Centres of power
8.2 The Principal / SMT as the centre of power
8.2.2 Disciplining the educator
Surveillance and normalisation is not limited to learners only. Educators are constantly warned and subjected to the gaze as well. Schools are closely governed and legislated by rules and regulations, codes of conduct etc. Infringement of rules and regulations is construed as an act of misconduct. Personnel have to be closely monitored for punctuality, absenteeism, attendance at union meetings, etc. The principal as the accounting officer at the school and due to his positional power is at the centre of power and he drives the surveillance agenda home at a staff meeting:
So I am telling you people they told us very clearly they have started monitoring and auditing leave forms. You are in trouble. We are in trouble. They are going, I have invited Mr Reddy21. He is going to come back on the date. This document here you must read it first. He is going to come here, starting right from the principal, the clerk of the school everybody. They are going to talk to us on how to control this leave thing. Impossible to do this now. There is risk management to leave-taking. Even if it is one day, fill in a leave form. I am telling you as friends, please. This is a small community we work with. They know the law. They are phoning the Department. Mr Reddy will tell you certain educator was found during the shad22 season with a fishing rod. So I am telling you all with caution don’t do it. One educator was photographed at the casino. He took leave he went to a workshop. He was photographed at Suncoast23. The guy went to gamble. But then I asked,
”How come there were so many yellow cars24 in the parking? They work till half past four”. (Principal at staff meeting).
21Mr Reddy is a senior official in the leave section of the KwaZulu-Natal DoE.
22A marine fish generally caught in the waters of the Indian Ocean.
23Suncoast is the name of a Casino in KwaZulu-Natal.
24The KwaZulu Natal DoE officials travel in the organisation’s yellow cars for their official duties.
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The principal points to the professional decay in the system where the KwaZulu-Natal DoE officials are also defaulting (how come there were so many yellow cars in the parking? They work till half past four). Surveillance here is a two way process: those that keep watch are also being watched and extend to all levels of the hierarchy. As part of the administrative processes in schools, educators are expected to complete documentation, such as a leave form. In the absence of a monitoring mechanism, educators have been taking advantage of the situation. This meeting reinforces the notion that the gaze is ever-present and if tempted to default, educators should be aware that the watchful gaze of the community is upon them. Here the principal positions himself as a friend to the educators and blames the DoE instead of promoting ethical behaviour at the school.
The completion of a leave form establishes a judicial relationship between the employer and the employee. Educators are also bound by the South African Council for Educators (SACE) code of conduct that cements the judicial relation of power with the employer. In the excerpt below, the gaze is extended to other forms of conduct - to the practice of examinations and assessments.
Educators are reprimanded for defying instructions and rules:
I am very perturbed at what’s going on. I will be forced to reprimand you. I have done that to three educators in the last two weeks. I know water has flowed under the bridge. I had to do it. It comes from a management perspective. Now look at this here. Educators are reading during the assessment sessions. I don’t mean reading comprehension passages. You are reading novels. Out of order. If you want to read you must do it weekends and after school or during your break. You are not allowed to do that. Full stop.
If you are reading according to your learning area is fine (principal at a morning staff briefing).
Policies are put in place (Grade 12 examination guidelines) and educators are expected to abide by them at all times even when the gaze is absent. Defying the guidelines is seen as an act of resistance and the punishment is misconduct. Disciplinary hearings are conducted for acts of misconduct in line with the SACE code of conduct and the Labour Relations Act of 1995. The educator is expected to be vigilant and observant at all times. In this extract the principal contradicts the examination policy guidelines by indicating that, “If you are reading according to your learning area is fine”. Generally, this comment is applicable to a few female educators who read novels (own observation). The controlling gaze of the principal is targeted at correcting behaviour which he construes as non-curricular instead of reinforcing the examination guidelines,
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namely that no reading is allowed. The educator is positioned as a subject that is expected to abide by legislation and relevant code of conduct. This indicates that in Primrose Secondary, as in other schools, documentary evidence like reports, attendance registers, and leave forms are used to extend the arm of surveillance.
