The Construction of School Directors’ Leadership: Multiple Identities From Gender

Abstract

La construcción de la identidad de liderazgo es un campo emergente de investigación, el cual ha ido evolucionando a través de la incorporación de la perspectiva de género. Este estudio indaga en cómo las directoras de establecimientos educativos chilenos han configurado su identidad de liderazgo escolar. Se utilizó un enfoque cualitativo exploratorio y se realizaron entrevistas en profundidad a 12 directoras de la Región Metropolitana. Se concluye que en la construcción de las identidades de las directoras escolares confluyen la cultura escolar, la perspectiva de género y las propias subjetividades de cada una.

Palabra claves: Identidad; liderazgo; mujer; director de colegio; escuelas.

Abstract

The construction of leadership identity in education is an emerging field of research, which has evolved through the incorporation of the gender perspective and, therefore, requires greater knowledge and analysis, especially paying attention to the barriers and crises that female school principals face in their professional careers. Identity is the process by which identities are constructed and occurs within the relational space in which each person moves and interacts (Ricoeur, 1996; Ritacco & Bolívar, 2018). This interaction acquires vital importance in the educational scenario, particularly for those who hold leadership positions, since, as has been shown, the development of a strong professional identity has a marked influence on the way in which leadership is exercised within schools (Crow et al., 2017; Cruz-González et al., 2019). In this context, it is even more important to analyze how the experiences, context and practices in the exercise of leadership influence and relate to each other in the construction of identities of school principals.

Therefore, this study aims to investigate how Chilean school principals have shaped their school leadership identity based on their self-image as women. It seeks to answer the question: How do school principals define their leadership identity based on their self-image as women and their leadership role?

The methodology used was an exploratory qualitative approach based on a case study, prioritizing depth over representativeness. Twelve female school principals from the Metropolitan Region were selected for this study. The research technique used was in-depth interviews, which were conducted with each female principal. Grounded Theory was used for the analysis, and two categories of analysis emerged: self-representation as women and school principals, and the characteristics of leadership identity.

The results show, first of all, that the principals in this study represent themselves as women, mothers, caregivers, and school principals, and that the characteristics of their leadership identity are: sharing, understanding, empathizing with people in the school communities, avoiding competition and validating their continuing knowledge before others, while avoiding overworking and transforming themselves into superwomen.

In this sense, we conclude that female principals' identities are multiple and adapt according to the school context in which they operate, their experiences as women and mothers, and their interactions with others. This demonstrates that the construction of female principals' multiple identities is influenced by school culture, gender perspective, and each principal's own subjectivities. Their definition of their identity as women stems primarily from the socially imposed gender construct, which has stereotyped women as caregivers, close to the heart, sensitive, and empathetic, versus the stereotypical construct of men, characterized by more assertive, competitive, cold, and imposing masculinities. Furthermore, it is concluded that female principals have been developing their own identities of feminine leadership through differentiation from traditionally masculine norms and the ongoing validation of the knowledge they possess for the role they play.