In what way do the abilities of female middle managers enable them to function as transformational leaders. This study focuses on the development of women HoDs as middle managers in secondary schools.
Background and Rationale for the Study
As a result of the major changes taking place within the policy and various management structures in South Africa and schools abroad, the actual role of the HoD lacks clarity and understanding. This is confirmed by Rosenfeld, Ehrich & Cranston (2008) who state that the role of the head of department in schools is under researched.
Social and Educational Effects of the Apartheid Legacy
These laws and the total effect of the apartheid system led to complete fragmentation of the social and educational systems in South Africa. Even the curricula in schools for black learners had very little relevance to the lives of the students.
Purpose of the Study
The South African government is expected to redress past imbalances created by the apartheid system by implementing equal opportunity and affirmative action legislation (Mathur-Helm, 2004). The theme of this study is to understand how this social drama played out in the lives of some female task leaders and will help to provide insight into how female task leaders may evolve in changing social contexts.
Critical Questions Posed
These will be gendered experiences and their act of management will be understood as asserting and acting out a middle management role. Private and professional lives are situated in a social, cultural, political and economic milieu, so the narratives of their capabilities will be linked to their experiences and understandings formed in these contexts.
My Paradigmatic Stance for the Study of the Women Middle Managers My study is located within a feminist paradigm because I am a woman and a feminist,
This multi-dimensional lens of the story told allows me to gain deep insight into the participant in her management role. Feminists appreciate the backstories from history of those who have been silenced or silenced, and all their details, and of the underdog such as women or girls.
Synopses of Chapters
The capability approach and transformational leadership theory are the foundation for this chapter, as it examines the functioning of female middle managers as transformational leaders within secondary schools. I found that the capabilities approach showed that the foundational capabilities developed in female middle managers enabled them to function in their managerial role.
Concluding Remarks
This chapter has three themes as I review the international and South African literature relating firstly to women in educational leadership, secondly to middle management and thirdly to leadership and management. Finally, I review the international and South African literature on the concepts of leadership and management.
Women in Educational Management and Leadership
I then look at the literature on the role of the director and the difficulties in performing that role. The first study by Moorosi (2006) investigates the problem of under-representation of women in principal positions in secondary schools in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa.
The “Middleness” of the Role of Head of Department
The HoD must balance the two tasks for the effective functioning of the department. Glover, Gleeson, Gough & Johnson et al. 1998) agree that the role of the HoD increases in responsibility because senior.
Conceptions of Management and Leadership
In the next section, I will discuss the concepts of leadership and management in the educational context. Therefore, participatory and collaborative approaches to leadership and management are set as the foundation for transforming schools in the post-apartheid era in South Africa.
Concluding Remarks
In the next chapter, I discuss the capabilities approach and the theory of transformational leadership to understand why mid-level women can become transformational managers. Transformational leadership theory, also used in this study, will further explore how mid-level women are able to effectively lead their departments in the post-apartheid era.
The Capability Approach
Therefore, female middle managers who are given essential freedoms, such as the freedom to be educated, are able to enrich their lives by following a profession of their choice. I will also consider whether female middle managers are able to function in their leadership role due to the development of competencies in their early years.
The Capability Approach and the Development of Women Middle Managers
61 approach and the development of women as middle managers are the themes of the next section. According to Sen (1999, p. 190), obstacles to the well-being of women are present in the world and their identification is important when considering social justice issues.
Transformational Leadership Theory
In the next section, I will discuss the theory of transformational leadership and why it is used in this study. Burns (1978) conceptualized the transactional and transformational dimensions as separate, while Bass (1985) has argued that transactional and transformational leadership can be.
Transformational Leadership in Education
In the horizontal alignments, I categorize the alignments using leadership characteristics to explain the alignment of the management abilities and the transformational leadership functioning: 1) development of knowledge and skills in the department;. The matrix of the alignment shows that the capabilities approach and transformational leadership theory are complementary and how the capabilities of Nussbaum (2000a) and Walker et al. 2010) is necessary to function effectively as a.
Concluding Remarks
In the next chapter I will discuss the methodology used to explore how women middle managers developed their skills to function as transformative middle managers. This chapter is about the methodology I used to study the professional lives of women HDs in secondary schools and how they developed the skills to become middle managers.
