Women and leadership in education: implications for professional development from a critical realism

Women and leadership in education: implications for professional development from a critical realism Dr Anthony Thorpe Senior Lecturer - Leadership and Management, University of Roehampton, London, UK a.thorpe@roehampton.ac.uk EAPRIL European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning annual conference 2016

Thorpe, A. (2016) Women and leadership in education: implications for professional development from a critical realist approach. EAPRIL European Association for Practitioner Research on Improving Learning annual conference, Porto, Portugal 22nd-25th November. Email: a.thorpe@roehampton.ac.uk

Overview This presentation is concerned with equality and diversity in the education workforce. It focuses on women in leadership from a literature review I undertook for the Susanna Wesley Foundation (Thorpe 2016) http://susannawesleyfoundation.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/02/anthony-thorpe.pdf Reports call for things to be make better for women in leadership in the education sector and elsewhere. Yet the same concerns and frustrations continue to emerge in research. What are the things that thwart these good intentions and how might a more inclusive leadership be achieved?

This topic matters because: Education and workplace learning should not be reduced to a form of technicism. A concern for the equality and diversity of children and young people should not be divorced from a concern for adult employees in education. The aims and processes of education cannot be isolated from the wider organizational and structures. NB The review drew on critical realism as its theoretical basis (not critical theory).

Thinking deeply about culture in schools Recognising the ethnocentric and class related ideas at work within teaching and education (Jacky Lumby 2012). Head teachers views of diversity amongst students and staff are related and linked to their own experiences (Kay Fuller 2013).

To review of literature from the education sector about women in leadership to explore: I) the representation of women within the education leadership structures, ii) where women are represented within the education organization structures, iii) how education leadership is exercised by women in those formal positions, iv) the place of education leadership development.

Some educational arguments for diversity in educational organizations such as schools That the staff of educational institutions: should be a visible embodiment of equality and diversity, draw on the benefit of the richness of diversity as it leads to better learning, have a moral imperative to lead change in society because schools have a special place in forming the minds and attitudes of the young.

Most teachers in both secondary and primary schools in the UK are female. Most heads of secondary schools are male. The proportion of male heads in primary schools is large in comparison with the overall number of women in primary teaching. The proportion of female headteachers and deputy headteachers is growing. (Marianne Coleman 2005)

Diversity or single focus? Gender has become a codeword for female. Having now accumulated considerable work on women s leadership to add to the already existing research on male leadership, we might be able to begin to examine the ways in which gender, race, and educational context influence leadership behaviors and outcomes, rather than looking at women in isolation. (Charol Shakeshaft 2010)

The underlying events and the structures Critical Realism seeks to move beyond the surface level experiences in seeking to identify the underlying events and the mechanisms that generate these experiences within the specific contexts with a view to drawing out effective ways forward (Margaret Archer, Roy Bhaskar et al. 1998; Thorpe 2014). Affective structures in social changes and structures going beyond psychological feelings or understandings (Kathleen Lynch et al. 2012).

Representation Increasing numbers of women in formal positions within the hierarchy of educational organizations does not, in itself, address the deeper problem and bring about a substantial change. Where, what and how of practice matters. The place of leadership development and opportunities Problem of the safest possible solutions. Issues of the discourses of leaders and leadership in education.

The neo-liberal turn What counts as real leadership? What counts as education? Neoliberal- paying for teachers is a drain and a burden. Outputs, efficiency and private money are investments in education. Not caring but being careless (Kathleen Lynch et al. 2012) The ideal citizen engaging in competitive survival.

The leaderist turn and leaderism Louise Morley (2013) The rules of the game: women and the leaderist turn in higher education...leadership has developed into a popular descriptor and a dominant social and organisational technology (p116). The re-orientation of public services towards the consumer-citizen with leadership as an organisational panacea is leaderism a new managerialism in disguise (O Reilly & Read 2010; 2011). Current dominant idea of leadership in education is an important mechanism for generating and maintaining these safe solutions, e.g., professional development.

Traditionally excluded groups being given positions either with considerably less power and lower prestige or else once prestigious posts now transformed into less powerful roles. Formal development programmes which may be offered to fix the women to continue and reinforce the current situation. Mentoring (both formal and informal) that replicates existing power relationships and established views and practices. Safe- solutions examples I

Versions of caring leadership which are manipulative, involve dispensing favours, making decisions that maintain their power in the name of caring. (Like leaderism this is managerialism - a wolf in sheep s clothing ). Muted forms sugaring the pill with great emphasis on motivation and support- but to do what, at what cost and with what concern for social justice? Safe- solutions examples II

Ways forward? 1. Rejecting simplistic approaches and styles of what works literature in education. 2. Taking equality and diversity seriously in education contexts and tacking assumptions- however well intentioned. 3. Challenging non-educational ideas of leadership in leadership development programmes. 4. Identifying the micro-inequities by which discrimination operates. 5. Recognising agency and structure are always in tension.

Question How might the examples of safe solutions i) resonate with your experiences in your organizations? ii) what you might seek to change in your own organizations to promote equality and diversity?

References Archer, M., Bhaskar, R., Collier, A., Lawson, T., and Norrie, A. (eds.) (1998) Critical Realism: Essential Readings. Abingdon: Routledge. Coleman, M. (2005) Gender and headship in the 21 st Century. Nottingham: NCSL. Retrieved from http://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/docinfo?id=17191&filename=gender-and-headship-in-the-21st-century.pdf Fuller, K. (2013) Gender, Identity and Educational Leadership. London: Bloomsbury Press. Lumby, J. (2012) Leading Organizational Culture: Issues of Power and Equity Educational Management Administration & Leadership 40(5), 576-591. Lynch, L., Grummell, B., and Devine, D. (2012) New Managerialism in Education: Commercialization, Carelessness, and Gender. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Morley, L. (2013) The rules of the game: women and the leaderist turn in higher education. Gender and Education 25(1), 116-131. O Reilly, D., and Reed, M. (2010) Leaderism : An evolution of managerialism in UK public service reform. Public Administration 88(4), 960 78. O Reilly, D., and Reed, M. (2011) The grit in the oyster: Professionalism, managerialism and leaderism as discourses of UK public services modernization. Organization Studies 32(8), 1079 101. Shakeshaft, C. (2010) Gender and Educational Change. In Hargreaves, A., Lieberman, A., Fullan, M., and Hopkins, D. (eds.). International Handbook of Educational Change. Dordrecht: Springer, 969-983. Thorpe, A. (2014) A critical realist approach to educational leadership and management: possibilities and agendas. International Association of Critical Realism Conference, London, 18th- 21st July. Thorpe, A. (2016) Women and Leadership: a thematic review of literature from the education sector. Project Report. The Susanna Wesley Foundation. http://susannawesleyfoundation.org/wpcontent/uploads/2016/02/anthony-thorpe.pdf