Performing and challenging gendered walls in leadership spaces in single sex schools: Lessons from a male-led girls’ basic school in Ghana

Abstract

Women and men are capable of effectively discharging school leadership roles. However, in Ghana, people are socialised to expect females to lead girls’ schools and vice versa. Appointing a female or male to lead a single sex school that is opposite to their gender elicits gender stereotyping, protests and exclusion. While researchers have explored these dynamics in co-educational basic schools, they have not extended them to single sex schools. This case study investigated how the leadership practice of a male-led girls’ school in the Central Region of Ghana has challenged gendered walls. The study engaged 23 multiple stakeholders and gathered data through semi-structured interviews, observations and document analysis. Intra- and cross-case analyses of data revealed that loyalty to gender walls in single sex schools reflects the desire to respect and maintain the tradition of female headteachers in girls’ schools and male headteachers in boys’ schools. Overall, Ghana is still a traditional and patriarchal society that is characterised by gender inequity in leadership spaces. However, men and women who exhibit professional integrity and leadership competence could convert critics to supporters in a range of school settings. The Ghana Education Service should provide leadership preparation for practitioners to improve their leadership competence.

The experiences of female headteachers of boys’ senior high schools in Ghana

“…Through their unquestioned professional competence, passion, and motherly nurturance (Cherkowski et al, 2020;Lumby and Azaola, 2014;Mudau and Ncube, 2017)), and moral solidity, resilience, collegial leadership and ability to collaborate and network (Naidoo et al, 2016), the female headteachers overcame the opposition and turned around their schools. This supports earlier conclusions by Tangonyire (2021) which identified these characteristics as important tools for school leadership. The ability to balance professionalism, motherliness and moral integrity won the female headteachers the material and non-material support of stakeholders to improve teaching and learning.…”

“…Female leadership in educational institutions is an established area of research (Grogan and Shakeshaft, 2010;Naidoo et al, 2016) revealing a critical mass of literature Uwizeyimana and Mathevula, 2014). However, in Ghana, female leadership especially in single sex schools' contexts is largely under-researched (Tangonyire, 2021). This study has explored the lived experiences of the only three women heading boys' senior high schools in Ghana analysing the career journeys, on-the-job experiences, and strategies they deployed to lead change in male-dominated environments.…”

“…Scholars in a variety of African countries have found that prevailing socio-cultural belief systems favour and legitimise the masculine image of school leadership Zikhali and Perumal, 2016). In Ghana where people are socialised to see school leadership as the provenance of men (Agezo, 2010;Tangonyire, 2021), they expect that if women should lead at all, it should be girls' schools. Thus, appointing these three women to head boys' schools suggests that there is increasing (albeit tentative) openness in relation to gender equity in leadership spaces (Ghana Education Service, 2021).…”

“…Nonetheless, in single sex school contexts, some of which have celebrated centenary landmarks, they have strictly maintained the principle of having only women or men heading schools that resonate with their gender. This means that women headed girls' schools and men headed boys' schools (Tangonyire, 2021). We must point out that in Ghana, women and men who aspire to lead senior high schools must first attain the rank of Deputy Director of Education in the Ghana Education Service, usually through years of hard work, appraisals, examinations and interviews.…”

“…The issue of gender and leadership in educational institutions in Ghana remains a topical one because of the inequalities in gender recognition and representation. However, in Ghana, one of the only studies thus far that considers this important issue in single sex schools was Tangonyire's (2021) research. As Tangonyire (2021: 2) observes:…”