Conference Agenda

Context: In Kazakhstan, there is an evident gender leadership gap in general and in school leadership in particular (OECD, 2019). Women are qualified in educational terms but are constrained to access leadership positions. The government has introduced a range of policies and strategies as a response to the gender leadership gap in the public sector (Ministry of National Economy of the Republic of Kazakhstan, 2019). However, poor implementation of the current gender strategies has failed to create working solutions, and Kazakhstan has seen a decline in its ranking in the Global Gender Gap Index over the last decade. This suggests that the goals of gender equality policies were not met in Kazakhstan. The identification of factors constraining women from accessing school leadership is pivotal to the realization of gender equality targets set by the government of Kazakhstan. It is noticeable that in the Central and Western regions of Kazakhstan, the number of female teachers significantly exceeds the number of men, but women are underrepresented in school leadership.

There are various advantages of a gender-balanced distribution of leadership positions in schools. Women could bring other perspectives and alternatives as their skills, knowledge, and experience are currently under-utilized resources. Involving women in leadership accelerates both development and creativity in decision-making processes and intellectual stimulation (Mayer & Oosthuizen, 2020; Uusi-Kakkuri, 2017). So these benefits of promoting women to leadership positions will help improve the economy. Another positive side of advancing women in leadership is that they could be role models for the younger generation. Potential female candidates for leadership positions will inspire other women to lead. Moreover, increasing qualified female professionals could open doors to top management for other women as they will serve as mentors for the younger generation of girls.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to explore how female principals experience leadership trajectory and (2) to understand the reasons for the gender leadership gap existing in mainstream schools in Kazakhstan.

Research Question: The above aims will be achieved by exploring the following question: How do female principals experience leadership trajectory in mainstream schools in Kazakhstan in Central and Western regions of Kazakhstan?

Theoretical Framework: Exploring female school principals' experiences and understanding the gender leadership gap in Kazakhstan necessitates engaging in a broader discussion of the theoretical framework. This study is guided by two theoretical perspectives: poststructuralism and postcolonial theory. Using poststructural and postcolonial theory together will enable more nuanced interpretations of social issues in their political, economic, and cultural contexts that have created and sustained the gender leadership gap in school contexts. Additionally, there is an essential affinity between the two theories as they are both concerned with unequal power relations and aim to produce contextually relevant knowledge (Gikandi, 2004). Foucault’s understanding of these specific power relations creates a useful lens through which women are constructed by discourse in the social context. Therefore, this lens allows looking closer at how power is enacted in the local context.

Gender equality is a part of the implementation of Agenda 2030. The assignments in schools for gender equality are extensive, in laws and in curricula.

In Sweden, The School Act links the gender equality mission to human rights and democracy. Curricula formulate responsibility for active work to counteract traditional gender patterns. Curriculum changes 2022 also reinforce the gender equality mission in school, with writings on sexuality, consent, violence and oppression. Employees are expected to actively work for equality. The principal is ultimately responsible for this work. Principals are also expected to work for equality from an employee perspective, with the support of the Work Environment Act and the Discrimination Act.

The Swedish Schools Inspectorates inspection of elementary schools show that, in general, school staff works more reactive than proactive with changing limiting norms (such as gender stereotyped, sexualized language, and gender-related vulnerability). A systematic way of working with gender equality is missing (Skolinspektionen, 2020). New parts in the introducing parts of curriculum for elementary school (from fall 2022) integrates gender equality even more, addressing how schools can work with gender issues from several different perspectives (gender stereotypes, violence, safety) –according to Swedish National Agency for Education. There seems to be a lack of systematic, preventive gender equality work (Skolinspektionen, 2020). An earlier study on principals at Umeå University also shows that gender equality work is a challenge for many (Kolam, 2014). Some explanations given are that it is difficult, there is a lack of time and that the principals do not ask for results from equality work.

During several years of work with principals attending the national school leadership training program in Sweden, principals' experiences of a difficult assignment emerge.

