three typologies demonstrated superiority in terms of school effectiveness or learner performance. In view of that, we cannot conclude at this stage that any of the three typologies yields better results in terms of learner outcomes. What is evident though is that open-participatory leadership has the potential to contribute to various aspects of leadership and management.

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1. INTRODUCTION This chapter explores how school principals in rural communities implement government policies, being mindful of national imperatives and accountabilities on one hand and local expectations and what they think will or can work in their respective contexts on the other. It is argued that not all principals have a common understanding of their responsibilities beyond running their schools to ensure that curriculum is delivered. It is further argued that conceptualising the notion of principals as agents of transformation by inter alia, ensuring transformed leadership approaches and creating learning organisations out of schools within a new, decentralised structural arrangement, is a daunting task for some principals. Some principals are still struggling to cope with rapid changes that are brought about by transformation demands. This chapter also explores the reason for this scenario and the extent to which principals’ leadership and management is responsive to government policy. The chapter begins by presenting a background to the South African education system, the prevailing conditions in rural communities, as well as the methodology that was used in producing the data from which this discussion is drawn. A brief discussion of concepts, that are pertinent to understanding the context within which leadership and management occurs, follows. These include decentralisation-participation- and the notion of schools being regarded as learning organisations. Then the leadership typologies that are used by principals in rural schools are presented, and it is argued that such leadership typologies are indicative of the foci that principals have. That is, some of them focused on just making sure that teaching and learning occur while others go further than that, to also ensure that there is professional growth, and that there is staff satisfaction and commitment to a school’s common vision and mission. Finally, the discussion and conclusions bring the chapter to an end. “Practicality works, not the law!” and “be everything to everybody!” are some of the phrases that dominated the discourse during my conversations with various school principals who took part in a study which sought to understand how principals experienced policy implementation in rural schools of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The two phrases succinctly encapsulate principals’ perspectives, the challenges they face in rural contexts, in their day-today leadership and management practices. I must hasten to say that I am not suggesting that the challenges that school principals in rural communities face are unique to them. It is just that views expressed in this chapter are based on a study that was conducted among principals of schools that were located in rural communities. Because of that, I do not want to give an impression that their situation and experiences can be generalised throughout South Africa (SA). It is important to understand the context within which leadership and management occur in rural communities generally and also with special reference to rural areas where the study was undertaken. On assuming power in South Africa in 1994, the African National Congress- led government identified school principals as agents and drivers of the social transformation process in all South African communities (DoE, 1996b). To achieve effective management and school governance goals, the Department of Education (DoE) in its vision made it clear that it wanted to devolve certain powers to the school level within a decentralised structure.Strong emphasis was placed on the need for principals to always bear in mind that the main goal still remains “the promotion of effective teaching and learning” (DoE, 1996b, p. 8). To achieve this, leadership and management approaches had to change from being

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authoritarian and highly centralised around principals to a shared-power format where School Management Teams (SMTs)and teachers participate in decision-making processes at school level (DoE, 1996b).The immediate 10 lines are repeated word for word in the abstract) The ‘Self-Reliant Schools’ concept was introduced and principals were expected to play Chief Executive Officer’s (CEO’s) roles in schools (DoE, 1996b). As highlighted in the previous sections, self-management usually occurs within decentralised education system (Tsotetsi, van Wyk & Lemmer, 1998; Ngcobo & Tikly, 2010) and people tasked with leadership have to be able to make decisions that do not contradict national policy. That is why issues of capacities are important if schools are to self-manage, which has been a challenge in the western world (see,Goldring & Rallis, 1993; Mohrmans, Wohlstetter & Associates, 1994; Knight, 1997; Fullan & Hopkins, 1998), and the same scenario exists in South Africa (Vally, 2000; Maile, 2002; Pampallis, 2002). To breathe life to this commitment, the state through the South African Constitution (Act No. 108 of 1996) and decentralisation process, devolved certain decision-making powers to lower levels (provinces and schools). The centre(what centre) retained certain legal framework to ensure uniformity and accountability. For instance the Constitution prescribes the values that should underpin leadership and management. These include democracy, social justice and equity, equality, non-racism and non-sexism, human dignity, respect, accountability, responsibility et cetera(DoE, 2001). As ‘CEOs’ of their respective schools, principals are now expected to lead and manage schools in a manner that is consistent with values mentioned above as enshrined in the South African Constitution (Bhengu, 2005). But the main question about their readiness and capacity to perform these roles remains a huge challenge. This seems to be lacking in many instances. It is therefore fallacious to assume that by simply giving schools and principals powers to strategically chart their own futures, they will be able to do so. Capacity building is important. There is a broad range of literature suggesting that structural changes without capacities of human resources within them changing, does not work (Kanter, 1983; Merton, 1983;Covey, 1990; Fullan, 1991; Giles, 1995b; Kydd, Crawford & Riches, 1997; Veenman & Eichhorst, 1998; Tate, 2001). In the context of South Africa, leadership development is critical as it is the core function of leadership and management which is to ensure that quality teaching and learning occurs and is sustained (Mazibuko, 2004; Msila, 2008; Soobramoney, 2008). But what are the conditions in rural areas where leadership takes place and is expected to be responsive to policy demands and also to local needs? The next section attempts to address these issues.

2. CONDITIONS IN RURAL COMMUNITIES AND SCHOOLS Before South Africa became a democracy in 1994, schools in rural communities and in other areas in the country, operated under centralised, tight controls of the apartheid regime from its head office in Pretoria (DoE, 1996b). A lot has been written about life in rural communities and a common pattern has emerged. (see,Gordon, 1997; Gardiner, 1999;Vally, 2000;Malcolm & Keane, 2003;Bhengu, 2005; Nelson Mandela Foundation, 2005; Ngcobo & Tikly, 2010; Mbokazi & Bhengu, 2010). This pattern points to inter alia, economic and socio-political deprivation, lack of communication technologies and infrastructure, poverty stricken home environments, illness and HIV/AIDS related challenges learners faced, child-

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headed households, high illiteracy ratesand long distances learners and teachers have to travel to and from schools. The conditions described here have implications for the manner in which leadership and management practices happen, and whether or not leadership is responsive to the needs of the local people. Principals have to implement government policies which are applicable country-wide irrespective of local conditions in each community. Principals face the challenges highlighted in the previous paragraph against a backdrop of policy demands for transformation-driven management approaches which embrace new values that are enshrined in the South African Constitution. Some of these concepts and values are democracy, transparency, participation of all stakeholders in the affairs of the schools, equity, human rights et cetera. The White Paper on Education, introduced in 1995 (DoE, 1995) as part of the education reform agenda, emphasised new management approaches, centred on school-based management in which collaboration and shared decision-making are pivotal (Swanepoel, 2008). School-based management is known to work best in decentralised structural arrangement (Vally, 2000;Pampallis, 2002; Ngcobo & Tikly, 2010). In South Africa, the concept of “self-reliant” schools is used for school-based management. However, it must be noted that changing from authoritarian to a collaborative culture of management is never easy (Giles, 1995a; Giles, 1998; Fullan & Hopkins, 1998). One can argue that SA is no different in respect of quickly adjusting to a democracy and having to change styles of leadership in order to align them with a democratic dispensation. Although the concepts and values highlighted apply to everybody in SA, (rural or non-rural), and I argue in this chapter that leadership and management takes place within a context and challenges linked to that context. In this case the context is rural. Gordon (1997), de Beer and Swanepoel (2000) as well as the Education for All Report (DoE, 2000) claim that the largest numbers of learners are found in the rural provinces of KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and Eastern Cape, and that these provinces have the highest numbers of poverty-stricken communities. Rural schools face innumerable challenges and less support, yet, serving so many of the nation’s learners, they are expected to perform well in terms of matriculation results. Demands and pressures from many quarters have a tendency to foster various attitudes among different leaders including “compliance without commitment” (Lindquist & Mauriel, 1989, cited in Anthony, 2001, p. 2) or mimicry (Mathison & Harley, 2003). The danger of trappings of change without seeking real change occurring is great, and needs to be avoided.

3. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY The data used in writing this chapter was drawn from a small scale qualitative research conducted in five primary and five secondary schools located in five rural communities of KwaZulu-Natal province in South Africa. The main purpose was to establish the extent to which principals in these schools andcommunities were performing the transformative roles expected of them in terms of leading and managing schools according to new legislated approaches and values (DoE, 1995; DoE, 1996b). These rural communities were chosen because of them being perceived as ‘typical’ of many rural areas in KwaZulu-Nataland were easily accessible in terms of location and language. All the communities were under the authority of Traditional Leadership which is a legally constituted structure legislated in terms

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of Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act (No. 41 of 2003) and KwaZuluNatal Traditional Leadership and Governance Act (No. 5 of 2005). Settlement patterns in these areas were characterised by clustered households, dispersed over large geographical areas. Overall, basic infrastructure and services such as clean piped water, electricity, basic health care facilities were either lacking or in short supply. These communities were located in Nongoma, Empangeni and Eshowe, in the north; Ndwedwe, northwest of Durban (adjacent to the eThekwini Metro), and Ixopo in the southern part of KwaZulu-Natal province. The study used purposive selection of participants within an interpretive paradigm that seeks information-rich cases from the perspectives of the researched(Krefting, 1990; Miles & Huberman, 1994, Terre Blanche & Durkheim, 1999;Oka &Shaw, 2000; Leedy & Ormond, 2005; Cohen, Manion & Morrison, 2007; Creswell, 2009). To obtain a balanced view of work life within schools, principals, HODs and Post-Level One educators (henceforth, teachers), were consulted. In other words, my contention is that principals’ experiences of their interaction with policy implementation in schools, does not happen in isolation but other stakeholders such as Deputy Principals, HODs and teachers are part and parcel of their experience. Besides, teachers are implementers of policy at classroom level. The knowledge of this is valuable to policy makers and policy implementers (including principals) as well as researchers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten principals, ten HODs and ten teachers (one from each of the participating schools). This was done in order to ascertain, capture and record their experiences of new government policies and how these policies had affected their day-to-day work lives. Document analysis was done which entailed scrutinising schedules of previous years’ examination results, minutes of staff meetings, and meetings of various committees where these existed. To avoid disturbing the natural setting, unannounced visits to schools at different times of the year to conduct informal observations of school life were also undertaken. However, such unannounced visits had been agreed upon between school principals and I after rapport and trust had been established Qualitative analysis of data indicated that open-participatory, closed-participatory and authoritative-participatory dominated and these are discussed later in the chapter.

4. KEY CONCEPTS IN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT There are many concepts that come to mind whenever issues of transformation, educational leadership and management are discussed in the South African context. For purposes of this chapter, only three concepts are discussed, namely decentralisation of education structures, people participation in decision making processes on issues affecting their work lives and schools as learning organisations.

4.1. Decentralised Structures and Democratisation To bring abouttransformation of education in SA, the government started by decentralising the structure of the education system and devolving some decision-making powers to provincial governments and to schools (Karlsson, 2002; Pampallis, 2002). This is

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usually based on the assumption thatif decision-making powers are in the hands of the people, then the quality of decisions made will be better and the people will feel much more appreciated (David, 1990; Caldwell, 1994; Sackney & Dibski, 1994; O’Donohue & Dimmock, 1997). The DoE shared this assumption that a school in possession of its own decision-making powers is more likely to provide better quality education than a school run by a distant centralised bureaucracy (DoE, 1996b). It is critical that principals of schools have necessary skills to interpret and implement government policy in such a way that, through leadership practices, quality education is provided in schools.

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4.2. People Participation in Decision-Making Processes People participation in decisions-making on issues directly affecting them is regarded as a central purpose in the transformation of education in the country (Carl, 2005; Naidoo, 2005). The move to facilitate teacher participation in school management, governance and curriculum development mirrors the greater paradigm shift to “participatory democracy” in post-apartheid South Africa (Naidoo, 2005, p. 29), which Breidlid (2003) has characterised as an essential transformation agenda.Although the post-1994 era has seen greater participation by all stakeholders in educational issues (Jansen, 1999; Ramparsad, 2001; Kgobe, 2001; Moyo, 2005), evidence of success in achieving meaningful participation has not yet emerged. However, meaningful participation is crucial for successful education transformation. Different points of view exist which explain why people participation in issues affecting them has not succeeded. Some views point to lack of preparatory work when South Africa became a democracy (Gardiner, 1999). Others blame conceptual problems for what people participation entails. For Ife and Tesoriero (2006) the problem lies in means and ends debate in relation to practice. As means, participation is used to achieve predetermined organisational objectives, utilising existing resources to achieve these objectives (Ife & Tesoriero, 2006). The focus here lies in achieving organisational objectives and not on participation itself, such that participation becomes short-term and passive. However, when participation is used as end, attempts are made to empower people to meaningfully participate in their own development. The focus is on improving people’s ability to participate in issues affecting them rather than just achieving the predetermined objectives of the government (Ife & Tesoriero, 2006). Such a view is less favoured by government agencies or people in positions of power. This is despite its efficacy for personal development that is active, dynamic and sustainable (Ife & Tesoriero, 2006). Many principals in the study seemed to regard participation as means rather than ends and it did not contribute to empowerment of teachers and ownership of school vision and quality decision-making processes.

4.3. Schools as Learning Organisations The creation of ‘learning organisations’ out of schools forms one of the pillars of the Department of Education’s vision of bringing about a transformed schooling scenario (DoE, 1996b; Tsotetsi, 2008; Ngcobo & Tikly, 2010). However, the Task Team Report noted that “It is ironic that although schools are organisations devoted to learning, they are generally

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not learning organisations”(DoE, 1996b, p. 31). The way in which principals lead and run their schools is crucial in ensuring that schools become learning organisations (DoE, 1996b). In exploring how principals in rural communities interact with policy through their practices, it is important to briefly discuss what is learning and what a learning organisation entails. Learning can be regarded as “adaptation and also as enactment” (Østergren& Malcolm, undated, p. 2). The notion of adaptation and enactment represent positivist and interpretivist epistemologies respectively. This is because schools are expected to adaptto the environment around it, which suggests that the environment is knowable, and the knowledge being objective (Spencer, 1996). The enactment notion is interpretivist due to its position that the environment is socially constructed;knowledge is ambiguous and subject to various interpretations.In terms of this view, learning is the creation of meaning and it leads to understanding (Spencer, 1996). Both positions are helpful in exploring how principals make sense of DoE policy, and how they apply their understanding to the management of their schools. Learning organisations can be characterised by two types of learning, single-loop and double-loop learning (Argyris, 1993). Single-loop learning refers to experience-based learning which results in improved organisational efficiencies but does not question the dominant knowledge, procedures or goals of the organisation (Argyris, 1993). Self-renewal is unlikely to happen in this type of learning (O’Neil, 1995; Brandt, 1998). Double loop learning’ on the other hand,asks for a change in existing knowledge structures and thatfor leaders and managers to survive in a fast-changing environment, it is imperative, that they critically reflect on their organisational practices (Argyris, 1993). Principals’ leadership is central in ensuring that the vision of creating learning organisations out of schools is realised.

5. LEADERSHIP TYPOLOGIES IN KWAZULU-NATAL RURAL SCHOOLS The data elicited from principals, HODs and teachers from schools located in the rural areas indicated that the interplay between policy and practice was characterised by the following: local context, principals’ personal beliefs and preferences regarding which policy to observe. The common factor among all ten schools was the fact that stakeholder participation in decision-making about issues directly affecting their schools. However, as illustrated in the discussions about leadership styles below, the manner in which stakeholder participation occurred was either, genuine or deep-seated on one hand or contrived or cosmetic on the other. Where participation was deep-seated I used a metaphor of ‘Openparticipation.’ I used two metaphors where participation was cosmetic. Firstly, I used ‘Authoritative-participation’ which refers to principals who did not welcome opposing views, did not believe in equal voices of stakeholders. Secondly, I used ‘Closed-participation’ which refers to those principals who pretended to welcome multiplicity of voices. Hence, I conceptualised these leadership typologies as Open-Participatory, Authoritative-Participatory and Closed-Participatory. The discussion of each typology is followed by advantages and disadvantages associated with it.

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5.1. Open- Participatory Leadership ‘Open-Participatory’ leadership style is similar to democratic leadership in many respects. The term ‘open’ separates principals who use this leadership style from other styles discussed in this chapter. Open-Participatory leadership is characterised by openness and transparency. The principal creates a platform for genuine, active and unrestricted participation of all stakeholders in the school in terms of leadership, management and governance activities. In that way people are able to influence the school’s direction. The participation of various stakeholders in the School Governing Body (SGB) is legislated which allows all stakeholders to participate freely with no tensions among them. Besides the SGB, there are various committees within the school structure. Teachers serving in these committees feel capacitated through training and their participation and inputs during meetings are welcome and valued by the principaland SMT as a whole. Teacher leadership thrives when their participation in school management activities is encouraged and occurs in a friendly atmosphere.The teachers feel embraced when the school vision and mission statements are collaboratively formulated. Furthermore, teachers tend to participate more if their individual and collective needs for professional development training are collaboratively discussed and implemented. If the expertise to conduct such training is not available within the school, outside expertise is solicited to facilitate development. As part of staff professional development, different expertise and talents among the teachers are solicited, identified and utilised for the benefit of the school. This becomes visible when various committees are established to address various school needs. For instance, some teachers are good at fundraising, and thus serve in the Fundraising Committee; some are fluent in communication and are thus driving the School-Community Relations Committee; others serve on the Wellness Committee that address needs of learners plagued by various social challenges or illnesses, and so on. Funds raised have helped in the schools acquiring more resources and curriculum diversification to include a wide range of Learning Areas now known as “subjects” that is usually a practice found in many affluent suburb schools. To enable teachers to exercise leadership, the committees they lead enjoy autonomy and operate independently of the principal. They design their own work plans and submit them to the co-ordinating committee that designs the year planner for the school.They keep their own files regarding programmes they are implementing. Progress is reported to the principal at regular intervals for accountability purposes. Since communication is open, and there is ownership of the vision and mission by the teachers as they have fully participated in its generation, the danger of various committees pulling in different directions is minimised. In this approach, no single individual in the school holds an undisputed voice, including the principal. Multilateral wisdom notion is embraced. Such a notion acknowledges that other staff members have valuable ideas and contribution to make in the growth and development of the school which is in line with the aspirations of the principal as well. Teachers that join the school later on are inducted into the school’s vision through a formal orientation process. In addition, policy directives from the DoE areseldom viewed as prescription, ratherthese are viewed as providing frameworks for schools to operate and design their own policies in response to both unique and common needs. One critical point is that open-participatory leaders regard sources of change as internal to the school rather than external. In this regard one principal said:

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I believe that people themselves must change, have their plans for the future, and then go for it…self change is important, people must do things by themselves and for themselves and shouldn’t wait for the Department.

This excerpt depicts a school that has self-renewal that O’Neil (1995) and Brandt (1998) talk about. In its small way, the school is amenable to initiatives that can transform it to a learning organisation. There are advantages and disadvantages for this type of leadership and these are tabulated below. Table 1. Advantages and disadvantages of Open-Participatory Leadership

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Advantages There is ownership of school vision and mission. There is genuine participation of all relevant stakeholders in the affairs of the school. School environment is open, friendly and promotes innovation and creativity. School environment provides space where distributed leadership can flourish.

During staff meetings inputs from all staff members are listened to, valued and considered before decisions are made. Human relations are good and every staff member feels free and enjoys being part of the school life. There are opportunities for staff members to contribute to transformation process of the society through various social programmes done in the school.

Disadvantages

There is a danger of shifting focus away from teaching and learning if teachers foreground different programmes.

There are many programmes and if they are not carefully coordinated, there is danger of staff pulling in different directions.

Tasks are carried out as part of commitment rather than compliance with management instructions.

Table 1indicates that there are more positive than negative aspects. Implications for disadvantages could be a need for careful monitoring of these, otherwise the work of different staff members might be compromised as some of them might pull in different directions.

5.2. Authoritative-Participatory Leadership Authoritative-Participatory Leadership is similar to autocratic leadership. The principal allows teachers and other stakeholders to participate in certain decisions and under his or her own terms. The principal is the possessor of knowledge and wisdom. The term ‘authoritative’ separates this style from the others discussed in this chapter. This style is characterised by a principal’s firm hand and over-emphasis on work, to the exclusion of anything else. As long as teachers are teaching, everything is fine. As one principal proudly said, “Work… Work…Work!” is the ethos that drives life in the school. However, a teacher whom I had

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spoken to in the same school complained that “the principal was a dictator…there are no consultations with the staff on important issues”. The principal openly informs the teachers that the principals’ main duty is to run the school, and thatteachers’ main duty is to teach the learners. In that environment where the principal’s voice dominates and people feel dominated and intimidated, holistic participation does not happen. In line with policy expectations that leadership and management should be shared, all stakeholders are allowed to participate in relevant structures in the school. Very few committees exist and these are usually prescribed by either legislation or Department of Education policy such as SMTs,SGBs. Even though teacher participation in the SGB is prescribed, their participation is still limited by what principals want. Organising and facilitating SGB meetings is theoretically the duty of the chairperson but in practice, particularly in rural communities, principals (overtly or covertly) dominate. Conditions for this to happen are brought about by the fact that SGBs in rural areas depend on principals for leadership and guidance (Karlsson, 2002; Heystek & Nyambi, 2007). Of course, certain instances have been reported where principals and SGBs have clashed with SGBs accusing teachers of not respecting them (Chaka, 2008). School where ‘Authoritative-Participatory’ style was used did not have school development plans which envisioned the direction that the school was taking. One of the principals had this to say in that regard:

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Although the school does not at this stage have a written school development plan or policy, however, it exists in a fragmented form, and it is consistent with our conception of school development, that school development should be a process, and as such, should unfold gradually.

In addition to this, a principal who used this leadership highlighted that she was opposed to the DoE tendency of doing things in a “rush…rush” form. She said that the DoE usually asked schools to fill-in forms which reflected School Development Plans (SDPs) and submit them to circuit office on short notice. She complained that sufficient time for ‘consultation’ was not given. Therefore, schools would give circuit offices SDPs but not the actual one because they did not exist and they take time to develop. This raises a question of whether or not schools have to wait for the DoE to demand development plans before they can ‘develop’ some kind of a plan. This scenario is another indication that principals have their own ways of responding to education policy. Table 2. Advantages and disadvantages of Authoritative-Participatory Leadership Advantages Everybody knows what the principal wants and expects from them. There is tighter control on teachers’ activities-code of conduct is strictly followed. Task achievement is high as teachers do not want the risk of being shouted at should they fall short.

