CHALLENGING METHODOLOGIES
4.5. DESCRIBING THE SYNTHESIS PROCESS
4.5.1. Clustering of chronicles guided by the research questions
The synthesis process involved a meshing of the findings of the eight chronicles into a coherent whole, guided by the three research questions. These questions were generated retrospectively from the chronicles and, for convenience, I replicate them here:
1. How is teacher leadership understood and practiced by educators (post level one teachers and SMT members) in mainstream South African schools?
2. What are the characteristics of contexts that either support or hinder the take- up of teacher leadership?
3. How we can theorise teacher leadership within a distributed leadership framing for the South African schooling context?
The chronicles were then clustered according to their ability to best answer the research questions. While I acknowledge that, in many instances, the chronicles responded to more than one research question, the synthesis had to have a starting point. Although artificial to some degree, the clustering of the chronicles according to their ability to best answer the research questions offered a pragmatic start to the synthesis process. Thus chronicles one (underpinned by research strand one), five (underpinned by research strand four), six (underpinned by research strand five) and seven (underpinned by research strand six) were clustered in response to the first question. Chronicles two (underpinned by research strand two) and three (underpinned by research strand three) were clustered in response to the second question while chronicles four (underpinned by research strand three) and eight (no research strand underpinning) were clustered in response to the third question. Table 4.1 depicts the eight chronicles organised into clusters guided by the three research questions.
Title Author ship
Status of publication
Research Inquiry
Research Design and Methodology
Findings Theory Used Research
Question CLUSTER 1
1 Emerging voices on teacher leadership:
Some South African views
Sole Published in Education Management, Administration and Leadership 34(4) 2006, pp. 511 - 532
Explores experience of educators about concept and experiences of teacher leadership
RESEARCH STRAND ONE
Qualitative, 11 educators, Purposive sampling Educator journals, focus group interviews Thematic content analysis Grounded Theory
Initial: leadership equated with headship
Emerging model –4 zones Pre-requisites
Barriers
Distributed leadership (Gronn, 2000; Bennett et al, 2003)
Teacher leadership (Katzenmeyer and Moller, 2001) 5 ‘We did not
put our pieces together’:
Exploring a professional development initiative through a distributed leadership lens
Sole Published in Journal of Education Vol. 44, 2008, pp. 85 - 107
What leadership role do teachers play in take up of new pedagogic learning and what challenges do they face?
RESEARCH STRAND FOUR
Qualitative case study, four schools, SMT members, teachers and project leaders
Methods: questionnaires, interviews, document analysis
Thematic content analysis TL model
TL restricted to Zone 1 and 2 No take up in Zone 3.
Barriers reside in school culture, time, micropolitics, hierarchical school structure and autocratic principal Argues for critical importance of linking professional development initiatives to issues of leading
Distributed leadership (Gronn, 2000; Bennett et al, 2003; Gunter, 2005)
Professional learning communities (Katzenmeyer and Moller, 2001)
6 Passing the buck: this is not teacher leadership!
Primary Co-author Singh
Published in Perspectives in Education, 27(3) 2009, pp. 289 – 301
Explores how leadership of SMT either promoted or hindered teacher leadership
RESEARCH STRAND FIVE
Qualitative, 2 schools, Purposive sampling SMT and teachers Questionnaires, interviews Grounded Theory Re-analysis: TL model
TL restricted to Zone 1 Restricted teacher management within discourse of delegation SMT controlled TL –senior teacher culture
Rhetoric of TL, contrived collegiality
Distributed leadership (Gronn, 2000; Bennett et al, 2003; Gunter, 2005)
Teacher leadership (Harris and Lambert, 2003)
7 Perceptions and realities of teacher leadership: a survey
Primary Coauthors Gardner, Kajee, Moodley, Somaroo
Submitted to South African Journal of Education, June 2009, In peer-review process
Explores teacher perceptions &
experiences of teacher leadership
RESEARCH STRAND SIX
Quantitative study Survey, Questionnaires Purposive sampling 1055 teachers, Analysis SPSS & TL model
Supported notion of shared leadership
TL restricted to Zone 1 SMT major barrier – no trust, No TL in decision- making
Distributed leadership (Gronn, 2000; Spillane, 2006)
Teacher leadership (Harris and Lambert, 2003)
One: How is teacher leadership understood and practiced in mainstream South African schools?
8
CLUSTER 2 2 Teacher
leadership:
gendered responses and interpretations
Sole Published in AGENDA No 65, 2005, pp. 44 – 57
Explores relation between gender and leadership;
gendered roles
RESEARCH STRAND TWO
Qualitative, purposive sampling, 18 educators, Focus group interviews, Thematic content analysis
Context matters: rural/urban divide
Leadership male domain;
Gendered roles
Challenges status quo; calls women teachers to find voice
Distributed leadership (Gronn, 2000; Harris, 2004)
Habitus (Bourdieu, 1972)
3 ‘In this culture there is no such talk’:
monologic spaces, paralysed leadership &
HIV/AIDS
Primary Co-author Jugmohan
Published in South African Journal of Education Leadership and Management 1(1) 2008, pp. 3 - 16
Explores school leadership in context of HIV/AIDS pandemic
RESEARCH STRAND THREE
Qualitative, purposive sampling, SMT & District Official perspectives, Methods: Questionnaires and interviews, Thematic analysis using NVIVO
Representations of space:
policy documents Representational spaces:
monologic, myths and marginalization.
Paralysed leadership
Distributed leadership (Harris, 2004)
Space (Lefebvre, 1991), Dialogic space (Rule, 2004)
Socially just leadership (Shields, 2004, 2006)
Two: What are the characteristics of contexts that either support or hinder the take-up of teacher leadership?
CLUSTER 3 4 Towards a
conceptual understanding of leadership:
place, space
& practices
Sole Published in Education as Change 13(1) 2009, pp. 45 - 57
Explores a conceptual framework for leadership through the use of a vignette
RESEARCH STRAND THREE
VIGNETTE
Qualitative, purposive sampling
SMT and District Official perspectives
Methods: Questionnaires and interviews
Thematic analysis NVIVO
SMTs not leading in relation to HIV/AIDS – not creating safe spaces, attending to technical aspects
Leadership paralysis due to their being outsiders – illegitimate peripheral participation
Space, place (Lefebvre, 1991 and Tuan, 1977) and Community of practice theory (Wenger, 1998) Democratic distributed leadership (Gunter, 2005) as socially just leadership
8 Distributing school leadership for social justice:
finding the courage to lead inclusively &
transformativly
Sole Book chapter Muthukrishna, (2008), pp. 181 – 192
Educating for social justice &
inclusion:
pathways &
transitions.
NY: Nova.
No empirical research – chapter is an argument
NO RESEARCH STRAND Conceptual chapter
Argues from critical perspective that schools require a democratic distributed form of
leadership which is inclusive and which males place for the inclusion of those previously disadvantaged, particularly teachers and women.
Democratic distributed leadership (Gunter, 2005)
Habitus (Bourdieu, 1972)
Socially just leadership (Shields, 2004, 2006)
Three: How can we theorise teacher leadership within a distributed leadership framing in the South African schooling context?
Table 4.1: Clustering of chronicles according to research questions
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