EMPOWERING EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICE WITH REFERENCE TO MY NARRATIVE

Let us revisit the three arguments that I claim represent “thin” conceptions of current educational leadership and management practice and show how these thin conceptions can become attuned to “stronger” educational leadership and management practices by transforming and empowering the school leaders’ thinking and actions in relation to the context of the school environment.

The first thin conception of educational leadership and management practice to which I alluded to in my narrative is my own autocratic leadership and management style that I employ as a school principal. In order to transform this autocratic leadership style, I had to reflect critically on why communication in terms of staff relationships is not functioning effectively and openly. I mention conflict between two camps of teachers in my story. The conflict of staff is possibly due to my style of leadership and management. The whole structure of the school is embedded in hierarchical structures which constitute a “top-down”

approach to school leadership and management. Hence I contend that if my approach were more emancipatory, freer and more liberating, and if I were to apply a more participatory democratic leadership approach, I would possibly transform the school environment into a more collegial democratic site.

In Chapter 3 I shall use a detailed study to advocate democracy and create space for a more deliberative democratic practice. I shall briefly introduce and explore a deliberative democratic approach to school leadership and management practice. According to Woods (2005: xvi), democratic leadership and management aim “to create an environment in which people are active contributors to the creation of the institutions, culture and relationships they inhabit”.

Woods purports that creating space for deliberative democratic leadership and management involve people as active contributors to, and participants in, the creation of school communities. In other words, creating space for deliberative democratic leadership and management is underpinned by the active involvement of participants. These participants could possibly contribute to empowering and transforming school leadership and management practice in a more collaborative and participatory way. Such an understanding of creating space for deliberative democratic leadership and management could result in a thicker conception of leading and managing schools when compared to my autocratic style of leading and managing. There is a correlation between Habermas’s emancipatory theory and democratic leadership and management practice as both these ideas free and liberate the thinking and actions of people as free and equal participants in transforming the school environment.

It seems that educational leaders ought to empower themselves with leadership skills that are associated with a transformed practice. This means that my own school practice could only change and transform itself if my thinking and acting were to change with the aim of creating

an environment in which people are empowered to participate openly and actively, and where power and influence are distributed and not invested in one person, but in all people (teachers, learners, parents and school community) who collectively represent the school environment.

The second thin conception of educational leadership and management practice mentioned in my narrative is the patriarchal structure of educational leadership and management in particularly P4 schools. I claim that higher leadership and management appointments and positions in school education, namely at P4 level continue to be male-dominated. This I experienced when I engaged with six male principals from diverse racial backgrounds and school communities. All six male principals headed schools ranging from 750 to 1600 learners, all P4 schools. This was a clear indication that males continue to dominate leadership and management positions in bigger schools.

The new dispensation for education embraces the inclusion of women as gender equals with regard to educational leadership and management appointments and positions. In view of Habermas’s emancipatory theory, women, as equal beings, have the same rights to be included as free and liberated persons in society. Harding’s (1998) post-critical view proposes a difference-sensitive reworking of feminism embracing the difference(s) of women of diverse races who have been oppressed and exploited. She draws attention to black, lesbian, working-class and colonised women and deconstructs our thinking in relation to the category of “women” referred to as feminist post-modernists. Harding (1998) and Hartsock (1983) therefore extend our thinking beyond the boundaries of white educated Western women in contemporary society to difference-sensitive reworking of feminism. Therefore empowering and liberating the previously oppressed and exploited women by creating greater gender equality in educational leadership and management positions would eradicate discriminatory practices towards women of all races and cultural diversity. In my narrative I referred to the P4 school principalship for which I was short-listed. I mentioned that the successful candidate typifies the past apartheid CNE notion of school leadership. Clearly such a school typifies superficial changes by retaining the previous regime’s ideology of white male leadership, thus conforming to the traditional/classical approach to leading and managing in contemporary schools.

The third thin conception of educational leadership and management practice in my narrative draws attention to the school culture and the inclusion of multicultural education. Schools are culturally diverse social settings, and the diversity of learners ought to be included in the social fabric that transforms the social, cultural and environmental composition of the school.

In other words, educational leadership and management practice are based on thin conceptions if they continue a school culture that embraces the dominant culture of the school, or that is swayed towards a more monocultural ethos. I refer to my story where I mention that classroom practice by the “disapproving Annies” continues as dominant traditional/classical forms of teaching and learning. These “disapproving Annies” see OBE as a threat to a more learner-centred approach and they are averse to embracing the diversity of cultures into their teaching and learning practice. These teachers continue to teach the learners as a homogeneous group, driven by the ethos of the dominant culture, while expecting those from other cultures to accept the dominant ethos in favour of the dominant culture. If I as principal have contributed to transforming the school culture, then the vision of the school would reflect the principle of inclusiveness, embracing the diversity of cultures and cosmopolitanism into the social fabric of the school. In terms of Derrida’s argument, it is through communicative interaction with others we (as school principals) can potentially transform our educational environments so that all can enjoy and contribute to education as fully fledged citizens of society (in Taylor 1986: 420).

2.7 SUMMARY

In this chapter I have examined thin conceptions of educational leadership and management in relation to six schools I familiarised myself with as well as my own school practice. I conceptualised meanings of educational leadership and educational management and showed that these two concepts cannot be separated. Rather, they are interchangeable, as educational leadership and educational management cannot be dissociated from each other, because the role of all six school principals as well as my own constitutes both leading and managing as complementary, interchangeable functions.

I highlighted three thin conceptions of educational leadership and management practice and explained what these thin conceptions involve. The first thin conception of educational leadership and management practice is based on the autocratic style of educational leaders

in schools. The second thin conception of educational leadership and management practice is based on the patriarchal approach to leadership and management appointments and positions within the hierarchical structures of the school system that continue to exclude women as heads of P4 schools. I refer to the encounter I had with six “dominant” male school principals. The third thin conception of educational leadership and management practice relates to the role that educational leaders play in transforming the school culture into multicultural educational environments. I show the connection between thin conceptions of educational leadership and management practice and positivist theoretical notions of leading and managing. I drew the readers’ attention to my story (narrative) and my personal encounters with six “dominant” male principals to substantiate the positivist/behaviourist thinking and actions evident in my own and the six other educational leadership and management practices. Evidence of my own inherited male-dominated style of leadership and management is reflected in the anecdotal account of my inherited understanding of school leadership and management shaped by positivist notions of leading and managing a school. My reference to continuing positivist notions of school leadership and management in two of the former model C schools has substantiated the argument that some school principals continue to lead and manage their schools in a way that is embedded in strong positivist/traditional understandings of school leadership and management practices.

Finally, I argued with reference to the works of Habermas and Derrida that educational leadership and management ought to be attuned to stronger aspects of critical and post-critical educational theories that could shape a “thicker” conception of educational leadership and management. It is my contention that by reconceptualising educational leadership and management practice shaped according to a deliberative democratic approach to school leadership and management practice, democratic transformation in schools could possibly be deepened.