![[PDF]](/pb-assets/Icons/adobe-pdf-icon-1498649896243.png){kind=icon}
Abstract
This qualitative multiple case study explored the sources of emotional stress experienced by 12 female Zimbabwean primary heads leading in socio-economic disadvantaged schools in Masvingo District and their attempts to alleviate the challenges that the children from these disadvantaged contexts presented them with. Data was generated through individual semi-structured interviews, and observations and the data was analysed thematically to elicit the sources of their emotional labour that emanated from stress-related cultural and contextual factors. The study revealed that despite the school heads experiencing anxiety, pain, sorrow, sympathy, frustration, sadness, and concern they were happy about their appointments to leadership positions. The sources of their emotional stress were related to the plight of children; stereotypical gender expectations; lack of parental cooperation; and unrealistic professional and social expectations. The study suggests wellness recesses; the establishment of social networks through which heads could share their experiences; and professional development programmes on stress management as possible interventions that could help the heads deal with these stressful circumstances.
References
Section:
|
Bolton, S (2004) Emotion Management at the Workplace. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Google Scholar | |
|
Carli, LL, College, W, Eagley, AH (2001) Gender hierarchy and leadership: an introduction. Journal of Social Issues 57(4): 629–636. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Chang, ML (2009) An appraisal perspective of teacher burnout: examaning the emotional work of teachers. Educational Psychology Review 21: 193–218. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Cummings, C, Dyson, A (2007) The role of schools in area regeneration. Research Papers in Education 22(1): 1–22. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Dziuban, J, Kysilka, M (2008) What is really important in the curriculum world? In: Stern, BS, Kysilka, ML (eds) Contemporary Readings in Curriculum. Los Angeles, CA: SAGE. Google Scholar | |
|
Edwards, G, Perumal, C (2014) Gendered leadership stereotypes in disadvantaged rural school communities. In: Gomez, Chova L, Lopez, Martinez A, Candel, Torres I (eds) 7th International Conference on Education Research Innovation (ICERI2014 Proceedings). Seville, Spain: IATED, pp. 6009–6017. ISBN: 978-84-617-2484-0/ISSN: 2340-1095. Google Scholar | |
|
Eggen, P, Kauchak, D (2010) Educational Psychology: Windows on Classrooms, 8th edn. NJ: Pearson Education International. Google Scholar | |
|
Eide, D (2005) Emotions: from ‘ugly duckling’ via ‘invisible asset’ toward an ontological reframing. In: Hartel, CE, Zerbe, WJ, Ashkanasy, NM (eds) Organizational Behaviour: An Emotions Perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 11–41. Google Scholar | |
|
Fullan, M (2009) The principal and change. In: Fullan, M (ed.) The Challenge of Change: Start School Improvement Now, 2nd edn. London: Corwin, 55–70. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Gassama, S (2012) The correlation between poverty and learning: What can be done to help children with limited resources learn? Available at: http://www.enc.ed.gov/contentdelivery/sender/EACServlet?accno=ED530618. Google Scholar | |
|
Grogan, M (2003) Laying the groundwork for a reconception of the superintendency from feminist postmodern perspectives. In: Young, MD, Skrla, L (eds) Reconstructing Feminist Research. New York, NY: University of New York Press, 9–34. Google Scholar | |
|
Hebson, G, Earnshaw, J, Marchington, L (2007) Too emotional to be capable? The changing nature of emotion workn definitions of ‘capable teaching'. Journal of Education Policy 22(6): 675–694. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Hesse-Biber, SN (2007) The practice of feminist in-depth interviewing. In: Hesse-Biber, SN, Leavy, PL (eds) Feminist Research Practice. London: SAGE. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Hochschild, A (1983) The Managed Heart. Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Kagoda, AM, Sperandio, J (2009) Ugandan women moving beyond historical and cultural understandings of educational leadership. In: Sobehart, HC (ed.) Women Leading Education Across the Continents: Sharing the Spirit, Fanning the Flame. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Education, 49–55. Google Scholar | |
|
Leithwood, K, Riehl, C (2005) What we know about successful school leadership. In: Firestone, W, Riehl, C (eds) A New Agenda: Directions for Research on Educational Leadership. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 22–47. Google Scholar | |
|
Lyman, LL, Strachan, J, Lazariduo, A (2012) Shaping Social Justice Leadership: Insights of Women Educators Wordwide. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield. Google Scholar | |
|
Mann, S (2004) ‘People-work': emotion management, stress and copying. British Journal of Guidance and Counselling 32(2): 205–221. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Masvingo Region Primary Teacher Deployment Statistics (2014). Google Scholar | |
|
Moon, TW (2011) Emotional intelligence, emotional exhaustion, and job performance. Social Behaviour and Personality 39(8): 1087–1096. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Naidoo, B, Perumal, JC (2014) Education Management Administration and Leadership. South Africa: Female Principals Leading at Disadvantaged Schools in Johannesburg. Education Management Administration and Leadership 43(6): 808–24. Google Scholar | |
|
O'Brien, M (2007) Mother's emotional care in education and its moral imperative. Gender and Education 19(2): 159–177. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Oginska-Bulik, N (2005) Emotional intelligence in the workplace: exploring its effects on occupational stress and health outcomes in human service workers. International Journal of Occupational Medicine and Environmental Health 28(2): 167–175. Google Scholar | |
|
Osgood, J (2010) Reconstructing professionalism in ECEC: the case for the ‘critically reflective emotional professional'. Early Years 30(2): 119–133. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Plutchik, R, Kellerman, H (1980) Emotion: Theory, Research, and Experience. New York, NY: Academic. Google Scholar | |
|
Perumal, JC (2014) Enacting Critical Pedagogy in an Emerging Democracy: narratives of pleasure and pain. Education and Urban Society. Published iFirst, 13 July 2014. pp. 1–24. DOI: 10.1177/0013124514541466. Google Scholar | |
|
Perumal, JC (2015) Critical pedagogies of place: Educators’ personal and professional experiences of social (in)justice. Teaching and Teacher Education 45: 25–32. (ISSN: 0742-051X). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2014.09.004. Google Scholar | |
|
Perumal, JC (2013) Pedagogy of Refuge: Education in a Time of Dispossession. Race, Ethnicity and Education 16(3): 673–695. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Rodgers, K (2010) ‘Anger is why we ‘re all here’: mobilizing and managing emotions in a professional activist organization. Social Movement Studies 9(3): 273–291. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
|
Ryan, MK, Haslam, SA (2005) The glass cliff: evidence that women are over-represented in precarious leadership positions. British Journal of Management 16: 81–90. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Scott, J (2003) The linguistic production of genderlessness in the superintendency. In: Young, MD, Skrla, L (eds) Reconstructing Feminist Research. New York, NY: University of New York Press, 81–102. Google Scholar | |
|
Smulyan, L (2000) Balancing Acts Women Principals at Work. New York, NY: State University of New York Press. Google Scholar | |
|
Stofle, S, Linden, N, Maarman, R (2011) Teacher reported poverty effects on education participation in South African district. Journal of Psychology in Africa 21(4): 603–606. Google Scholar | Crossref | ISI | |
|
Zammuner, VL, Galli, C (2005) The relationship with patience: ‘emotional labour‘ and its correlates in hospital employees. In: Hartel, CE, Zerbe, WJ, Ashkanasy, NM (eds) Organizational Behaviour: An Emotions Perspective. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 251–285. Google Scholar |
