Navigating through the first-year principalship: an autoethnography in the Pakistani college context

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis is a narrative about my first year’s principalship experience at a pre-service teachers’ training college in Pakistan, a Muslim country with a patriarchal background. Here, I discuss challenges I faced upon assuming the principalship. Specifically, I focused on how I responded to these challenges. In my response to those challenges, I explored the implications of my experience as a woman in the leadership role confronting organizational issues and societal influences in a unique culture. I share insights into how a female leader developed innovative strategies to manage/lead in the patriarchal society where I was overwhelmed by the task of challenging the cultural norms. Further, by the narration of this reflective experience, I attempt to deconstruct the current discourse on educational leadership and pluralize this knowledge by bringing in an unheard voice from the global south.