DEVELOPING FEMALE SCHOOL LEADERSHIP IN DISADVANTAGED SCHOOLS

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-69
Author(s):  
Brigitte Smit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
South African ◽  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Female Leadership ◽  
Relational Leadership ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Control Hierarchy

What can we learn from female leadership scholars that can be appropriated in the South Africa educational context? Little research is conducted to trace the qualities that characterise a feminine approach to leadership in contrast to the characteristics of the traditional approach of control, hierarchy, authority and division of labour. This conceptual article draws theoretically on relational leadership as a feminine approach to educational leadership. I argue that educational leadership in disadvantaged settings in South African schools requires strengthened collaboration and development, particularly for female school leadership. Such collaboration and development is possible through relational leadership.

scholarly journals Colour-blind educational leadership policy: A critical race theory analysis of school principalship standards in South Africa

2020 ◽  
pp. 174114322097367
Author(s):  
Pontso Moorosi
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
South African ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Critical Race ◽  
Race Theory ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Leadership Policy ◽  
School Principalship

In the light of recent media reports of racism in South African schools, this paper examines the role of school principalship standards in addressing race in South African educational leadership. The paper draws on tenets of critical race theory to examine how issues of race are addressed in the Policy for School Principalship Standard in South Africa and the implications thereof for leadership preparation and leadership practice. The methodology involves the employment of content analysis underpinned by key tenets of critical race theory that challenge notions of colour-blindness, meritocracy and neutrality. The analysis reveals that there is no explicit mention or treatment of race and ethnicity as social constructs in the principalship standards. It also reveals that diversity and culture are used more, suggesting the emphasis on difference rather than inequality. The paper argues that, although driven by principles of social justice, the Policy for School Principalship Standard is colour-blind. Through this omission, the policy denies the existence of racism and fails to recognise the power and influence of school leaders (and principals, in particular) in shaping the race dynamic in schools. The paper ends with implications for the improvement of leadership policy and practice.

scholarly journals Fostering Movements or Silencing Voices: Learning from Egypt and South Africa, Leading Against Racism

2015 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyson E. J. Marsh ◽  
Christopher B. Knaus
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Educational Leadership ◽  
South African ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Personal Narratives ◽  
Educational Reforms ◽  
Educational Inequalities ◽  
Race And Class ◽  
Schooling Practices

In this paper, we examine the role of educational leadership in promoting and/or challenging racism as an intentional outcome of schooling. We focus on Egypt and South Africa, two countries uniquely framed as both deeply divided (by race, religion, and/or class) and as models of resistance and conscious activism. We draw upon experiences working as, or with, school principals in South Africa and Egypt to reveal how the context of education is negatively shaped by schooling practices that foster race and class-based inequalities. Using personal narratives of school principals, we situate educational leadership as core to understanding how Western educational reforms are structured, conceived and enacted within Egyptian and South African contexts. This analysis sheds light on how educational inequalities are reinforced and justified by contexts of educational leadership and how efforts to resist are institutionally silenced.

Understanding Relational and Responsible Leadership for School Leaders

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Smit ◽  
Mapula Mabusela
Keyword(s):  
Educational Leadership ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
Leadership Practices ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
School Leaders ◽  
Relational Leadership ◽  
Responsible Leadership ◽  
Leadership Studies

Relational leadership and responsible leadership are important subjects in the literature, and more attention can be paid to these leadership practices in educational leadership. Most educational leadership studies focus on distributed, instructional, teacher, and transformational leadership using mostly quantitative research. The aim is to explore and describe relational and responsible leadership in the context of educational leadership. Qualitative research methodology such as narrative inquiry is not often used for inquiries into educational leadership studies. Moreover, the scholarship on narrative inquiry as a relational methodology for relational and responsible educational leadership is scant, and there is a need to broaden the discussion to include appropriate the concepts of relational leadership and responsible leadership for educational leadership in a context of relational narrative inquiry. Relational and responsible leadership theories can be appropriated through a relational research methodology using narrative inquiry. These scholarly lenses may add value to school leadership research and to school leaders who wish to transform and change leadership practices, specifically in diverse school communities with challenging and problematic educational landscapes.

scholarly journals Opening up a philosophical space in early literacy with Little Beauty by Anthony Browne and the movie King Kong

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Murris ◽  
Vursha Ranchod
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Early Literacy ◽  
Prior Knowledge ◽  
South African ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Life Experiences ◽  
Educational Context ◽  
Political Dimensions ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
Literacy Research

The article begins with setting the South African educational context for a postgraduate early literacy research project in the foundation phase (ages 4–9). The research examines how philosophy with children (P4C) might be part of a solution to current problems in reading comprehension. The second author reports on her P4C action research with her own children as well as her observations of a Grade 2 classroom in a school near Johannesburg. The research shows how the picturebook Little Beauty by Anthony Browne opens up a philosophical space within which children are allowed to draw on their own life experiences and prior knowledge. The project reveals the depth of their thinking when making intra-textual connections between Little Beauty and the movie King Kong. The facilitated philosophical space also makes it possible for the children to make complex philosophical links between the emotion anger, destructive behaviour and the ethico-political dimensions of punishment. Central to this article are the second author’s critical reflections on how her literacy practices as a mother and foundation phase teacher have fundamentally changed as a result of this project. The article concludes with some implications for the teaching of early literacy in South Africa.

scholarly journals Informing principal policy reforms in South Africa through data-based evidence

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Wills
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
South African ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
The Past ◽  
Age Profile ◽  
South African Education ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Average School

