Professional identity formation of female school principals: Gender and emotionality connections

1 Professional identity formation of female school principals. Gender and emotionality connections. Marita Sánchez-Moreno Department of Teaching and School Organization, Faculty of Education Sciences, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain Julián López-Yáñez Department of Teaching and School Organization, Faculty of Education Sciences, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain Manon Toussaint-Banville Department of Teaching and School Organization, Faculty of Education Sciences, Universidad de Sevilla, Seville, Spain Abstract This article presents a comparative analysis of the professional identity formation of three female principals of schools serving disadvantaged population in Spain. The focus on identity formation is complemented with parallel attention on gender and leader’s emotionality issues. The study embraces a qualitative-interpretive stance with a narrative methodological focus. The cases are framed within a broader study in which 73 male and female school principals participated in a training program based on feedback and group coaching. Results confirm the multiple and multi-layered nature of professional identity declared in the theoretical framework. However, a diversity of patterns could be distinguished, from the managerial to the communitarian activist, with hybrid identity somewhere in the middle of such polarity. The way gendered emotions impacted the biographies of the cases was also analysed. Implications to the design and development of training programs with a focus on leadership professional identity are suggested. Keywords School principalship, identity, emotions, gender, leadership Introduction Self-regulation has pervaded the dominant discourses on management, as part of a growing interest of controlling the ‘inner’ side of both organizations and individuals. Cultures, as for the first, and identity, as for the selves, appeared as more efficient than formal regulations as control mechanisms in a post-bureaucratic era of management (Hall, Gunter and Bragg, 2013). After the rising of the interest on the universe of meanings collectively built in organizations, in the 80’s of the past century, in recent years it has been the turn of the individuals’ meanings, self-image, feelings, values, emotions, processes of identification and role enactment at the worksite (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002). However, as Alvesson and Willmott (2002: 624) acknowledged, the new value achieved by professional identity as research theme, not only meets the elite’s expectations of 2 effective control. Besides, schools and staff are provided of more opportunities of micro-emancipation in work environments that emphasize autonomy, creativity, selfregulation and personal commitment with the organization. In the wake of such transformation, the core focus of the research on leadership has shifted from the interest on formal leadership roles to the different ways in which the roles are enacted and, particularly, to how the ‘followers’ and the wider organizational context participate in such enactment (Kelchtermans, Piot, and Ballet, 2011). If leadership is a situational and socially built phenomenon, instead of a given set of formal regulations (Gronn, 2000; Harris, 2003; Spillane, Halverson and Diamond, 2004; Harris and Spillane, 2008) then the question about how the building process develops gain relevance. The development of identity theory and research has largely assisted that endeavour (Burke and Stets, 2009; Stryker and Burke, 2000). What seeks identity research is a deep understanding of leaders’ practice and behaviours through the lens of the identification process: how identity is formed; how multiple identities interact and compete; the factors influencing identity formation; and how identity shape leadership practice (Armstrong and Mitchell, 2017; Connolly et al., 2018; Crow, Day and Møller, 2017; Hernández and Murakami, 2016; Jones, 2017; Notman, 2017; Murakami and Törnsen, 2017; Robertson, 2017). In Spain, identity formation of school principals is worthy of analysis as it is hindered by some characteristics of the educational system. Only recently consequential steps have been taken towards their professionalization, on the basis of a recruitment system that is still blended of election -with the participation of the school community- and selection under meritocratic criteria. However, scarce autonomy in relevant decision areas, expectations of return to full teaching duties after serving as managers, and a weak system of professional and career development, among other, still contribute to perform a dual and discontinuous principals’ identity (Ritacco and Bolívar, 2019). Thus, our study consists of a comparative analysis of the professional identity of three female principals of schools serving disadvantaged population in western Andalusia, Spain. The focus on identity formation is complemented with parallel attention on gender, difficult school contexts, and leader’s emotionality as part of their reaction to barriers and difficulties associated to principalship practice. In particular, the study analyses: (a) how principal’s role is re-interpreted