Disadvantages Stakeholder participation in structures such as SGB is limited but is confined to what the principal dictates. Relations with staff are strained and suspicions abound. Conditions are not conducive to teacher leadership. There is no transparency and teachers regard decentralisation of certain powers to the schools as bringing oppression of the past regime closer to them.

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There are positive and negative aspects to this leadership style. What is good is the focus on teaching and learning but other aspects such as human relations are not considered at all. Because of these tensions unhappiness prevails among staff members. Table 2 above shows that there are advantages which can assist the schools to stay on or gravitate towards the mission and vision of the school should it happen that it has faced stability problems. However, the disadvantages can significantly undermine legitimacy of structures and decisions that are taken in those structures.

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5.3. Closed- Participatory Leadership ‘Closed-Participatory Leadership’ style is closer to authoritative-participatory in the sense that the principal allows stakeholders to participate in the decision-making but such participation is contrived. The term ‘closed’ distinguishes this style from other styles that are discussed in this chapter in that the principal’s position on many issues is seldom known. This style is characterised by pretence and deception on the part of the principal. For instance, the principal would pronounce that he or she welcomes views from staff during meetings whereas the opposite is true.The principal takes decisions alone, before SMT or staff meetings start or privately lobby certain individuals and friends. No proper discussions in these staff meetings are held, and agenda manipulation is rife. One example is where the agenda does not have ‘general issues’ slot. Such omissions are deliberate and are meant to prevent teachers raising unexpected issues and debates.This practice has intensified perceptions and suspicions among teachers that if ‘general issues’ slot was to be inserted on the agenda, a window for engagements on serious issues affecting the staff might be opened and the principal feels threatened by this. So, a climate of doubt, uncertainty and fear prevails. The principal seldom makes his or her position on any issue known to the staff. When SGBmeetings are held, full participation of all components comprising SGB is discouraged. Only parents’ voices are preferred. The roles of non-parent members is reduced to ‘rubber stamping’ the decisions already made privately by the principal and some parents who, invariably, are close friends. The role of teachers in any school activity other than teaching is disliked by the principal even though he or she would want people to think that values such as transparency, democracy are embraced in the school. Nothing has changed since South Africa became a democracy in 1994; only trappings of real change predominate. When asked about the need for consultation with the teachers on key issues, one principal retorted: You don’t have to observe what the Department says; I have to do what I’m comfortable with…the trick is, teachers have to be made to think that they are part of the decision-making process, but you can’t rely on them…their role is to teach whereasmine is to run the school.

This style of leadership described here has resulted in frustration and disillusionment among teachers; they do not like to be involved in any of the committees at school. Theyare generally unhappy and view decentralisation by the government with reservations and suspicion. Some teachers believe that devolution of powers to schools has stifled their creativity and has brought oppression closer to them. When one teacher was asked about her views and experiences of working under decentralised structures, she cynically remarked:

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Thamsanqa Thulani Bhengu Schools still receive instructions from the department [DoE]. If the department is not issuing out instructions, then there is the SGB and the principal with more instructions, and oppression continues.

Notwithstanding all these negativities, it may be argued that there are positives as well, and these are captured in the table below. Table 3. Advantages and disadvantages of Closed-Participatory Leadership Advantages The staff is always on their toes- they do not know what to expect from the leader. Supervision of teachers is relaxedteachers have some freedom to do things as they wish. Task achievement is also high like in the other leadership styles.

Disadvantages The climate is not friendly, tensions are high and human relations are generally poor. Teacher leadership can take place as they are sometimes allowed to take initiative even though mistrust dominates. Teachers are always viewed with suspicion and mistrust. Like in authoritative style, there is lack of transparency;teachersregard decentralisation of certain powers to the schools with suspicion and regard it as bringing oppression of the past apartheid regime closer to them.

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Table 3 above shows that there are more negatives than positives regarding closedparticipatory leadership. From the precedingdiscussionon closed-participatory leadership, this is not surprising at all.

6. DISCUSSION There are a number of issues for policy and research that requires consideration. To start with, the three leadership typologies raise questions to ponder regarding the extent to which the government’s vision for principals’ role in driving transformation agenda is working. If it is not working, what needs to be done requires consideration given the strategic position principals occupy in the education field and in society. Linked to this point is the question of the transformative role of principals. In terms of the three leadership typologies, indications are that principals who used authoritative-participatory or closed-participatory styles tended to stifle individual creativity and innovation of staff. As such, they are not inspiring anybody to perform their duties other than out of compliance. Although in all researched schools learner performance was generally good, it is also evident that with the exception of ‘openparticipatory leadership, the other two are not in line with the notion of agency for transformation in schools. Capacity building to enable principals to fulfil their mandate as contemplated in the Constitution and various legislations is a real cause for concern. This emanates from the fact that many principals complain about lack of exposure to capacity building workshops. When these workshops are provided, some of them scorn at them saying that these are adding on

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their workloads; that they do not have time to read materials provided in workshops and thus see little benefits in attending them. The DoE has acknowledged the need for a dedicated structured programme for building management capacity (DoE, 1996b) by proposing the establishment of a national management and leadership institute. However, such an institute did not materialise as recommended by the Task Team Report of 1996 (Ngcobo & Tikly, 2010). Currently, the DoE has embarked on a project whereby leadership and management development capacity can be achieved by training principals for this responsibility through a professional qualification called ‘Advanced Certificate in Education: School Leadership’. Between 2007 and 2009, this programme was piloted. During 2010 academic year, the first cohort of principals and deputy principals beyond the pilot phase was admitted to various universities in SA. It is going to take some years before the success or failure of this programme can be assessed. One of leadership’s key skills is the ability to read the context within which each institution is located so that development plans that are generated are realistic and achievable. It is critical therefore that principals’ understand their schools’ contexts and are able to use it for the betterment of their institutions in terms of quality education provision. However, exploiting the context for one’s own personal benefits at the expense of provision of a climate in which everyone is happy to work, runs contrary to values enshrined in the Constitution of South Africa. One of the expectations of the DoE is the establishment of learning organisation out of schools, and principals are crucial in ensuring this. However, being true to the notion of schools as learning organisations and the extent to which the environment that leadership approaches facilitate or frustrate the realisation of this dream, these typologies do not seem to address this expectation. It may be argued that at least one of them is trying to achieve this. There may have been no successes as probably expected in making schools learning organisations as the Task Team report (DoE, 1996b) observed; it can be said though that rural schools faced other social challenges such as child-headed households and positive stories about how schools responded have been told. In particular, schools that used openparticipatory leadership, committees responsible for wellness, care and support for learners negatively affected by various social challenges were established and were operational. Through donor funding, clothes were being distributed among deserving learners. Vegetables produced in the schools’ gardens were also used to provide meals for these learners. Parents in the community also had their own vegetable gardens within the schools’ premises. In many instances, positive stories did not emerge from schools that used other leadership typologies such as closed and authoritative-participatory ones. More research is needed to investigate interconnections between all these issues of leadership and management on one hand and the extent to which schools are becoming not only learning organisations, but also centres of community life and centres of care and support. One of the skills necessary for transformative leadership is the ability to negotiate relationships among all stakeholders, employers and communities in which schools are located. Double accountability to the DoE and to communities where schools are located is important, and understanding this, has implications for how principals lead and manage schools. Using the adage ‘Be everything to everybody’ most of these principals have been successful in adopting multiple-identity methods, using languages and posture that suited the occasion. When engaging with education officials and when engaged with misbehaving learners, they use appropriate language that solves current problems and challenges.

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CONCLUSION It is evident that leadership and management practices do not necessarily depict policy. That does not mean that policy is completely ignored either. What is evident is that principals’ exercise of leadership entail a complex process of evaluating what will or might work in the context of local conditions. Some principals, focus on ensuring that there is transparency, open climate, collegiality and a good relationship between the school and the community around it. Others prefer to focus on curriculum delivery and pay no attention to the happiness of the staff or whether trust, openness and transparency prevail in the school. None of the three typologies demonstrated superiority in terms of school effectiveness or learner performance. In view of that, we cannot conclude at this stage that any of the three typologies yields better results in terms of learner outcomes. What is evident though is that open-participatory leadership has the potential to contribute to various aspects of leadership and management. It is a reality in South Africa that stakeholders want to participate in decision-making processes. Furthermore, they want their contributions to be given value – the more value their inputs receive, the more they contribute and the more commitment develops in them. Open-participatory leadership has shown that it is possible to provide a platform for teacher leadership concept to be tested and even flourish. Open-participatory leadership has the potential to serve as a format for deep-seated change in schools. In schools where management environments are open and free, teachersarehappier and more enthusiastic about participation in the management of their schools and are more optimistic about the school’s and community’s future. This is in line with Smylie’s 1992, (cited in Sackney & Dibski, 1994) findings that teachers’ willingness to participate is contingent upon their perceptions of the environment, whether it is open, collaborative/supportive or closed/exclusionist and controlling, and this is fed back into the principal’s behaviour, in positive ways. Given that all of the principals in this study provided more or less successful leadership in their schools, one can argue that no particular leadership style is more appropriate for schools in rural communities. However, it is evident from both the data and literature that schools (rural or not) need to be managed differently from the way they were managed – collaboration and inclusivity of all the stakeholders is the way to go. Open-participatory leadership provides a platform where all this can happen. Open-participatory models are more likely to ensure schools operate as Learning Organisations.

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Chapter 8

POLICY ON EDUCATOR POST PROVISIONING IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS: A CRITIQUE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN EXPERIENCE Inbanathan Naicker University of KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

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ABSTRACT Given the highly contested nature of educator post provisioning in South Africa, this Chapter critically examines educator post provisioning in post apartheid South Africa. It maps the legislative mandates informing funding of educator posts and examines the ideological underpinnings of policy on educator post provisioning. The policies and processes in the distribution of educator posts within a province as well as the resource allocation model termed the post provisioning model is critically reflected upon. The link between educator post provisioning and learner-educator ratios is also examined in some detail. A critical account of the implementation of the post provisioning norm at school sites brings this Chapter to conclusion.

INTRODUCTION Educators are a key resource in the teaching and learning process. Their ability to influence learner outcomes is directly linked to their quantity and quality at schools. Thus, their distribution to schools needs to be a transparent, equitable and a carefully managed process. In South Africa, the distribution of educators has always been a highly contested and at times a controversial issue leading to disputes and protest action by education stakeholders such as parents, educators and learners. Given this context, this Chapter critically examines educator post provisioning in post apartheid South Africa. In using the term educator in this Chapter, a broader conceptualisation of the term is intended which includes any person who teaches, educates or trains learners at public schools.

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This Chapter commences with a brief overview of the legislative frameworks informing the funding of educator posts in South Africa. It then goes on to examine the role ideology has played in shaping educator post provisioning policies. An account of the policies and processes involved in the distribution of educator posts is followed by an overview and critique of the resource allocation model (RAM), termed the post provisioning model (PPM). Further, this Chapter also provides some insights into the link between educator post provisioning and learner-educator ratios. A critical account of the implementation of the post provisioning norm at school level brings this chapter to conclusion.

LEGISLATION INFORMING FUNDING OF EDUCATOR POSTS

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In terms of legal mandates, provision is made for the funding of educators to public schools from two sources. The first source, as outlined in the Employment of Educators Act, 76 of 1998, is the State. In terms of State paid educators, each of the nine provinces in the Republic, based on provincial education budgets for educator personnel expenditure, determines the number of educators they can afford. The provinces then use a nationally approved resource allocation model, called the post provisioning model (PPM) to distribute state funded educator posts to schools (Republic of South Africa, 1998). In terms of the South African Schools Act, 84 of 1996, the second source of educators for public schools is the School Governing Bodies (SGBs). From privately raised funds, some SGBs annually budget for additional educator personnel to supplement the number of educator posts allocated by the State (Republic of South Africa, 1996).

IDEOLOGICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF POLICY ON EDUCATOR POST PROVISIONING Ideology has played a significant role in shaping policies in South Africa. During the pre 1994 era the apartheid ideology informed public policy. In the sphere of education it was used as a tool to divide and control, to protect white privilege and power socially, economically and politically and to ensure Afrikaner dominance. Further, decades of apartheid education have resulted in gross inequalities and backlogs in education (Hofmeyer & Buckland, 1992). The staffing of schools in terms of educators reflects but one aspect of these inequalities (see Naicker, 1996). In the post-apartheid era, the public sector has been characterized by the adoption of neo-liberal managerialist reforms, which are increasingly informing policy discourse. These reforms are informed by the international call for good governance in countries. Consequently, in the search for better performance in the public sector, some fashionable terms such as ‘excellence’, ‘increasing competitiveness’, ‘efficiency’, ‘accountability’, ‘decentralization’ and ‘self-managing schools’ have been introduced in order to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of public services (Mok, 1999). In education, the decentralization of decision-making powers to the provinces and to the schools themselves has become a reality and schools are now considered to be on a path of ‘self-reliance’ and ‘self-management’. To illustrate this, the installation of structures such as SGBs with functions ranging from the recommendation of staff for appointment to schools to the

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determination of the extra-mural curriculum and choice of subject options at schools bears testimony to this (see Republic of South Africa, 1996b, sections 20-21). In terms of educator post provisioning the neo-liberal managerial reforms has informed processes involving the State’s distribution of educator posts to schools as well as how schools themselves, as selfmanaging entities, create additional educator posts from private funds. The State has adopted decentralization in creative ways such as deconcentration, devolution and delegation in order to enhance managerial efficiency. Deconcentration, delegation, devolution and privatization are degrees of decentralization ranging from the weakest to the strongest form of decentralization. Deconcentration involves the passing down of selected administrative functions to lower levels or units within government agencies or departments with the centre remaining in control (Yuliani, 2004). With regard to educator post provisioning deconcentration has translated into the Department of Education giving the provinces greater autonomy by shifting authority for the implementation of policy to the provinces but not for making them. In terms of implementing the policy on educator post provisioning, provinces can determine the size of their educator pool, set their own learnereducator ratios and determine substitute educator numbers. Delegation involves the transfer of specific authority and decision-making powers to organizations that are outside the regular bureaucratic structure and that are only indirectly controlled by government (Yuliani, 2004). In terms of delegation, SGBs have been granted powers to set user fees (school fees) and thereby reduce the financial burden of public schools on the State. The setting of fees by SGBs has, however, allowed some privileged groups to effectively ‘privatize’ schools within the public school system through the levying of exorbitant school fees. Owing to their financial resources, these schools consequently create a number of SGB funded educator posts. In a study carried out in KwaZulu-Natal, a very high positive correlation was found between the annual school fee payable per learner and the number of educators employed by the SGB (Naicker, 2005). Devolution entails the granting of decision-making powers to lower authorities or managers and allowing them to take full responsibility without reference back to the authorizing government (Yuliani, 2004). School principals as leaders and managers of their institutions have powers devolved to them with regard to educator post provisioning. In terms of the number of educators allocated to their schools by the PPM, they are free to deploy them in a manner in which he/she deems appropriate to meet the goals of the school.

EDUCATOR POST PROVISIONING: THE POLICIES AND PROCESSES Educator post provisioning is a highly technical, policy-driven process involving a number of role-players at various levels.

Political Processes at Provincial Level The first step in the process is a political one where the Member of the Executive Council (MEC) for Education in a province determines the educator post establishment (educator pool) of that provincial education department (see Figure 1). In keeping with the democratic

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values that underpin the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act, 108 of 1996, legislative mandates dictate that the MEC, in determining the educator post establishment of the province, must consult with the officially recognised educator trade unions in the province and SGB organisations which are active in that province. In determining the educator pool, that is the number of state paid educators of a province, the MEC has to observe certain guiding principles. Due consideration must be given to the budget of the provincial education department. In other words, the educator pool of a province is determined in terms of what is affordable in terms of the budget for personnel expenditure. This means that some provinces with greater financial resources will be able to afford more educators than others. This thus contributes to inter-provincial inequity in terms of learner-educator ratios. After consultation with the educator unions and SGB organisations, the MEC in determining affordability, has to ensure that there is a reasonable split in the budget between personnel and non-personnel expenditure. Personnel expenditure should be pegged at a reasonable level so as to ensure that sufficient funds are available for nonpersonnel expenditure such as learning and teaching support materials (LTSM), procurement of equipment and infrastructure development and maintenance. A target ratio of 80:20 personnel/non-personnel expenditure has been set by the Department of Education in this regard. Further, consideration must also be given to the division between educator and noneducator personnel costs in that it must be educationally and financially justifiable. In other words, sufficient funds should be set aside for non-educator personnel such as administrative and support personnel. In educator post provisioning, the MEC must take into consideration the issue of redress, which is a cornerstone of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (section 195). In the South African context, redress refers to a commitment to shifting the balance of power in favor of those who have been disadvantaged in the past by apartheid policies. It is about, among others, correcting the historical imbalances with regard to access to resources (Harley, Bertram & Mattson 1999). Thus, in terms of redress, the educator post establishment of schools must make provision for the implementation and promotion of curriculum policy at historically disadvantaged schools. This may entail providing additional educator posts to promote subjects, which historically disadvantaged schools did not offer under apartheid such as accounting, information technology and physical science. Due consideration must also be given to the impact of the educator post establishment on the terms and conditions of employment of educators with regard to employment security, provisions for leave, substitution and remuneration related issues. In the South African context the issues of leave for educators and the employment of substitute educators are vitally important given the many cases of educators who are either infected or affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Therefore, there is a need to create a significant number of posts for substitute educators to fill in for those educators who absent themselves as a result of the pandemic over and above those educators who take leave for lengthy periods for other legitimate reasons.

Administrative Processes at Provincial Level Once the MEC has determined the educator pool of the province, the administrative head of education in the province, namely, the Superintendent General (SG) distributes the

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educator posts to individual schools in the province (see Figure 1). In order to ensure transparency and fairness, the SG uses the post provisioning model (PPM) which is a resource allocation tool to distribute educator posts to schools. Each school’s resultant allocation of posts from the State is termed the school’s post provisioning norm (PPN). In applying the PPM, legislative mandates dictate that the SG must take into consideration the need for redress in the implementation and promotion of curriculum policy such as the creation of additional educator posts at historically disadvantaged schools in order to promote scarce subjects like accounting, information technology and physical science. Ensuring curriculum redress is a mammoth undertaking owing to the fact that the demand for curriculum redress far exceeds what provinces can afford for this purpose in terms of educator personnel. This notwithstanding, the SG must determine an annual programme in this regard after consultation with recognised trade union parties and SGB organisations that are active in the province. Given the limited financial resources that provinces have to effect curriculum redress, this often brings trade unionists and SGB parties in conflict with the SG.

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School-Based Processes The South African Schools Act makes provision for schools to supplement the baseline resourcing of the State in order to improve the quality of education provided by the school (see section 36(1)). Within the context of resource efficiency as a discourse in South African education, baseline levels of provisioning of personnel, equipment and materials are assumed to exist in terms of which learning and teaching are presumed to be possible (Soudien, Jacklin & Hoardly, 2001). Beyond these baselines, communities and individuals have the right to exercise their individual tastes by resourcing schools above the baseline provisioning by the State through user fees. Therefore, based on the income a school is likely to generate in a school year (from school fees, donations and sponsorships), SGBs (see Figure 1) often make decisions as to whether they are able to supplement the baseline educator provisioning of the State by way of funding SGB appointed educators. In a study carried out in KwaZulu-Natal (Naicker, 2005), it was observed that the historically advantaged schools, which levy higher school fees are able to employ more educators as compared to their poorer counterparts at historically disadvantaged schools. In some schools the SGB is a bigger employer of educators at that school than the State. Many of the historically disadvantaged schools, especially those in the lower funding quintiles do not employ any additional educators owing to the lack of funds.

THE POST PROVISIONING MODEL (PPM): THE ‘NUTS AND BOLTS’ Resource allocation models (RAMs) are widely used in education to distribute human, material and financial resources. Their application is largely to bring about greater transparency, consistency and rationality in the distribution of resources (Thomas, 1999). They are a means by which resources are distributed according to present criteria represented by a number of formulae and variables.

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Further, RAMs comprise a number of basic assump-tions regarding what is important and what is not at that particular period in time (Field & Klingert, 2001).

Figure 1. Schematic representation of the educator post provisioning process.

The PPM was introduced as a RAM owing to pressure from educators and educator unions. This pressure was largely a result of claims of unfairness in educator post distribution to schools from the educator constituency. Through an extensive process of consultation, research and piloting the PPM was introduced (Department of Education, 1998). The PPM is based on the principle that available educator posts (provincial pool of educators) are distributed among schools proportionally to their number of weighted learners. The concept of ‘weighted learner’ instead of actual learner is used to enable schools to compete on an equal footing for posts. As some learners and some learning areas/subjects require more favourable educator post allocations than others, each learner is given a certain weighting that

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reflects a learner’s relative need in respect of educator post provisioning (Republic of South Africa, 2002). The model takes into account the following educational and administrative factors that impact on the educator post provisioning needs of learners: • • •

• • • • •

• •

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•

The maximum ideal class size applicable to a specific learning area/subject or phase. The period load of educators. The need to promote a learning area/subject. By providing a more favourable learnereducator ratio in respect of subjects in grades 10 – 12, schools can be motivated to promote such a subject. The size of a school. The number of grades. More than one language medium of instruction. Disabilities of learners. Access to the curriculum. In order to ensure fair and affordable access of learners to the curriculum, the number of learners that are fully funded in respect of subjects that are more expensive to offer need to be regulated. This measure, it was envisaged, will lead to redress in the implementation and promotion of the curriculum. Poverty. In order to compensate for the negative impact that poverty has on learning, the poverty grading of a school is taken into account. Level of funding. Policy may require that different phases be funded at different levels. Currently, all grades are set at 100% level of funding while grade R is set at a funding level of 0. Ad hoc factors. Certain factors that are not considered above, such as an unexpected growth in learner numbers, may exist at a certain school and may justify the allocation of additional posts to such a school (Republic of South Africa, 2002).

