School Leadership and Gender

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School Leadership and Gender

A study of middle leadership in a Norwegian upper secondary school

Ari Börde Kröyer

Department of Teacher Education and School Research

Faculty of Educational Sciences

UNIVERSITY OF OSLO

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Abstract

The past century has seen a gradual gender shift in leadership positions in general, and educational leadership positions in particular. This has motivated questions such as whether women and men lead differently, and if so, whether one gender group tends to lead in more efficient ways than the other.

This study examines the possible existence of gender-linked differences in the leadership styles and communication styles of middle leaders in a Norwegian upper secondary school. Four informants from the same upper secondary school were subjected to qualitative research interviews using a variation of the

interview guide approach.

While the results do not indicate that the women in the study, as a group, perform leadership and communication skills differently from the men in the study, distinct differences do appear at the individual level. Three informants, both women and one of the men, constitute a group with similar qualities. The remaining man shows a somewhat different profile compared to the others, although all four share a basically similar understanding of the leadership role and how to exercise it. Despite the fact that gender-linked differences were not clearly demonstrated amongst the informants in the study, the possible existence of such differences in the general population has not been unequivocally refuted either.

One important implication of the present study is that when seeking to build competent leadership teams, it may be wise whenever possible to ensure that they are comprised of both women and men. Finally, further research on the subject of gender-related differences in leadership and communication skills might benefit from being conducted with reference to other theoretical frameworks than the ones chosen for the present study.

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Preface

At the time of the writing of this thesis I can look back on 21 years of experience as a middle leader in Norwegian upper secondary education. The wish to become a better leader, along with a combination of practice, peer discussions, taking courses and reading litterature on the subject, gradually sparked the motivation that drove me to embark on writing this, my second master’s thesis.

Many were the times, nonetheless, when I asked myself whether it was really worth the effort? Could I not learn as much about leadership without all the hassle and labor that completing a degree would entail? In retrospect I think that, yes, I probably could have. However, by completing the degree, I am confident that not only has my knowledge and skill within the field of leadership grown, but I have made other achievements as well.

Early on, I decided to write my thesis using L^ATEX, thereby finally earning a working knowledge of this typesetting system, which I have long yearned to learn. By choosing to write my thesis in English, the work has helped me to maintain, and possibly even improve, my written English. And last but not least, as a husband and the father of three young men now aged 22, 24, and 26, who have frequently heard from me about the value of putting honest effort into something and seeing it through, I have now proved to them (and to myself) that not only can I ’talk the talk’, but I can also ’walk the walk’.

Thus, although the contents of this thesis may hopefully represent some small increment to the knowledge that has been accumulated within the field of educational leadership, it represents significantly more to me.

Nonetheless, even though I feel confident that researching for this thesis has in fact contributed to developing my leadership skills, it can in no manner outweigh the learning derived from working for the past 21 years together with a number of highly qualified colleagues, leaders and others, each with better aptitudes than my own within some or more facets of leadership. They have selflessly shared their knowledge and expertise, offered their advice, motivated and encouraged me in more ways than they realize. I owe them an immense debt of gratitude for contributing to shaping the leader and person that I am today. A select few of these deserve special mention: Ellen Lysne, Lene Langmo, Lars Brente, Bjørn Ytterdal, Monica Halle, Inger Marie Milde, Åshild Sviland, Per Erik Skjelbred and Hata Kazaferovi´c.

I want to thank Per Erik Skjelbred for supporting my work on this project by allowing me flexible working hours on the few occasions when I most needed it.

I wish to extend special thanks Dijana Tiplic for her invaluable and highly

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professional guidance and feedback on this project, and on the manuscript as the work progressed.

Finally I want to thank my wife Siw for her patience, encouragement and support along the way.

Åros, October 2019, Ari Börde Kröyer

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1 Introduction

As human beings, we are aware that we are the most intelligent life form on our planet. Through the course of evolution and history, the intelligence with which we have been endowed has permitted us to not only surmount all manner of trivial obstacles that we have been challenged with on the individual level in everyday life, but also challenges that have met us at the group level, at the society level and even as a species. We have managed this to a large extent thanks to our ability to accumulate vast amounts of knowledge and insight into innumerable fields, and to pass this knowledge on from generation to generation through the institution of schools.

We humans, like bees or ants, build highly complex and organized societies where individuals play different and specialized roles. Our societies, however, differ from the ones we find in the animal kingdom in that we are able to adapt them to changing circumstances based on knowledge, reasoning and insight, instead of having to rely on our genetic programming and instincts alone.

Nonetheless, despite the strengths that set us apart from the other living beings with whom we share our planet, we also have significant traits in common with many of them. One of these is our mode of reproduction based on two separate sexes, each with it’s specialized role in the process. We know this to be the result of evolution over the course of millions of years, and consequently, we

understand that we would be foolish to assume that it is without effect on other aspects of our lives besides reproduction. This has led to numerous assumptions, theories, hypotheses and research on the role of gender in many fields, among others in the field of leadership.

