Gender and School Leadership in the Papua New Guinea Public School System

Abstract

As more women have entered leadership positions in educational institutions and other organisations, gender difference in leadership style and performance has become a popular focus of study in many parts of the world. There are ongoing debates, mostly in developed countries, about whether female leaders are caring and nurturing and with greater interpersonal skills while male leaders encourage competition and involve only a few executives at the top of the hierarchy in decision making. The main aim of this thesis was to ascertain if the claimed gender differences in school leadership were true for PNG, a developing country with strong traditional cultures and Christian beliefs. A sample of male and female head teachers, drawn from both primary and secondary schools, was asked how they exercised their leadership powers. The first objective of the inquiry was on the performance of their instructional role, how they communicated with staff students and parents, and how they solved problems at their schools. The inquiry also sought to identify whether the traditional cultures of PNG and the Christian beliefs of the heads influenced their leadership in any way. A third strand to the investigation was to find out whether attaining a leadership position was a different process for male and female heads. This thesis first reports the characteristics of PNG and its many traditional cultures (kastom pasin) together with information about gender differences in access to schooling and leadership positions in the education system. There are few female heads particularly in the secondary schools. A survey by postal questionnaire of 76 head teachers (36 males and 36 females) provided background information including the qualifications, ages and training of those surveyed. Further information was then sought in face-to-face interviews with 8 head teachers, 8 classroom teachers, and 8 students. Six educational officials were interviewed on the general topic of gender and school leadership and their assessment of the performance of women head teachers, particularly those in secondary schools. Those who participated in the main survey were selected mostly from four provinces, two represented matrilineal and two represented patrilineal cultures. However, in the case of one area, the heads in the study had come from most regions of the country. The survey results showed a homogeneity in the leadership behaviours which the head teachers' reported. There was little evidence of gender differences apart from some variation in reported difference in the instructional role. The interview results confirmed the findings from the questionnaire survey. All the head teachers reported ways of carrying out their leadership role in a manner which was congruent with transformational and democratic leadership approaches. The female heads' focus on curriculum development and creating an environment conducive to learning was a feature of the interview results and was noted by education officials, students, and teachers as well as by female heads. A resemblance of the LBDQ studies was observed through the female head teachers' insistence for teachers to closely adhere to school rules when dealing with students for consistency and uniformity in school administration. Most heads reported a strong Christian influence both personally and on the practices for which they were responsible in their schools. Although the women from a matrilineal society felt that their culture had made them brave and bold, the main evidence for the effects of kastom pasin were from reports of attitudes to women held by appointment boards. Some women in this study also said that in patrilineal areas, men teachers had been unwilling to accept their leadership. There was also anecdotal evidence that ways of consultation and the resolution of conflict by heads may be carried out in traditional ways such as shared decision-making and the sharing of food as a way of easing tensions. No gender difference was shown in the way in which heads became leaders but the women were on average older than the men and were better qualified. Provincial Education Boards, the decision-making body responsible for teachers and head teachers' appointments in each of the twenty provinces were reported to be supportive to female heads in some regions of the country while in others, the PEB appeared not supportive. In overseas studies of women's careers, delays in appointment are often attributed to a need to take time out for child care. Child care did not appear to be a barrier for women to become a head of a school in PNG. However, problems were reported in women's access to management training if courses required married women to travel some distance from home. The results showed less gender difference in leadership style in PNG than has been reported in many studies from developed countries. Several possible reasons are advanced to explain the lack of significant gender difference among the head teachers' reported styles of leadership, The NDOE (National Department of Education) has produced a handbook on leadership. The participants in the study were probably familiar with this. The results should not be interpreted as showing that there is never any gender difference in leadership style in PNG schools. There were variations within the sample of female heads just as there were within the sample of male heads. Features which have, in other studies, been called female or male styles of leadership appeared to exist within both samples. Nevertheless, two factors have emerged as significant from this study. Firstly, the homogeneity of the reported leadership behaviour of the head teachers which gives a picture of them as transformational and democratic in their leadership approach and the fact that female heads seem to demonstrate a stronger support for curriculum development and enhanced learning than do most male heads. The similarity between the reported performance of males and females provides a strong argument for the appointment of more women as heads of schools in PNG. Recommendations are made for the government, NDOE, appointment boards and women teachers to work towards increasing the number of women applying and being appointed as heads of schools.