In this section I delve more deeply into the study‟s research design and detail the selection of the participants, their biographical profiles, the field texts and techniques used to generate research data from the women HoDs. In the next section I will discuss how the participants were selected for the research.
4.3.1 Selecting the Participants for the Study
In this study there are nine participants. As an Indian woman myself, and an Acting HoD, and having experienced challenges and opportunities in this role as an Indian woman, initially I was interested in the experiences only of Indian women HoDs of secondary schools. However, upon reflection about women in management positions in schools, I decided to expand my study to include women HoDs from the other race
87 groups because I realised that it was not feasible to limit the research to one racial category. As a feminist researcher, I realised that women HoDs from other race groups also had particular experiences of their roles as middle managers and therefore their stories were integral to the research. My focus thus shifted from Indian women HoDs to women HoDs in general enabling me to emphasise the gender of women HoDs rather than their race. Due to its fluid nature, narrative inquiry as a methodology allowed me to make this change easily. As Clandinin and Connelly (2000, p. 115) state: “Narrative Inquiry often has purpose, though purpose may shift, and always has focus, though the focus may blur and move”. Thus I set about purposively selecting participants regardless of race group. I received permission from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education to conduct research in the selected secondary schools (see Appendices B and C10).
As noted by Cohen, Manion & Morrison, (2007), in purposive sampling cases are handpicked on the basis of the participants‟ suitability for the researcher‟s specific needs. Supporting this, Cole and Knowles (2001, p. 65) point out that:
... if we accept the subjective and intersubjective nature of human experience and meaning- making, the dynamic, multidimensional, and contextual nature of knowledge, and the related unpredictability of the human condition, then concerns about “sample size” and representativeness, purity of “truths” told, and the generalizability of research findings to populations of people become nonissues.
I acknowledge that a limitation to my study is that the sample is small and focuses only on nine women middle managers. The study is also limited to women in secondary schools hence the intention was not to use this study‟s findings to
generalise about to all women middle managers in all schools. However, my goal, like Cohen et al. (2007) and Coles and Knowles (2001), was to locate a small number of individuals who were willing to make a commitment to work with me over a period of time to gain in-depth insight into the issue of how they developed the capabilities to be managers and how they function in their HoD roles. Purposive sampling is used to access “knowledgeable people” meaning that the participants should have in-depth knowledge about particular issues, by “virtue of their professional role” (Cohen et al.,
10 There are two letters of consent from the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. The second letter that I received was in response to my request to extend my study. The request was made soon after my initial request to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education. Subsequently the title of my thesis changed to its present title “Women Middle Managers in Schools: Narratives about Capabilities and Transformational Leadership”.
88 2007, p. 115). I did not intentionally set out to select nine participants, it was only after I visited the schools and informed the HoDs about my study, did these nine women middle managers agree to participate. Some HoDs, who I initially spoke to, did not want to participate because they lacked the time to be involved in an in-depth study that required much of their time and effort. I was not discouraged to work with a small sample because my intention was not to generalise my findings, rather it was to acquire in-depth information from the participants through the use of multiple data collection techniques. The advantage of using the multiple method technique is that it allowed me to gain as much information as I could in regard to the themes I worked with, within the limited time I had spent with each participant.
Prior to selecting the participants and inviting them to participate in my research study, I developed criteria for the selection of participants. The criteria are:
The participant needed to be a woman
The participant had to have at least two years of experience as a HoD. This criterion would ensure that she was experienced in her role and would be able to discuss how she functioned in her middle management role.
The participant had to manage a range of subjects or learning areas. I wanted to understand how the various learning areas or subjects were managed by women.
The participant had to be posted to a school within proximity to my home. The proximity of the schools was an important criterion because my research design entailed a week observing the participant in her role as HoD.
The participant‟s school needed to be a secondary school. My research was confined to secondary schools because the literature shows that women educators face greater barriers in being promoted to middle management positions in secondary schools than in primary schools and women HoDs face greater challenges in secondary schools.
I obtained a list of schools in two circuits, namely Durban Central and Phumelela Circuits which were both part of the Umlazi District in the KwaZulu-Natal
Department of Education, from the local circuit offices of the education authorities. I
89 contacted at least fifteen of the principals of schools on the lists to enquire if the school had women HoDs who might participate in the study. Eventually eight schools were identified and participants were selected on the basis of the above criteria. One school was a working class township school and the others were middle class
suburban schools. Of the eight schools, one school was a school for girls and the other seven were co-educational schools. Although all eight schools were government schools, the school for girls was an “ex-model C” school and enrolled only White learners during the apartheid era. The school had more resources and facilities than the other seven schools, for example it had a well-equipped sports field and a school hall.