A school’s share of the total pool of educators in a province is determined by the weighting of all learners in accordance with their relative educator post provisioning needs, after which the available posts are divided among the schools pro rata to their weighted number of learners. The following formula is used: Number of Posts = total number of educator x total weighted learners of a school allocated to a school posts in a province total weighted learners in a province Since the introduction of the PPM in 1999 to distribute educator posts to schools, there has been growing discontent with regard to its impact on practice. This is understandable because when a RAM is first introduced, perfection is highly unlikely and will, therefore, need regular review owing to changes in external circumstances and internal politics (Field & Klingert, 2001). However, notwithstanding the incremental revisions effected to the PPM, stakeholders are far from happy with the model. When any RAM is used there will be winners and losers. Economic theory suggests that if losers can be compensated this should reduce the resistance to the use of the model (Field & Klingert, 2001). In a survey conducted by Field and Klingert (2001), they found that satisfying the losers was an important issue. Two thirds of respondents in their study reported some level of disagreement (signing up to the model does not necessarily mean that people are happy with it), although several were

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very relaxed about it. There will always be winners and losers when the ‘pot’ is constrained. The losers will be unhappy. The winners, however, will be frustrated because they cannot get their hands quick enough on the resources that the RAM suggests they are entitled to because access to such resources will ensure better resourcing and hopefully better outputs. One of the key problems associated with the PPM is that the supply of educators is fixed by the budgets of the provincial education departments. Field and Klingert (2001) observe that RAMs are constrained by budgets. A RAM does not decide on budgets, decision-makers do. Thus, the model is limited in the sense that it can only allocate educator posts to schools given the supply of educators determined by the budget. The poorer provinces with larger learner numbers thus suffer due to their needs outstripping their educator supply (Motala & Pampallis, 2001). Owing to decentralized budgeting, the poorer provinces, such as KwaZuluNatal and the Eastern Cape, have to ensure that besides education other sectors such as health, welfare and housing receive a fair slice of the budget in order to meet the needs of its people. These competing demands thus constrain the budget for education thereby limiting what is affordable in terms of educator numbers. This thus results in inter-provincial inequities in terms of learner-educator ratios. The weighting of subjects is fundamental to determining the number of educator posts to be allocated to a school. Thus the schools with varied subject offerings will be at an advantage because they will qualify for more educators than schools, which offer a streamlined curriculum. This, Madisha (2001) observes is a source of inequity among schools. In support of this, one school principal in a KwaZulu-Natal study (Naicker, 2005, p. 188) commented: ‘I know of schools that are bigger [larger enrolment] than ours but seem to have a lower PPN…I think it can only really be accounted for the fact that we offer such a wide variety of subjects… I think that we have something like twenty one different subjects and so a lot of those are in the specialist category for which you qualify for additional weightings.’

The Officials from the educator unions seem to share the same view. In the same study (Naicker, 2005, p. 188-189) an executive member of a major union in the KwaZulu-Natal province stated: ‘… the number of educators in a school is going to be determined by the type of curriculum you are going to offer… and you discover in advantaged institutions… where you have subjects like computer science… technical skills subjects… the weightings of subjects are quite high [and] you discover that you qualify for quite a few educators.’

The Department of Education, however, takes a different view on this. They believe that a major benefit of the PPM has been the rationalization of the curriculum offered in schools, since educator post provisioning is now linked to an approved set of subject offerings by an institution. They add that provincial departments now regulate the curriculum offered in each school through the PPM (Department of Education, 2000). The PPM’s capacity to effect curriculum redress is debatable. Given the historical inequities in curricular offerings at schools, Pardesi (2004) observes that in all provinces there is a serious demand for curriculum redress. Whilst the PPM makes provision for a province to set aside posts for curriculum redress and in turn to allocate these posts to schools so that they

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may transform their curricula, in practice many provinces made no provision for this. Consequently, this provision for curriculum redress in the legislation remains largely symbolic. The Department of Education (2002) asserts that the key feature of the model is based on its ability to respond to the negative impact of poverty on education. It is a known fact that poverty, among other factors, is a significant barrier to learning in South Africa and that learners who come from economically deprived backgrounds need to be given focused attention by the State. The model is designed to cater for this priority by providing relatively favourable learner-educator ratios in respect of publicly funded posts to schools that cater for the poorest learners. Therefore, the most significant feature of the model is that schools catering for a large number of poor learners may gain one or two additional posts on account of poverty-targeting introduced in the model. However, in practice the Department has met with limited success in this regard owing to infrastructure constraints and educator availability. Due to a lack of classrooms in many of the schools catering for learners from poverty stricken backgrounds, class size remains high despite the additional educator posts they receive (Naicker, 2005). Further, many of these schools are located in deep rural contexts and educators are not always willing to take up posts in these remote schools. Consequently, this feature in the model has very limited benefit to learners who hail from poor backgrounds. Though the PPM pays great attention to curriculum redress, cognisance must be taken of the fact that the model merely allocates a number of educator posts to a school. How the educators are to be deployed in terms of school timetabling is still left to the discretion of the school principal. For example, the school might qualify for curriculum redress posts in order to promote subjects like music and dance but the deployment of the educators for this purpose is still largely left to the discretion of the school principal. Therefore, the PPM merely distributes a number of posts to the school with no compulsion on the principal on how to deploy the allocated posts (Naicker, 2005). Whilst the PPM stipulates maximum ideal class sizes for different subjects, the Post Provisioning Task Team of the national Education Labour Relations Council (ELRC) has observed that this is not the actual situation that prevails in terms of class size at schools. The Department of Education notes that it is very difficult to determine the correct norm for class size. They add that the values used in the PPM were based on inputs received from a number of sources. However, they concede that it was not scientifically determined. They assert that the subject class sizes are constrained by the pool of posts the school qualifies for (ELRC, 2003). The school principals in the KwaZulu-Natal study (Naicker, 2005) observed that it was not possible to structure class size in terms of the norms stipulated by the PPM. Consequently, some school principals mentioned that they are forced to violate legal prescripts in the offering of certain subjects. The following comment illustrates this point (Naicker, 2005, p. 192): ‘…certain subjects require specialized work… [it demands that] the educators comply with the Occupational [Health] and Safety Act [and therefore] require smaller classes. The woodwork class and metalwork classes are currently sitting at 36. At matric level metalwork in terms of occupational safety that is not on. It should be sitting at a maximum of 24. But you cannot split the classes into 18 and 18 because it does not make economic units and our staffing does not allow for that’.

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EDUCATOR POST PROVISIONING AND LEARNER-EDUCATOR RATIOS Provincial learner-educator ratios are determined largely by the provincial education department’s budget for personnel expenditure. In arriving at the provincial learner-educator ratios as reflected in Table 1, the total number of learners at all public institutions within a provincial education department is divided by the total number of full-time equivalent educators that is affordable in terms of the budget for educator personnel expenditure in that province (Mdlalose, 2003). The learner-educator ratio is one of the factors that affect the quality of education provided in schools. World Bank studies indicate that learner-educator ratios of 25:1 and lower are important for learner success (Vadi, 1998). Moreover, given the urgent need to improve the quality of education in historically disadvantaged schools, trends from international studies show that learners from disadvantaged communities reap the most benefit from smaller classes. Their results tend to improve the longer they stay in classes of less than twenty (Noonan & Doherty, 2003). Vally and Spreen’s (1998) research conducted on class size supports the view that small classes are likely to improve the achievement of learners from disadvantaged backgrounds. Further, they assert that small classes are also likely to produce the greatest gains in achievement in mathematics, technical subjects and reading in the first four years of schooling owing to the individualized attention they receive from educators.

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Table 1. Provincial learner-educator ratios in South Africa: 2004-2010 PROVINCE

2004

2006

2008

2010

Eastern Cape

33.4

34.5

33.5

31.2

Free State

29.8

30.9

30.4

29.5

Gauteng

31.7

39.2

36.4

34.3

KwaZulu-Natal

35.3

35.1

34.5

32.9

Limpopo

35.3

34.0

32.1

30.1

Mpumalanga

35.5

36.4

33.0

31.7

Northern Cape

33.8

34.1

31.7

32.7

North West

29.7

30.6

31.4

31.4

Western Cape

35.7

37.0

35.7

35.7

Average

35.7

34.9

33.7

32.2

Source: Department of Education (2005, 2006, 2008), Department of Basic Education (2010).

Table 1 on the provincial learner-educator ratios in South Africa shows the provincial learner-educator ratios from 2004 to 2010. These ratios are averages and are in no way an indication of actual class size. Given the fact that school management teams (SMTs) have far reduced scheduled teaching hours and classroom-based educators carry a teaching load of between 85% and 92% of the total teaching load, the actual class size can be far in excess of the provincial learner-educator ratio (Republic of South Africa, 1999 and Vadi, 1998). The problem is further exacerbated at schools, which promote curriculum diversity. Owing to their varied subject offerings in the Further Education and Training (FET) band additional teaching

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periods are created to accommodate split and combination classes. This further increases class size. At schools where the demand for schooling is high but the infrastructure in terms of number of classrooms is limited, schools have no other option but to increase class size. In a KwaZulu-Natal study (Naicker, 2005, p. 188) a provincial union official commented: ‘You have a PPN which tells you 1:36… When you go to these schools you find 1:50, 1:60, 1:70… because of a lack of classrooms, it does very little to lower the class size’

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IMPLEMENTATION OF THE POST PROVISIONING NORM (PPN) AT SCHOOL LEVEL In keeping with national guidelines, procedure manuals are developed by provincial education departments in consultation with educator unions for the implementation of the PPN. These manuals together with the PPN report are sent to schools for the attention of the principal and chairperson of the SGB. The manual makes explicit the objectives of the PPN implementation, the main principles and guidelines to be observed in implementation, procedures to be followed in identifying educators who are ‘surplus’ to the educator post establishment and a management plan outlining time frames for implementation. In implementing the PPN, the manual spells-out the role of the school principal as the implementation agent at the school site. It is mandatory for the school principal, to appraise staff at a formal staff meeting of the allocated staff for the year and the criteria and implementation procedures related to the PPN. Further, it is the function of the school principal to identify posts that are vacant and those that are surplus on the basis of the curricular needs of the school. The school principal must make transparent to staff the procedures for determining educators ‘additional/surplus’ to the staff establishment. The union site stewards located at the school should be present at the staff meeting to participate and observe proceedings (ELRC KZN, 2006). The procedure manual on PPN implementation has been the subject of much debate among school principals owing to the fact that it places them at a pivotal point in the implementation chain. Mdlalose (2003) avers that they are unfortunate to be (by virtue of their position) always expected to be leaders in the implementation of changes and policies, which at times they don’t even understand. Consequently, school principals would not possibly be expected to have all the answers to questions educators have regarding the implementation of the PPN. In a study conducted in KwaZulu-Natal (Naicker, 2005), it was found that school principals are not given adequate support from the Superintendent of Education: Management (SEMs) on the implementation of the PPN at schools. When school principals are faced with resistance from educators and union site stewards, assistance from SEMs is lacking. A school principal in the study (Naicker, 2005, p. 204) indicated: ‘…that particular category [SEMs] one needs to get angry and upset with… there is no support at all…’

Moreover, other school principals in the study indicated that some of the SEMs lack adequate knowledge of the educator post provisioning process. A long serving school

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principal who participated in the KwaZulu-Natal study (Naicker, 2005, p. 204) had the following comment to make: ‘Some of them I don’t think even understand how this whole process works because if you have technical queries they are often unable to answer them… I’d imagine when you are in that position you must make it your duty to be familiar with all those kinds of issues.’

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When an educator is declared ‘surplus/additional’ to the staff establishment, Mdlalose (2003) observes that the affected educator would unreasonably conclude that the school principal has personal problems and differences to settle with the educator. He adds that some staff members may sympathize with affected colleagues and wish that the school principal had taken steps to protect them whereas in reality the principal cannot do anything. He/she has to implement policy. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action taken against a school principal who fails to implement national or provincial policy as stipulated in the Employment of Educators Act, 76 of 1998. This state of affairs strains the trusting, supportive and harmonious relationship that should exist between school principals and educators. Implementation of the PPN also impacts on school organisation. School organization in the South African context is regulated by policy. Policy stipulates that admissions, educator allocations, educator workloads and timetables must be finalized before the first school day so as to ensure that teaching and learning is not compromised at the start of the new school year (KZN DEC, 2003). Thus, the timeous communication of the PPN to schools is an imperative for proper school organisation. In terms of policy, schools are supposed to receive their PPN in the month of September of the year preceding implementation. This notwithstanding, the KwaZulu-Natal study (Naicker, 2005) has shown that schools are often handed their PPNs towards the end of the year preceding implementation or whilst the academic year is in progress. This prompted a school principal in the study (Naicker, 2005, p. 196) to comment: ‘…it’s not good for organization… I believe in good administration… I am particular about administration. It is really frustrating to be in [this] set-up… We normally give teachers their allocations before they leave in December. In the last few years I have not been able to do that simply because I am not sure how many teachers I have on the permanent staff…’

The school principals in this study pointed out that the current situation cannot be allowed to continue because of the detrimental effect it has on planning in general and the culture of learning and teaching in particular. One school principal in the study (Naicker, 2005, p. 197) therefore commented: ‘The buck is got to stop somewhere and the education department needs to be punctual about the way in which they hand this PPN to schools…If they give it to me in September, I’ve got my budget meeting in October and then we do our planning in terms of staffing and so on in the month of October and November. Before teachers depart for the holiday they should have a rough idea of their timetable, their allocation… that would be a fair arrangement.’

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In order to ensure a climate of certainty and stability with regard to educator staffing in schools, many provinces are adopting a multi-term approach to the determination of the PPN. The province of KwaZulu-Natal for example, has adopted a three-year multi-term approach to the staffing of schools (Cronje, 2008). This means that for every three-year period the number of state funded posts at a public school will remain constant. Consequently, this will enable principals and their SGBs to engage in proper human resource planning for their schools owing to the fact that their PPNs will remain constant for the multi-term period.

CONCLUSION The current educator post provisioning policies, though far from ideal, is nevertheless a welcome improvement on the educator post provisioning policies implemented during the apartheid era. The transparency in educator distribution through the use of the PPM together with attempts at ensuring social justice through addressing equity and redress concerns in educator distribution is indeed a step in the right direction. This notwithstanding, the issue of educator post provisioning must not be seen in isolation from developments in the other spheres of education. For example attempts at curriculum redress can only work if together with the creation of a curriculum redress post at a school a qualified educator in that particular subject is available for deployment to the school. Consequently, there needs to be some synergy between policy on educator post provisioning and policies in the other spheres of education.

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REFERENCES Cronje, C. M. (2008). Determination of the educator post establishment for 2008 by the KZN MEC for Education. KZN DEC. Department of Basic Education. (2010). School realities 2010. Pretoria: Department of Basic Education. Department of Education. (1998). Annual report 1997. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education. (2000). Annual report 1999. Pretoria: Government Printer. Department of Education. (2005). Education statistics in South Africa at a glance in 2004. Pretoria: Department of Education. Department of Education. (2006). School realities 2006. Pretoria: Department of Education. Department of Education. (2008). School realities 2008. Pretoria: Department of Education. ELRC (Education Labour Relations Council). (2003). Post Provisioning workshop. Centurion: ELRC. ELRC KZN (Education Labour Relations Council KwaZulu-Natal). (2006). Collective Agreement No. 3 of 2006. Field, T. & Klingert, J. (2001). Resource allocation models. Perspectives, 5(3), 83-88. Geyer, S. (1998). Teaching…and fighting. The Educators Voice, 2(4), 2. Geyer, S. & Skinner, K. (1998). Retrenchment looms for all teachers. The Educators Voice, 2(1), 3.

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Harley, K., Bertram, C & Mattson, E. 1999. Classroom Studies: Researching teacher roles in policy and practice. Pietermaritzburg: UN Press. Hofmeyer, J. & Buckland, P. (1992). Education system change in South Africa. In McGregor, R. and McGregor, A. (eds.), McGregor’s Educational Alternatives. Cape Town: Juta. KZN DEC (KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and Culture). (2002d. HRM Circular no. 62, Employment of Temporary Educators. KZN DEC (KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and Culture). (2003). Plan of action on the first day of the 2004 academic year. eThekwini Region. KZN DEC (KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education and Culture). (2004). HRM Circular no. 21, Procedures for the Appointment of Educators. Lewis, J. (2002). Stabilizing the education service: Education supply, demand and quality. Paper presented at the Conference on HIV/AIDS and the Education Sector, Gallagher Estates, Midrand. 30May – 1 June. Madisha, W. (2001). Are we closer to the goal of equity? The Educators Voice, 5(4), 13. Mdlalose, M. S. (2003). The influence of the post provisioning norm in KwaZulu-Natal on the management of educator work satisfaction. Unpublished DEd thesis: RAU. Mok, K. H. (1999). The cost of managerialism: The implications for the ‘McDonaldisation’ of higher education in Hong Kong. Journal of Higher Education Policy & Management, 21(1):117-128. Motala, E. & Pampallis, J. (2001). Education law and policy in post apartheid South Africa, in Education & equity. The impact of state policies on South African education, edited by E. Motala and J. Pampallis. Sandown: Heinemann. Naicker, I. (1996). Imbalances and inequities in South African education: A historical educational survey and appraisal. Unpublished MEd thesis: UNISA. Naicker, I. (2005). A critical appraisal of policy on educator post provisioning in public schools with particular reference to secondary schools in KwaZulu-Natal. Unpublished DEd thesis: UKZN. Noonhan, G. & Doherty, L. (2003). Fight to hold the learning nerve. (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/03/05/1046826438291.html) Pardesi, S. (2004). Post Provisioning Model – a relic from the past. The Educators Voice, 8(1), 2. Republic of South Africa. (1996a). Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 108 of 1996. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. (1996b). South African Schools Act, 84 of 1996. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. (1998). Employment of Educators Act, 76 of 1998. Pretoria: Government Printer Republic of South Africa. (1999). Personnel Administrative Measures. Regulation Gazette Number 19767. Pretoria: Government Printer. Republic of South Africa. (2002). Government Notice 1451. Regulation Gazette Number 24077. Pretoria: Government Printer. Soudien, C.; Jacklin, H. & Hoadley, U. (2001). Policy values: problematising equity and redress in education, in Implementing education policies, edited by Y. Sayed and J. Jansens. Cape Town: UCT Press. The Rising Sun Chatsworth. (2004). Unpaid educators struggle to pay bills. 29 June- 5 July:12.

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Thomas, H. G. (1999). Managerial implications of adopting formula-based systems of resource allocation. Educational Management and Administration, 27(2), 183-191. TLSA (Teachers League of South Africa). (1999). Notes in school. The Education Journal, November-December: 11-12. Vadi, I. (1998). In defence of quality public education. The New Teacher, 5(1), 8-9. Vally, S. & Spreen, C. A. (1998). National and provincial school funding. Quarterly Review of Education and Training, 5(3), 6-8. Yuliani, E. L. (2004). Decentralization, deconcentration and devolution: What do they mean? Retrived from http://www.cifor.cgiar.org/publications/pdf_files/interlaken/Compilation.pdf on 10 June 2010.

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Chapter 9

PRINCIPALS INFLUENCING EDUCATION POLICY PRACTICE: A CASE STUDY OF TWO SCHOOLS Sibusiso Douglas Bayeni University of KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

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ABSTRACT Policy implementation in schools is fraught with several explicit and implicit contestations and disputes among key stakeholders, emanating from a variety of agendassocial, economical and political. Principals, being the ‘face’ of the schools, bear the brunt of these contestations, especially when called to give an account of all the things going wrong in the schools. As heads of schools, they are expected to resolve such disputes, yet when trying to deal with them, the principals’ endeavours usually collide head-on with the other stakeholders’ interests within the school terrain. In these contested conditions, where the principle of survival of the fittest plays out, school principals, using their positional powers, take centre stage in engaging and influencing staff in the ways that certain decisions are taken. Different principals adopt a variety of strategies in this process of engaging and influencing staff. This chapter examines, first, what strategies school principals employed to shape the direction of decisions in the midst of disputes and contestations. Second, it documents school principals’ understandings of exercising their powers on staff to ensure that ‘proper and right’ decisions are made. Two school principals were interviewed as to how they made decisions in the midst of disputes. Both principals highlighted different strategies and leadership styles they respectively employed to persuade or influence teachers to take their instructions.

INTRODUCTION For a few decades, a leader was regarded as effective if he could influence people to carry out their responsibilities and implement decisions made (Yukl, 2006)). However, this paradigm of the power of influencing people is traditional; it promotes the top-down

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conception and gives recognition to hierarchical authority. The new paradigm proposes that all individuals in their own right need to lead by taking centre stage in getting things done. In schools, principals are the ‘face’ of the Department of Education, and need to occupy centre stage at times and influence their colleagues to achieve the national goals and values of the Department. Therefore, principals are at the forefront of school change and school improvement. However, teachers within schools at times take the lead in making decisions. Principal leadership and teacher leadership within the same school environment as a result collide. Hence, principals are caught up in a web of power relations within schools, where dynamism, contestations, bargaining and micropolitics feature most. This chapter looks at strategies used by two principals to influence teachers to carry out their responsibilities. To explore the principals’ influence, I draw on literature that examines implementation of decisions in the form of policy. The first part of the chapter provides the background of the political change in the South African government from the apartheid era to the democratic era. The second part surveys literature on policy issues. I conclude by showing how principals exercise their leadership in the ways that influence teachers’ decisions. In order to do so I interviewed two principals on how they mediate policy in their administration offices and how their mediated policy is lobbied among teachers.

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BACKGROUND In the 15 years since a democratic government under the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) was born in South Africa, the education department has witnessed unprecedented efforts aimed at reforming the education system (Smit, 2005). Smit (2005) further argues that these efforts were initiated through policy formulation which was supposed to be transcended into practice. Policy initiatives were an attempt by the ANC to build a future by addressing the disparities created by apartheid education (Smit, 1999; Sayed & Paterson, 1997). South African education before 1994 under the apartheid government developed policies which promoted inequalities and imbalances among racial groups. When the ANC-led government took over, it had to take responsibility for crafting new policies to correct the inequalities and imbalances of the past. With the new democratically formulated policies in place, the majority of South Africans had hoped that they would overthrow the legacy of apartheid (Smit, 2005) and usher in a democratic dispensation with social justice and quality education. These policies were expected to be transmitted to schools for implementation to change practices. However, the policies were not passed on and implemented at the local level as required, but were shaped in a context of multiple social disparities and various education contexts (ibid.). Research shows that putting policy into action is not simply a matter of implementors following a fixed policy text and putting it into practice (Bowe & Ball, 1992). Policy is “contested and debated from contrasting and opposing point of views” (Bowe & Ball, 1992, p. 24). Policy may not be implemented for a number of reasons. One reason may be the lack the capacity and support to carry it through. This shows that the policy implementation process is not linear but curvilinear (Sabatier, 1986). It is a contested affair.

