Gender and leadership in education : women achieving against the odds PDF
Preview Gender and leadership in education : women achieving against the odds
The under-representation of women in leadership positions in educational settings is G Gender and Leadership a widely acknowledged, complex phenomenon that seems to persist, despite the fact e n that teaching as a profession is dominated by women. Over recent decades, scholars d have investigated the factors contributing towards this under-representation, with a e in Education r particular focus on the personal, organisational and social/cultural levels. a n This volume has been compiled in honour of Marianne Coleman, Emeritus Reader d in Educational Leadership and Management at the Institute of Education, University L e College London. She is widely regarded as one of the most significant scholars a Women globally in the field of gender and educational leadership, forging the research agenda d and mentoring some of the scholars who contribute essays here. Amongst the key e r Achieving questions the book asks are: Why does society continue to accept male leaders as the s h norm? What barriers do women who seek leadership positions face? What supports i p do women require in order to encourage them to pursue leadership positions? How Against do women working in leadership positions conceive of their role as leaders? How in might women’s educational leadership be best supported at an institutional level? E the Odds d u c Kay Fuller is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and course leader of a the MA in Educational Leadership and Management at the School of Education, t i o University of Nottingham. She is a member of the Centre for Research in Educational n Leadership and Management (CRELM). She has published internationally in the area of gender and educational leadership. Kay is an elected member of the British F Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) Council u and Co-Convenor of the BELMAS Gender and Leadership Research Interest Group. l l She is also an invited member of the worldwide network Women Leading Education. e r a Judith Harford is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Professional Master of n Education (PME) at the School of Education, University College Dublin. She has d published internationally in the areas of history of women’s education, teacher H education and education policy. She is Co-ordinator of the Teacher Education Policy a in Europe Network and a Convenor of the Teacher Education Research Network of r the European Educational Research Association (EERA). She is a Fellow of the Royal f o Historical Society (London) and an International Clinical Practice Fellow of the r d American Association of Teacher Educators. ( e d s Kay Fuller and ) ISBN 978-3-0343-1923-2 Judith Harford (eds) www.peterlang.com Peter Lang The under-representation of women in leadership positions in educational settings is G Gender and Leadership a widely acknowledged, complex phenomenon that seems to persist, despite the fact e n that teaching as a profession is dominated by women. Over recent decades, scholars d have investigated the factors contributing towards this under-representation, with a e in Education r particular focus on the personal, organisational and social/cultural levels. a n This volume has been compiled in honour of Marianne Coleman, Emeritus Reader d in Educational Leadership and Management at the Institute of Education, University L e College London. She is widely regarded as one of the most significant scholars a Women globally in the field of gender and educational leadership, forging the research agenda d and mentoring some of the scholars who contribute essays here. Amongst the key e r Achieving questions the book asks are: Why does society continue to accept male leaders as the s h norm? What barriers do women who seek leadership positions face? What supports i p do women require in order to encourage them to pursue leadership positions? How Against do women working in leadership positions conceive of their role as leaders? How in might women’s educational leadership be best supported at an institutional level? E the Odds d u c Kay Fuller is Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and course leader of a the MA in Educational Leadership and Management at the School of Education, t i o University of Nottingham. She is a member of the Centre for Research in Educational n Leadership and Management (CRELM). She has published internationally in the area of gender and educational leadership. Kay is an elected member of the British F Educational Leadership Management and Administration Society (BELMAS) Council u and Co-Convenor of the BELMAS Gender and Leadership Research Interest Group. l l She is also an invited member of the worldwide network Women Leading Education. e r a Judith Harford is Senior Lecturer and Director of the Professional Master of n Education (PME) at the School of Education, University College Dublin. She has d published internationally in the areas of history of women’s education, teacher H education and education policy. She is Co-ordinator of the Teacher Education Policy a in Europe Network and a Convenor of the Teacher Education Research Network of r the European Educational Research Association (EERA). She is a Fellow of the Royal f o Historical Society (London) and an International Clinical Practice Fellow of the r d American Association of Teacher Educators. ( e d s Kay Fuller and ) Judith Harford (eds) www.peterlang.com Peter Lang Gender and Leadership in Education Gender and Leadership in Education Women Achieving Against the Odds Kay Fuller and Judith Harford (eds) PETER LANG Oxford • Bern • Berlin • Bruxelles • Frankfurt am Main • New York • Wien Bibliographic information published by Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek. Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche National- bibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available on the Internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Control Number: 2015952227 Cover image © pimchawee/shutterstock.com ISBN 978-3-0343-1923-2 (print) ISBN 978-3-0353-0783-2 (eBook) © Peter Lang AG, International Academic Publishers, Bern 2016 Hochfeldstrasse 32, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland [email protected], www.peterlang.com, www.peterlang.net All rights reserved. All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems. This publication has been peer reviewed. Printed in Germany Contents Tony Bush Foreword vii Kay Fuller and Judith Harford A Festschrift for Marianne Coleman 1 Izhar Oplatka The Research on Gender in the Field of Educational Management: A Journals-Based Historical Overview of an Area of Study 7 Jacky Lumby Culture and Otherness in Gender Studies: Building on Marianne Coleman’s Work 37 Victoria Showunmi Diversity and Education in England 63 Joan Smith Motherhood and Women Teachers’ Career Decisions: A Constant Battle 83 Kay Fuller Headteacher Preparation: An Account of One Woman Headteacher’s Supportive Practices 115 vi Mary Cunneen and Judith Harford Gender Matters: Women’s Experience of the Route to Principalship in Ireland 147 Jill Sperandio and Jennifer Polinchock Roads Less Travelled: Female Elementary School Principals Aspiring to the School District Superintendency 175 Tanya Fitzgerald Venturing into the Habitat of the Powerful: Women Leaders in Higher Education 209 Margaret Grogan and Klara Wahlster In Books, on the Screen, and in Games: Leadership and Gender Stereotypes Shape Images of Young Women Leaders 227 Pontso Moorosi Patriarchal Bargain for African Women in Leadership: Deal or No Deal? 249 Helen Sobehart Weaving the Fabric of Legacy: An Epilogue 269 Notes on Contributors 283 Index 289 Tony Bush Foreword I have known Marianne Coleman for more than thirty years. We met when she was a teacher, and head of department of economics and business stud- ies, at what was then Bushey Meads School in Hertfordshire. We worked together for two years and became good friends. A few years later, we met by chance at a teacher professional development day in Hertfordshire. Over lunch, she said: ‘Do you know what I would really like to do? I would like to do research.’ A few months later, I was looking for a research assistant for a Leverhulme Trust-funded project on grant-maintained schools. I contacted her and, following much thought and discussion with her hus- band John, she gave up a permanent position with Hertfordshire Local Authority to accept a short-term post with the University of Leicester. Her distinguished research career started in this modest way. It will surprise nobody reading this book to learn that Marianne was out- standingly successful in this role. Despite little formal research knowledge or experience, she was excellent in her fieldwork and in writing research reports and chapters for the book that we wrote with our colleague Derek Glover. When the contract ended, after a short gap she was appointed as a lecturer in Leicester’s Educational Management Development Unit (EMDU), where she worked alongside several other colleagues who have become leading researchers and writers in educational leadership and management. These include David Middlewood, Ann Briggs, John West-Burnham, John O’Neill, Les Bell, Mark Brundrett and Jacky Lumby, a contributor to this volume. While at Leicester, Marianne registered for a PhD and decided to focus on women principals in secondary schools. This was the start of her engage- ment with leadership and gender. I was fortunate to be Marianne’s supervi- sor, the easiest such role in more than twenty years of doctoral supervision. Her research involved a survey of all women secondary school heads and follow-up interviews with some of them. Her external examiner was Valerie Hall, who sadly died a few years later at the very early age of just fifty-nine. viii Tony Bush Valerie was almost certainly the leading UK writer on gendered leadership before her untimely demise and, in a sense, the baton passed to Marianne. Marianne’s contribution to research on women leaders is immense. Her questionnaire with UK heads was adapted for use by other academ- ics, including Kay Fuller, as the introduction to this volume attests. She also conducted research on gender in several other countries, including China, Hong Kong and South Africa. She was also an obvious choice when Megan Crawford and I co-edited the fortieth-anniversary issue of Educational Management, Administration and Leadership (EMAL) and wanted to include a paper on leadership and diversity. Her distinctive contribution to the field in the UK was in building a solid evidence base to underpin her conclusions and theorising. Much of the writing on gender and management in the twentieth century was normative, based on indignation about the unfair under-representation of women. Marianne’s work helped to build a body of research data to explore and to explain the reasons for the gendered nature of leadership. Her cool analysis moved the debate forward in important ways although she never lost the values which led her to embark on this research in the first place. The only time I can recall her losing her measured approach was in China when we were interviewing a male principal. He explained his commitment to equal opportunities but was challenged by Marianne to explain why there were no women on his school management team. His reply, that women were good at nurturing children but could not see the ‘big picture’ and hence were unsuited to management, angered Marianne but she was still able to maintain a professional approach. It is my pleasure and privilege to contribute the foreword to this impor- tant volume. Kay Fuller and Judith Harford have assembled an impressive cast of authors, including several world-leading researchers on gender and leadership. That such a distinguished group of writers have agreed to con- tribute to this book demonstrates the high regard for Marianne’s research and writing in this field, and for her excellent personal qualities. I anticipate that this volume will become ‘required reading’ for students and academics in many parts of the world. It is a fitting tribute to a distinguished academic and a wonderful human being. Tony Bush Professor of Educational Leadership University of Nottingham
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