Seven of the schools had learners from the different race groups, although, the school for girls was the only school with White learners. The school in the township only had African learners and teachers. Prior to 1994, during the apartheid regime, schools were separately administered according to the race of learners. The eight schools had their own political history and were built during the apartheid era. One school was once administered by the African education department, two by the House of Representatives for Coloured learners, one by the House of Assembly for White learners and four by the House of Delegates for Indian learners. For me, this political history and social landscape was important in so far as it concerned the locale where the participants were working as middle managers. I recorded my personal experience of the schools I visited in my reflective journal. On September 12, 2007 I wrote:
The participants are located in schools that are transforming at different stages as far as the demographics of educators and learners are concerned. The schools are attempting to enrol a diverse, multicultural group of learners, but, the township schools do not have such diversity amongst learners or educators as the schools in the urban areas. Some schools are successfully transforming to meet the changes of our democratic society, others are not.
In Table 4.1 following I present the biographic profiles of the nine female HoDs who participated in the study.
90 TABLE 4.1 Biographical data of the nine selected women HoDs
Participants Hema Arthi Rita Neelam Mandisa Thembi Irene Valerie Gene
Racial Classification
Indian Indian Indian Indian Black Black Coloured Coloured White
Age group 41-50 51-60 51-60 41-50 31-40 51-60 41-50 41-50 60+
Marital status M M M M M M S D S
No. of children Two Two One Two Three Three None None None
Area of specialisation
Geography, Guidance Counselling
English Biology, Natural Science
Science Education
Commerce Languages Physical Education
Commerce Economic
Sciences Departments
being managed
Social Sciences;
Geography;
History;
Tourism;
Home Economics;
Human and Social Science;
Life Orientation
Languages – English Afrikaans, Zulu
Biology;
Life Sciences;
Natural Science;
Physical Science;
Mathematics
Mathematics;
Science
Commerce;
Business Economics;
Accountancy
Language- English
Life Orientation;
Arts and Culture;
Technology
Economics;
Business Economics;
Accountancy;
Economics
& Management Sciences;
Travel and Tourism
Commerce;
Accountancy;
Business Economics
Highest level of education
BA - Post Graduate Diploma in
Education
MA B.Ed. D.Ed. B.Ed. B.Ed. H.D.E B. Comm. B. Comm.
First year of teaching
1988 1985 1984 1987 1996 1980 1984 1988 1969
Year of promotion to HoD position
2000 1999 2002 2003 2000 1995 2002 2003 1985
Notes:
a) Fictional names are used to provide the participants with anonymity
b) The marital status of the women participants is represented by the following symbols: M = Married, S = Single, D = Divorced
c) The highest level of education is represented by the following symbols: MA = Master of Arts, BEd. = Bachelor of Education (Hons), DEd.= Doctor of Education, HDE.= Higher Diploma in Education, B. Comm. = Bachelor of Commerce
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The nine participants agreed that I should provide them with fictional names, as they wished to remain anonymous in the study. The race of the participants was important as the women experienced their formative years within a political context that
separated people by race. Thus, the women participants had diverse personal, educational and social experiences based on their racial classification. In terms of race, four of the women participants were Indian, two were black women, two were Coloured women and one woman participant was white.
The age of the participants helps to show the level of maturity of women middle managers. The participants ranged from 31 years to 60 years and all women had been HoDs for at least four years. All participants felt that they were sufficiently
experienced as middle managers, which was determined by the number of years they spent as HoDs.
The marital status and the number of children that the participants have are important categories because family responsibilities impact on the professional lives of women HoDs. Six of the women managers were married with children, two were unmarried and one was divorced. In interviews all the participants confirmed that their family responsibilities impacted on their role as middle managers, however, those
participants who were single or divorced indicated that they had more time to commit to their role as middle managers. For example, they cited being able to attend
workshops and meetings that required them to travel and to stay away from home. The participants who were married indicated that, although their husbands supported their role as HoDs, they felt compelled to divide their time between their work and family lives. Having children also compounded their responsibilities as wives and mothers, however, the participants who were married and had children, indicated that they were supported by their spouse and children in their management roles. Those participants who did not have children stated that they had fewer family responsibilities and therefore were able to concentrate on their professional lives. These women managers like Gene, Valerie and Irene indicated that although they did not have children of their own, they did feel maternal towards the learners they taught. Some participants like Arthi, Hema and Rita felt that teaching was the most suitable job for them especially when their children were younger, as they were able to spend quality time with their families during these formative years. They indicated that their career aspirations were on hold for some time until their children were older.
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The area of specialisation is an important category as it is related to the department that is being managed by the women middle managers. With the curriculum changes that are taking place in the South African education system, different subjects that are related may now be joined to form one department.