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Contestation emanates from various factors, including power relations among stakeholders, organisational realities, “construction of meaning” (Jørgensen, 2007, p. 23) and “confirmation of structuration” (Haugaard, 2003). Foucault’s conception of governmentality introduced the study of “autonomous” individuals’ capacity for self-control and how this linked to the forms of political rule within the implementation arena. Governmentality is used to investigate the relations between technologies of the self and technologies of domination (Foucault, 1988). Literature on policy implementation posits that the conversion of policy into practice is characterised by bargaining and negotiation (Hamann & Lane, 2004; McLaughlin, 1976). It is argued that) argue that implementation is a process engaged in by context-embedded individuals and entails an intertwined process of interpretation, negotiation, sense-making, bargaining, ambiguity management and the exercise of discretion (Coburn, 2005; Hamann and Lane, 2004; Honig, 2001; Spillane, 1998). In the implementation arena a number of factors come into play, such as resources, bargaining and interpretation. In the policy implementation arena, it is argued that education policy is filtered so that some parts of the policy are selected and implemented while others are rejected (Smit, 2005; Spillane, Reiser & Reimer, 2002). It is argued that many factors influence policy implementation, such as resources, social conditions and community pressures. Research shows that local implementation of policy necessarily involves more adaptation than “pure” implementation (Reiser, Spillane, Steinmuller, Sorsa, Carney & Kyza, 2000). It is also indicated that implementation involves mutual adaptation.

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CONTEXTUALISING EDUCATION POLICY It is pertinent to understand that policy success or failure can be judged on the basis of how it is implemented. Therefore, sites of policy implementation occupy centre stage in analysing and understanding policy and its implications. Suffice to say that sites of implementation are not neutral, but loaded with community values and context conditions which may promote or impede policy implementation. The community values are also not homogenous but dominated by socially constructed levels in which the members of the community are placed (Placier, Hall, McKendall & Cockrell, 2002). This means that community members are constrained by values within the socially constructed levels. Each level is associated with a certain amount of power that can be exercised to control people. Members of the community occupying certain levels have certain amount of power to exert. Power includes controlling resources that influence policy implementation and access to resources that impact on policy direction. Barnes’ theory suggests that “Power is an outcome of the creation of social order” (Haugaard, 2003, p.89). Barnes’ theory of power argues that power presupposes circles of validating knowledge. What makes the principal the leader of a school is not simply the principal’s belief, but the fact that others constitute a validating ring of reference to that belief. The principal’s belief “is an act of structuration whereas the validating ring of reference are those who are willing to ‘confirm-structure’ the principal’s act of structuration” (Haugaard, 2003, p.87).

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Within government, authoritative power is located within the highest hierarchy, that is people occupying high offices. Therefore, it is their intentions that dominate in the policy texts, with an intention to produce a particular nation with special conduct, rather than the intentions of people in the lower hierarchy. This notion was confirmed by a statement which argues that policies “serve the interests of specific people, usually the already powerful” (Weaver-Hightower, 2008, p.126). Nye, Konstantopoulos and Hedges (2004) argue that people with power in a relationship are better placed to make their own changes but resist changes imposed on them. However, the problem is that they cannot exercise control over the way those intentions are translated into action when policy reaches the implementation level. It is important, therefore to understand that this notion of authoritative power can be viewed as traditional and be equated to coercive power. Understanding translation of policy through the lens of authoritative power is one frame through which the world is viewed. There are many different views. It is also important to look at Foucault’s conception of power. Power has the notion of force which exists in between things, something which exercises an influence over something else. However, this force has many other forces with equal influence, which therefore results in confrontation and contestation. Foucault’s conception of power is linked to power as forces embedded and embodied in everyday conventions traditions, norms and rituals (JØrgensen, 2007; Fairclough, 2001). Power emerges from the petty and ignoble power relations at work in everyday life (Haugaard, 2003). The school is conceived as an ecology where there are different activities, and in these everyday life activities and life experiences, “games” exist (JØrgensen, 2007, p.14) which are confined by rules. The rules state how we do things, communicate and interact with other people. Power is therefore politics of everyday life. This suggests therefore that whoever designs policy or directives must understand the power relations and politics at work and the language of the context in which policy is expected to be implemented. Principals are part and parcel of politics within school life, so it is pertinent to understand how their power relations with other staff members influence or affect decision making. Also the context within which power relations play out is significant in influencing individuals within the organisation. Strongly linked to power and politics are the language games that people play in their everyday life. JØrgensen (2007, p.14) argues: We are part of the political game: we are trained to talk and understand things in a particular manner; we are expected and obliged to speak and behave according to our positions in these games, and depending on our positions, we have different possibilities for influencing the processes and the outcomes of these games.

Power analysis in organisations is important because everything said and done, including every claim to be truth, depends on the actors’ position in the world. Therefore what is claimed to be truth, morality and the right things, activities and practices in schools cannot be separated from the actors’ interests and intentions. Closely related to the notion of power is the concept of micropolitics, which refers to the use of formal and informal power by individuals and groups to achieve their goals in an organisation (Blasé, 1991). Micropolitics involves the immediate ongoing dynamic interaction between and among individuals and groups (Blasé & Blasé, 2002). Within schools, interaction among stakeholders takes a similar shape. In the micropolitical situation, issues of

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influence, control, conflict, cooperation, exchange, and negotiation play out (Blasé, 1991). In order to understand the link between power and policy, I provide a description of what policy is. Given the complexity of power, policy makers have to delegate responsibilities to fulfil their intentions (Heck, Brandon & Wang, 2001). Delegating responsibilities promotes, at the level of implementation, a great deal of discretion for interpretation on the part of the implementors. In the process of interpretation, implementors construct their meanings which influence what they do or do not do (Spillane, 1998). Although policy makers’ intentions are clear, implementation of intentions tends to lag behind (Heck et al., 2001; Tyack & Cuban, 1995). Studies on implementation of external policies suggest that educational practitioners are resistant to the mandates and directives of external policy makers. The way in which education policies are implemented is largely based on the principal’s influence, interpretation and mediation.

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WILL AND CAPACITY In the process of policy implementation there are techniques that come into play; for example, Foucault gives three techniques of control: hierarchical observation, normalising judgement and examination. By continuous observation of people, control over people can be achieved. As it is not always possible to observe people, there is therefore a need for ‘relays’ of observers who are hierarchically ordered so that data can be passed from one level to another. Stating clearly what the norms (normalisation) are can make stakeholders willing to implement policy. Normalisation may include the national standards for educators or for actual practice. Subjecting people to performance management can be equated to examination, which is a method that combines hierarchical observation and normalising judgment. This is an example of what Foucault calls power/knowledge. In the process of policy implementation, the concepts will and capacity dominate. Will denotes that policies that gel with local agendas and survive local politics, are more likely to be implemented. It is worth mentioning that there are a number of competing and contesting forces at work in the implementation arena. Firestone (1989) describes will as commitment to a decision to respond to a policy. The second concept is capacity, which pertains to knowledge skills (Fullan, 1991; McLaughlin, 1976). Capacity concerns the ability of enactors to carry out a decision to respond to a state policy (Fullan, 1991). Fullan (1991) states further that capacity looks at whether the implementors have the knowledge and skills to implement decisions. The concepts of will and capacity provide one reason among many as to why policies are implemented in the way they are. What is obvious in this argument is that the way in which policy implementation takes its shape is largely influenced, among other things, by the application of these concepts.

UNDERSTANDING POLICY Given the dynamic and complex encounter of policy, there is no unanimity among policy researchers and practitioners about what it is. In policy studies there is no one single agreed

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definition of policy (Dye, 2005). While some see policy as a government directive, others view it as a loose guideline for practitioners to interact with and interpret to suit their environments. Dye (2005) gives a simplistic explanation of policy, describing it as “whatever governments choose to do or not to do” (p.1). Implied in this description is that identification, selectivity and prioritisation of some issues feature most prominently in policy. This is evident in Ball’s (1990) statement in which he argues that policy is “a matter of authoritative allocation of values” (p.2), while Kogan (1975) regards it as a “statement of prescriptive intent” (p.55). Kogan’s statement is probably the one that works. Although there may be clear intent from policy makers, final implementation is what the implementors find working in their own context. At the end of the day, it is not what government and officials prescribe to happen in schools, but it is the demanding and competing forces and different stakeholders at schools that shape what actually happens there. Some governments, including the South African Government, decentralise some decision making power to schools so that they can use their discretion to craft their own policies. Schools as organisations are hierarchical and layered on the basis of seniority, which means that although decision making is within schools, those who are in a position of power (such as principals) are still more likely to lead and influence their subordinates. However, it is argued that leadership within schools is not a straightforward affair but is negotiated (Busher & Barker, 2003), where formal and informal leaders of different status try to influence application of preferred values through various micropolitical processes (Ball, 1994). Leaders play a major part in the construction of organisational culture (Sergiovanni, 1995) by trying to encourage the positive engagement of staff and students in the school culture (Wallace, 1993; Hoyle, & Wallace, 2007). At the core of this culture there is trust between leaders, staff and students (Blasé & Blase, 2002), because of the unequal distribution of power that occurs in all hierarchical organisations (JØrgensen, 2007). Notwithstanding the contestation over leadership, principals still have a greater role to play in influencing policy implementation (Weatherley & Lipsky, 1977), suggesting that their leadership is more likely to shape how policies play out in practice. Busher and Barker (2003) argue that local interpretation shapes the direction of policy implementation. They further state that local actors in schools actively construct their own understanding of policies by interpreting them through the lens of their pre-existing beliefs and practices. The way they construct such understandings shapes their decisions and actions as they enact policy in their schools and classrooms (Spillane & Jennings, 1997).

SOME POLICY MAKING MODELS To explain the policy implementation framework, Dyer (1999) provides two models within the top-down (policy formulation) tradition. The first is a bureaucratic model, which begins with policy message and goals at the highest level of government and regards policy implementation as occurring automatically in a chain of command.. According to Dyer (1999), policy goals and its message are regarded as most important. Resistance to policy is seen as irrational and a barrier to implementation. In this model there is an assumption that as long as there are policies, it is easy to make changes since people will have a policy to guide their actions and practices. But this model loses sight of discretion that policy actors (policy

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implementors) have of engaging with policies as they are delivered to them to implement. This active engagement with policies occurs even though school officials (staff in positions of leadership in schools) influence teachers to implement in a certain way predetermined by policy makers. The second model is that of bargaining and conflict, which posits that policy is a product of these. It regards policy implementation as a negotiated settlement which is non-linear. Contrary to the bureaucratic model, bargaining and conflict view accepts “resistance to policy message as rational and policy implementation as mediation between competing interests” (Dyer, 1999, p.47) with unexpected outcomes. In this model, the site of policy implementation is viewed as ‘ecology’ (Winch & Maytorena, 2009) where individuals and groups negotiate a number of actions and their behaviour in relation to policy. In this model it is accepted that policy behavioural practices cannot be predetermined as they are influenced by a number of factors, including stakeholders’ interests, that are likely to play out in the implementation site. In South Africa many policies which are enacted are a product of negotiations at different levels. At macro level, negotiations are between the government and the unions and between the ruling party and the oppositional parties. This is one set of bargaining and negotiations In South Africa, unionism is so strong that most policies are negotiated with the different unions to get ‘buy-in’. This shows that unions wield great power and hence contribute to policy direction. Undoubtedly, unions represent the voices of the masses who are the implementors. When policies enter the school gate micro level of bargaining and negations begins ,The principal negotiates with teachers, parents and other stakeholders on how to implement such policies. Negotiations are influenced by the amount of power the negotiators are endowed with. The principal, standing in for the Department of Education, is likely to wield more power than other stakeholders, since they may also seek guidance from him/her as he/she is a custodian of Department of Education rules. In this way the stakeholders are more influenced by the principal than them influencing the principal. This makes negotiations biased towards the principal.

THE CONTEXT OF PARTICIPATING SCHOOLS To investigate principals’ influence on teachers regarding education policy, two schools, Marble Secondary School and Mbune Secondary (names are pseudonyms) were chosen. These two schools were purposively selected on the basis of high learner achievement, using excellent external examination results as a criterion. Excellent results refer to a high learner achievement rate of between 90% and 100 %. An assumption was made that the schools with high learner achievement have strong principal’s influence. In other words, it was assumed that principals exercised a strong influence on teachers to get things done in a way which culminated in excellent results, as opposed to schools with low learner achievement where the principals’ influence was minimal. Both schools were located in a township on the outskirts of the city of Durban in KwaZulu-Natal. Both schools were situated in low socio-economic conditions, but there was no expectation that socio-economic background would play a significant role in determining the nature of leadership influence on teachers. This is so because of the homogeneity created

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by common policies, which require schools to respond to government directives in a homogeneous way. Both schools had classes from Grade 8 to Grade 12, and both had good external examination records ranging between 90% and 100% in the past 10 consecutive years. Both schools achieved a good pass rate despite being set in poor socio-economic conditions where some parents of learners stayed in shacks without any proper facilities. The schools had basic facilities such as electricity, sanitation and running water. Marble Secondary School had 3112 learners while Mbune Secondary School had 2740 learners. Other neighbouring schools about 1 km away had between 500 and 800 learners. It is obvious that the participating schools attracted a greater number of learners from the community compared to their counterparts. The two principals of the two schools participated in the study. Focusing on two principals allowed for depth of investigation about what they did to influence teachers.

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METHOD This study was qualitative. I used a case study approach because it suited to the in-depth analysis of complex issues (Stake, 1995; Spillane, 1999). Using an interview guide, I conducted face to face semi-structured interviews with each principal. Through these interviews I was able to gain insight into how the principals influenced teachers regarding education policy. The focus of interview questions was on strategies used by principals to influence teachers on policy matters which led to higher learner achievement. Taking into account the accountability that rests on principals as the ‘face’ of the Government in schools, and the increased demands on school effectiveness, principals were under pressure to meet the set standards. The principals tried to meet these by influencing teachers to conform with and heed their instructions. However, the factor is that the principals’ influence on teachers cannot be measured and is unique and personal. Therefore, it became extremely pertinent to find out from them (principals) what they were doing to achieve their goals, and hence a qualitative study was considered appropriate. The interview with the principal of Marble Secondary School lasted for three hours and fifteen minutes, and that with the principal of Mbune Secondary School two hours and twenty eight minutes. Both interviews were tape-recorded and transcribed. Data from both interviews were coded and analysed using content analysis method.

FINDINGS In the participating schools there were tasks and responsibilities to be carried out by teachers. In order to do these tasks well, teachers needed guidance and advice from their senior staff, the principals. In the process of guiding and advising, the principals tended to influence teachers to act in a particular way. The principals as the first accounting officers in the schools, and because of the legitimate position they hold, tried to ensure that policies were implemented as national Government wanted them to be. What remains an issue is how principals influence teachers to carry out the tasks with commitment. For example, if a principal dictates to the teachers, the teachers are more inclined to reject what is dictated to

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them or to sabotage the process. In this study it was found that the two principals used different strategies to influence teachers to carry out activities.

MARBLE SECONDARY SCHOOL The principal of Marble Secondary established a culture of a ‘work control system’ which is very closely associated with surveillance. Within this work control system a number of strategies and tools were designed to monitor the teachers’ activities and their outcomes. The discussion that follows covers the strategies in detail.

Management Control System Marble’s principal indicated that she designed a tool which she called a ‘management control system’. Teachers’ activities in this tool were well documented and kept in a special file. The management control system documented evidence of teachers’ activities, such as attendance of workshops, school management team meetings and teachers’ meetings in the different grades. This is a portfolio of evidence submitted by teachers to the principal. Using this portfolio, the principal was able to keep records of all teachers’ professional activities in the school. This appeared to be an effective monitoring strategy for the principal to monitor her influence on the teachers’ activities.

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Educators’ Monitoring Tool The second strategy that the principal used was an educators’ monitoring tool’ which reflected the teachers’ accountability. As teachers were accountable to their immediate senior managers within the school, all records about the accountability process were kept in the teachers’ monitoring book. For example, post level 1 teachers were accountable to the heads of department (HoDs), while HoDs were accountable to the deputy principal, and the deputy principal was accountable to the principal. All line managers (HoDs and deputy principals) kept the original records of teachers’ accountability while the principal kept copies. Using this tool, the principal was aware of the nature of the manager-teacher relations in the school. She had this to say: This tool helps me to check the quantity and quality of the learners’ work which reflects on the teacher. I made my recommendations in the presence of the teachers on learners’ work.

Correctional and Warning Strategy The third strategy that the principal used was a correctional and warning system; this strategy kept all records related to disciplinary measures taken against teachers in the school. For example, in case of misconduct the principal would institute an inquiry to investigate the

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misconduct, followed by setting up a hearing and concluded by passing a judgment against the teacher concerned. The principal of Marble boasted about having only a few teachers with judgments, commented: For the last three months, only two teachers have been verbally warned. Note that verbal warning is the first step among five to discipline teachers

In correcting teachers’ behavior, principal of Marble school used teacher unions to induce compliance. She said: I do not want to report them to the Department of Education, instead I call their union steward first to deal with their members.

The unions would then send their representatives to the school to discuss the matter with the teachers concerned. Part of the agreements reached in those meetings between teachers and unions would be a commitment from teachers to change the behaviour. This practice seemed to have helped mould and shape the behaviour of teachers. Every teacher in Marble was found to be conforming to the principal’s influence; therefore, her influence was felt by every teacher. Conformity was not necessarily voluntary but a result of fear of reprimand from teacher unions. Learning areas (subject) meetings

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The fourth strategy that the principal used was ‘learning areas meetings’, about which she said: Teachers who teach the same subjects meet every Friday to discuss tests, learners’ activities and what tasks to give. On a Monday, teachers need to submit what they agreed upon on the previous Friday.

At these meetings problems and challenges were also discussed. When the problems were identified HoDs would take the initiative to provide support to the teachers. Development programmes were designed to help teachers, for example, in the methods of teaching and managing classes. Those teachers who lagged behind or had not done what was planned because of incapacity were identified and assisted according to their needs. This was an effective strategy to enforce conformity among teachers in the school. When areas of development were identified, the principal took centre stage in ensuring that she exerted her influence. Therefore, the choice and type of programmes were influenced by the principal’s goals. The influence of the principal was therefore strongly felt in this tool.

School Structures The fifth strategy that the principal used was ‘school structures’, which enforced collaboration among staff. The principal formed a number of committees, to whom she assigned specific responsibilities. These committees were in addition to those mandated by

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the Department of Education in the South African Schools’ Act of 1996. Examples of these school structures are discussed in the following pages.

The School Cabinet The school had formed a structure called the ‘school cabinet’, which resembled to some degree the Government Cabinet in its composition. The ‘school cabinet’ had ‘ministers’ and a ‘cabinet speaker’, and was composed of different stakeholders such as learners, teachers and parents. The principal had this to say:

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Different ‘ministers’ (who are learners) with portfolios worked together with teachers. When the school cabinet was launched, we invited Department of Education officials to attend and they liked the idea.

An example is that there was a ‘minister of discipline’ who worked within the parameters of the school discipline policy. The ‘minister of discipline’ worked with the ‘minister of latecoming’. In the ‘discipline ministry’, awards were organised and given to the well-behaved learners. Excellence in the different performance activities was acknowledged and rewarded. Rewards included school certificates, pens, gold and silver medals, performance stamps and star labels. Similar awards were given to the teachers who were identified and rated as best performers in related fields. It seemed that these rewards had induced good behaviour among learners and teachers. The responsibilities of the ministers mainly involved taking the identified issues to the respective teachers who had the skills to address them. For example, the ‘minister of latecoming’ would monitor and record the learners who came late, and then meet with teachers about action to be taken. Teachers would then take action according to the ‘alternative to corporal punishment’ policy. Ministers were found to be under pressure to set an example for other learners in terms of behaviour. The principal believed that the good behavior of ministers would be emulated by other learners, and that it influenced them to behave well.

Mbune Secondary School Mbune Secondary School was very popular because of its excellent external examination results, which ranged between 93% and 100% over a period of 10 consecutive years. The principal in the school devised some strategies to induce teachers’ cooperation and enforce conformity by identifying school values that supported quality education. When the principal was asked how he influenced teachers to carry out their responsibilities, he responded by saying: In one sentence, all activities are learner-centred … that is, all things in the school are done to benefit learners.

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Through this explanation it was clear how teachers bought into the idea of embracing the concept of ‘benefiting learners’. Probing him further, it became clear that the principal led teachers by taking centre stage himself, doing what was expected of them before asking other teachers to do it. The following are some of frontline actions taken by the principal himself, which may be referred to as his strategies:

Principal and School Management Team (SMT) Teach External Classes in Grade 12 The principal of Mbune School made a ruling that he and all SMT members (deputy principals and heads of subject departments) would teach at least one subject in the external examined classes. This enabled members of the SMT to compete and compare the results in the subjects they taught to the results of classes other teachers taught. The principal of Mbune said: I make sure that I teach a Grade 12, an external class which is the appropriate class to measure one’s performance especially in terms of teaching.

In influencing the teachers to be effective, he said:

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At the end of the day, as a head [of the school] I can’t produce poor results, I can’t put down poor results at the end of the year, but expect subordinate educators to put down good results. I have been showing teachers in my subject, Accounting, how learners have performed.

SMT Submits Required Documents First before Asking Staff In schools there are a few documents that need to be handed in by teachers before deadlines, which are required by the school or by the district. These documents may include test scores for learners, learners’ projects, learners’ workbooks and learners’ assignments. To induce the teachers’ cooperation, the principal of Mbune would be the first to submit these documents, and demanded that all SMT members also submit theirs before asking the teachers to submit theirs. This strategy was effective, however, it required that all SMT members work as a team to help each other hand in their documents before time so that they could ask teachers to hand in theirs on time.

Parental Involvement The principal of the school made it a norm that in each term parents of learners were invited to discuss their children’s academic progress with the teachers who taught them. Teachers in different subjects would address parents on their children’s progress. This helped teachers and parents to know the performance level of the learners so that they could support

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them. When each year began, teachers were always reminded about this and were prepared for it. They were made aware that parents would come to the school to assess their children’s work. This made teachers heed the principal’s influence and instructions. One may regard inviting parents to the school as ‘wielding a stick’ in front of the teachers so that they would conform to the principal’s instructions and heed his advice.

