A Narrative Inquiry into Rural School Leadership in South Africa
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...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Hipatia Press
2017-02-01
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| Series: | Qualitative Research in Education |
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| Online Access: | https://hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/qre/article/view/2276 |
| _version_ | 1797800314357678080 |
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| author | Brigitte Smit |
| author_facet | Brigitte Smit |
| author_sort | Brigitte Smit |
| collection | DOAJ |
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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.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:33:24Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b757a6be19dc45588780d371e3b3ed78 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2014-6418 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-13T04:33:24Z |
| publishDate | 2017-02-01 |
| publisher | Hipatia Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Qualitative Research in Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-b757a6be19dc45588780d371e3b3ed782023-06-19T08:32:16ZengHipatia PressQualitative Research in Education2014-64182017-02-016110.17583/qre.2017.2276A Narrative Inquiry into Rural School Leadership in South AfricaBrigitte Smit0University of South Africa 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. https://hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/qre/article/view/2276narrative inquiryrural school leadershiprelational leadershipemotional labour |
| spellingShingle | Brigitte Smit A Narrative Inquiry into Rural School Leadership in South Africa Qualitative Research in Education narrative inquiry rural school leadership relational leadership emotional labour |
| title | A Narrative Inquiry into Rural School Leadership in South Africa |
| title_full | A Narrative Inquiry into Rural School Leadership in South Africa |
| title_fullStr | A Narrative Inquiry into Rural School Leadership in South Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Narrative Inquiry into Rural School Leadership in South Africa |
| title_short | A Narrative Inquiry into Rural School Leadership in South Africa |
| title_sort | narrative inquiry into rural school leadership in south africa |
| topic | narrative inquiry rural school leadership relational leadership emotional labour |
| url | https://hipatiapress.com/hpjournals/index.php/qre/article/view/2276 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT brigittesmit anarrativeinquiryintoruralschoolleadershipinsouthafrica AT brigittesmit narrativeinquiryintoruralschoolleadershipinsouthafrica |