The level of qualification is an important category as it shows the professional qualification and ability of women middle managers. The participants had
professional teaching qualifications and taught their specialisation subjects. However, all the participants, except Thembi, were managing departments that included other subjects apart from their own area of specialisation. Thembi explained that two languages constituted the Language department at her school. IsiZulu was the Home Language and English the First Additional Language. Due to the Language
Department being so large, another HoD was then appointed to supervise isiZulu and Thembi concentrated only on English. There were many changes taking place within the educational context involving curriculum matters in secondary schools. Schools therefore, began changing the arrangement of their departments, and grouped certain learning areas and subjects into one department. For example, English, Afrikaans and Zulu were grouped together and formed the Languages Department, which were previously separate subject departments.
The first year that the participants started their teaching careers is an important category as it highlights the number of years the women middle managers have been in the teaching profession. This category is related to the year of promotion as it shows the number of years the participant spent as a Level 1 educator before being promoted to a middle management position. The most experienced HoD began her teaching career in 1969 and the least experienced started teaching in 1996, but what is apparent is that nearly all the participants had taught for more than ten years before being promoted to a HoD post. Mandisa was the exception to the group of participants as she had taught for only four years before being promoted to the HoD position.
Of the nine participants in the study, I personally knew one of the participants because we taught in the same area and occasionally met at union meetings. I was introduced to the other eight participants when they agreed to participate in the research. My relationship with the participants developed over the weeks I spent with them and I found that they became accepting of me as a researcher and were able to share
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information more easily with me. I realised that the participants trusted me as the researcher who wanted to know more about their lives and roles as middle managers.
Although I was guided by the interview schedule, the interviews were informal, particularly the meetings at the participants‟ homes. Initially a few of the participants felt intimidated by my “researcher role” and would constantly ask if they were
“answering correctly”. I had to reassure them that there were no predetermined answers to any of the questions. I found that as I gained the participants‟ trust, they saw me as an equal – someone who listened and seemed to understand who they were as middle managers. At my initial meetings with the participants I was also nervous because I wondered if I would gain their acceptance to undertake the research. As a researcher I did not consider myself as having “power over” any of the participants because I believed that they were more knowledgeable about their field of work and their lives than I was. Therefore, throughout the research process, the participants were my equal.
All the biographic information provides factual information about the participants‟
personal and professional lives, which is the initial step in appreciating their
narratives. In order to understand how the participants function in their role as HoDs and to gain a deeper and more nuanced understanding of how they developed their capabilities as middle managers, various field texts were also used to generate this data. These field texts are dealt with in the following section.
4.3.2 Field Texts in the Study’s Narrative Inquiry
Clandinin and Connelly (2000) refer to the data generated in the field as field texts.
Field texts are written by the participant and the researcher to represent aspects of the field experience. The field texts are composed in a three dimensional inquiry space (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 50). These authors have used three metaphorical terms for the three dimensions in narrative inquiry: personal and social (interaction), past, present, and future (continuity); and place (situation). This means that the field texts should reflect time and place and be situated in a personal-social continuum. As a narrative inquirer, I was constantly aware of where my participants and I “were placed at any particular moment – temporally, spatially, and in terms of the personal and social.” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 89). When narrative inquirers are in the field they are never there to only record someone else‟s experience. They too are having an experience, the experience “of the inquiry that entails the experience they
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set out to explore” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 81). Thus I saw my experience as a dual one: experiencing the role of my female HoDs in their middle management roles and also being part of the experience itself. As a researcher working from a feminist perspective, I located myself within my participants‟ experiences and tried not be detached from my participants when reflecting in my journal about my field experiences.
According to Clandinin and Connelly (2000), the field texts created may be more or less collaboratively constructed, may be more or less interpretive and may be more or less researcher influenced. Some of the field texts were collaboratively and
reciprocally constructed in my research, such as the letters and journals that were written by the participants. I did not believe that I could offer an “absolutist interpretation” of the stories or narratives of my participants, but rather shared my reactions to the stories in a non-judgmental way as suggested by Thomas (1995, p. 8).
The participants were also allowed to write and reflect on matters that were important to them in the area of study. This was in the form of the letters and reflective journals.
This did not mean “an abdication of expertise and knowledge” (Thomas, 1995, p. 8) for me as the narrative inquirer, or the “abandonment of craft skills and expertise” of my participants as teachers and managers. Rather, the participants and I worked together during data generation to gain a more in-depth understanding of their experiences as HoDs and middle managers. The narratives of the participants
remained their “communicative property” as Gubrium & Holstein (2009, p. 41) refer to their contribution, but, I did not wish to abdicate my role as the researcher, and therefore, I analysed the data personally. The various techniques used in generating the data will be explained further in the next section.
4.3.3 Techniques used in Generating the Field Texts
Using various field texts enabled me to gain rich in-depth information and have a richer understanding of the participants and their experiences as women HoDs. I felt like a conductor of an orchestra. Each field text represented a different musical instrument. As a conductor cues in each instrument‟s player to create a unified, harmonious piece of music, I found the stringing together of various field texts about each woman created a unified narrative of her experience as a HoD and middle manager. I employed four specific techniques to generate text, letter writing, journal