School Competing Against Its Record Debates in Mbune staffrooms and management offices focused on improving learner achievement, which was made a priority. To sustain school improvement, the principal said the school was competing against its own external examination results record. The principal argued that using other schools’ results as a measuring scale of their performance rate could lower the school’s performance record. For example, the other schools’ achievement could be lower, and Mbune School’s achievement slightly higher but still lower than Mbune’s previous achievement. When a school competes against its record, each year some strategies were devised for improving the existing pass rate. The principal said: We produced a 92,34% pass rate in 1998 and we never produced anything less than that from 1998. We have been to 100% once, but we are competing against our record. We don’t care about what other schools are doing and obtaining, ours is to say, what we have achieved this [year] and obviously, next year we need to improve. The lowest [pass rate] since 1998 where 92,34% was achieved, was 94%. Since then the school results have been improving.

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Working Hard as a Promotion Criterion for Teachers The principal made it clear that promotion of teachers in the past, and those who could be promoted in the future, was based on their productivity and their taking instructions from the principal. It seems that he exercised his influence by using promotion to encourage teachers’ compliance. It is important to mention that promotion of teachers in South Africa was handled by the interview panel mandated by the school governing body. Before this process was introduced, principals had a deciding voice in choosing the candidates for appointment. The principal of Mbune School mentioned that when two HoDs and deputy principal posts were made available, he called a staff meeting where teachers identified teachers who were to be promoted. The promotion criteria were based on the teachers’ performance. As a result of this past record, where staff were involved and the criteria were transparent, teachers developed a strong trust in the principal and always wanted to conform, in the belief that when posts became available they would be appointed. Citing one example, the principal said: When HoDs were promoted, it was not my teachers [that I preferred] but it was based on clear criteria, that of visible evidence of good performance.

The principal argued that even in this democratic era where appointment of teachers was done through the selection panel appointed by the school governing body, the influence of the Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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principal was greater in deciding who finally got promoted. He argued that the type of school and the public image of the school where a candidate was coming from was one of the important criteria used by panellists to appoint the candidate. He argued that when one applied for promotion, the name of one’s school was the trademark. This implied that all teachers working in well-performing schools were viewed as contributors to that school’s achievement, hence, they were an asset to other schools.

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GENERAL DISCUSSION Responses from both principals showed that they had influenced teachers to implement policies in the way that they thought was right. However, they did not use coercive strategies in influencing teachers to follow their instructions. They both mentioned that they appealed to the teachers’ sense of professional obligation, so that they committed themselves to their responsibilities. However, this was not so in all cases with Marble’s principal since she indicated that when teachers felt that the principal’s instructions were unfair, they would first have to comply and could complain only later. It became clear that one principal used teacher unions to force compliance. Where teachers wanted to resist her instructions, she would call teacher union representatives into the school to discipline teachers. At some point the principal threatened teachers of not being possibly supported by their unions in the event that the principal and Government took legal steps against them. This was said by the principal in the light of the fact that she had good relations with teacher unions. The principal of Mbune Secondary School demonstrated leadership from the forefront. This meant that he and his teams would be the first to present to the teachers the required practice before demanding it from the teachers. For example, teaching a subject in the external examined classes, and challenging teachers to produce good results in their subjects as he had done, was an effective inducing tool. It is worth noting that a principal teaching an external class is uncommon. In many schools, principals do not teach at all. In some schools where principals taught, they took subjects that carried continuous assessment in lower classes, which avoided commitment to effective teaching.

REFERENCES Ball, J.S. (1990). Politics and policymaking in education. London: Routledge. Berkhout, J.S. & Wielemans, W. (1999). Toward understanding education. policy: An integrative approach. Educational Policy, 13(3), 402-420. Blasé, J. & Blasé, J. (2002). Micropolitics of instructional supervision: A call for research. Educational Administration Quarterly, 38(1) 6-44. Blasé, J. (1991). The politics of life in schools: Power conflict and cooperation. New bury Park, CA: Sage Bowe, R. &. Ball, S.J. (1992). Subject Departments and the implementation of the national curriculum policy and overview of issues. Journal of curriculum studies. 24, 97-135.

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Coburn, C.E. (2001). Collecting sensemaking about reading: How teachers mediate reading policy in their own professional communities. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23(2), 145-170. Coburn, C.E. (2005). Shaping teacher sensemaking: school leaders and the enactment of reading policy. Educational policy, 19(3), 476-509. Dye, T.R. (2005). Understanding public policy. New Jersey: Pearson, Prentice Hall. Dyer, C. (1999). Researching the implementation of educational policy: a backward mapping approach. Comparative education, 35(1.. 45-61 Fairclough, N. (2001). Language and power.-Language in social life. London: Pearson ESL. Firestone, W.A. (1989). Educational policy as an ecology of games. Educational Researcher, 18(7), 18-24. Foucault, M. (1988) Technologies of the self. In L.H. Martin,H. Gutman & P.H. Hutton (Eds). Techonologies of the self. A seminar with Michael Foucault, 6-49, Amherst: the University of Massachusetts Press. Fullan, M. 1991 The new meaning of educational change. New York: Teacher College Press. Hamann, E.T. & Lane, B. (2004). The role of state Department of Education as policy intermediaries: Two cases. Educational Policy, 18(3), 426-455. Haugaard, M. (2003). Reflecting the seven ways of creating power. European Journal of Social Theory, 6(1), 87-113. Heck, R.D, Brandon P.R. & Wang, J. (2001). Implementing site managed educational change: examining levels of implementation and effect. Education Policy, 15(2), 302-322. Honing, M.I. (2001). Managing from the middle: the role of intermediary organisation in the implementation of complex education policy. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the AERA, Seattle, WA. Hoyle, E. & Wallace, M. (2007). An ironic perspective. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 35(1), 9-25 JØrgensen, K.M. (2007) Power without glory. Copenhagen: Business School Press. Kogan, M. (1975). Education policy making: A study of interest groups and parliament. London: Allen& Unwin. McLaughlin, M.W. (1976). Implementation as mutual adaptation: change in classroom organization. Teacher College Press, 77(3), 339-351. Nye, B., Konstantopoulos, S & Hedges, L.V. (2004. How large are teacher effects? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 26(2) 237-257. Placier, M., Hall, P.M., McKendall, S.B & Cockrell, K.S. (2002). Policy as the transformation of intentions: Making multicultural education policy. Educational Policy. 14(2), 259-289. Reiser, B.J., Spillane, J.P, Steinmuller, F., Sorsa, D. Carney, K. &, Kyza, E. (2000). Investigating the mutual adaptation process in teachers’ design of technology-infused curricula. In B. Fishman & S. O’Connor-Divelbiss (Eds.), Fourth International Conference of the Learning Science (pp 342-349). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. y Sabatier, PA. (1986) Top-down and bottom-up approach to implementation research: a critical analysis and suggested synthesis. Journal of public policy, 6(1), 21-48. Sayed, Y. & Paterson, A. (1997). Education policy knowledge and the university: The case of South Africa. Paper presented at the South African Comparatice and History of Education Society (SACHES) conference: African Education in Hard Times, Livingstone, Zambia., Africa.

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Sergiovanni, T.J. (1984). Developing a relevant theory of administration. In T.J. Sergiovanni & J.E. Corbally (Eds.) Leadership and organisational culture, (pp. 275-291) Chicago: University of Illinois Press. Smit, B. (2005). Teacher local knowledge, and policy implementation: a qualitative policypractice inquiry. Education and Urban Society. 37(3), 292-306. Spillane, J. & Jennings, N.E. (1997). Aligned institutional policy and ambiguous pedagogy: exploring instructional reform form classroom perspective. Teacher College Record, 98, 439-481. Spillane, J., Reiser, B. &, Reimer, T. (2002). Policy implementation and cognition: reframing and refocusing policy implementation research. Review of Educational Research, 72(3), 387-431. Spillane, J.P. (1998). A cognitive perspective on the role of the local educational agency in implementing instructional policy: Accounting for local variability. Educational Administration Quarterly. 24: 31-57 Stake, R. (1995). The art of case study research. Thousand Oaks: CA:Sage. Tyack, D., & Cuban, L. (1995). Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Wallace, M. (1993). Discourse of derision: the role of the mass media within the education policy process. Journal of Education Policy, 8(4)321-337. Weatherley, R. & Lipsky, M. (1977). Street level bureaucrats and institutional innovation: Implementing special education reform. Harvard Educational Review, 47, 171-197. Weaver-Hightower M.B. (2008) an Ecology metaphor for educational policy analysis: A call to Complexity. Education Researcher. 37(3), 153-167. Winch, G.M. & Maytorena, E. (2009). Making good sense: Assessing the quality of risky decision-making. Organisation studies, 30, 181-203. Yukl, G. A. (2006). Leadership in organizations. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

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PART FIVE

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SCHOOL GOVERNANCE

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In: Education Leadership, Management and Governance … ISBN 978-1-62100-853-8 Editors: V. Chikoko and K. M. Jorgesen © 2012 Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Chapter 10

LEARNER INVOLVEMENT IN SCHOOL GOVERNANCE: WHERE ARE WE? Vitallis Chikoko and Mangi Magadla University of University of KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

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ABSTRACT In an effort to democratise school governance and improve school effectiveness, the South African Schools Act (SASA) (1996) requires that every public school must have a School Governing Body (SGB). In secondary schools learner representatives must form part of this body. There have been contesting views about the efficacy of learner participation in the SGB since the advent of the SASA. In this chapter we ask where we are in this debate. We present and examine interview responses from learners, parent school governors, school principals and teachers (all SGB members) from four secondary schools near Durban regarding three matters: learners’ understanding of their school governance role; the extent of learner participation in school governance; and challenges learners face in school governance. Findings show that teachers, school principals and parent school governors generally view learner involvement in school governance as inconsequential and fraught with many challenges. Also, we find that power plays an important role in determining the way stakeholders view learner participation. We conclude that meaningful learner involvement in the SGB is ideal but seems to be still far from being achieved. Schools need to become learning organisations to be able to see learners as an asset in the SGB, as opposed to a liability. In this regard, the importance of effective school leadership cannot be overemphasised.

INTRODUCTION In this chapter we examine evidence regarding the efficacy of learner participation in school governance. This matter continues to be a subject of heated debate in South Africa. The chapter is developed around a study we conducted on this matter through interviewing learners, school principals, teachers and parent school governors. First we provide the background and the problem of the study. Second, we examine South African literature on learner

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involvement in school governance. Third, we briefly explain the methodology. Forth, we present findings in three themes: responses on learners’ understanding of their school governance role; the extent of learner participation in school governance; and challenges learners face there in. Finally we discuss the issues emerging from the study.

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BACKGROUND The advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994 necessitated a need for transformation in the education system in order to address the imbalances of the past. One way of transforming the education system was to democratise school governance by involving all key stakeholders there in. According to the South African Schools Act (SASA) Number 84 of 1996, every school must have a democratically elected School Governing Body (SGB). The term ‘governance’ is generally understood to refer to the formal system for controlling the behaviour of people in an organisation (Smith, Paquette & Bordonaro, 1995). It refers to the integrated management of the complex institutional relationships among people (the stakeholders), policy (the regulatory framework) and power (the distribution of authority to decide) in an attempt to achieve effective and efficient delivery (McLennan, 1997 in Chikoko, 2006). Governance policies focus on structure and the functions of stakeholders in an organisation, such as the composition, the powers, the reporting structures and rules guiding their operations (Chikoko, 2006). This term ‘governance’ has become topical in international debates as part of the neo-liberal framework and the New Policy Agenda (Elmore, 1993; Grant Lewis & Motala, 2004; Osborne & Gaebler, 1992). This agenda relates to the push on countries to practise democracy and ‘good’ governance where the term ‘good’ is believed to be uncontested meaning that there consensus and universality about what is viewed as good. In this connection, some development experts view good governance as the ‘missing link’ to economic growth and development in many developing parts of the world (Grant Lewis & Motala, 2004; Harber, 2002). Against the background described in the preceding paragraph, upon attaining freedom the government of South Africa put in place a school governance structure for all its public schools. School governance is to do with policy formulation and oversight of the implementation of such policies within a school. More broadly Buckland and Hofmeyr (1993, p. 30) define educational governance as: ….not simply the system of administration and control of education in a country, but the whole process by which education policies are formulated, adopted, implemented and monitored. Governance is an issue not only at the national level, but also at every level of the system down to the individual school. Because it is centrally concerned with the distribution of power, it is often summed up to be the question: who decides?

A SGB is composed of the principal as an ex-officio member, parents, educators, nonteaching staff and two learners in the case of a secondary school. This body can also co-opt other people with certain expertise into the SGB. This democratisation move by the South African government has been part of a broader agenda to decentralise decision-making in public institutions. Decentralisation has become an internationally acclaimed reform (Bray, 1987; McGinn & Welsh, 1999) that is believed to be consistent with the notion of good

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governance (Grant Lewis & Motala, 2004). Decentralisation is based on the notion that local communities understand their own needs and are also in the best position to solve such problems. SASA has extended the democratisation of school governance to include the high school learner. While this is legally the case, the role of the learner in the SGB has been a subject for debate for some time. Questions have been raised regarding how useful it is to immerse the learner as a minor into this body of adults. The SASA itself seems to emphasise what learners cannot do as SGB members. Section 32 (1) of this Act illustrates this as follows: • • • •

a member of the school governing body who is a minor cannot contract on behalf of the school Minors in school governance incur no personal liability in the school governing body. As minors, learners cannot decide on the school budget and expenditure. Learners cannot participate in activities such as the selection and appointment of educators and non-educators, strategic planning and staff development programmes.

The restrictions quoted above are understandable. However, even within the context of what is permissible for learner SGB members to do, one wonders how effectively minors can participate in decision-making in the presence of adults. Research on learner participation in school governance in South Africa suggests that this issue is a contested matter.

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SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE ON LEARNER INVOLVEMENT AND ‘THE PROBLEM’ Karlsson et al (2001) believe that when parents, educators and learners engage in cooperative decision-making, decisions will be ones that all stakeholders agree to, the exclusion of learners in some of the decisions taken by the governing body cannot be considered as cooperative decision making. Mashele (1998) warns that it is important to include students in the governing bodies of schools but not as political organisations, such as the South African Students Congress (SASCO), Pan African Students Organisation (PASO) or the Azanian Student Movement (AZASM). Mashele contends that the primary goal of involving learners in school governance should be one of serving their educational needs. Dean (1993) claims that in schools where learners are involved in decision-making, vandalism is less prevalent because of the sense of ownership of decisions that prevails there in. Because learners are an important source of information, they can be very useful in decision-making. Harber and Trafford (1999) concur with Nkomo (1992) who argues that learners must be treated with dignity and be encouraged to participate in the organisation of school culture, including many of the core values associated with democracy such as directing others, participating and expressing views, sharing and disseminating knowledge, valuing equity and equality and the opportunity to make judgments and choices. This suggests that learner involvement in decision-making can bring about harmony and positive human relations in a school. In this connection, there is a need to take seriously the significance of learner involvement in school governance.

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According to Bisschoff (2003) learner participation in the SGB is limited because there are duties that they cannot perform owing to their status as minors. Sayed and Carrim (1998) argue that School Governing Bodies are not representative enough as participation is limited to those who have the necessary expertise. They are of the opinion that while the inclusion of learners in School Governing Councils fulfils the objective of the Education Department to expose learners to the responsibilities associated with self-government and management, however this may not be what is really taking place in schools. According to Christie (1998) the participation of learners in the School Governing Body is replete with tension and controversy. She argues that for the purpose of transformation and democracy learners constitute a large number of stakeholders, but how learners are going to participate in school governance is still unresolved. The Department of Education (1999) concurs with Christie (1998) that there must be developed concrete policies on the participation of secondary school learners in school governance. In a study on educator perceptions regarding learner participation in school governance, Ngcobo (2002) found that the majority (86%) of the educators consulted were in favour of learner involvement. The educators perceived learner participation in school governance as a way to improve and maintain effective discipline in schools. However the educators felt that lack of knowledge in governance matters was an obstacle to effective learner participation. In another study on whether learners understood the South African Schools Act and their interpretation of Section 32 (itemising what learners as minors may not do in the SGB) there of, Bischoff (2003) found that learners were aware of both the Act in general and Section 32 in particular. Learners reportedly found the Act lacking in logic, because they thought it improper to include people in a structure they were not allowed to fully participate in. The learners consulted argued that almost all of them in their schools were minors therefore they automatically lost out in terms of being involved in the management of school finances. They were also not satisfied with being called ‘minors’. They expressed the need collectively to be called ‘learners’ because during the years of the struggle, they were referred to as ’comrades’ but now the struggle had been waged and won, they were being pushed ‘aside’ by being referred to as ‘minors’. Sallis (1998) found that learner representatives in School Governing Bodies experienced a number of problems. First, learners had insufficient knowledge to make a meaningful contribution. Second, the levels of trust concerning discussions in SGB meetings were low, especially when it came to sensitive matters. Third, learners seldom made any comments and asked questions. Fourth, learners were not interested in the daily governance of the school. Fifth, owing to their full academic programmes, learners could seldom attend meetings. Evening meetings were problematic, especially during tests and examination periods. Transport also posed a problem. Sithole (1998) discusses four contending viewpoints on how different educational and political interest groups have perceived and articulated the participation of learners in school governance. The first viewpoint is totally against the participation of learners in school governance. Proponents of this view argue that governance should be left in the hands of the adults. Similar to this first perspective, the second viewpoint acknowledges the role learners played towards the achievement of democracy in South Africa, but contends that the struggle for freedom is now over and therefore today’s learner should concentrate on his/her studies. The third viewpoint proposes limited learner involvement in school governance decisionmaking. In support of this latter perspective, Squelch (1999) argues that being a stakeholder

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does not mean that one participates in every decision. In this case therefore, some decisions are best left in the hands of parents and professionals. The last viewpoint is that learners should be one of the most indispensable components of democratic school governance therefore they must be fully involved. In support of this school of thought, Njozela (1998) advises that principals and parent school governors should not underestimate learners’ contributions, especially if they are given opportunities to develop their skills and levels of maturity. This viewpoint is informed by the thinking that student activism was party to the achievement of democracy therefore they should participate unconditionally in school governance after the struggle. As we write this chapter, thirteen years after the SASA came into force our informal discussions with educators as well as our own experiences in the South African education system suggest that learner participation in school governance is still a challenge. There seems to be a general perception that learner participation in school governance has not been very successful. Learners seem to enjoy very limited powers if any, in the SGB. Also, some parents, educators and principals seem to remain uncomfortable about minors’ involvement in this regard. These observations and the competing viewpoints reported above motivated us to conduct our own study. Given the findings and observations reported above, we asked: Has the thrust to involve learners in school governance deteriorated, stagnated or grown? This question made up the mainstay of our study. The study undertook to address this question through investigating what principals, educators, parents as well as learners understood and experienced regarding learner involvement in school governance. The study was guided by two operational questions:

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1) How do the stakeholders (principals, educators, parents, teachers, and learners) understand and experience learner involvement in school governance? 2) Why is the state of learner participation in school governance the way it is?

METHODOLOGY In trying to interpret a phenomenon in terms of meanings people bring to it (Denzin & Linlcon, 1994) (in this case how stakeholders experienced learner participation in school governance), the study adopted the qualitative research design. Within the qualitative frame, the inquiry was a multi-site case study of four secondary schools in Mpumalanga Ward of Hammarsdale Circuit in KwaZulu-Natal. The four schools were selected because of certain commonalities among them. Firstly they are all historically disadvantaged township schools in the same geographical location. We were therefore convinced that the culture of these schools’ communities would be very similar if not identical. Thus we expected the schools to face similar school governance challenges if any. Secondly the schools in question are all high schools (Grade 8-12) therefore they are bound by the law to include learners in their school governing bodies. Thirdly we were reliably informed that the current School Governing Bodies in all the four schools had been elected into office at almost the same time therefore their experiences would be easily comparable. Fourthly the schools were very accessible to us as researchers. Therefore the schools selected were both a convenience and a purposive sample.

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In each school the respondents comprised of one of each of the principal, an educator (teacher), a parent and a learner. Thus a total of 16 respondents were consulted, four of each of principal, educator, learner and parent groupings. These respondents were all serving members of the SGB in their respective schools. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews conducted with each of the 16 respondents. We used semi-structured interviews because of their ability to engage the participant in dialogue, thereby helping the researcher to develop an in-depth understanding of the respondent’s view of their world (Cresswell, 1998; Cohen & Manion, 2002). As rightly stated by Smith et al, (1995), if participants are not dictated to, they are likely to introduce issues which the researcher was not aware of. Each interview centred on responses on three themes: (1) learners’ understanding of their school governance role; (2) the extent of learner participation is school governance; and (3) challenges learners faced in school governance. One of us the researchers conducted the interviews. All interviews were conducted at the respective schools of the respondents at agreed upon and convenient times. All interview sessions were tape-recorded with the permission of each respondent, and in the case of learners, with the informed consent of both the parents/guardians and the principal. The interviews were conducted through the language preferable to each respondent, for example principals and educators preferred to be interviewed in English but parents and learners were more comfortable in IsiZulu. Each of the 16 respondents underwent one interview session. Interviews with principals and educators lasted for about one hour each. Those with parents and learners lasted for about 45 minutes and 30 minutes respectively. In keeping with the anonymity we guaranteed our respondents, they are identified through letters of the alphabet A, B, C and D in this paper, for example principal A; learner C; educator B and parent D.

LEARNERS’ UNDERSTANDING OF THEIR SCHOOL GOVERNANCE ROLE We asked all the respondents whether they thought learners understood their school governance role. Principals gave varied responses. Two of the four principals (A and B) reported that learners understood their role in school governance. However as to whether they coped in the necessary decision making processes one of the two principals indicated that it depended on the issues at hand. The other two (C and D) felt that learners neither understood their role nor coped with the decision-making processes involved. This is what principal B had to say: Learners do understand their role in school governance however, the issue of whether they cope or not depends on the complexity of the issues under discussion. There are issues where they participate actively for instance, during the drawing of the code of conduct for learners. Also there are some issues where you can see that they are experiencing problems like in meetings where the constitution of the SGB, and vision and mission statements of the school are drawn. On sensitive issues you can see that they are not comfortable because of the presence of parents, principals as well as their educators.