and experienced by the participants; (b) the impact of challenging educational environments on leaders’ self-identity formation; (c) the role played by gender issues in the identification process; (d) principals’ emotionality and emotional skills participants unfold in their practice. Theoretical framework Professional Identity Heidegger conceived language as the ‘house of being’. The metaphor resonates with the idea that human identity has a narrative substance (Ricoeur, 1992; Somers, 1994). Our narratives organize the world for us, giving certain coherence to the natural chaos of the daily life events. A narrative put some events in the foreground while others remain ignored or just in the background. Then, meaningful events are connected among them in with others already placed in the biographical streamline. Identity is a set of intertwined and changing narratives in search of ensuring any coherency and consistency to the self (Jabri, 2004). 3 According to Ricoeur (1991) the narrative character of human experience demands a hermeneutic stance, which means that an alter has to produce a narrative traying to make sense of the narratives produced by a self/ego. However, we agree with Jabri (2004) that Bakhtin’s approach explain better than Ricoeur’s the role played by the different alter in the identity formation of the self. To Bakhtin (1981), strictly speaking, identity is never individual but dialogic. Self-identity is formed by means of utterances while social interaction operates. Thus, dialogic means that we produce self-accounts as we experience others’ accounts, which include the general narratives that society put at our disposal. Identity formation departs from the roles individuals find at their disposal as part of social structure and regulations. Being a school principal is associated to different roles and expectations in every socio-cultural context. However, such roles need the identities of specific principals to reach the daily practice of school organizations (Wenger, 1998). As Stryker and Burke (2000: 289) argue, “role is external; it is linked to social positions within the social structure. Identity is internal, consisting of internalized meanings and expectations associated with a role”. Important to note is that the internalization process takes place as roles are enacted (Stryker and Burke, 2000) This socialization process shows the characteristic tension between agency and structure in the relation between individuals and social systems (Giddens, 1991). The identity work consists of the processing –both conscious and unconsciously- of raw cultural information as language, symbols, sets of meanings, values, etc., as well as life experiences, while incessantly interact with others (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002). However, individuals adhere social categories and discourses while modifying them. Throughout such a verification process (Stryker and Burke, 2000), in which a comparison takes place between the social specifications of a role and the personal meanings already assumed, selves are not only shaping their identity, but also the very social and organizational identity structures they attach (Kuhn and Nelson, 2002: 7-8). The benefit of the process is twofold: getting an identity provides individuals with the professional autonomy needed to intervene in complex organizations; on the other hand, they get disciplined –in the foucaultian meaning- and prepared to settle in networks and communities of practice (Wenger, 1998). Therefore, self-identities are configured in communities that have their own expectations and lend individuals socially-built meanings (Tsui, 2007). We also adapt ourselves to the contexts we work and live in order to fit them, being this of special interest when contexts are challenging, or we experience critical situations (Johnson, 2017). There are countless examples of how the experience transforms principals’ identity as they get involved in meaningful experiences with others, take decisions, and get feedback from them as changing work conditions and contexts (Akkerman and Meijer, 2011; Mifsud, 2015; Miller et al., 2015; Rayner, 2018; Sugrue, 2015). A first outcome of getting involved in a multiplicity of social networks is the multiple identities individuals adopt, which can reinforce each other, remain independent or compete (Saarukka, 2014). This also has to do with the coexistence of a professional dimension of the identity with other dimensions, namely the situated or socially located dimension -including schools and their communities- and the personal dimension - including familiar and social interactions domains- (Crow, Day and Møller, 2017; Tubin, 2017). Because of this, research on professional identity should examine the interplay of such multiple identities to understand the impact it has on the individuals’ commitment and sense of belonging to their organizations (Stryker and Burke, 2000). 