Secondary School Principalship and Politics of Belonging: Exclusionary Framings of Gender and Culture in Kisii Central Subcounty, Kenya

• In Event: 35.041 - Social Justice and the Womanist Praxis

Abstract

The under-representation of women in secondary school leadership, common in many countries, raises issues of equity, social justice and sustainable development. In this Narrative inquiry, using politics of belonging as a framework, principalship is constructed as an elites club whose membership is a politicized by male principals. Data was collected through 1-hr-2hrs oral interviews and analyzed using Rosenthal and Fischer-Rosenthal’s 6-stage analysis. Findings confirm that male principals continue to demand women prove themselves using manly attributes, are subjective when recommending women to principalship and use gendered and normalized practices as gate keeping techniques. Further research should aim at identifying contextualized and deep seated normalized practices that continue to exacerbate systemic discrimination of women in secondary school leadership

Authors

• Joel Abaya, Wichita State University

• Wangari Gichiru, Central Connecticut State University

• Caroline Njeri Njeru, Nyanchwa Boys Secondary School

• Erick Momanyi, ST. Lawrence Kiong 'Ong'I Secondary School