From the remaining two principals who reported that learners neither understood nor coped with their role, this is what principal D reported: Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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They do not understand their role at all. They are lost, they do not know where to start or to go and that could be due to lack of capacity building. In school governing body meetings they keep quiet and my opinion is that they are not supposed to be there.

Educators’ responses to the same question also varied. Two educators (A and B) felt that learners did understand their school governance roles. Educator A reported: Yes, I think they do understand their role because they attended workshops organized by the Department of Education where they got capacitated. Furthermore myself as TLO [teacher liaison officer] I also give guidance. They are able to present learner concerns to SGB meetings and they are also able to give detailed feedback to their constituency.

Contrary to the above were responses from educators C and D who indicated that learners did not understand their role in school governance thus could not cope with decision making. In this regard, educator C reported: According to what I have observed in the past years, learners do not understand their role in school governance. This is evidenced by their passiveness in school governing body meetings. They make no input, they agree with everything said by adults. To me their presence is just for window dressing.

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Regarding the same matter all four parents reported that learners did not understand their role in school governance and could not cope with decision making hence their failure to actively participate in the SGB deliberations. Parent C had this to say: You know even with some adults you find that school governance is not easy. They confuse management with governance issues, how much more with children who only sit in the governance committee for a period of one year. The government is just pushing learners into school governance without equipping them sufficiently.

In agreement, parent D reported: I have heard learners talking about trips, metric farewell functions, educator and learner absenteeism in the SGB meetings and those are not governance issues, so that tells you that they do not understand what governance is all about.

Responding to the very same question the four learners had varied responses with two (A and C) reporting that they did and the other two (B and D) saying they did not understand their SGB role. Arguing that she understood her school governance role, Learner A responded as follows: I do understand my role in school governance. I attended a workshop and we were given material to read on our own. Our TLO is always there to give assistance. In that way I am able to make some contribution in school governing body meetings for example when we meet as the SGB to choose extra-curricular activities as well as learning areas to be taught in school. I also participated actively in the formulation of policy on safety and security in the school. In the school governing body I represent the student body and I take decisions on their behalf.

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The two learners who reported that they did not understand their role in school governance indicated that most of the time issues are beyond their level of understanding. In this regard learner B said: I feel that I am not clear about the role of learners in school governance. What I understand is my role in the RLC but when it comes to school governance I am confused. School governance is dominated by adults and it’s not easy to participate in their midst.

Findings in this section reveal that in Schools A, B and C, there were differences of perceptions regarding whether or not learners understood their governance role. In School A, the principal, educator, and learner felt that learners did understand their role, but the parent thought to the contrary. In School B, while the principal and educator reported that learners understood their SGB function, the learner and parent reported otherwise. In School C, three respondents, the principal, educator and parent felt that learners did not understand their role but the learner consulted reported that they did. In School D, all the four respondents reported that learners did not understand their SGB role.

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THE EXTENT OF LEARNER PARTICIPATION Section 32 (1) of the SASA states that a member of the school governing body who is a minor cannot contract on behalf of the school. Minors incur no personal liability in the school governing body. Learner members of the SGB, as minors cannot decide on the schools budget and expenditure nor participate in activities such as selection and appointment of educators and non-educators, strategic planning and staff development programmes. The respondent principals, educators, parents and learners were asked to give their views regarding these limitations. All the principals and educators consulted revealed that they were happy with the law as it stood. Principal A reported: Yes learners are minors. You cannot expect them to have equal participation with teachers and parents because some issues are beyond their levels of understanding.

In agreement with principal A, educator B had this to say: By putting these limitations the law is protecting these minors. The School Governing Body may be sued in court as a result of some of their decisions hence the need to protect learners against such eventualities.

The four parents we interviewed regarding this same issue gave varied responses. Parent D was in favour of learners’ full participation in school governance. This is how he responded: The law deprives the learners their democratic right. Learners must participate fully in school governance however they must be given proper guidance and training so that they participate effectively.

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The other three parents were of the view that learners must not participate at all in school governance. Parent C responded: Even if you give learners a certain extent of participation they do not participate at all. I see their involvement as a waste of time. Educators and parents can handle school governance without learner participation.

All the four learners interviewed were dissatisfied with the limitation stipulated by the Act. They complained that the Act was too restrictive for them to participate in governance issues such as school budget. To illustrate, Learner A said: The law is not promoting transparency. Why should we be left out when budget matters are discussed? We believe as learners that we can make some contribution. We are often told that money has been exhausted yet we were not involved in budget discussions.

Learner B commented: Although I am not clear about governance but I do not see the reason why we should not be involved in the selection of educators, because we are the ones who interact with educators on daily bases.

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Findings in this section show that all the educators and principals consulted were in agreement with the provisions of the South African Schools Act that restricts the role of a minor in the SGB. In contrast, all the learners opposed the restrictions in the Act. Three of the four parents consulted felt that the learner should not participate in the SGB at all. Contrarily and paradoxically, one parent wanted to see unrestricted learner involvement.

THE CHALLENGES We also interviewed the respondents about any challenges learners faced in their involvement in school governance. Findings revealed that learners faced a lot of challenges in this regard. The involvement of Grade 12 learners who have to sit for their crucial matriculation examinations in that year was a common challenge raised by all principals. In this regard, Principal B reported: Although it is important to give learners an opportunity to participate in school governance but the involvement of Grade 12 learners is a serious challenge since these learners have a lot of academic work to focus on. In my school I discourage the involvement of these learners. The law is silent on this issue.

Both principals and educators raised the issue of inferiority complex or power relations as well as unbalanced representation as major challenges on the part of the learners. Educator D responded thus:

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Vitallis Chikoko and Mangi Magadla Learners are minors they always feel inferior when they have to participate in the midst of adults over and above them forming a minority in the school governing body structure. In most cases there are 7 adults and 2 learners in the SGB. They won’t cope easily in decision-making.

All the parents consulted also indicated that there were serious challenges arising as a result of learner involvement in school governing body. They cited culture and power relations as the most common challenges. Parent C reported: Our culture does not quite allow children to argue with adults. They are expected to receive instructions from adults. If children contest parents’ views, that could be perceived as a sign of disrespect.

In agreement with this perspective, Parent D had this to say: I belong to the old school of thought. I do not see the need to discuss issues with school kids. I believe that the adult’s word is final.

Interviews with the learners revealed the same challenges as well as others such as the timing of SGB meetings. Regarding the latter problem, Learner A had the following to say: I am not comfortable about the timing of school governing body meetings. Meetings are held late afternoon. I don’t have transport. I have duties to perform at home as well as homework to do.

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Learner D raised the issue of power relations as follows: How can learners raise views, which are in disagreement with those of the principal, educator or parent? It is very difficult. That is why in most cases we remain passive because at the end of the day the adult views are final.

Findings from the preceding section show that the major challenge regarding learner participation in school governance related to the power differentials between adults and minors. Adults were believed to wield more decision-making power than the learners hence the latter’s reported sense of inferiority in school governance meetings. Other challenges related to the timing of SGB meetings as well the involvement of Grade 12 learners who some believed should concentrate on preparing for their matriculation examinations.

EMERGING ISSUES The findings of the study we reported in this chapter suggest that the involvement of the learner in school governance remains contested in that stakeholders seemed to have assorted perspectives regarding this matter. Some still believed that the learners did not understand their role while others thought they did. While some felt that learners should be involved, others argued to the contrary. Overall however, all the stakeholders: parents, principals, educators and learners in all the four schools studied understood and experienced learner

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participation in school governance as inconsequential. The main reason for this state of affairs seems to have been the incompatibility of the adult-minor working relationship in the SGB. While African culture in general has drastically transformed through the years and in the process embraced the child as an important ‘player’ in decision-making in many families, the persistent prevalence and strength of conservative perspectives in this regard, in both the home and the school, cannot be overemphasised. The marginalisation of the learner was manifest even in the timing of SGB meetings in some schools, which did not allow such learners to attend. This explains why both educators and parents reported that the learner felt inferior among the adults in the SGB. The learner was therefore not actively involved in school governance due to a contestation between the traditional ‘African’ perspective of not formally including minors on the decision-making table and the modern inclusive approach as espoused in the South African Schools Act. Be that as it may, we contend that the adult-minor incompatibility in school governance is only a tip of the iceberg. It suggests a deep-rooted, problematic value system regarding how things are done in the school. If principals and teachers dominate their learners in the teaching-learning process to the extent of not listening to them at all, then relationships cannot be expected to abruptly change on the school governance platform. Our thesis is that schools have an opportunity to transform some of the traditional values inculcated in the learner’s home and that families do not contest such efforts if they are transparently and collaboratively articulated. This is actually the essence of parental involvement in school affairs. Also, it is not all families that still suppress children’s perspectives of issues that affect them therefore schools today are a convergence of some learners from very conservative backgrounds and others from more progressive ones. More so, parents in general, and specifically those who are elected into SGBs, particularly those from low educational backgrounds as was the case in this study, are usually amenable to learning from the professionals such as principals and teachers regarding how the modern school must be run. Communities still value the role of the school. We therefore contend that principals and teachers are well positioned to leverage community value systems towards some direction. They therefore should have little excuse for failing to adequately transform the running of schools in general and school governance in particular. As rightly argued by Harber and Trafford (1999), the traditional exclusion of young people from consultative processes and the bracketing out of their views is founded upon an out-dated view. Such a view fails to acknowledge children’s capacity to reflect on issues affecting their lives and education. Fullan (1991) observed a similar problem that parents rarely think of students as participants in the process of change and organisational life. We reject the perspective that learners should not be involved in school governance. Learners comprise a big portion of the key stakeholders in the democratisation and transformation of education (Christie, 1998). We further do not subscribe to the thinking by some of our respondents that involving Grade 12 learners will disrupt their preparation for examinations. We argue that if school governance work is well timed and structured, it should not come across as a burden to those tasked to perform it. Instead, it should be a problem solving process. Such skills are not only useful in the Grade 12 matriculation examination they are necessary but in short supply in the lives of the youth and adults of today. What seems necessary is for schools to invest in changing their value systems as well as developing capacity in all stakeholders so that they can contribute meaningfully to decision-making. The importance of investing in enriching leadership capacity in schools in order for these other goals to be

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achieved cannot be over-emphasised. Many a time, the development of school governors is left to the Provincial Departments of Education, with little initiation by the schools themselves. Unfortunately the Provincial Department can only offer generic development programmes, which means there remains need for individual schools to tailor-make their own programmes according to local priorities and imperatives. Therefore the importance of school-based professional development programmes cannot be overemphasised. The study clearly shows the importance of understanding the role of power in organisations. Drawing from Foucault’s writing on power, Jorgensen (2007) discusses what power does in organisations. He argues that power constructs reality. In our study the learner is portrayed as the least powerful in the stakeholders that make up the school governing body: teachers, school principal, parents, and learners. Some adult stakeholders in the SGB had entrenched views of how to deal with minors such as: I belong to the old school of thought. I do not see the need to discuss issues with school kids. I believe that the adult’s word is final. Because of this power imbalance, it appears that learners were perceived only through the deficit lens. They were a liability to the SGB. They were not assets in the organisation. Because powerlessness on their part was the reality as constructed by those with power, the learners themselves accepted the status quo to some extent. If the adults in the SGB were to change their lens and view learners as having great potential in the SGB, the reality would certainly change. Second, Jorgensen argues that power separates. Our study reveals that despite their being currently marginalised in school governance affairs, learners still desired to be involved in deciding matters in which the SASA excluded them as minors, such as the employment of educators. Contrarily, all principals, educators and three of the four parents interviewed were of the view that the law was alright as it stood. By virtue of being part of the SGB, the learners felt a sense of powerfulness. This sense of belonging to the SGB kind of separated them from the notion of being minors and therefore being incapable of partaking in the making of certain school governance decisions. Therefore if power is not adequately understood and appropriately utilised, it may destroy an organisation. It is therefore necessary for schools to be learning organisations (Davidoff & Lazarus, 1997) where every stakeholder is progressively developing. Third, Jorgensen says power reorganises. In our study, the SASA has instituted the SGB as one entity comprising of various stakeholders. However, in all the four schools the SGBs had become reorganised into those that should belong (adults) and others who should not (learners)- the powerful and powerless respectively. This suggests that power in organisations has the potential to re-interpret and re-direct the laws or rules and regulations that are supposed to guide the operations of that organisation. This can happen to the detriment or benefit of the organisation in question.

CONCLUSION In our view, South Africa’s decision to involve representatives of secondary school learners in school governance remains noble. However, our findings reveal a dysfunctional working relationship between the learner and the adult in the SGB with no sense of any willingness and efforts to repair this situation. The learner is viewed as a liability in the SGB

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as opposed to an asset. We argue that the way forward is for individual school to take ownership of its own development to be able to address such ills. The time to wait for the Department of Education officials to bring answers is over, in fact it never worked. Therefore the importance of effective school leadership cannot be overemphasised.

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REFERENCES Bisschof, T. (2003). Financial School Management Explained, Cape Town: Kagiso Bray, M. (1987) School clusters in the Third World: Making them work. Paris: UnescoUnicef Co-operative Programme. Buckland, P., & Hofmeyr, J. (1993). Education governance in South Africa. Pretoria: Urban Foundation. Carrim, N. & Sayed, Y. (1998). Democracy and Equity in Education Governance, South African Journal of Education, 17(3), 91-92. Chikoko, V. (2006). Negotiating roles and responsibilities in the context of decentralised school governance: A case study of one cluster of schools in Zimbabwe. Upublished PhD thesis. Durban: University of KwaZulu-Natal. Creswell, J. (1998). Research Design –Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Califonia: Sage Publications. Christie, P. (1998). Schools as (Dis) Organisations: The break down of the culture of learning and teaching in South Africa, Cambridge Journal of Education, 289(1), 283-300. Cohen, L., Manion, L. & Morrison, K. (2002). Research Methods in Education. London: Routledge Falmer. Davidoff, S., & Lazarus, S. (1997). The learning school: An organisational development approach. Cape Town: Juta. Dean, J. (2001). The Effective School Governor. London: Routledge Falmer. Denzin, K. & Lincoln, S. (1994). Handbook of Qualitative Research. Califonia: Sage. Department of Education. (1999). What public school governors need to know. Pretoria: Government Printer. Elmore, R. (1993). School decentralisation? Who gains? Who loses? In J. Hannaway & M. Carnoy (Eds.), Decentralisation and school improvement. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Fullan, G. (1991). The New Meaning of Educational Change. London: The Cassell. Grant Lewis, S. & Motala, S. (2004) Educational decentralisation and the quest for equity, democracy and quality, In L. Chisholm (Ed.), Changing class: education and social change in post-apartheid South Africa (pp. 115-141). Cape Town: HSRC Press. Grant Lewis, S., & Motala, S. (2004). Educational de/centralisation and the quest for equity, democracy and quality. In L. Chisholm (Ed.), Changing class: education and social change in post-apartheid South Africa (pp. 115-141). Cape Town: HSRC Press. Harber, C. (2002). Education, democracy and poverty reduction in Africa. Comparative Education, 38(3), 267-276. Haber, C. & Trafford, B.1 (999) Democratic Management: Schools effectiveness in two countries: A case of pupil participation; Educational Management and Administration, 27(1), 45-47.

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Jorgensen, K.M. (2007). Power without Glory- A Genealogy of a Management Decision. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press. Karlsson, J., McPherson, G. & Pampalis, J. (2001). A critical examination of school governance policy and its implications for achieving equity. In Motala, E. & Pampalis, J. (Eds.), Education and Equity: The impact of State Policies for Achieving Equity. Sandown: Heinemann Mashele, A. (1998). The effect of local interest group organizational structures on educational management: A case study of Kathorus, a thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Education. Rand Afrikaans University, Johannesburg. McGinn, N. & Welsh, T. (1999) Decentralisation of education: Why, when, what and how? Paris: UNESCO. Merriam, B. (1988). Case study research in education. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Ngcobo, A. (2002). The role of learner representatives in governing bodies of secondary schools. Master of Education Dissertation, University of Zululand. Njozela, D. (1998).Teachers’ implicit mental models of learners’ cognitive and moral development with reference to the inclusion of learners in the governing bodes of schools. Master of Education Dissertation, University of Natal. Nkomo, M. (1992). Pedagogy of Domination. New Jersey : Africa World Press. Osborne, D., & Gaebler, T. (1992). Reinventing government. Reading: Addison Wesley. Republic of South Africa (1996). The South African Schools Act No 84. Pretoria: Government Printer. Sallis, J. (1998). School parent and governors: A new Approach to accountability. London: Routledge. Sithole, S. (1998). The Participation of Students in Democratic School Governance, in Education Policy Unit (Natal), Democratic Governance in of Public Schooling in South Africa, (pp 93-112), Durban: Education Policy Unit. Smith, J .,Maclennan , J. & Bordonaro, T. (1995). Educational governance in Canada: Themes and issues. Montreal: MacGill University. Smith, W. J., Paquette, J. E., & Bordonaro, T. (1995). Educational governance in Canada: A model for comparative analysis. Montreal: Office of Research on Educational Policy, McGill University. Squelch, J. (1999). Decentralized School Governance in South African Schools. In Lemmer, E. (Ed.), Contemporary Education: Global and Trends. Johannesburg: Heinemann.

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Chapter 11

SCHOOL-COMMUNITY RELATIONS AS A CASE FOR SCHOOL GOVERNANCE SUPPORT IN RURAL KWAZULU-NATAL Sandile S. Mbokazi University of KwaZulu-Natal, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

*

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ABSTRACT This chapter demonstrates some of the current experiences of school governance in rural communities, using three examples within KwaZulu-Natal context. The chapter defines school governance while locating it within the international discourses about its fundamentals. Then it touches on the evolution and policy context of SGBs in South Africa as a way to situate these realities of school governance in rural communities. The realities of school governance are presented in brief snippets of empirical data, called vignettes, to demonstrate how selected school-communities have experienced the influence of traditional leadership on school governance. Conclusions are presented as a combination of the summary of arguments raised in the chapter, where a case for the important role that school-community relations can play in promoting effective school governance in KwaZulu-Natal. Then some recommendations are made on what can be done to support school governance in rural schools in terms of aligning policy and practice.

INTRODUCTION School-community relation is the term used in this paper to refer to the relationship between the schools and the surrounding communities they serve. In most cases, this is often defined by the profile of the learners that attend the schools and what has been termed ‘feeder areas’, which are often dynamic. They are dynamic in the sense that the school contexts vary *

The author acknowledges useful comments from his Ph.D. supervisor Dr. TT Bhengu, University of KwaZuluNatal.

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in terms of distance travelled by learners to and from the school, socio-economic profile, and population size. The discourse on school governance is often shaped by all these factors, thus the use of the term ‘school-community’ straddles all of them. Schools are embedded in society and can therefore be seen as important educational structures that serve communities in which they are located. However, studies conducted between 2003 and 2005 in South Africa on governance and equity in schools, social violence in schools and the rural education experience have demonstrated that whilst schools should be responding to specific educational needs of the communities where they are built, in practice, they are not effective in doing so (Education Policy Consortium of South Africa, 2005; Education Policy Consortium of South Africa, 2005b; Nelson Mandela Foundation, 2005). It has been found that an unhealthy relationship between schools and their communities exists, and it often leads to poor governance of schools, which ultimately create a situation where schools fail to contribute towards human improvement and betterment in society. The normal symptoms for this failure are myriads of difficulties that are experienced by various schools in their governance as well as in their process of learning and teaching, especially for those schools situated in rural contexts. Such difficulties include poor governance, poor parental involvement in schooling, poor infrastructure, poor safety and security, and ineffective teaching and learning that is often a consequence of all this. Rural schools continue to experience these difficulties despite policy regulations and provisions in South Africa that were formulated to prevent and address them. Promoting school-community relations has been seen both by government and civil society as a solution to this. As a way to democratise schooling and promote community involvement therein, the South African Schools Act (No. 84 of 1996) provides, among other things, for the establishment of school governing bodies (SGBs) to create a platform for meaningful community participation in school governance by ensuring that parents are a majority in these bodies. If these bodies lack sufficient capacity to perform, the Act provides for their training and allows them to co-opt community members with relevant expertise. Rural communities have particular leadership structures, contrasting land tenure systems, and diverse socio-cultural profiles, which need to be fully considered when they are invited to contribute to school governance. Most South African schools in rural communities are built on tribal trust lands where land decisions are administered by traditional leaders who often have a final say on how land may be used by school and for which purposes. This dynamic has implication for creating platforms where members of the school community have equal opportunities to shape school governance decisions. In South Africa, the policy directives have failed to prevent power dynamics that often surfaces when representatives of different categories of school-communities are faced with a responsibility to form part of, and participate in, a school governing body. For the rural schools, meaningful dialogues with traditional leaders regarding infrastructural development of schools and other related decisions are crucial. Otherwise the governing bodies are unable to perform their legislative duties. The reason for this is that leaders are often seen by the people living in these contexts as custodians of land. Scholars have made a number of recommendations to assist the schools to work around social challenges presented by poor conversation between community and school leadership (Earley, 1997; Chisholm, Motala, & Vally, 1999; Cohen-Vogel, 2003; Mbokazi & Bhengu, 2008). Some have recommended that school leaders must create strong relationship with community leaders, and they have said that this would enable these leadership structures to have meaningful conversation about the

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social issues that have implications for effective learning and teaching in schools. It has been argued that one advantage is that it would create a platform where learners would be empowered to contribute meaningfully to the development and advancement of their communities (Fiore, 2002). Though South Africa still has a long way to go in achieving reasonably democratic school governance, strengthening platforms where members of school community would influence decision on governance is essential. The chapter is organized as follows. First I deal with the question of what school governance is. This is followed by a description of the evolution of school governance, and the policy context of school governance in South Africa. Then I describe examples of current experiences with school governance in rural communities. I particularly focus on some of the positive experiences with building school-community relations. Finally I conclude on the chapter.