Narrative Inquiry as Methodology
This means that in the process of narrative research a relationship is formed between the. 85 The collaborative relationship in narrative research has an affinity with feminist research and this is discussed in the next section.
Feminist Research and Narrative Inquiry
Narrative research is a subset of qualitative research design and is one of the methods accepted by feminist researchers. Feminist researchers are interested in these experiences of women and thus the women being researched are approached to express their views rather than being treated as objects of research study (Chase, 2005, p. 655).
The Narrative Inquiry Design of this Research Study
The age of the participants helps to show the level of maturity of the women at the middle level. These conversations took place during my week of participant observation in their schools.
Analysing the Narratives from the Study
The transformational leadership theory was used to understand how the female middle managers led the people in their departments and the type of support they provided to their department members. The transformational leadership theory helped me to understand how the female middle managers were able to practice as middle.
Ethical Considerations
Participants were given detailed descriptions of the various research instruments and what was required of them (see Appendices F, G, H, I, J and K). These actions allowed participant confidentiality which was further ensured by no.
Authenticity and Dependability of the Research
Participants were invited to review and respond to the transcripts of the interviews. The leadership styles of the female middle managers in my study resonated with the leadership styles of female middle managers in the other two studies.
Concluding Remarks
FROM THE EARLY CHILDREN: THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CAPACITIES OF FEMALE DEPARTMENT HEADS. To do this, I analyzed the female middle managers' stories about their social and educational life histories.
Developing Capabilities
Family relationships contribute either positively or negatively to the emotional well-being of family members. Such resilience can be defined in terms of "the presence of protective factors (personal, social, familial and institutional safety nets)" that enable individuals to withstand life stress (Kaplan, Turner, Norman &.
Experiences of Violence in Schools and of Weak Capability Sets Violence within schools is an obstacle experienced by some women and girls. It
Many of the perpetrators who punished the participants were their educators, as shown in the following stories. The discussion so far shows how the participants acquired basic skills, such as the ability to think.
Career Choices
Being able to choose a career strengthens the role of the female participants and their self-efficacy. The self-efficacy of the female participants reflects that women's freedom of choice helps them make choices regarding their careers.
Concluding Remarks
In the next chapter, I will discuss how female middle managers developed further capabilities in their interactions with their role models and mentors. This chapter focuses on the role of mentors and role models in the lives of the women participating in this study and their abilities to function as transformational middle managers.
Identifying Role Models and Mentors
However, family members and friends were the role models and mentors who directly influenced these women. The participants without a mentor or role model for the professional domain looked to significant people in their lives as their role models or mentors.
The Influence of Role Models and Mentors in the Personal Domain In the letters to their mentors and role models, the participants ascribe the type of
Aspiring to be like these role models and mentors who demonstrated resilience in their own lives, Hema is inspired to persevere in the face of her own. In the next section I discuss how role models and mentors influenced women to develop emotional intelligence.
The Influence of Role Models and Mentors in the Professional Domain Some of the women HoDs were informally mentored by mentors who were in direct
After guiding Thembi in the technical aspects of the job, her mentor also made sure she developed professionally as an educator. The supportive relationship and encouragement that some of the participants received from their mentors and role models inspired them to improve in their careers.
Mentors as Barriers to Advancement
Thus the management and control of the school was in the hands of a few men. Through this tactic, she claims that her male colleagues were able to control the flow of women into leadership and management positions at the school.
Concluding Remarks
The performance and practice of the women in their role as middle managers will be discussed in the next chapter. This indicates that the female middle managers may not always exhibit transformational leadership behavior in their management roles.
Developing Knowledge and Skills in the Department
These techniques used by the female middle managers make use of the ability of knowledge, thought and practical skills. When the female middle managers are able to participate actively in the school's organizational conditions, their empowerment as female managers and leaders is promoted.
Setting Department Directions
In this section I discussed how female middle managers stimulated the knowledge, creativity and skills of the members in their departments, whether they were learners or not. Through this shared formulation of the vision, the female middle manager promotes team spirit in the department and therefore expects a commitment to the vision and goals of all the members.