4 As for the second, it results a permanently negotiated process, which claim for certain wariness while inquiring on identity formation. Research accounts about the self should include worksites and social relations depictions, as identity is inextricably linked to temporal and spatial dimensions. Furthermore, cultural, familiar and individual aspects need also to be considered (Crow, Day and Møller, 2017; Mpungose, 2010; Notman, 2017). Gender and emotionality in identity formation Women's increasing access to headship has begun to break the patriarchal, still dominant assumption of management as a masculine territory (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002; Gherardi, 1995). However, persistent barriers, taken for granted discourses and even symbolic violence (Burawoy, 2019) still manage to position women as outsiders once they reach head positions (Crow, Day and Møller, 2017). While it is assumed that men are in its own right in management, women must gain such right as they are seen as ‘the others’, an anomaly (Méndez-Morse et al. 2015; Murakami and Törnsen, 2017). Research on educational leadership has begun to take seriously the socio-cultural and political conditions that affect women’s integration into management, in order to better understand women leaders’ experiences, expectations, and perception of gender stereotypes (Armstrong and Mitchell, 2017; Blackmore, 2013; Jones, 2017; Mills, 2002; Moorosi, 2010; Murakami, Hernandez, Mendez-Morse, and Byrne-Jimenez, 2015; Murakami and Törnsen, 2017; White and Özkanlib, 2011). One of that conditions is the dominant discourses attributing to emotional utterances a lower value than rationality and emotional control (Arar and Shapira 2016; Berkovich and Eyal, 2015), which explain the use women make of emotional containment strategies in order to avoid being seen as weak and too feminine (Arar, 2017). Other studies have analysed how emotions are delegitimized and disciplined in organizations through the imposition, internalization and normalization of certain rules aimed at maintaining the status quo, and how these processes affect male and female leaders differentially (Berkovich and Eyal, 2015; Crawford, 2007; Johnson, Aiken and Steggerda, 2005). In recent years, numerous studies have outlined, both theoretically and empirically, how inappropriate is the mainstream association between organizations and rationality. The efforts to detach emotions of our understanding of organizations functioning is nowadays completely discredited. Crawford (2007: 522) argues that emotionality constitutes the heart of leadership, while Zembylas (2014) proposes a ‘critical emotional reflexivity’ as central target of the preparation programs for educational leaders. Definitely, organizational management cannot be understood without a strong focus on the emotional dimension of principals’ identity (Beatty, 2000; Crow, Day, and Møller, 2017; Nordholm, Arnqvist, and Nihlfors, 2020). We count on abundance of empirical evidences that allow mapping the main sources of principals’ negative emotions: the lack of staff support and collaboration (Schermuy, Schermuy and Meyer, 2011); the institutional crisis (Ackerman and Maslin-Ostrowski, 2004; Beatty, 2000); their intermediary role in internal conflicts (Crawford, 2004; Beausaert et al., 2016; Brennan and Mac Ruairc, 2011; Johnson et al., 2005); the administrative task overload, combined with an endemic lack of time (Friedman, 2002); or issues regarding the mission as lack of equity, social injustices or the behaviour of teachers and students (Berkovich and Eyal, 2015). 5 Particularly stressful appeared the need to attend the claims of multiple stakeholders and the associated feeling of loneliness (Kelchtermans, Piot, and Ballet, 2011), especially when principals must cope with awkward decisions (Brennan and Mac Ruairc, 2011). The perception of being in the middle of competing interests is frequent in systems based on rigid accountability and competitiveness among schools (Blackmore, 1996, 2004) For instance, Berkovich and Eyal (2015) evidenced the feeling of vulnerability that provoked on principals the transfer of performativity demands to their staff, demands that not always matched their ethical or professional stance. In the particular case of women principals, Sachs and Blackmore (1998) and Oplatka (2002) have showed the stress experienced by female principals during the transition from teaching cultures -in which they are the majority- to management ones which, as mentioned above, highlight the value of technique, rationality and emotional containment. Women in Blackmore’s (1996) study felt distress because of abandoning care as main activity. Recently, Crow, Day and Møller (2017: 273) have suggested a framework composed of five dimensions to research on the professional identity of school principals in which the emotional dimension plays an important role. (a) The narrative dimension involves identity formation as a reflexive endeavour and a tool for principal’s self-legitimation; (b) the epistemic dimension involves principal’s deliberation process in order to make decisions according their professional knowledge, values and norms; (c) the emotional dimension draw on the dialogical struggle of seeking coherence of multiple and competing identities; (d) the historical and cultural dimension analyses the potential conflict “between managerial accountability and professional beliefs and ethics are rooted in personal engagement, and how the status accorded to the identity of each principal is being negotiated, taken for granted and constrained within culture