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WHAT IS SCHOOL GOVERNANCE? School governance is not an unproblematic concept to define, especially because it is not immune from the conundrum of policy and practice where related policy intentions do not always match practice. Decentralisation, which underpins democratic school governance in South Africa, has been understood and experienced differently in various countries of the world, i.e. Latin America and the United States, writes Karlsson (1994). While in Latin America it refers to the transfer of power from the federal state to the provinces, in the US, decentralisation means transferring power from districts to schools (Karlsson, 1994). Other countries even include the privatisation of individual schools as yet another form of decentralisation (Karlsson, 1994). It was therefore suggested that making decentralised governance structures work as participatory and democratically run bodies would provide a sound foundation for the education system in South Africa (Karlsson, 1994). However, the South African experience of decentralisation that has found expression in school governance ranges from more representative and less participatory democratic one to more participatory, yet lacking resources for education, ones. The role of the governing body in school improvement has attracted the attention of a growing number of researchers and school inspectors, particularly in England and Wales (Earley, 1997). This has happened because, governing bodies are seen as improving schools and have played a significant role in their schools’ achievements and have helped to ensure that progress was made towards coming off special measures (Earley, 1997). Cohen-Vogel (2003) argued that for American public schools, power is situated neither exclusively inside nor exclusively outside of the school community, but a balance is struck in which education policy emerges from sources both internal and external to the organization (Cohen-Vogel, 2003). The implications for school governance are that it becomes a structure that represents the cross-section of the school community in governing the local schools. The capacity for the key representatives of the community in the SGBs to carry their responsibilities properly and effectively has been found to be a cause for concern within the African context. In a study conducted in Zimbabwe, it was found that despite the presence of a legal decentralised school governance structure in which parents form the majority, they did not have the capacity to function effectively therein, and were still marginalised in school

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governance decision-making (Chikoko, 2008). Though significant parental involvement was observed in the area of school finances, parents were perceived to lack the capacity to make decisions even in this area (Chikoko, 2008). Therefore the role of parents in the running of schools in the country has not significantly grown from that of being school financiers and builders of infrastructure (Chikoko, 2008). Therefore, building school governance capacity among parents in Zimbabwe remained a necessity (Chikoko, 2008). School governance is regarded as an act of determining policy and rules by which a school is to be organised and controlled, which includes ensuring that such rules are carried out and policies are implemented effectively (Ngidi, 2004; Xaba, 2004). This implies that the School Governing Body is responsible for developing a strategy for ensuring that quality education is both provided and supported for the learners. This is followed by ensuring that this strategy is implemented. The School Governing Body does this through monitoring and evaluating the implementation thereof. The gap between phases of strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and evaluation is often defined by the day-to-day management responsibility of the principal and staff. In other words, the School Governing Body formulates a strategy for the achievement of the school's vision and mission whilst the principal and staff are responsible for the implementation thereof. The acceptable practice of school governance is expected to ensure that all members of the SGB strive to support all endeavours of teaching and learning in schools. Democratic school governance is when the practice of governance in any school allows for all members of the school community, usually through their representatives, to participate and meaningfully influence school-related decisions. In South Africa, school governance has been used to refer to the institutional structure entrusted with the responsibility or authority to formulate and adopt school policy on a range of issues which include school uniforms; school budgets and developmental priorities; endorsement of the code of conduct for learners, staff and parents; broad goals on the educational quality that the school should strive to achieve; school-community relations, and curriculum programme development (Mncube, 2009). Promoting the best interest of the school according to the South African Schools Act (No. 84 of 1996) implies that school governors regardless of who elected them have to deal with, inter alia, determining the admission, language and religious policies of the school; determining rules for religious observance at the school; developing and adopting a code of conduct for learners; recommending to the Provincial Head of Department the appointment of educators and noneducators at the school; supplementing the resources provided by the state; and preparing an annual budget (Act No. 84 of 1996). School governance relates, inter alia, to part of the processes and systems by which the school operates; the use of structures of authority and collaboration to allocate resources and co-ordinate or control activities linked to the management of the school (South African Department of Education, 2005). In this echelon of management, parents, educators, and learners are drawn into a kind of partnership for the education of the learners (Brown & Duku, 2008).

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THE EVOLUTION OF SCHOOL GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA The philosophy underpinning current school governance structures in South Africa was evident in the mid-1980s where the Democratic Movement demanded the establishment of Parent-Teacher-Student Associations (PTSAs) to enhance proper functioning of schools by ensuring school communities’ control over them (Pampallis, 1998). However, there was a flaw in the functioning of the PTSAs, and this related to the fact that there were three separated models that existed. These were Model A, where PTSAs were an organ of state; Model B, where PTSAs were an organ of civil society; and Model C, where PTSAs were a semi-autonomous community organ (Dlamini & Nzimande, 1993). These differences meant that the achievement of democratic governance was possible for only some of the schools and not all (Dlamini & Nzimande, 1993). Parent Teacher Associations (PTAs) and Parent Teacher Student Associations (PTSAs) at primary and secondary schools in South Africa provided the initial stimulus in the governance arrangement in the South African Schools Act of 1996 (McPherson, 2000). However, these structures were accused of not having real decision-making powers but advisory, and their activities were largely fundraising (Buckland & Hofmeyr, 1993). In the early 1990s, educationists and the then upcoming democratic government in South Africa began contemplating about the kinds of structures that needed to be put in place in order to achieve a non-racial, non-sexist and democratic system of education in South Africa (Nzimande, Pampallis, Dlamini, Ntuli, & Berger, 1993). Following the recommendations primarily by the National Education Policy Investigation and other organisations for policy advice, the control of education was decentralised to local levels of education management. In 1997, the notion of school governance was introduced in South Africa and school governing bodies (SGBs) were elected at all public schools, with an addition of Learner Representative Councils in secondary public schools (McPherson & Dlamini, 1998; McPherson, 2000). SGBs comprised of the elected representatives of parents holding a majority, educators, ex-officio principals and non-educator staff members in all public schools, while including learners in secondary schools (McPherson & Dlamini, 1998; McPherson, 2000). The process of electing and setting up governing bodies in public schools provided some useful lessons about their on-going development and capacity needs (Chisholm, Motala, & Vally, 1999). One of these lessons was that attempts to implement national policy by schools without the necessary resources and capacity have resulted in conflicts and tensions between various levels of the system (Chisholm, Motala, & Vally, 1999). Not only was school governance stifled by poor capacity among the elected members, but also the shortage of resources rendered them ineffective. This presented a challenge for policy, and the policy landscape around school governance is discussed in the next section.

THE POLICY CONTEXT OF SCHOOL GOVERNANCE IN SOUTH AFRICA South Africa has for more than fifteen years been considered a democracy and its policies have been developed and seen as progressive in regulating the practice of democracy in public institutions both in schools and in communities they serve. Between 1998 and 2000, South Africa saw the fine-tuning of school governance arrangements through detailed statutes

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addressing particular and/ or previously omitted schooling sectors (Education Policy Consortium of South Africa, 2001). Contemporary discussions on school governance have centred on decentralisation of control from political centre to provinces and localities as well as from schools themselves to communities (Nelson Mandela Foundation, 2005). It is within this perspective that the possible partnership between traditional leaders and schools is explored. It is in acknowledging the fact that power to make certain decisions have been devolved from central government to the local level where these two important structures operate. The potential for tensions and conflicts are always high when issues of power are involved. The literature indicates that there are several ways in which community leaders, such as traditional leaders, that are responsible for leading communities surrounding schools get involved in schools. These include the governing, regulating, controlling and monitoring, as well as provisioning of schools (Jita & Karlsson, 1997; Nelson Mandela Foundation, 2005). The legislation that currently frames the operation of the institution of traditional leadership has a particular history that needs to be understood as it shapes their involvement in school governance within the South African context. For two and a half centuries of colonial occupation, dispossession, and racial discrimination characterised South Africa, the Dutch and British colonialists deprived Africans of most of their territory (Turner & Ibsen, 2000). Since the beginning of colonialism in South Africa in 1652, the majority of the population were excluded from the economic, social and environmental benefits of vibrant, integrated, sustainable urban and rural development (Republic of South Africa, 2001). Even education provision was geared towards legitimising separate development. As it is the case in other parts of Africa, various kings in South Africa such as King Dingane, King Mpande and King Cetshwayo, fought against land dispossession (Mlaba, 2004), because a series of colonial laws on traditional leadership were enforced (Mashele, 2003). However, these laws were later combined into one law, the Native Administration Act (No 38 of 1927). It is in terms of this law that the Governor General, who was a representative of the United Kingdom, became the supreme traditional leader of South Africa (Rutsch, 1995; Mashele, 2003). The law gave him powers to appoint and to expel traditional leaders at will (Mashele, 2003). This history resulted in two kinds of traditional leaders, i.e. disposed –removed by powers that be –and imposed –appointed to replace the disposed one by the same powers. The participation of traditional leaders on school governance raises a question of just how much their role is shaped by this political history.

EXAMPLES OF CURRENT EXPERIENCES OF SCHOOL GOVERNANCE IN RURAL COMMUNITIES The democratic platform for democratic school governance has been created legislatively, but the experience in rural schools is characterised by mostly challenges than successes in taking advantage of this platform. Although a platform for traditional leadership involvement on school matters has been created through policy, the nature of the influence it has on school governance has been largely seen in the negative light by various scholars and politicians, both as authoritative and representative of a patriarchal society that is less progressive (Mbokazi & Bhengu, 2008). Among other things, traditional leadership have been

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accused of blocking development in rural communities, because they are gatekeepers that allow or disallow access to developers (Mbokazi & Bhengu, 2008). A project to improve access roads to rural communities in Eshowe area, North of KwaZulu-Natal, was suspended because Inkosi denied developers’ access to the community on the account that traditional protocols were not observed (Mbokazi & Bhengu, 2008). However, there is a need to highlight some of the positive examples of traditional leadership influence on school governance, and this chapter focuses solely on these. Understanding these leaders’ positive influence on school governance will contribute to the national dialogue on positioning them as important stakeholders in education provisioning, especially for rural areas. The context of interaction between traditional leaders and school governors provides an important platform where issues of land ownership and leadership in relation to school governance are interrogated, planned and managed. To understand traditional leadership influence on school governance it is useful to visualise these two structures. Figure 1 and 2 below are the graphical diagrammatic representation of how these structures look in KwaZulu-Natal school communities. Figure 1 shows the common traditional leadership structure in KwaZulu-Natal. According to this structure the supreme power is isilo4 followed by Amakhosi5, then the traditional councils, followed by izinduna6. The traditional leadership structure diagram is created drawing from policy and information gathered in various studies conducted in difference community contexts in KwaZulu-Natal. Therefore, the structure may take different shapes in different contexts, but the one presented here is closer to being generic in rural communities. Figure 2 shows a common school governing body structure typical for a secondary school in KwaZulu-Natal, according to the provisions of the South African Schools Act (No. 84 of 1996). The difference, according to policy, is whether or not the school is a primary or a secondary school. Learners in a primary school are not expected to form part of the school governing body, but those in secondary schools are. (Mbokazi S. , 2010) Baring these structures in mind, there are a number of different examples of traditional leadership influence on school governance that have been found in communities, but the discussion in this section will focus on only three of these. These examples are derived from real cases in school-community relations and will be used here to illustrate how traditional leadership influence is understood and practiced or manifests in various contexts of school governance. These will also show various ways in which traditional leaders mobilise resources allocated to them and funding sourced from government departments to support school governance. Furthermore, the question as to what the nature of

4

Isilo means the Monarch for the Provence of KwaZulu-Natal as recognised in Section 17 of the KwaZulu-Natal Traditional Leadership and Governance Act, 2005 (Act No. 5 of 2005), or ‘king’ as defined in Section 1 of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act, 2003 (Act No. 41 of 2003). 5 Inkosi means a senior traditional leader as defined in Section 1 of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act, 2003 (Act No. 41 of 2003) and recognised as such in terms of Section 19 of KwaZulu-Natal Traditional Leadership and Governance Act, 2005 (Act No. 5 of 2005) and Amakhosi is the plural form of the term. 6 Induna is a traditional leader who is under the authority of, or exercises authority within the area of jurisdiction of, an inkosi in accordance with customary law, and who is recognised as such in terms of Section 27 of the KwaZulu-Natal Traditional Leadership and Governance Act, 2005 (Act No. 5 of 2005) and izinduna is the plural form of the term.

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traditional leadership awareness of such resources at their disposal is towards developing their local schools will be answered.

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Figure 1. Traditional Leadership Structure.

Figure 2. School Governing Body Structure.

The examples presented here are outlined in Figure 3 below and the potential outcomes these may have on schools are shown in Figure 4 alongside. These include: ensuring safety Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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and security of schools, promoting community ownership of schools towards mitigating and eradicating vandalism of school property, and promoting infrastructural development of schools. Below are some important details on the school contexts that fall within the three scenarios listed. The names of the schools are changed and pseudonyms used to hide their identities.

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Figure 3. Traditional Leadership Influence on School Governance.

Figure 4. Potential Outcomes of Influence.

These diagrams indicate that traditional leadership in at least six school contexts have promoted the infrastructure development of schools, by support efforts to increase the number

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of classrooms built. This has contributed towards creating positive school ethos and culture. These leaders have also promoted community ownership of schools, through building and strengthening a healthy partnership between schools and communities they serve. They have also made efforts to ensure that schools are safe and secure, and this has contributed towards positioning these schools as centres of community life. Below are vignettes that provide some examples of how traditional leaders have done this.

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Safety and Security of Schools in Ngcolosi and Ndlangubo Secondary Schools a) Ngcolosi: the Secondary is located in a tribal trust land and was studied particularly for the influence that the Induna (a middle-level traditional leader) has on school governance. The surrounding community is poor. Though the school has basic teaching resources, there were no sporting or library facilities available for learners. In addition to 12 pit latrines, the school had 16 flush toilets, 10 of which were unserviceable and not in use. The local Induna’s house is situated within hundredmeter radius from the school gate and is the ex-principal of the school. He has taken it upon himself to mobilise the community towards protecting the school property, through regular check-ups during and after school hours. He was instrumental in recovering the vehicle belonging to one educator in the school, which had been stolen by criminals. b) Ndlangubo: is situated in the rural Eshowe community, about sixty kilometres from the town of Eshowe. The road conditions were satisfactory, and the homesteads surrounding the school were scattered. In close proximity to the school was a clinic, which –at the time –was the only source of health service in the vicinity. Most households surrounding the school lived in dire poverty unemployment and are illiterate. In addition to this, the community has grappled with numerous cases where learners brought weapons into school premises, which put both educators and other learners in danger. A memorandum of understanding was drawn between the school governing body and the local traditional authority to outsource the handling of all cases involving weapons to the Inkosi. As a result all cases of this nature were handled by the traditional leadership in collaboration with the local South African Police Service. It was reported that the bringing of dangerous weapons by learners to the school had declined over the years as a result of this collaborative intervention. Ensuring safety and security in schools is the responsibility of school governing bodies, according to the South African Schools Act (No. 84 of 1996). Both these cases highlighted above indicate that traditional leadership may provide practical support to SGBs to achieve this goal by ensuring that schools are safe places and centres of community life. To do this they mobilise resources and form useful partnerships with other relevant stakeholders in society to contribute positively towards addressing safety and security challenges of school governance, which is often in the best interest of schools and communities they serve. When a traditional leader takes it upon him to handle cases of learners bringing weapons to schools, it demonstrates a sense of understanding the extent of risk that bringing weapons have on inschool population (i.e. learners and educators alike). This is an example of traditional leader-

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ship providing safety and security for both learners and educators. It also shows that behaviours that put school population and property at risk is intolerable by community leadership and immediate traditional leadership intervention is required. Traditional leaders’ willingness and ability to respond decisively to challenges brought about by increasing exposure to weaponry among learners of school going age, is also demonstrated. This also indicates a strong partnership between traditional leadership and school governors towards a common goal of positioning schools as safe and secure centres of community life.

Community Ownership of Schools to Address Vandalism of Property in Isibani Primary School

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a) Isibani: the school is located in a semi-rural area on the periphery of a township. The school is easily accessible as it is located in close proximity to an urban settlement with good roads and public transport service of taxis. In the surrounding vicinity of the school there were modern human settlements and shops. The use of the school facilities has been extended to the community, which has strengthened the relationship between the school and community. The local Inkosi often calls community meetings and use the school hall or sports grounds as venues for such meetings. Among other things that were often discussed during the meeting was encouraging community members to ensure that the school is protected from vandalism, and thus able to become a centre of community life. The management of the school also uses such community meetings to communicate the school programmes to the wider community. This has instilled a sense of ownership of the school among school-community members, and has reduced vandalism and theft of school property. This is an example of traditional leadership exercising a form of leadership, whereby the attitudes of the led are influenced in such a way that they become consistent with that of the leader. The leader appears to be strongly subscribing to the concept of communities owning and respecting the schools in their locale in order to eradicate vandalism of school property. The importance of community ownership of schools is constantly communicated during community meetings, while strategically using a school as a meeting place. This instils a value that it is everybody’s responsibility to respect and protect the school property. The ownership of the school is two-way process that is shared between the school and the community it serves. This also creates a platform where schools and communities they serve share important information relevant to activities and ceremonies, which is another form of collaborative support. The concept of school governance is founded within the philosophy of community involvement in the education of children where school-community relations are both encouraged and strengthened. Therefore, promoting community ownership of schools is central to the very founding principles of democratic school governance.

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Infrastructural Development of Schools in Khongozela, Ngcolosi and Nkandla Communities a) Khongozela: the primary school is situated in a semi-rural area, very close to an industrial area, which is a centre of all economic and commercial activities, but the air is polluted and smells badly from the local paper mill. Although households that the school serves are widely dispersed, roads to reach the school are satisfactory. Between 1986 and 1987 the school committee made an application for Eshowe Community Action Group to build classrooms. During the process, the local Induna worked hand in hand with the committee and education officials to strengthen the application. b) Ngcolosi: community is located on the western side of the city of Durban within eThekwini Municipality of KwaZulu-Natal. It is surrounded by a number of traditional communities. It is part of a municipality ward, which comprises three broad areas, formal, informal and tribal authority areas, and as such, it is made up of diverse socio-cultural profiles. The Inkosi is also the senior member a provincial House of Traditional Leaders and has a somewhat progressive view of education and the role that traditional leaders must play in it. He convened a meeting with all school managers and governors in his jurisdiction to discuss with him their school needs and to develop strategies towards meeting these needs. Subsequent to this meeting, he has sponsored –using mostly traditional authority coffers –a number of infrastructural school developments, such as classrooms, toilets, furniture, as well as building schools in areas that did not have them. He often collaborates with development agencies and the Department of Education to achieve this goal. c) Nkandla: community is located in the UThungulu district of KwaZulu-Natal. There are about 18 traditional councils, and three of which often meet with school managers and governors to determine the infrastructural needs of schools in their jurisdiction. Once these needs are determined, mechanisms to meet them are established through a strategic discussion that follows. Needless to say, meeting the schools becomes a collaborative effort between traditional leaders, school managers and governors towards infrastructural development of schools. While land in rural communities is controlled by traditional leaders, in schools the control and administration of property is the responsibility of governing bodies. This scenario illustrates proactivity of a traditional leader to contribute towards improving built environment in schools within his jurisdiction. They have strengthened application processes for schools to acquire more classroom space, bring together traditional leadership, school managers and governors to determine infrastructural needs of schools and to collaboratively and strategically establish mechanisms to meet these needs. Contrary to what it has been said about blocking development, using money from the traditional leadership’s bank account and resourcefulness in mobilising other development agencies, their contribution has assisted various governing bodies to acquire property that they would administer, control and maintain for schools. This is another example of a kind of leadership that has contributed towards increasing learner access to schooling, which also forms part of the allocated responsibility of governing bodies. This is beyond a case of good will on the part of the traditional leaders, but

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exemplifies the possibility of synergistic partnership between traditional leadership and SGBs in resourcing schools within the current set up of school governance. At the close of the first decade of democracy in South Africa the national Minister of Education, Professor Asmal, identified partnerships with traditional leaders as one way to address concerns in schools (Mbokazi & Bhengu, 2008). This notion was reiterated by the provincial MEC for Education in KwaZulu-Natal, at the beginning of the second decade of democracy (Mbokazi & Bhengu, 2008). This synergistic partnership may also extend to strengthening the capacity of SGBs to fulfilling their legislative mandates –promoting community ownership, as well as safety and security, within the contexts of limited capacity in KZN schools.

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CONCLUSION In this Chapter I argue that school-community relations can play an important role in promoting effective school governance, particularly in rural KwaZulu-Natal where most schools are built on tribal trust lands controlled by traditional leaders. Contrary to the general hostility in which traditional leaders have been seen my most scholars, some examples that illustrate these leaders can be meaningful partners, particularly in school governance and generally in educational leadership. While traditional leaders have been accused of authoritative and non-progressive leadership, the examples presented here show that this structure can contribute to the education of the South African child through creative and innovative ways to support school governance in a number of schools in KwaZulu-Natal. This is done in terms of strengthening the role of school governing bodies in ensuring safety and security, promoting infrastructural development and community ownership of schools. The agenda of developing synergistic partnership and responsible leadership in South African education, and particularly in rural KwaZulu-Natal, requires that government perceive traditional leadership as an important player in education. Especially towards strengthening school-community relations that are imperative for supporting school governance. In addition to this important contribution, this allows for schools to draw from the indigenous knowledge systems, for which traditional leadership is custodial in rural communities, and this can be used to further strengthen the democracy in South African schools.

REFERENCES Brown, B., & Duku, N. (2008). Negotiated Identities: Dynamics in Parents' Participation in School Governance in Rural Eastern Cape Schools and Implications for School Leadership. South African Journal of Education, 28, 431-450. Buckland, P., & Hofmeyr, J. (1993). Education Governance in South Africa. Johannesburg: EDUPOL. Chikoko, V. (2008). The Role of Parent Governors in School Governance in Zimbabwe: Perceptions of School Heads, Teachers and Parent Governors. International Review of Education , 54, 243-263.

