Transcript Slide 1
IRENE MUZVIDZIWA UNIVERSITY OF KWAZULU NATAL Zimbabwe is a Southern African Development Community (SADC)country that has undergone many changes since its independence in 1980 especially within the education system. Many policies were introduced. The government initiated mass, free education to eradicate educational inequalities that existed during the colonial period. Schools were dominated by discourse on racial discrimination, black male-female inequalities and little attention was given to gender issues. women undertook training in the lowest level of teaching profession men dominated higher-level training under-representation of women in educational leadership position despite the increase in enrolments- fewer girls were enrolled than boys IMPLICATIONS fewer girls reached higher levels of education imbalance in workplaces leading EXPANSION AND MASSIFICATION OF EDUCATION IN ZIMBABWE Education expanded at all levels this created its own problems There was lack of resources such as: human resources mostly -teachers financial resources for building and buying assets. Women’s under-representation, though not the focus of this article, it provides the context in which women school heads were trying to manage change. Being mindful of the historically men have dominated the field of leadership and management in education globally (Enomoto 2000:375) my interest was to find out how women who enter into leadership perform especially that their promotion coincided with the times of turbulence. A phenomenological approach was adopted to explore the women school heads lived experiences as educational leaders. Schools as learning organisations are essentially dynamic environments changes happen almost every time. Managing change is complex but desirable In most cases both human and physical resources are a problem and that affects teaching and learning (Lumby 2003). Implementing change is sometimes difficult people tend to be stuck in their traditional ways of doing things. Mindful of this is the idea that school principal-ship requires different skills that can be nurtured through specific leadership training (Bush 2010). Fullan (2OO3) claim that change is technically simple but socially complex. Prew (2009:824) commenting on the role of community in the school observed a “difference between the dominant forms of (Western) school development and that which developed in his study” (done within the South African context). This suggests the importance of contextualising issues if one is to understand change within different context. One of the challenges Prew raised in relation to less resourced school environments is how to determine the proper inputs that would be effective in schools. This paper is guided by Greenfield’s (1993) concept of school -as an organisation It is framed within the constructivist and phenomenological approach/ theory. Greenfield’s concept “rest upon the views of people in particular times and places” (Mentz and Xaba, 2007:35). This view Augurs well with phenomenology and the constructivist theory. Phenomenology leads to improved understanding of the lived worlds of people and in this case the women school heads and how they managed change in schools. Early organisational theory viewed organisations or schools as structured entities. These bureaucracies were designed to regulate the activities of individuals, Instead of focusing on the classical bureaucratic approaches, management in the twentieth century have taken new orientations. (Jamali, Khoury and Such orientation have shifted away from the structure of a school that revolves around the head as the sole person who holds ‘all’ the power and regulates the functions of the school using a command and control perspective. Within the new orientation, people are perceived as a resource and assets most useful to the organisation. Hence my decision to explore the women school heads’ experiences from an alternative view of organisations approaching from phenomenology. From a phenomenological perspective, research, theory and methodology must be closely associated; theory must arise out of the process of inquiry and be intimately connected with data under investigation. The link between theory and practice has been commented on by (Bush 2010) suggesting that theory should be a guide to practice and not a rule The study adopted a qualitative phenomenological approach which falls within the, interpretive paradigm. In phenomenological inquiry, interview is the main data gathering tool and the questions flow from dialogue as it unfolds. Five women school heads were interviewed. The first woman was identified using purposive sampling This individual, from the relevant population then acted as an informant to identify the next member from the same population for inclusion in the sample – thus the sample grew through snow ball sampling. Open-ended semi-structured questions allowed the participants to explore on their lived experiences. The interviews were conducted in an informal and non-directive manner. The advantage of the non-directive or semi-structured interview is its flexibility, which allows the researcher to grasp more fully the participant’s experience (Patton 2002). Another important aspect about open-ended, indepth interviews is that the researcher can make use of responses to adjust some of the questions. . As a phenomenologist researcher, my design reflect an interest in contextual meaning making, rather than generalisation and this is a unique aspect of phenomenology – respect for individual experience, thus valuing other people’s beliefs and understanding(Van Rensburg 2001). In phenomenology data analysis is an ongoing process. Data analysis is a process of unlocking information hidden in the raw data and transforming it in something meaningful. I produced a detailed script of each conversation that included verbal and non-verbal cues as well as the actual context of the conversations. The purpose of this phase was to articulate the central themes that characterise the respective unfolding scenes of each protocol, and in the process the richness of the data is exposed for further explication. Out of the many themes that emerged from the five cases of a larger research project, community involvement, creativity and nurturance were most commonly echoed. Phenomenology however does not go