One starting point is that in organisations, gender is intertwined with other processes like divisions, symbols, interaction and internal identity work (Acker, 1992). This means that the ‘doing gender perspective’ with the understanding that gender is created and the meaning of gender is formed through different relational activities in an organisation, is used (Acker, 1992; Gunnarsson et al, 2003; West & Zimmerman, 1987).

Gender is seen as something that is constituted through interactions (West & Zimmerman 2009). It is an ongoing activity in everyday interaction. This perspective helps to not only see individuals, but also put attention to interactional and institutional arenas, and open up possibilities for change (ibid).

An example of a lack of understanding of unreflected assumptions based on gender (Martin, 2003) is given in a research project that aimed to explore new approaches in the classroom with gender equality in focus (Berge & Ve 2000). Teachers at an elementary school engaged in exploring new ways to pedagogically challenge stereotypical assumptions about gender in the classsroom. One important outcome, was how the participating teachers themselves behaved in a way that sorted the pupils influenced by gender. One conclusion was that the design of the research should have included learning and reflections also among the teachers (ibid).

The aim of the paper is to explore principals narratives about leading schools for gender equality, both what kind of leadership is needed and how the engagement varies and why.

The results is to also inform a future action research project. In projects using Action oriented gender research, where the doing gender-perspective is combined with learning theory from action research, there has been different research projects about the concept ”Gender aware leadership” (Amundsdotter & Andersson, 2018; Argyris & Schön, 1974; Andersson & Amundsdotter 2012; Andersson et al, 2009). Some results indicates a potential to work with new inclusive practices is in the hands of middle managers.

Individuals have to fulfill multiple roles such as childhood, motherhood, fatherhood, employee and manager throughout their lives. Individuals spend most of their lives with their families or at work. For this reason, roles related to work and family are among the most prominent roles in the lives of individuals and must be performed simultaneously in limited energy and time (Özdevecioğlu & Doruk, 2009). Work-family conflict arises when there is a mismatch between the role adopted as a member of an organization and the role adopted as a member of a family (Efeoğlu & Özgen, 2007). Greenhaus and Beutell (1985) mention three types of work-family conflict based on time, tension and behavior. Time-based conflict, where the time that individuals allocate to one role makes it difficult to participate in another role; tension-based conflict where tension in one role prevents them from participating in another role; behavioral conflict occurs when behaviors required for one role do not match behavioral expectations in another role. There are two aspects of work-family conflict: work-intervention in the family and family-intervention in work (Gutek, Searle, & Klepa, 1991). Carlson, Kacmar, and Williams (2000) tried to measure the related conflict based on a six-dimensional structure by combining these three types and two aspects

Gender role can be explained as the group expectation that society defines for women and men and expects them to fulfill in accordance with genders (Altınova & Duyan, 2013). Ellemers (2018) mentions that gender-related judgments affect both the way women and men define themselves and the way they are treated by other people by preventing the distribution of duties and responsibilities within the family and the equal benefit from the established relationship. The roles that gender imposes on women and men can affect the cognitive, affective and behavioral reactions of the individual in business and family life. Perceptions that are far from egalitarianism about gender create feelings of guilt and inadequacy in women (Bayar-Türkoğlu, Yüceer-Kardeş, Özdemir & Sever, 2022). Women who experience this feeling may limit their professional promotion opportunities and disrupt their careers by giving more importance to marriage instead of business life, and to their children instead of career life (Arslan, 2012). Career satisfaction is considered as the satisfaction of the individual with the degree of reaching the goals set in the career process (Yüksel, 2005). Aarntzen , Derks , van Steenbergen and van der Lippe (2022) revealed that internalized gender stereotypes increase the sense of guilt that working mothers attach more importance to their work than their families compared to fathers . In the study conducted by Önel (2006), it was determined that women's tendency to quit their job is more than men when it comes to work-family conflict. As it is seen, the problems experienced by female employees in the context of the responsibilities brought by their traditional roles play a role in their career development processes. In this context, in this study, it will be tried to determine the relationships between gender perception, work-family conflict, maternal employment guilt and career advancement aspiration of mothers working in educational institutions.