Surveillance operates at various levels. A hierarchy of surveillance operates; educators are expected to be on ground duty, that is, under the disciplinary gaze of the SMT and other educators, and those educators on duty are to extend their gaze onto the learners within the parameters of the school fence and gates.
The school yard is enclosed by barbed wire, initially intended to prevent trespassers from entering the school premises and to protect learners from unsafe elements on the outside. Educators on duty are expected to keep watch. The school gates have been used to police learners. Learners are to be watched by educators on duty. Learners are not permitted to leave the school premises. Deviant learners have resisted this form of surveillance by escaping through holes in the fence or by jamming the locks with matchsticks. These holes in the fence are not only used for escaping but provide an entry into the school when learners are prohibited from coming to school either because of being late or being suspended. Learners resist forms of control by devising new strategies to be at school. In the same way as learners are watched, educators are also watched to see if they do report to grounds duty.
Educators embarked on strike action over a labour dispute and they were expected to teach during weekends as part of a recovery programme. The labour action was undertaken on the ‘no work no pay’ principle. However, if educators taught during weekends they were compensated for this. In the extract below an incident involving the early closure of school during the recovery programme, shows how the disciplinary gaze extends to the community.
It would appear that somebody phoned the director. They didn’t go through the local district office. They put pressure on somebody and that somebody phoned me. We don’t want to get into a suspicious mode, but how do we address this? Are we satisfied that we have recovered time? Is it because educators want to make up for lost salary and not lost time (Principal).
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The extract above reveals the manner in which the school is being surveyed by the community. In this case the principal uses the surveillance by the community to reinforce control of the educators. The surveillance of the community is also a way in which schools are rated. The school, as part of the community, is classified as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. Choices are made by parents on where they should send their children. Communities rate schools informally. There is strong competition between schools. The principal rates Primrose Secondary School as the best school in the town. Micro-politics are always at play in interacting with principals of other schools. Flessa (2009, p. 336) makes the point that “Leadership and management are not politically neutral processes but provide the setting for the enactment of micro-politics”. Micro-politics work both within and between schools. Humes (2000) argues that places of learning like schools and universities are sites where micro-politics are actively at work. The study of micro-politics in schools has been an under-researched area. In a telephone conversation below, the principal draws attention to the labelling of schools:
Hello, how are you doing? So they must not give us bullshit. We have gone old in this profession. His brother’s children were here, his daughter was here- she had an ‘A’
aggregate, ‘A’ aggregate I am talking 85% and he says P…school is a bad school still.
And R… says my school is a shit school. All his lighties finished matric here. If you have got confidence in your own school you must take your lighty to your own school. That’s what I am trying to tell you. We are from the ANC25. You know, urban legends. P… is not stupid. He came from the struggle, not for nothing. I call them mosquito bites. They are minor irritations. Because they can’t run their own school properly, now everybody is focusing on us. Lighties pull out knives over there; it’s not in the papers. Professional jealously brother. I got about the most loyal staff you can ever think off. I have got three anarchists on my staff. They keep me going. I don’t have to fall in love with everyone. It keeps me young, it keeps me vibrant.
We see micro-politics at work in the principal’s comment on the ‘anarchists’ on his staff.
Educators who are in dissension with the principal’s management or leadership style are termed
‘anarchists’. These comments indicate unsatisfactory views of his leadership which is contrary to the commendations received when he resigned (see Chapter 6). The principal works hard at portraying the school as a school of choice. The school has a dedicated public relations officer (chosen by the principal) who compiles media statements for the press. The school is positioned as
25The ANC is an abbreviation for the African National Congress and represents the dominant political party in South Africa.
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a political organisation where information is scrutinised and censored prior to going to the press.
The principal’s political grounding reinforces this practice.
This section explored the principal/SMT as the centre of power. The gaze of the principal/SMT extends beyond the learners to include the educators as well. The principal and SMT, by virtue of their positional power, were able to reinforce certain hegemonic practices (for e.g., the prefect system) in the school. This section also showed how the centre of power shifts and how the push- pull force of power determines the nature and content of interaction.
8.3 The school governing body as a competing centre of power through the lens of the