and context”; and (e) the political dimension “reflects power structures within a national and local context” and how principals understand their position in that context. Methodology Background The study reported in the paper is part of a wider inquiry that assessed and analysed the process and outcomes of a training program for school principals based on reflection about their practice through feedback and coaching (Oliva-Rodríguez and López-Yáñez, 2019). A total of 73 male and female principals from Andalusia region participated in the seven sessions of the program. Interactions inside the 14 groups of participants -each one comprising six principals and one coachwere coded and analysed using a category system composed of the following dimensions: biography and professional trajectory, beliefs, emotions, difficulties, professional knowledge, and consolidated management practices. Some of the core findings of such study inspired the current one in order to dig deeper into the process of identity formation as educational leaders. As for the first, most of the participants referred to the importance of the relational dimension of leadership. Interacting with the different school networks and their sometimes-contradictory demands was one of the most important sources of difficulties —with a high impact on the degree of stability and strength of the professional identity—. Assuming a dual identity (principal/teacher) was not easy for the participants and frequently revealed professional undefinition. Identity definition was also influenced by participants’ emotional experiences. Generally speaking, barriers and constraints associated to gender dimension were not easily perceived by both male and female participants. Besides, 6 some recurrent paternalistic behaviours towards women, and certain contempt towards their work as principals were observed in some groups. Altogether the last two findings propelled the research team to deep into the gender perspective in a second phase. Finally, another striking fact was that 70% of the 27 participants leading schools in challenging contexts were women, which also oriented the case selection of the new phase. The study The paper addresses a qualitative-interpretive study with a constructivist approach that utilizes a narrative methodological focus. Qualitative case studies have been preferred by countless studies on school principals’ identity because they allow a deeper analysis on the intertwined personal, socio-cultural, institutional, and political circumstances intervening in the process of identity formation (Heck and Hallinger, 1999; Murakami and Törnsen, 2017; Notman, 2017; Robertson, 2017; Scribner and Crow, 2012). Constructivist approach assumes that identity formation is both an individual and social process (Crow and Møller, 2017) in which educational policies, school regulations and socio-cultural contexts, or the social network intervene as much as individual’s reflection and awareness. Narrative-biographical research pretends to unravel and understand the meanings people confer to their lives, trajectories and practice by means of the analysis of their self-accounts (Crawford, 2007; De Bruyn and Mestry, 2020; Kelchtermans, Piot, and Ballet, 2011). Such accounts include actions, personal motivations, emotions, feelings, beliefs, thoughts, experiences, views, and perspectives (Jones, 2017; Mpungose, 2010). A purposive case-selection procedure was used according of their beforehand relevance to the object of study. Data were collected by means of in-depth open-ended semistructured interviews, which lasted approximately an hour and a half. An interview script was designed and validated by four experts, which contained questions about the following points: (a) biographical data and professional trajectory (training, prior experiences, objectives and motivations, headship access mechanism); (b) professional identity (values, beliefs, self-image, perceptions on headship, leadership style, influences and supports); and (c) emotionality (sources of emotions, emotional skills, the role of emotionality in their practice). The interviewer had flexibility to omit or introduce questions, in order to allow a vivid conversation and rich responses (Jones, 2017). Interviews were audio recorded and conducted at the principal’s workplace in the months of May and June of 2018, then transcribed verbatim and coded by means of a category system based on the interview inputs. Interpretive analysis consisted in constant comparison of the data, coding meaningful topics into categories, and identifying emerging themes and particular patterns (Glaser and Strauss, 1967). Then a thematic analysis of the raw data was carried out. In order to achieve internal validity and reliability, preliminary interpretations were systematically confronted with the whole data set and discussed between two of the co-authors. As a result of such analysis, the following emerging categories were established: professional trajectory, access to principalship, factors and events that trigger emotional experiences, beliefs about the role, emotional issues, and gender. Finally, we performed an axial coding that showed the relationships between the different categories and allowed us to carry out a more precise