Women Leaders In Education Research Articles

Editorial: Women in educational leadership

Editorial: Women in educational leadership

‘Intersectional collaboration’: a new form of leadership from the WomenEd movement

ABSTRACT This paper takes an interest in tackling inequalities in school communities and considers how networks of change agents can work together to enact change. To do so, an ethnographic study is conducted examining WomenEd, a charity and grassroots movement of aspiring and existing women leaders in education. Building upon the perspective of collective leadership as a social process, the ‘social-symbolic work’ perspective is applied to analyse the activities of the movement. By drawing upon observations and interviews conducted over a three-year period, this paper offers detailed depictions of the motivations, practices, and effects of the social-symbolic work of WomenEd. The study observes a form of collective leadership underpinned by valuing difference, which enables participants to respond to oppressive school conditions and achieve shifts in autonomy and agential institutional influence. The study thus advances understanding of collective power, or ‘power with’, and the practical activities which can affect change, ‘power work’. Building upon Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality, we term the WomenEd practices ‘intersectional collaboration’, a novel form of collective leadership for social change. The study highlights the significance of inclusion and intersectionality in theorising ‘collectivity’, which has implications for understanding collective leadership and social change.

Experiences of Arab Women Leading School Reform Through a School-University Partnership

ABSTRACT This qualitative case study examines the experiences of 10 Arab women educational leaders leading, as part of a school-university partnership, a movement for school reform in the Arab world. An analysis of the findings, guided by the feminist perspective and using the intersection of literature on leadership of school improvement and women’s ways of leading, reveals that participants’ views and practices of leadership align both with best practices for leading school improvement and what the literature found about women’s leadership specially in the Arab World. The results also show that despite alignment between the participants’ experience and the experience of women leading in the Arab region, participants focused their effort on optimizing their assets, such as enabling work conditions, rather than on fighting against the structural constraints that typically hinder women from leading. We argue that the women’s refusal to reflect on their experience through a gendered lens obstructed them from identifying the gendered nature of the enablers and the structural nature of the obstacles they face. This study contributes to the knowledge base on women’s leadership of school-based transformational change in a non-western setting, an understanding necessary if broad-based leadership is to be achieved.

The Effects of Workplace Discrimination on Women in Education Leadership: A Case of Waterberg District in Limpopo Province

This study investigates the effect of employment discrimination on female leaders in the educational sector, with a particular emphasis on South Africa's Limpopo Province. The goal was to investigate the impact of such prejudice at the stages of recruiting, selection, and progression to higher positions. The study included 100 female participants and used a convergent parallel research technique that included quantitative and qualitative methodologies. All participants filled out a structured questionnaire, and a group of ten was chosen for a focus group interview. Audio recording was used to aid with data collecting. This study's theoretical foundation is built on Feminist Theory, which holds that workplace discrimination against women in educational leadership arises from a gender power differential. For the questionnaire data, statistical techniques were used, and theme analysis was used for the interview data. The findings show that, although women are given interim leadership positions within the Limpopo Department of Education, their possibilities decline dramatically throughout official appointment procedures. As a result, the research argues for strict monitoring of workplace discrimination against women in educational leadership posts, as well as the implementation of applicable laws throughout the recruiting, selection, and appointment processes.

Women’s leadership development is everybody’s business: if not now, when?

ABSTRACT The focus of this paper lies in our special interest in women leaders and those aspiring to leadership positions in schools and other educational contexts within Australia. Leadership is a gendered concept, and due to a myriad of factors including conscious and unconscious bias, and the challenges of balancing career with other life commitment, the reality is that women’s career journeys are different from men’s. Women’s unique career trajectories have implications for achieving their leadership potential. In addition to reviewing some of the extant literature in the area of women in educational leadership, we share our experiences and reflections based on our research and the leadership development programmes we have run for women mainly in Australia. These programmes have reinforced to us their value, place, and contribution to enhancing women’s capacities for leadership. In this paper, we address the following four key questions as they pertain to women leaders within the Australian context: (1) Why a focus on gender and leadership? (2) What are some of the barriers impeding women leaders? (3) Why is it important to have multiple faces of leadership? (4) Why is women’s leadership development everyone’s responsibility?