beyond interpretation, and therefore it does not become emancipator. Campbell (2004) believed that phenomenology does offer ways of understanding not offered by other research methodologies. By describing their lived experiences, women might uncover issue, which call for further researches. Instead of being a limitation, the experience could be part of the study’s strength as this means more avenues for further research will have been opened. To proceed into the field of research, I had to get permission from the Ministry of Education and the Office of Education in Mashonaland East Region. Getting permission is only a step; it is not a guarantee that one can simply proceed with interviews. I still had to get the agreement of women principals to participate in the study. I got the informed consent before carrying out conversation with them. Before starting on the conversations I had to reassure them on matters concerning privacy, confidentiality and that the results of the study will be reported in a way that guarantees anonymity. The purpose of this study was to understand how the women school heads approached the field of leadership and transform their schools, For the purpose of this paper, I focus on the case of only one school head (with a pseudonym Shelly’) in trying to demonstrate how the women in this study succeeded in managing the change process in their schools. : “We were the first women teachers to be promoted to administrative posts through affirmative action so we were sent to rural areas to find out how well we can manage and whether we would make it. We were an experimental group”. Shelley started as a deputy head at the school. Her head was very supportive. She was inducted into the system without any problem. She transferred on promotion. “I applied for a lateral transfer. I was appointed to the post of a school head two, since deputy head one post is equivalent to school head two post. I accepted to go and head a smaller school”. According to her thinking the only challenge she anticipated was that of decision-making. “As deputy in a large school you still have a head above you to look up for advice, direction and final say in difficult times”. Initially from her comments, it seemed as though she had less confidence in taking up the headship position. When she arrived at the new school, the situation was quite different. She did not have anyone to induct her. The school lacked basic functionality and infrastructure “At this school there was no hand-over take-over process. Everything was in shambles. There was no water at the school the taps were locked. There was no electricity and yet the school used to have electricity. Buildings were falling no renovations were being made. There were no financial records”. She asked for permission from the responsible authority to start new records water was unlocked -electricity reconnected. working with both the senior teacher and the owner of the school she cleared her way for further negotiations created open channels of communication. She had personal contacts with parents interactions opened up opportunities for sharing information and ideas. She involved the teachers in her meetings with parents. and share teachers joined the crew in educating parents about the importance of their children’s education. For Shelly, personal communication was a key ingredient of her leadership. “I communicated with the farm owner first, who actually owned the school, I then moved on to farmers surrounding the school”. To make positive changes Shelly indicated that she had to encourage both the parents and the owner of the school to work together towards improving the school situation. Challenges emanated from all directions - the farmers employed children for cheap labour -some parents detained children home as baby-sitters while they go to work in the farms. Shelly approached the farmers on behalf of the parents who could not afford to pay fees for their children. the woman head acted as a link person and she elaborated: “The parents could not afford to pay for their children. So approaching the farmers was like speaking on behalf of the parents, so that the farmers pay for both the fees and uniforms for the children and hold back part of the parents’ money every month until the bill is over”. Shelly agonised with parents over lack of resources until they finally came to an agreed solution. As the classes remained small with teachers reporting a lot of absenteeism, the head teamed together with the teacher and made more inquiries concerning the matter and they discovered that. plays and dramas with educative messages encouraged parents to respect the education of their children motivated them to attend school. The school head created space for everybody to participate by valuing everyone in the organisation. promoted team work. Resistance normally occurs when people are not well informed or do not understand the purpose of the innovation. the head talked to individuals both formally and informally a Encouraged them to share ideas about anything concerning the school, children and the parents. Creativity planned to introduce a pre-school to solve the problem of baby-sitting.” lack of resources. received support from both the parents and the farmers. interactive leadership which involves talking with and listening to other people. respected the parents by listening to their concerns about the fees. facilitated the information flow when she approached the farmers on behalf of parents. the results ware positive because she was open to discuss with her community. Her leadership was transparent. Construction of school blocks was her priority When she left the school, enough classrooms had been built Old classroom blocks had been renovated. In terms of academic progress academically a 98% pass rate at grade seven was achieved and one pupil got a bursary. The school had seven teachers, three males and four females. Shelley stayed there for three years before she applied for head grade one post. CONCLUSIONS Implications of Shelley’s case in terms of how change can be managed within certain contexts. Shelley’s creativity and innovation embraced basic principles of what can be termed servant leadership and learner leadership Shelley’s story reflects elements of commitment, love, nurturance and respect of people of different backgrounds.