analysis of the data. After that, two conceptual frameworks were used for cross-case analysis. The first correspond to three patterns of identity regulation suggested by Alvesson and Willmott (2002: 636) grounded on Giddens’ (1991) work. As in their study, we analysed the 7 relative fitting of our principals’ identities to the three categories, which included: (a) managerial patterns refers to use the dominant managerial discourse to describe selfidentity; (b) cultural-communitarian pattern explain self-identity according to core understandings and personal convictions; and (c) quasi-autonomous pattern represents an ‘indecision zone’ of competitively coexisting identity-regulating discourses. The second framework of analysis is based on Jones’ (2017) study emerging identities which included: the ‘other’, competer, enabler, hero, rebel, juggler, driver, and multiple. Participants A brief contextual information about school governance in Spain is necessary to understand the principalship role before moving on to the participants. Every Spanish region has its own autonomous educational administration, from which directly depend the totality of the schools in the area. Schools have very little autonomy in terms of important issues like hiring and firing teachers, school curriculum, budget, etc. The management team plays an important role in the school organization, being the principal the highest authority but co-leading with one or more deputy principal/s, head/s of studies, and a secretary, all of them part of the teaching staff. Important decisions are delegated into the school board in which every sector of the school community is represented. There is also a consultive body -the ‘claustro’- composed by the whole school staff. A supervisor is the external authority above principals and its link with the rest of the educational administration. The cases presented herein are those of three principals whom we shall call Teresa, Miriam and Rose. All three are women aged 48, 60 and 53 years respectively, who work in urban schools located in cities of more than 300,000 inhabitants, serving students from low socio-economic and cultural settings. Teresa has been working as a teacher for 27 years. For 12 years, she has been the principal of an Early and Primary school with a team of 15 teachers and 100 students. It is located in a ghetto within a provincial capital, a neighbourhood with severe problems of coexistence, in which more than 50% of the working age population is unemployed and with high rates of illiteracy. When Teresa became the principal, she had only been working at that centre for one year and had no previous experience in management. The climate of the centre was very bad, due, among other things, to serious incidents of students' violence towards members of the management team. Miriam worked in her early career as training planner and manager in health services. After that, she enrolled the secondary school in which she has served for 21 years—12 as Principal— The school is located in the outskirts of an Andalusian capital, in a neighbourhood mostly populated by working class families with low socio-economical status. That explains the existence in the school of a Compensatory Plan to support students with learning difficulties or belated due to their socio-cultural disadvantages. Rose has been a teacher for 32 years, and the principal of an Early and Primary school in a central district of a provincial capital for the last 12 years. As it is the only public school in the neighbourhood and is close to three subsidized schools, it receives the most depressed population in socio-economic terms. The school presented serious problems of coexistence as well as very low curricular levels when she arrived 15 years ago. The origin of this situation was the construction of social housing in the neighbourhood to which families from more marginal areas of the city came to live. The student body of the centre gradually changed to the extent of receiving exclusively the children from these homes. The rotation of the teaching staff was constant. 8 Results Teresa: Dilemmatic and contradictory Teresa accessed the position of school principal designated by the inspection. Assuming this role was a challenge and a major change in her professional career. She does not think that being a woman have influenced the process of becoming a leader, nor have seen any discrimination against women in her professional or personal environment: “I firmly believe in equality, not just gender equality, but instead equality for all, and I have never felt discriminated”. The only difficulty she perceives related to the fact of being a woman is that “for women, it is harder to earn leadership”. She reached the position with a very managerial view of principalship, but this view soon collided with the difficulties she faced, mainly in the management of situations with an emotional charge, a function she did not expect and for which she did not feel prepared. You're concerned about learning about the virtual platform, the economy, etc., but suddenly you realize that one of the most important roles is dealing with emotional and personal situations... That was unexpected. I've had some sleepless nights. Teresa redefined her formative needs and dedicated