Book Review: Women in educational leadership and community building: Voices from across the globe

Book Review: Women in educational leadership and community building: Voices from across the globe

SCHOOL LEADERS’ PERCEPTIONS ON BARRIERS FOR CREATING INCLUSIVE INTERCULTURAL ENVIRONMENTS AND POTENTIAL GENERATIVE AI BENEFITS

Greek schools have been progressively challenged by the diversification of student demographics during the past decade. The European refugee crisis after 2015 has triggered immense needs to create inclusive intercultural school environments for disabled students whose first language and cultural backgrounds differ from the dominant Greek middle-class students in mainstream schools. School leaders play a vital role in creating inclusive schοols that respect race, culture, ability, class, family background, and linguistic diversity. Social justice leadership constitutes an integral part of inclusive intercultural education, yet works exploring school leaders’ struggles in engaging in this type of leadership in Greece are scarce. This work gives voice to women educational leaders in Greece and investigates the barriers they encounter in providing appropriate education to migrant students with disabilities. Moreover, it explores school leaders’ perceptions of how generative AI applications can potentially be used to minimize these barriers.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0078/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

"Leading the Way: Women in Educational Leadership and Their Impact on Academic Success and Administrative Effectiveness"

"Leading the Way: Women in Educational Leadership and Their Impact on Academic Success and Administrative Effectiveness"

Rooted in justice: one Black woman’s unique, intersectional educational leadership journey

ABSTRACTHistorically, there remains an underrepresentation of Black women in and en route to the highest levels of organisational leadership. The divide is all the more pronounced in the field of education, one in which women represent a large share of the community. Particularly relevant for Black women is the incongruence between their heightened educational attainment levels compared to their lower status in the organisational pecking order. To advance both theory and research in this domain, social justice leadership theory (SJLT) serves as the framework for this paper, rooted in the context of the United States. This paper explores the multilayered journeys of Black women aspiring to and operating in senior-level leadership roles (i.e. executives, directors, and CEOs) in US-based education, highlighting the unique and intersectional experiences of one Black woman educational leader. Indeed, there is a need to increase collective consciousness about the impact of leadership cultures on Black women, their experiences, their personal and professional choices, and the ensuing ramifications. In addition, the education leadership sector can benefit from the advancement of more research and theory development relevant to the progression of Black women educational leaders in the United States.

Challenges Facing Women in School Leadership Positions: At Community Schools in Lalitpur Nepal

Women's leadership in education, particularly in the role of women head teachers, plays a pivotal role in advocating for women's rights and fostering inclusive development. However, women in school leadership positions encounter substantial obstacles stemming from cultural, economic, and social factors. This study's primary objective is to delve into the perceptions and experiences of women headteachers concerning the multifaceted challenges they confront while leading community schools in the Lalitpur district of Nepal. To accomplish this, in-depth interviews will be conducted with three women head teachers representing different community schools. Despite the evolving landscape, Nepal still grapples with the prevailing perception of women as second-class citizens. Furthermore, state laws have not entirely rectified these societal disparities, particularly within educational leadership roles. In many instances, women in school leadership positions do not receive the encouragement they deserve, and they often face bias, where they are seen as inferior to their male counterparts. The complex challenges and disparities faced by women in educational leadership underscore the need for further research to comprehensively understand the issue, given the potential diversity of perspectives within Nepalese society.

