Conference Agenda

Objectives

The work of principals across the globe has become increasingly challenging and complex, as they are expected to lead school improvement, manage a host of competing demands, and attend to the needs of diverse stakeholders. Using life history and narrative methods, this paper examines how women principals construct their life histories in relation to educational reform, highlighting their orientations toward leadership practice and development as influenced by multiple contexts and identities.

Perspective

Understanding the complexity of leaders’ professional lives of educators in the context of reform is enhanced by methodologies that capture the dynamics of educational change and center lived experiences and narratives. Life history methods provide a way to understand the co-construction of reform and offer insights on how leaders enact reform as individuals embedded in broader contexts (Clandinin & Connelly, 1998; Optlka, 2010; Scalan, 2012). This is especially important when studying the experiences of women principals, whose experience is shaped by gendered (and in some cases, racialized) identities (Lomotey, 2019; Santamaria et al., 2019). We build upon Smulyan’s (2000) theoretical framework, examining the interaction between agentic individuals, social-cultural systems, institutional contexts, and educational change in how women principals construct their leadership practice.

Methods

Using life history and narrative methods (Berger, 2008; Clandinin & Connelly, 1998; McAdams, 2008; Optlka, 2010; Scalan, 2012), this paper draws upon data from 16 semi-structured interviews with 8 women public school principals from the U.S., conducted during 2022-23. Adapting McAdam’s (2008) life history interview protocol, we focused on participants’ life histories in relation to educational reform and leadership experiences. Each interviewee participated in two 60-90 minutes semi-structured interviews. We used narrative analysis to understand principals’ significant professional moments, educational change memories, the role of identities, and perceptions of future work.

Results

Women principals’ leadership experiences were inextricably linked to institutional change that drove large reform movements as well as their community and school contexts. For example, shifts in curricular reform occurred simultaneously with shifts in broader contexts as evident in the new emphasis on social emotional learning and use of technology for teaching and learning due to the pandemic. The women principals negotiated multiple and sometimes conflicting demands within the educational system, as well as between their professional, personal, intersectional identities. They constructed their leadership practice by drawing on their most salient identities, which varied in emphasis along gender, race/ethnicity, class, and religious faith. Principals’ narratives carried strong themes of agency, with leadership orientations that highlighted their caring and collaborative and social justice orientations.

Significance

The findings have the potential to inform the field about how principals construct stories of their lives and work, and make decisions about school improvement through multiple periods of reform. The findings also have implications for supporting principal sustainability in the profession.

Connection to Conference Theme

The paper dovetails with the ICSEI sub-theme on leadership development (i.e., exploring the evolving research and evidence base for leadership education and capacity building) as well as the theme on ongoing system and school implications arising from the pandemic.

There is a growing consensus among scholars and practitioners that newly appointed headteachers can be considered a »vulnerable« group of headteachers due to their lack of experience and feeling of isolation (compare e.g. Catagay & Gumus 2021, Lokman et al 2017). Also, many of them have not yet become members of the (in)formal networks which could help them reduce stress and build leadership capacity. In addition, research on the effectiveness of diverse approaches on the professional and career development of headteachers shows that traditional (mass, frontal) forms can no longer meet the needs of the individual in a rapidly changing time and environment and that individual, group and team forms of headteacher support need to be strengthened (compare, for example, Earley 2020, Bainbridge et al 2019). Recently, coaching has been suggested by many scholars to be a viable form of support for novice headteachers as it (amongst other things) strengthens mental resilience and improve their well-being (see van Nieuwerburgh et al 2020, Lofthouse & Whiteside 2019, Forde et al 2012). The contribution focuses on the inquiry of coaching for newly-appointed headteachers, which was first implemented by the Slovenian National School for Leadership in Education (NSLE) at the National Education Institute during the covid-19 epidemic and has so far involved more than 50 headteachers. The coaching »packages« in a form of 5 or 7 one-hour coaching sessions in a row once or every second week are regularly (each year) undertaken by two trained and licenced coaches employed at the Slovenian NSLE. The paper outlines the implementation of coaching and presents the effects and impacts on leadership that we have monitored and evaluated over the years. The coaching experience was researched using a questionnaire for the coachees and an evaluative discussion (focus group) with the coaches. The article focuses on the presentation of the execution of the coaching process, the emerging themes/challenges of the coachees, perceived benefits, valuable aspects and impact of the coaching experience, beliefs regarding the most beneficial attributes of a coach and potential solutions related to future regular headteachers' coaching support at the Slovenian NSLE. The research found that the themes/challenges discussed by the headteachers with the coachees can be organized in 6 main areas, i.e. human resource management, organisation of work, pedagogical leadership, well-being, cooperation with various stakeholders and general management. The perceived benefits were identified and grouped into effects related to headteachers' well-being and personal growth (e.g. building resilience, figthting workload, more energy, personal satisfaction, sense of control, gained self-confidence) and enhanced leadership practice and skills (e.g. better decision making, clarity in direction, better delegation of tasks, new ideas, bigger picute, development of listening skills). Based on the research data, it can be argued that this form of support is highly useful to headteachers, improves the quality of leadership, and also has a significant impact on the resilience of headteachers. In the future, it would be beneficial to consider this kind of support to be offered to experienced headteachers as well.

The role of district leaders across contexts is to provide multi-dimensional support for teaching and learning. One of the dimensions through which the support is transmitted is the circuit managers, whose role as principal supervisors is to work collaboratively with principals and educators in schools to give management and professional support and help schools achieve excellence in learning and teaching, among other things. These district leaders are recently realised as “anchors and drivers of district-wide transformation” (Honig & Rainey, 2019, p. 17).

Recent studies have highlighted the significance of circuit managers in school improvement (Bantwini & Moorosi, 2018; Mthembu, 2018). Moreover, although good evidence exists on the value of instructional leadership at the school level (for example, see Leithwood & Seashore-Louis, 2012), there needs to be more coherent evidence on instructional leaders at the circuit managers and advances in their practice. This is despite recent evidence confirming that these professionals are essential for effective system leadership and reform and play a key role in taking effective education interventions to scale (see, for example, Honig & Rainey, 2019). While this is the case, South African studies suggest they are the weakest link (Bantwini & Moorosi, 2018).

The paper reports findings from an ongoing project that examines district leadership’s capacity to support principals in effectively leading teaching and learning. The paper focuses on the circuit management sub-directorate in a thriving rural district in KwaZulu-Natal to understand the influence of this sub-directorate on learner performance in schools.

We (authors) positioned ourselves within the interpretivism paradigm to engage with the first-hand experiences of circuit managers. In keeping with this paradigmatic positioning, the narrative inquiry, a research methodology that allows researchers to engage narratively with people’s lived experiences, was adopted to engage circuit managers in this study. Also, narrative ways of generating and analysing data were used.

The study revealed that circuit management has a strong influence on improving performance in schools. Four significant practices through which the participating circuit managers influence learner practices. Firstly, they direct intervention initiatives to all grades while not losing sight of grade 12. Secondly, they have direct involvement in monitoring learners’ work. Thirdly, they expose principals to learning opportunities. Lastly, they recognise and reward good performance. Considering these findings, we conclude that the participating circuit managers adopted an approach of working through and with principals to influence learner performance in schools.