time to training. She regrets that the training offered by the administration is too theoretical, a reason for which she spent part of her free time in workshops on emotional management techniques and personnel management. As of her second term, she established a learning community project and focused towards a more pedagogical leadership. She faces the difficulty of breaking away from a strong school culture that conceives of teaching as an eminently individual activity, a conception that she shares, although she defends the opposite: “We are educational communities, but the one who really generates change is the teacher”. There are several contradictions in her discourse. She argues that the management model itself inevitably leads to the assumption of distributed leadership, but in her case, distribution is limited to those who hold formal positions. Similarly, she advocates an open school but the participation channels, both with students and families, are scarce and rigid (satisfaction questionnaires, a few events, etc.). One can do whatever one wishes if the exact schedule is followed; three people come, and math is taught, but in interactive math groups. Thus, the participation of the educational community—well organized—is an enriching source; but not just anyone can come here any time they please. Teresa always maintains affective distance in her relationships. With families and students, the relationship is hierarchical. The verticality of the relationships allows her not to be affected, even in difficult situations. Accustomed as a teacher to being the one who “manages and commands”, she faces a radically different dynamic when managing a group of peers with whom she cannot maintain hierarchical relations, given the characteristics of the management model. Is very different from managing your class where you play the only adult role and you have your students, and there is never any equality. […] It is an abyss to sit down with your peers who, besides being your equals, could have been principals just like you… 9 To counteract this difficulty, she takes care to seem neutral and impartial and not develop personal links with the staff. However, given the loneliness she feels—even if it is voluntary—she needs the support of the management team and from outside the school. Is important to belong to a group or association of principals or being with other principals of the area, so you know that you can pick up the phone any time and say: ‘Hey, how do you do that?’ It makes you feel more confident, knowing you have a resource, a support group. That's important. In addition to the above-mentioned difficulties, she thinks that the principal has too many responsibilities and scarce autonomy. She complains that the administrative functioning of the educational system, far from supporting school functioning, hinders it with complex administrative procedures, incessant legislative changes, etc. Miriam: activist maturity Miriam had been deputy principal for three years when the current principal left the post. I was against being the principal. I always wanted to be the second on board, never the first. […] In the deputy principal, I felt pretty good because women are educated to be in the shade [...] as a woman, I felt that the principalship was not my place. The support of the management team was crucial to accept the position, as she lacked the support of her husband. However, the feeling of being in a position that, as a woman, does not belong to her still pervades her daily work, which she can see when she perceives that male students “do not like a woman to tell them what they have to do”, or due to the paternalistic behaviour of some male teachers, or the supervisor’s attitude: He comes in and sits down in my place [...] his position is always to confirm his superiority over me. When there was a man of the team, he changed his attitude completely. As she has gained confidence in her own skills, being the principal has become an act of vindication, recognizing the competitive nature of leadership with regard to gender. Right now, our entire management team are all women. […] For two thousand years there was only men at headship. It's our turn for at least another two thousand years! Principalship is a function that she likes and for which she feels prepared, but she feels the need to constantly prove her worth. She has not felt much need for training, however she is proud to have been a mentor of other leaders. She acknowledges an evolution of her consideration of the student body and her own conception of teaching job. I see that all the children matter, and we have to do everything we can for them [...] I didn't used to be like that. I don't mean I was a bad person, but I always thought, ‘What he has to do is to make an effort.’ I didn't understand special education needs. However, her understanding of compensatory education is underdeveloped and, consequently, so are the compensatory mechanisms she promotes: I wanted some children to come from a certain school in order to raise our level somewhat, without looking down those who were already enrolled here, and 16 Bakhtin M (1981) The dialogic imagination: Four essays. Austin: University of Texas Press. 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