Evaluating the Role of Women in Educational Leadership

Evaluating the Role of Women in Educational Leadership

Transnational women in globalised times: exploring glass ceilings, glass walls and other fragile metaphors of leading education

ABSTRACT This paper explores the experiences of transnational women educators, who lead in education institutions in globally imbricated home and host schooling contexts, focusing on how they negotiate glass ceilings and borders in their work and their life choices. The purpose is to extend scholarship on women in educational leadership, which is often framed as a binary of national and international scales, thereby omitting large numbers of educators who work and exist transnationally. Women continue to represent a large portion of the education profession globally, whose roots and routes criss-cross over national borders defining them in the process as transnational. Yet there remains a dearth of research addressing their experiences as transnational women educators, and in educational leadership positions in particular. This study uses narratives of transnational women to explore the professional life and personal reflections of six women who have worked across diverse school leadership roles. The findings of the study highlight the simultaneity of women’s lives and leadership practice across borders, and indicates scope for further research to move beyond binarised understandings of space.

Finding Room for Indigenous Women in Educational Leadership: Why Structured Mentorship and Training Are Needed

While the educational system attempts to recover from the last few years of teacher attrition and lower enrollments in teacher education programs, there is an opportunity within adult education to both promote and mentor indigenous women in educational leadership roles by providing education, resources, and opportunities during their training. As long as indigenous women educators are still left out of academic leadership spaces, the lack of diverse voices of women in educational leadership is an issue worth exploring. A troubling lack of mentorship, support, and opportunities exacerbates the exclusion of indigenous women educational leaders. The purpose of this paper is to explore ways that adult education programs and human resource development interventions can and should help prepare indigenous women for positions in educational leadership. Educational leadership training in higher education institutions must include structured mentorship and networking programs, efforts to understand how indigenous women learn and lead, and an embracing of alternate, indigenous ways of leading.

Female Leaders and Distributed Leadership: What Can Women Bring to the Table?

In this review of literature, we explore women in educational leadership and distributed leadership. Drawing our analysis from the lens of activity theory, we investigate how a distributed leadership practice may serve women in leadership. Findings from the review document a rise of women in leadership despite persisting barriers, highlighting female leaders as holding specific traits that inspire safe and collaborative environments drawing a strong connection with distributed leadership practice. Through the findings and in attempting to answer our questions with regards to women in leadership and distributed leadership, we propose further research on the characteristics and behaviours of leaders in certain cultures, and an in-depth exploration of distributed leadership as a practice situated through certain cultural contexts.

Women and Professional Generativity: Voices from the Field

Aging brings with it a certain commitment to improving the lives of future generations and to giving back by engaging in productive pursuits that provide psychological well-being (Versey & Newton, 2013). Leaders and adults develop a heightened sense of communion with self and others and derive meaning and satisfaction through serving others (Slater, 2003). We present findings from a focus group comprised of nine college-educated women professionals from three countries, gathered for the purpose of discussing generativity in educational leadership. Purposeful sampling was employed to allow variation and representation of women in educational leadership. Positions held by focus group members ranged from principals, directors, professors to deans. The specific purpose was to obtain an in-depth understanding of experiences of women as they engaged with the concept of generativity in their personal and professional lives. The results suggested that commitments to generativity activities varied by experience, age, and race. Another important finding was the categorization of participant women into distinct identity markers of pathmakers, guardians, searchers and drifters (Josselson, 1996) as reflected by the focus and nature of their generativity activities. Further studies with women from different socioeconomic backgrounds and fields other than educational leadership need to be conducted to establish the universality of our findings. Keywords: women, educational leadership, generativity

Aspiring and inspiring: the role of women in educational leadership

PurposeThis study aims to delve deep into the differences observed in leadership acquisition and development between men and women and analyse the impact of certain extra-curricular activities demonstrated to influence leadership acquisition. With this evidence, this study intends to detect areas that require deeper analysis and suggest actions to redress the balance and promote a more egalitarian leadership in education in both teaching and management positions.Design/methodology/approachAccidental, as opposed to random, sampling was used via a cross-curricular study with a quasi-experimental design. The participants in this study were 335 teacher training students in Spanish universities. The Teamwork Skills Questionnaire was used to evaluate leadership and a self-assessment questionnaire to measure extracurricular activities.FindingsFemale students score lower in leadership skills and are engaged in fewer activities associated with successful leadership skills development. Very few students receive any training on leadership, with even fewer female than male students. Furthermore, the practice of certain extra-curricular activities can boost leadership skills. It has also been noted that these activities are carried out in different ways, depending on student gender.Originality/valueThis study has two points of focus: the level of leadership among education students, differentiating between male and female students, and the impact of certain extra-curricular activities carried out during the academic year, which have proven to have a considerable effect on the development of leadership skills.

