The leadership and management geographies in the lived experiences of women educational leaders in the public secondary educational system of Mauritius – a narrative inquiry.

Abstract

The leadership and management geographies in the lived experiences of women educational leaders in the public secondary educational system of Mauritius – A narrative inquiry. The study aims to explore and understand how three women educational leaders made their way to attain and sustain in leadership and management positions, in the male-dominated leadership spaces of the public secondary educational system, using narratives of their life experiences. On the one hand, the challenges lie in feminist emancipation and navigating the gendered socioeconomic and cultural challenges. On the other hand, policymakers have not been taking enough action to facilitate and promote the professional access of women into leadership spaces, although legislations are present. Locating this study in the qualitative interpretive paradigm, three purposively sampled women participants, each having different cultural and ethnic backgrounds and living in urban and rural regions (eastern, central and western) of Mauritius, were interviewed. Through the narrative inquiry method, they storied their life-history biographical experiences revealing their sadness’s and traumas, achievements and joys, tensions and emotions, dilemmas, challenges and coping strategies. Since this study had women educational leaders as participants, I created and used a Socio- Feminist and Gender (SFG) conceptual framework derived from leadership, feminism, gender and socio-constructionism theoretical constructs. The SFG framework allowed for the exploration of the participants ascending into educational leadership and management positions in male dominated leadership and management spaces. It also provided the analytical framing to understand any specificity about women’s leadership and their leadership practices and any changing relationships in home and family settings and organisations due to their positions as women educational leaders. The SFG conceptual framework also attempts to uncover the challenges and strategies adopted by women educational leaders to be sustained in leadership spaces. In the descriptive analysis phase, the generation of data, guided by the research questions and the SFG conceptual framework, produced three main themes that became the categories for the narrative analysis method used in this study. Through the analysis of the narrative method, the ultimate core findings of the research showed that the women participants had used a multitude of resources such as Family and patriarchy; Religion and spirituality; social Adversities; ethnic and political Contexts; and Gender and power dynamics (FRACEG) to emerge as leaders. In addition, the findings also revealed that these resources were instrumental in shaping the women participants’ career-path into leadership and management spaces. They also sculptured the leadership and management characteristics needed for them to navigate through the male dominated leadership and management spaces of the secondary educational system. The results demonstrate that the experiences acquired by the women-participants tend to enhance their leadership and management capabilities significantly. These women developed their leadership and management skills by practising disciplines, taking on more projects, learning to follow, developing situational awareness, inspiring others, staying attuned with learning, resolving conflicts, and by being discerning listeners. In addition, they undertook to use their abilities to deal resourcefully with unusual problems, together with the persistent efforts and perseverance that has shaped their personalities. Hence, the overall findings showed that the participants as women educational leaders rely on multi-combinations and permutations of leadership and management styles for different challenges at different times and places, including the use of improvisation, within all the complexities of leadership and management. This I have termed as “Feminine Quantum Leadership”, a theoretical construct using the construct and metaphor of Quantum Chemistry. Simultaneously, the women participants embraced the art of self-creative diplomacy (a feminine characteristic) by struggling with the challenges faced (feminist emancipation), leading to a new feminist leadership approach which I have called “Diplo-Poiesis Feminist Leadership”. These findings add valuable insights into the discourses of socio-constructionism, feminism, genderism and leadership in education and society. Last but not least, the benefits of leadership and management are extensively reported as being highly effective and productive. There is consensus that leadership and management can be regarded as a mechanism that facilitates women’s transition from a lower to a higher hierarchy within the gendered social context. The contribution of this research intends to emancipate women more to attain leadership and management positions in society. The women participants, as role models, contribute to the emancipation of the feminine gender and social justice in different spaces and landscapes. Therefore, this study shows the geographies of leadership and management of women educational leaders in the public secondary educational system. Keywords: geographies, leaders, women, educational, society, cultural, ethnic, hierarchy, gender, experiences, narrative inquiry, feminist geography, resources, complexity, quantum, leadership, diplomacy, feminism.