In the past decade there has been a notable shift in South African education policy that raises the value of school leadership as a lever for learning improvements. Despite a growing discourse on school leadership, there has been a lack of empirical based evidence on principals to inform, validate or debate the efficacy of proposed policies in raising the calibre of school principals. Drawing on findings from a larger study to understand the labour market for school principals in South Africa, this paper highlights four overarching characteristics of this market with implications for informing principal policy reforms. The paper notes that improving the design and implementation of policies guiding the appointment process for principals is a matter of urgency. A substantial and increasing number of principal replacements are taking place across South African schools given a rising age profile of school principals. In a context of low levels of principal mobility and high tenure, the leadership trajectory of the average school is established for nearly a decade with each principal replacement. Evidence-based policy making has a strong role to play in getting this right.

scholarly journals A Narrative Inquiry into Rural School Leadership in South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brigitte Smit
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Narrative Inquiry ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Teen Pregnancy ◽  
Rural School ◽  
School Principal ◽  
Relational Leadership ◽  
Emotional Labour ◽  
Educational Challenges ◽  
Rural School Leadership

This article attends to rural school leadership in two South African schools through the lens of the concepts of relational leadership and emotional labour. The inquiry draws on five years of guided conversations and observations that speak to leadership experiences of hope and anticipation as well as despair and disillusionment. I worked with one black male principal and one black female school principal from two rural schools in South Africa. Over time, the tone of their narratives changed from hope to hopelessness and resignation. The findings spoke to how commitment and care were overcome by the educational challenges, which involved hunger and poverty, orphaned learners, teen pregnancy, rape, departmental criticism and lack of support. Theoretically, this inquiry draws on the theories of relational leadership and emotional labour in rural education and empirical evidence was drawn from narrative inquiry.

scholarly journals Informing principal policy reforms in South Africa through data-based evidence

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabrielle Wills
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
South African ◽  
School Principals ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
The Past ◽  
Age Profile ◽  
South African Education ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Average School

In the past decade there has been a notable shift in South African education policy that raises the value of school leadership as a lever for learning improvements. Despite a growing discourse on school leadership, there has been a lack of empirical based evidence on principals to inform, validate or debate the efficacy of proposed policies in raising the calibre of school principals. Drawing on findings from a larger study to understand the labour market for school principals in South Africa, this paper highlights four overarching characteristics of this market with implications for informing principal policy reforms. The paper notes that improving the design and implementation of policies guiding the appointment process for principals is a matter of urgency. A substantial and increasing number of principal replacements are taking place across South African schools given a rising age profile of school principals. In a context of low levels of principal mobility and high tenure, the leadership trajectory of the average school is established for nearly a decade with each principal replacement. Evidence-based policy making has a strong role to play in getting this right.

Reframing Xenophobia in South Africa as Colour-Blind: The Limits of the Afro Phobia Thesis

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-444
Author(s):  
Amanuel Isak Tewolde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Black African ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Online Newspaper ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Realistic Conflict Theory

Many scholars and South African politicians characterize the widespread anti-foreigner sentiment and violence in South Africa as dislike against migrants and refugees of African origin which they named ‘Afro-phobia’. Drawing on online newspaper reports and academic sources, this paper rejects the Afro-phobia thesis and argues that other non-African migrants such as Asians (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis and Chinese) are also on the receiving end of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. I contend that any ‘outsider’ (White, Asian or Black African) who lives and trades in South African townships and informal settlements is scapegoated and attacked. I term this phenomenon ‘colour-blind xenophobia’. By proposing this analytical framework and integrating two theoretical perspectives — proximity-based ‘Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)’ and Neocosmos’ exclusivist citizenship model — I contend that xenophobia in South Africa targets those who are in close proximity to disadvantaged Black South Africans and who are deemed outsiders (e.g., Asian, African even White residents and traders) and reject arguments that describe xenophobia in South Africa as targeting Black African refugees and migrants.

Region of Birth and Child Mortality among Black Migrants to South Africa: Is there a foreign-born advantage?

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 359-376 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiffany L Green ◽  
Amos C Peters
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Child Mortality ◽  
Southern Africa ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Developed Countries ◽  
Black Immigrants ◽  
Foreign Born ◽  
Region Of Origin ◽  
Child Deaths

Much of the existing evidence for the healthy immigrant advantage comes from developed countries. We investigate whether an immigrant health advantage exists in South Africa, an important emerging economy.  Using the 2001 South African Census, this study examines differences in child mortality between native-born South African and immigrant blacks.  We find that accounting for region of origin is critical: immigrants from southern Africa are more likely to experience higher lifetime child mortality compared to the native-born population.  Further, immigrants from outside of southern Africa are less likely than both groups to experience child deaths.  Finally, in contrast to patterns observed in developed countries, we detect a strong relationship between schooling and child mortality among black immigrants.

Some Reflections on Reparation in Post-Apartheid South Africa, using a Couple Therapy Intervention as a Microcosm of South African Society

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Hill ◽  
Sylvia Poss
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Couple Therapy ◽  
South African Society ◽  
Depressive Position ◽  
Central Hypothesis ◽  
Transference And Countertransference ◽  
Constructive Engagement ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Therapy Intervention

The paper addresses the question of reparation in post-apartheid South Africa. The central hypothesis of the paper is that in South Africa current traumas or losses, such as the 2008 xenophobic attacks, may activate a ‘shared unconscious phantasy’ of irreparable damage inflicted by apartheid on the collective psyche of the South African nation which could block constructive engagement and healing. A brief couple therapy intervention by a white therapist with a black couple is used as a ‘microcosm’ to explore this question. The impact of an extreme current loss, when earlier losses have been sustained, is explored. Additionally, the impact of racial difference on the transference and countertransference between the therapist and the couple is explored to illustrate factors complicating the productive grieving and working through of the depressive position towards reparation.

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