“Passing the baton”: legacy and leadership in convent schools in India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan

ABSTRACTThis article examines the historical backdrop to the involvement of teaching Sisters in convent schooling for girls in India and the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, since the late nineteenth century. It then explores how, as a consequence of a range of social changes, leadership in convent schools has changed in both countries, across the twentieth century. The Irish Sisters who founded and established these schools commenced “passing the baton” of convent school leadership to Indian and Pakistani women. The article draws on interviews to examine ways in which successive generations of women in the study refer to the legacy of the past, and the issue of women in education leadership.

Dr. Barbara Higdon: Let It Begin With Me

College and university leadership has been analyzed in many ways using critiques of leadership styles, reviews of issues and individual philosophies. An examination of Dr. Barbara Higdon’s career and impact as an educator and educational leader will add to the story of women educational leaders in the United States. The record of such would be incomplete without her story.

Women in Sustainable Education: Glass Ceiling among Female Schools Principals in Indonesia

Sex segregation remains happening in the education realm. In the 21st century, Indonesian women's participation in the public sphere still becomes an issue, especially leadership. Women are perceived as the second class of society, even obtaining the negative stereotype of incapable leaders, which the myth of leadership belongs to men's world. Like an oxymoron, women are "freely binding," meaning they can be involved in the public sphere. However, they are encountering "glass-ceiling" to be in the top position, especially in rural West Java, where women have been perceived for their physical appearance-minded rather than the capability of leadership. The proposition of women principals in compulsory education in Indonesia is underrepresented compared to men principals with 38.68 percent and 61.32 percent. Women are capable of good leader who has leveraged their subordinates through positive relationships, empowering others, and improving schools. Therefore, women empowerment is essential to achieving sustainable education under SDG Priority 4 Quality of Education and SDG Priority 5 Gender Equality. This study aims to analyze the presence of women school principals' "status quo" and "glass-ceiling" in Indonesia by utilizing the PAR gender model of Blaikie et al. (2003), consisting of three factors; root causes, dynamic pressures, and unsafe condition. Hence, this study will be able to offer policy recommendations on women's leadership empowerment. This research used the exploratory approach by investigating sixteen school principals of elementary education and literature reviews, such as research reports and academic articles related to women leaders in education. This study found that Indonesian women in the educational realm have dealt with the glass ceiling deriving from root causes on power and structure. Meanwhile, dynamic pressures are knowledge dissemination and the unsafe condition on economic imbalances and discrimination on welfare and social protection, which becomes a sustainable threat and negatively affects the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Unapologetic Educational Research: Addressing Anti-Blackness, Racism, and White Supremacy

We explore “ Unapologetic Educational Research: Addressing Anti-Blackness, Racism, and White Supremacy” to engage scholars in thinking about and reflecting on what it means to conduct qualitative research from a standpoint that honors Black lives in the research process while also disrupting racism and white supremacy. First, we unapologetically take up topics including engaging “diversity” in qualitative research, interrogating the etic perspective in the “new” focus on race, using critical perspectives to inform research and practice, examining the racialization of positionality, focusing on Black women educational leaders, and engaging schools and communities. Next, we engage in dialogue with each other to push ourselves—and you/the reader—to think more deeply about the serious and potentially dangerous implications of our research decisions. Given the unprecedented historical present we are all experiencing in our lifetime, we are committed to shifting the landscape of qualitative research as well as using research to shift our sociopolitical context toward racial equity and justice.