The study sought to explore eight women school principals’ management experiences
and challenges that these women encounter in their day-to-day management duties. It
used semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis as its methods of
data collection. The findings revealed that women principals encountered the challenge of
being caught in the middle of having to balance domestic chores (being mothers and
wives) and work responsibility (as school principals). The simultaneous demands of
domestic and work responsibilities ensured that the women principals were inequitably
pressured in their roles as school managers compared to their male counterparts. Other
challenges related to gender stereotypes (perceptions held by some teachers and parents
that women are care-givers, nurturers, and therefore not suited for management positions)
and lack of women role models in school management positions.
Even though women principals were challenged in their management duties they engaged
in empowering management approaches by means of involving all the staff members in
the decision making processes. The study highlighted the challenges that women
principals encountered in maintaining their identity as women (feminine) in a male
orientated field of school management. In managing the schools they used different
approaches of management depending on the situation, and these included the adoption
of masculine and authoritarian management strategies. By and large, these women
principals insisted on using management strategies that are associated with femininities,
such as empathy, cooperation, pastoral care and so forth. These strategies seemed more
appropriate in promoting democratic participation in schools, as stipulated in South
African education policies. The study recommended that holding induction programmes,
building women networks, workshops and seminars could be a useful strategy in
supporting women school principals. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2010.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/5646 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Ngcobo, Ntombikayise. |
| Contributors | Chikoko, Vitallis., Morojele, Pholoho Justice. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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