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Chisholm, L., Motala, S., & Vally, S. (1999). Review of South African Education Policy Development 2000+ Project . Johannesburg: Wits Education Policy Unit. Cohen-Vogel, L. (2003). Integrating Accountability with Choice: Implications for School Governance. Peabody Journal of Education, 78 (4), 4-28. Dlamini, T., & Nzimande, B. (1993). The Relationship between PTAs/ PTSAs and the State. In EPU, Democratic Governance of Public Schooling in South Africa: A Record of Research and Advocacy from the Education Policy Unit (Natal) (pp. 50-54). Durban : Education Policy Unit (Natal). Earley, P. (1997). External Inspections, 'Failing Schools' and the Role of Governing Bodies . School Leadership and Management , 17 (3), 387-400. Education Policy Consortium of South Africa. (2005). Governance and Equity in South African Schools. Johannesburg: Centre for Education Policy Development. Education Policy Consortium of South Africa. (2005b). Social Violence and Schooling in South Africa. Johannersburg: Centre for Education Policy Development. Education Policy Consortium of South Africa. (2001). Transformation of the South African Schooling System: A Report from the Second Year of Education 2000 Plus, a Longitudinal Study to Monitor Education Policy Implementation and Change . Johannesburg: Center for Education Policy Development. Fiore, D. (2002). School-Community Relations. New York: Eye on Education. Jita, L., & Karlsson, J. (1997). Local Government Partnership with Public Schools in South Africa: Some Stakeholder Perceptions. In EPU, Democratic Governance of Public Schooling in South Africa (pp. 154-163). Durban: Education Policy Unit (Natal). Karlsson, J. (1994). Decentralisation of Education: International Experience and Its Lessons for South Africa. Education Monitor , 5 (2). Mashele, P. (2003). Traditional Leadership in Historical Context. Municipality Talk: A Newsletter of IDASA’s Local Government Centre , 1 (1). Mbokazi, S. The Influence of Community Leadership on School Governance: The Case of Traditional Leadership in KwaZulu-Natal. Poster Presentation: 01 October 2010 Research Day. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pinetown. Mbokazi, S., & Bhengu, T. (2008). An Unexplored Partnership: The Influence of Traditional Leaders on Schooling. (T. Ngcobo, & K. Moloi, Eds.) Journal of Education , 44, 49-66. McPherson, G. (2000). Governance in Public Schools: Four Case Studies. Education Monitor, 11 (3), 1-8. McPherson, G., & Dlamini, M. (1998). Democratic School Governing Bodies in the Province of KwaZulu-Natal: The First Election. Durban: Education Policy Unit (Natal). Mlaba, O. (2004). Speech delivered by the Honourable Mayor of eThekwini at Learning Conference and launch of Citizens Action Support Programme in Durban. Durban: EThekwini Municipality. Mncube, V. (2009). The Perceptions of Parents of their Role in the Democratic Governance of Schools in South Africa: Are they on Board? South African Journal of Education , 29, 83-103. Nelson Mandela Foundation. (2005). Emerging Voices: A Report on Education in South African Rural Communities. Cape Town: Nelson Mandela Foundation. Ngidi, D. (2004). Educators' Perceptions of the Efficiency of School Governing Bodies. South African Journal of Education , 24 (4), 260-263.

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Nzimande, B., Pampallis, J., Dlamini, T., Ntuli, L., & Berger, M. (1993). Towards a New Structure for Governance of Schooling. In EPU, Democratic Governance of Public Schooling in South Africa: A Record of Research and Advocacy from the Education Policy Unit (Natal) (pp. 75-83). Durban: Education Policy Unit (Natal). Pampallis, J. (1998). Decentralisation in the New Education System: Governance and Funding of Schooling in South Africa 1992-1997. In EPU, Democratic Governance of Public Schooling in South Africa: A Record of Research and Advocacy from the Education Policy Unit (Natal) (pp. 164-170). Durban: Education Policy Unit (Natal). Republic of South Africa. (2001). The White Paper on Spatial Planning and Land Use Management. Pretoria: Republic of South Africa. Rutsch, P. (1995). Traditional Trauma. Indicator South Africa, 12 (2). South African Department of Education. (2005). National Guidelines for School Governing Body Elections. Pretoria: Republic of South Africa. Turner, S., & Ibsen, H. (2000). Land Agrarian Reform in South Africa: A Status Report. Belville: PLAAS. Xaba, M. (2004). Governors or Watchdogs: The Role of Educators in School Governing Bodie. South African Journal of Education , 24 (4), 313-316.

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INDEX

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A academic growth, 129, 132 academic progress, 190 academic success, 89 action research, 56, 58 activism, 22, 201 adulthood, 70 adults, 82, 199, 200, 203, 204, 206, 207, 208 advancement, 114, 122, 127, 213 affective dimension, 54 affirmative action, 43, 108, 114, 127, 141 Africa, vii, 1, 8, 9, 20, 36, 39, 48, 49, 53, 62, 67, 115, 122, 126, 141, 145, 146, 147, 160, 161, 163, 164, 165, 172, 176, 185, 193, 209, 210, 213, 215, 216, 224, 225 African National Congress, 146, 180 Afrikaans, 210 age, 34, 42, 63, 113, 122, 221 agencies, 17, 19, 20, 150, 165, 222 AIDS, 113, 122, 137 anthropocentrism, 21 assertiveness, 109, 111 assessment, 56, 57, 116, 121, 160, 192 assimilation, 38, 41, 46, 47, 111, 112, 113 attitudes, 16, 21, 27, 84, 111, 114, 118, 120, 129, 136, 148, 221 authority, 2, 8, 42, 53, 54, 64, 71, 96, 111, 119, 126, 127, 131, 132, 148, 165, 180, 198, 214, 217, 222 autonomy, 38, 60, 113, 152, 165 awareness, 5, 27, 43, 74, 75, 100, 142, 218 B bargaining, 180, 181, 185 barriers, 35, 64, 109, 114, 115, 122, 123, 142 benefits, 44, 157, 216 bias, 89

black women, 126 blame, 4, 5, 20, 134, 150 brain, 22, 87 building blocks, 18, 132 bureaucracy, 131, 135, 150 business ethics, 29 C capacity building, 5, 6, 21, 28, 156, 203 career development, 139 case study, 8, 9, 35, 48, 67, 107, 109, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 186, 194, 201, 209, 210 chain of command, 60, 184 challenges, vii, 1, 8, 10, 34, 35, 42, 45, 46, 47, 84, 92, 122, 125, 126, 129, 137, 138, 139, 140, 146, 147, 148, 152, 157, 159, 188, 197, 198, 201, 202, 205, 206, 212, 216, 220 changing environment, 151 childhood, 29, 70, 109, 130 children, 17, 24, 51, 70, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96, 97, 98, 100, 109, 119, 120, 127, 131, 132, 137, 190, 203, 206, 207, 221 class size, 169, 171, 172, 173 classes, 85, 96, 171, 172, 173, 186, 188, 190, 192 classroom, 7, 41, 42, 47, 53, 54, 56, 57, 58, 63, 64, 69, 70, 73, 74, 76, 77, 78, 81, 82, 84, 86, 88, 89, 92, 93, 96, 101, 128, 136, 149, 172, 193, 194, 222 climate, 64, 92, 94, 96, 126, 131, 138, 155, 156, 157, 158, 175 cognition, 194 collectivism, 112 colleges, 127 communication, 7, 58, 59, 64, 96, 97, 98, 100, 112, 129, 135, 136, 138, 139, 147, 152, 174 communitarianism, 38, 39

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Index

communities, 4, 9, 10, 17, 24, 25, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 45, 46, 49, 54, 57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 67, 96, 134, 137, 138, 139, 145, 146, 147, 148, 151, 154, 157, 158, 167, 172, 193, 199, 201, 211, 212, 213, 215, 216, 217, 220, 221, 222, 223 community relations, 10, 211, 212, 213, 214, 217, 221, 223 compassion, 7, 69, 85, 90, 96 competitiveness, 113, 119, 164 complexity, 21, 38, 44, 183, 202 compliance, 39, 43, 148, 153, 156, 188, 191, 192 conception, 5, 27, 47, 110, 115, 116, 117, 118, 132, 154, 180, 181, 182 configuration, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28 conflict, 34, 35, 42, 45, 47, 131, 137, 167, 183, 185, 192 consensus, 46, 98, 198 Constitution, 1, 20, 40, 43, 49, 147, 148, 156, 157, 166, 176 cooperation, 86, 183, 189, 190, 192 creativity, 46, 81, 100, 133, 135, 138, 139, 140, 153, 155, 156 critical analysis, 38, 112, 193 criticism, 62, 135, 136 cultural practices, 60, 120 culture, 4, 8, 18, 26, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 43, 45, 64, 66, 67, 94, 107, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121, 125, 126, 129, 130, 131, 134, 141, 148, 159, 174, 184, 187, 194, 201, 206, 207, 209, 220 curriculum, 25, 26, 34, 41, 47, 57, 59, 67, 76, 84, 130, 146, 150, 152, 158, 159, 160, 161, 165, 166, 167, 169, 170, 171, 172, 175, 192, 214 D dance, 99, 171 danger, 22, 42, 148, 152, 153, 220 decentralisation, 10, 53, 146, 147, 149, 154, 155, 156, 159, 161, 162, 164, 165, 209, 213, 216 decision-making process, 60, 145, 147, 150, 155, 158, 202 deconcentration, 165, 177 deficit, 110, 208 democracy, 1, 2, 5, 9, 21, 53, 67, 147, 148, 150, 155, 198, 199, 200, 209, 215, 223 democratisation, 198, 207 Denmark, 15, 29 Department of Education, 34, 40, 48, 65, 109, 112, 122, 123, 145, 146, 150, 154, 159, 165, 166, 168, 170, 171, 172, 175, 176, 180, 185, 188, 189, 193, 200, 203, 209, 222, 225 developing countries, 122

devolution, 58, 155, 165, 177 dignity, 45, 132, 199 directives, 117, 152, 182, 183, 186, 212 discrimination, 40, 43, 109, 110, 113, 114, 116, 118, 126, 216 distance education, 127 distribution, 4, 9, 20, 53, 115, 116, 163, 164, 165, 167, 168, 175, 184, 198 diversity, vii, 2, 7, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 110, 116, 159, 172 E ecology, 182, 185, 193 economic growth, 198 economic power, 1, 44 economic resources, 27 economic status, 9 educational system, 4 educators, 53, 54, 55, 59, 60, 61, 62, 63, 65, 123, 139, 149, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171, 172, 173, 174, 176, 183, 187, 190, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 208, 214, 215, 220, 221 emotional intelligence, 7, 69, 82, 85, 86, 99, 100 empathy, 23, 100 employees, 22, 117, 132 employment, 114, 118, 166, 208 Employment Equity Act, 43, 49, 114 empowerment, 8, 81, 112, 125, 131, 132, 136, 150 energy, 7, 38, 47, 54, 69, 78, 79, 81, 82, 85, 88, 89, 96 environment, 26, 73, 120, 128, 129, 131, 136, 138, 147, 151, 153, 154, 157, 158, 180, 184, 222 epistemology, 18, 28 equal opportunity, 114, 115, 127 equality, 39, 43, 45, 46, 112, 114, 127, 147, 199 equipment, 136, 166, 167 equity, 43, 53, 110, 111, 112, 118, 121, 127, 147, 148, 175, 176, 199, 209, 210, 212 ethics, 21, 83 ethnicity, 1, 54, 110, 116 Europe, 3, 73 everyday life, 17, 21, 24, 26, 38, 182 evolution, 211, 213 examinations, 205, 206, 207 exclusion, 4, 41, 67, 141, 153, 199, 207 exercise, 38, 45, 64, 70, 118, 127, 128, 134, 137, 152, 158, 167, 180, 181, 182 expenditures, 138 expert teacher, 56, 57 expertise, 2, 3, 41, 61, 64, 75, 128, 137, 138, 152, 198, 200, 212

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Index exposure, 34, 156, 221

human resources, 41, 67, 147 human rights, 1, 22, 40, 67, 148 F I

fairness, 110, 167 families, 92, 119, 131, 207 fear, 46, 88, 92, 113, 134, 155, 188 feelings, 4, 72, 131, 132 femininity, 113, 114, 118, 130 films, 76, 89, 101 financial resources, 136, 165, 166, 167 focus groups, 70, 100 formal education, 130 formation, 36, 37, 42, 45 freedom, 2, 45, 49, 56, 156, 198, 200 funding, 9, 157, 163, 164, 167, 169, 177, 217 fundraising, 58, 137, 152, 215

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G gender equality, 22, 110, 114, 122, 127 gender equity'/ equality, vii, 8, 22, 107, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, 120, 121, 122, 127 gender role, 126, 130 gender-sensitive, 139 global economy, 101 governance, vii, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 145, 146, 150, 152, 160, 164, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 220, 221, 223 government policy, 146, 150 governmentality, 2, 3, 4, 5, 181 grades, 169, 187 Greece, 28, 122 growth, 3, 47, 76, 131, 152, 169 guidance, 154, 185, 186, 203, 204 guidelines, 5, 6, 15, 16, 23, 24, 40, 173 guiding principles, 166

ideal(s), 10, 46, 85, 119, 169, 171, 175, 197 identity, 2, 4, 16, 18, 23, 29, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 47, 48, 49, 54, 61, 62, 67, 68, 116, 157 ideology, 67, 164 illiteracy, 60, 148 image(s), 26, 72, 79, 110, 114, 115, 118, 192 income, 138, 167 indigenous knowledge, 223 individual differences, 111, 136 inequity/ inequality, 8, 54, 60, 62, 107, 109, 110, 111, 112, 116, 117, 120, 166, 170 inferiority, 132, 205, 206 information technology, 166, 167 innovator, 72 inspectors, 131, 213 institutional structures, 1, 3 institutionalisation, 53 integration, 4, 37, 41, 46 integrity, 57, 83, 84, 85, 136 intelligence, 86, 100 interpersonal relations, 54, 96, 132, 135 isolation, 3, 4, 149, 175 J Jews, 3 jurisdiction, 217, 222 just society, 4, 20, 127 K KwaZulu-Natal context, 10, 211

H

L

health, 149, 170, 220 high school, 95, 108, 199, 201 higher education, 65, 161, 176 history, 2, 18, 20, 26, 36, 37, 42, 52, 54, 64, 70, 108, 118, 216 HIV/ AIDS, 26, 60, 113, 122, 147, 166, 176 homework, 77, 206 homogeneity, 185 hostility, 223 human capital, 3, 4 human dignity, 45, 147

lack of confidence, 113 languages, 5, 72, 157 Lao Tzu, 71 Latin America, 213 laws, 84, 114, 208, 216 leadership abilities, 69, 76, 78 leadership development, 5, 24, 111, 147 leadership style, 9, 27, 114, 145, 151, 152, 155, 156, 158, 179 learner achievement, 185, 186, 191

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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Index

learners, vii, 5, 10, 20, 21, 25, 26, 27, 36, 40, 53, 54, 56, 59, 63, 77, 92, 108, 136, 147, 148, 152, 154, 157, 163, 168, 169, 171, 172, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 210, 211, 213, 214, 215, 220 legislation, 36, 40, 43, 73, 99, 154, 171, 216 lens, 7, 17, 33, 46, 66, 182, 184, 208 life experiences, 45, 97, 182 Limpopo, 148, 172 linear relationship of actions, 23 locus, 21, 38, 63 love, 7, 69, 78, 90, 95, 96, 97, 136

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M Mandarin, 102 marginalisation, 41, 207 mass media, 194 materials, 22, 25, 26, 78, 157, 166, 167 mathematics, 66, 172 mediation, 183, 185 membership, 37, 38, 62 memory, 16, 18, 20, 27 mental model, 210 mentoring, 64, 138 metaphor, 72, 151, 194 methodology, 27, 109, 146, 198 Ministry of Education, 130, 139, 141 minors, 199, 200, 201, 204, 206, 207, 208 moral development, 131, 210 moral imperative, 40 moral reasoning, 130 morality, 3, 73, 182 motivation, 73, 78, 82, 89, 94, 96, 100, 136, 141 moulding, 137 Mozambique, 42 multicultural education, 193 music, 89, 171

organizational learning, 5, 6, 15, 16, 21, 22, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 organizational learning approach, 6, 15, 16, 21 otherness, 22, 24, 39, 44 ownership, vii, 58, 136, 138, 150, 152, 153, 199, 209, 217, 219, 220, 221, 223 P paradigm shift, 150 parents, vii, 5, 10, 21, 24, 27, 41, 59, 66, 91, 96, 98, 108, 118, 130, 132, 136, 137, 139, 140, 155, 163, 185, 186, 189, 190, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 212, 213, 214, 215 pedagogy, 25, 29, 67, 88, 194 performance appraisal, 117 personal development, 23, 27, 96, 150 personal relations, 7, 69, 87, 90, 93, 131 personal values, 130, 138 pituitary gland, 86 playing, 5, 20, 84, 114, 115 policy makers, 149, 183, 184, 185, 193 policy reform, 127 political force, 126 politics, 4, 5, 20, 26, 27, 67, 169, 182, 183, 192 poverty, 1, 22, 60, 132, 147, 148, 169, 171, 209, 220 power relations, 26, 35, 41, 42, 44, 113, 115, 116, 180, 181, 182, 205, 206 power sharing, 138, 139 powerful professionals, 41 prejudice, 4, 45, 118 primary school, 8, 35, 95, 114, 125, 126, 127, 133, 139, 141, 217, 222 problem-based learning, 6, 15, 16, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 professional development, 44, 56, 59, 65, 66, 67, 68, 152, 208 public policy, 164, 193 public schools, 163, 164, 165, 176, 198, 213, 215 punishment, 35, 189

N R narratives, 20, 24, 26, 109, 117 national policy, 147, 215 negotiation, 47, 62, 131, 181, 183 Nelson Mandela, 147, 224 nurturance, 8, 125, 139 O operations, 40, 79, 110, 111, 116, 198, 208 oppression, 117, 126, 154, 155, 156 organizational development, 5, 6, 16, 66, 126

racism, 3, 35, 62, 147 rationality, 2, 39, 167 reading, 65, 98, 100, 137, 172, 193 recognition, 23, 43, 78, 82, 101, 119, 126, 180 reform, 68, 115, 125, 127, 140, 141, 159, 162, 164, 194, 198, 225 regulations, 43, 120, 129, 131, 208, 212 regulatory framework, 198 religion, 16, 24, 34, 35, 36, 45 resource allocation, 9, 163, 164, 167, 177 resource management, 38

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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Index resources, 24, 56, 63, 70, 96, 115, 128, 137, 150, 152, 159, 166, 167, 170, 181, 213, 214, 215, 217, 220 response, 35, 54, 77, 88, 100, 152 restrictions, 199, 205 restructuring, 8, 125, 140 rewards, 114, 189 rhetoric, 44, 51, 53, 60, 68 rural areas, 41, 42, 146, 147, 148, 151, 154, 217 rural schools, 10, 127, 146, 157, 160, 162, 211, 212, 216

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S safety, 25, 171, 203, 212, 219, 220, 223 school activities, 59, 129, 136, 137 school community, 132, 135, 138, 212, 213, 214 school culture, 44, 59, 61, 117, 129, 140, 184, 199 School Governing Bodies (SGB), 10 school improvement, 58, 66, 128, 137, 139, 180, 191, 209, 213 school performance, 25 school work, 109, 119 schooling, 36, 40, 41, 48, 49, 51, 53, 55, 62, 88, 127, 136, 137, 150, 172, 173, 212, 216, 222 science, 71, 127, 140, 160, 161, 166, 167, 170 Second World, 71, 73 secondary schools, 9, 10, 114, 145, 148, 158, 176, 197, 201, 210, 215, 217 security, 53, 121, 166, 203, 212, 219, 220, 223 segregation, 35, 113 self-assessment, 79, 100 self-awareness, 3 self-control, 86, 100, 181 self-doubt, 138 semi-structured interviews, 186, 202 sex, 8, 107, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117 sexism, 62, 147 sexuality, 34, 35 shape, 35, 116, 117, 179, 182, 183, 184, 188, 212 social change, 65, 67, 112, 209 social class, 63, 116 social construct, 46, 118, 130 social injustices, 107, 111 social interactions, 115, 116, 119, 128 social justice, 20, 46, 147, 175, 180 social learning theory, 37 social order, 112, 121, 181 social relations, 116, 117, 120, 121 social structure, 35, 40, 113 socialization, 3, 111, 113, 117, 126 Socrates, 71, 76 Southern African Development Community, 126

special education, 194 staff development, 58, 64, 136, 199, 204 staff members, 37, 47, 70, 152, 153, 155, 174, 182, 215 staffing, 164, 171, 174, 175 statistics, 110, 175 stereotypes, 109, 110, 113, 114, 115, 139 stimulus, 70, 76, 80, 81, 86, 99, 100, 101, 215 storytelling, 6, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29 strategic management, 140, 141 strategic planning, 38, 199, 204 supervision, 118, 128, 192 sustainability, 22, 119, 121 sustainable development, 22, 30 T teacher leadership, vii, 7, 21, 34, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 59, 60, 61, 63, 64, 65, 66, 69, 70, 74, 75, 79, 85, 86, 88, 94, 100, 101, 140, 154, 158, 180 teacher training, 99, 127 teaching/learning process, 81 technology, 71, 131, 193 tension(s), 34, 35, 52, 152, 155, 156, 200, 215, 216 trade union, 166, 167 traditional authority, 220, 222 training, 7, 43, 45, 59, 69, 73, 79, 87, 101, 108, 111, 112, 113, 127, 142, 152, 157, 162, 204, 212 transformation, vii, 5, 23, 44, 47, 54, 58, 60, 63, 67, 80, 118, 120, 128, 132, 145, 146, 148, 149, 150, 153, 156, 193, 198, 200, 207 transparency, 37, 57, 58, 148, 152, 154, 155, 156, 158, 167, 175, 205 treatment, 35, 110, 119 trustworthiness, 65, 90, 98 U UNESCO, 22, 141, 210 union representatives, 192 unionism, 185 unions, 166, 168, 170, 173, 185, 188, 192 universities, 157 urban, 216, 221 V vandalism, 199, 219, 221 violence, 16, 23, 24, 26, 34, 108, 118, 212

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science

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Index

vision, 24, 25, 38, 39, 43, 53, 69, 77, 80, 85, 97, 100, 111, 112, 113, 121, 128, 136, 138, 145, 146, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 202, 214

X xenophobia, 42

W young people, 207 young teachers, 74

Z Zimbabwe, vii, 8, 42, 72, 126, 127, 129, 136, 139, 141, 142, 209, 213, 223

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wealth, 4, 20 web, 61, 180 welfare, 82, 88, 94, 170 White Paper, 148, 161, 225 wilderness, 159 women managers, 140, 141 workers, 43, 137 working groups, 92 working hours, 120

Y

Education Leadership, Management and Governance in South Africa, edited by Vitallis Chikoko, and Kenneth Mølbjerg Jørgensen, Nova Science