A CRITICAL REALIST PERSPECTIVE OF LEADERSHIP
PRACTICES
There are many leaders, not
just one. Leadership is
distributed. It resides not
solely in the individual at the
top, but in every person at
every level who in one way or
another, acts as a leader
Principal
Educators
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Field of Ed Leadership & Management
South Africa -1994 > transform
Policymakers faith in ed.
Task Team Report (1996) legacy of apartheid
> collective efforts > Boost morale.
Despite the promulgation of sophisticated
policies
Leadership collective....
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Field of Ed Leadership & Management
South Africa -1994 > transform
Policymakers faith in ed.
Task Team Report (1996) legacy of apartheid
> collective efforts > Boost morale.
Despite the promulgation of sophisticated
policies
Leadership collective....
LITERATURE REVIEW
PRINCIPAL KEY
Ash & Persall (2000), Harris & L
Lambert (2003), Murphy, (2009)
Kotter (2000), Spillane, Camburn and
Pareja (2000)
ENTRENCHED BELIEFS AND IDEOLOGIES
Katzenmeyer& Moller, (2001), Harris &
Lambert (2003), Harris, (2008). Grant
(2010), Singh, (2007), Moonsamy,
(2010), Nene (2010)
UNDERSTANDING THE CONCEPT OF
LEADERSHIP & MANAGEMENT
•Headship
•Great man theory
•Management more status
•Leadership & Management linked
Grant (2010)
Davidoff & Lazarus(1994)
Fullan (2009), Covey (2004),
Singh (2007), Moonsamy (2010), Nene
(2010)
LITERATURE REVIEW
DISTRIBUTED LEADERSHIP
• Group activity
• Fluid and emerging
• Contours of expertise
• Emergent
• Leadership practice
• Analytical tool
Harris (2007), Davies (2009), Hargreaves
(2007), Goleman (2002), Bennett et al (2003),
Gronn (2000), Grant (2010), Prew (2007), van
der Mescht & Tyala (2008), Bolden, Petrov &
Gosling, 2009).
TEACHER LEADERSHIP
•Influence others > improved
practice.
Harris (2003),Harris & Lambert (2003),
Hargreaves (1992), Katzenmeyer & Moller
(2001), Grant (2010), Fullan & Hargreaves
(1991).
 Social
Realism- Margret Archer
culture, structure, agency
 Distributed Leadership Theory
Spillane (2006) Leader follower dualism
Gunter’s graded categorisation
dispersed
authorised
democratic
 Qualitative
enquiry based on the philosophy
of Critical Realism - Bhaskar
 Critical Realism - Layered ontology
Empirical, Actual, Real
 World exists independent of our knowing
 Underlying mechanisms that give rise to what
is happening at the level of the actual,
empirical. Analytical dualism
Level of the
Empirical
Level of the Actual
Level of the real
 Case
Study methodology
 Research sites and sampling
 Methods of Data collection
Interview and focus group interview
Observation
Journal writing by primary participants
Transect walk
Document Analysis
 Critical
Discourse Analysis
 Fairclough’s framework for analysing a social
event
 Archers framework for analysing the level of
the real to establish the underlying cultures,
structures and agential influences that give
rise to the underlying mechanisms that give
rise to the events and experiences at the
level of the actual and empirical
respectively.
 DISCOURSES
OF THE LINE FUNCTION
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Organogram
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Grade Controllers
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Space created for L1 Educators to lead
 DISCOURSE
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OF THE VISION AND MISSION OF
THE SCHOOL
Vision and Mission ingrained
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All activities centred around the Vision and
Mission Statement of the school
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Educators encouraged to come up with
innovations.
 DISCOURSE
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OF ROLE PLAYED BY LEVEL 1
EDUCATORS in taking the lead
Management monitors and controls
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Space provided for L1 Educators to take on
key leadership positions
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Become corporate agents
 Underlying
structures, mechanisms and agential
influences
 Where does the power lay?
 What kind of power? Power over people
or power over events
 Level 1 educators rise as Corporate agents
 How is distributed leadership enacted in
practice?
 Recommendations for further research
Through distributing
leadership learners
emerge as leaders