Although the literature on leadership and gender is quite comprehensive

(B. M. Bass, 1998; B. M. Bass, Avolio, & Atwater, 1996; Chemers, 2014; Eagly, Johannesen-Schmidt, & Van Engen, 2003; Koenig, Eagly, Mitchell, & Ristikari, 2011; Marvel, 2015; Patel & Biswas, 2016; Trinidad & Normore, 2005), the issue is far from out-debated and by no means an area of general consensus (Helgesen, 1995; Johnsen, 2015; Mintzberg, 1973). The issue of gender in the field of school leadership has also been the focus of numerous studies (Kim &

Cryss Brunner, 2009; Kowalski & Brunner, 2011; Shakeshaft, 2011). Shakeshaft (2011), notably, gives a detailed historical account of the gender shift towards more women in schools in the United States, at first in teaching positions and subsequently in administrative positions.

Leadership as a concept can take various forms, depending on the epistemological assumptions of a particular body of literature. My study

concerns itself with leadership within the context of Norwegian upper secondary

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education, studying it relative to the theoretical framework of Transactional and Transformational Leadership Theory (B. M. Bass & Bass, 2009; B. M. Bass &

Stogdill, 1990). This theory has been the source of considerable debate focusing on its relevance and usefullness in different areas, among others within the field of educational leadership (B. M. Bass, 1998; Hallinger, 2003; Stewart, 2006) My first focus will be on leadership as a set of behaviors, or styles of behavior, and how these may vary between the genders. The second focus will be on leader-follower communication, also related to gender.

To clarify the context of the study, I will give a very brief outline of the Norwegian educational system.

The Norwegian educational system is divided into the primary (grades 1

through 7) and secondary (grades 8 through 13) levels. Each of these are in turn divided into a lower and upper level. Individual primary schools typically offer both the lower (1-4) and upper (5-7) primary levels. Secondary schools, however, generally do not offer both the lower (8-10) and upper (11-13) secondary levels within the same school owing to these being managed at different levels of public administration. Primary schools and lower secondary schools are owned and managed by municipalities, whereas counties own and manage upper secondary schools.

Individual upper secondary schools are led by a principal, commonly also an assistant- or vice-principal, and a team of middle leaders (heads of department) with areas of responsibility that vary from school to school. The middle leaders typically handle the majority of the day-to-day contact with the department’s teachers. They are the ones who are responsible for implementing decisions at the department level, be they decisions made locally by the principal together with her/his leadership team, or decisions made at the county or national level.

1.1 Problem statement and research questions

I have opted to use the Transformational/Transactional Leadership style model (B. M. Bass, 1985) as a basis for this study. The reason for this is twofold.

Firstly, as explained by B. M. Bass (1998), empirical research has shown Transformational Leadership style to be associated with greater effectiveness compared to other styles described within this model. There is evidence that this holds true also within the field of educational leadership (Leithwood & Jantzi, 2005). Secondly, in their meta-analysis of extant literature on Transformational, Transactional and Laissez-faire Leadership styles of women and men, Eagly et al. (2003) have documented gender-related differences on this account, and

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concluded that women generally tend to be more transformational in their leadership style compared to men.

Given that Transformational Leadership styles have generally been found to relate more positively to leader effectiveness and desired organizational outcomes compared to Transactional styles (Eagly & Johannesen-Schmidt, 2001), this would indicate that women to a greater degree than men adopt desireable leadership styles. However, the leadership factor termed ’Contingent Reward’, the practice of rewarding desirable outcomes, constitutes an exception as, although it is considered to be a factor of the Transactional Leadership category, it nonetheless correlates positively with leader effectiveness.

Interestingly, the authors found that even this factor is employed to a higher degree by women than by men (Eagly et al., 2003), thus corroborating evidence that the leadership styles of women predict greater effectiveness, measured in organizational outcomes, compared to those of men. (For a more detailed description of leadership styles, see section 2 below.)

My study examines evidence of gender related differences in the way school leadership is understood and practiced, centering on the following main problem statement:

Problem statement: How does gender play a role in school leadership?

1.1.1 First research question (RQ1)

The reasons given by women and by men for entering and leaving educational administration typically differ, and women have a greater likelihood of staying in such positions for longer periods of time, including even for the remainder of their careers (Kim & Cryss Brunner, 2009; Ruhl-Smith, Shen, & Cooley, 1999).

Men generally enter teaching positions with a lower degree of commitment compared to women, and tend to move into administrative positions quicker and continue to climb the career ladder, being more preoccupied with the status of their career positions than women are (Ruhl-Smith et al., 1999). Women, according to these authors, are more interested in the educational goals and values embodied by their positions and therefore tend to invest more into empowering their colleagues to achieve these goals.

However, in a meta-analysis specifically focusing on gender differences in the leadership styles of school principals Eagly, Karau, and Johnson (1992) did not find evidence of gender differences in the degree of inter-personally oriented leadership style, whereas women showed a slightly counter-stereotypic tendency to be more task oriented in style compared to men. In this study the most

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pronounced difference between the genders was found on the scale of democratic versus autocratic leadership styles, with women displaying the former to a higher degree than men. These findings, although not entirely concurrent with those of other studies on gender and leadership style, have nonetheless also been

acknowledged by other authors as well (B. M. Bass et al., 1996).

It follows from the above that when studying the role played by gender in school leadership it is necessary to first ascertain which leadership styles are practiced by male and female school leaders. Hence, the first research question:

Research question 1 (hereafter RQ1): What style of leadership do male and female school leaders practice?

1.1.2 Second research question (RQ2)

Schools are inherently complex organizations and all but the very smallest schools present significant challenges at all levels, including the leadership level.

Jacobsen, Thorsvik, et al. (2013) stress the functions and importance of

communication in organizations making it plainly apparent that effective leaders need to be adept communicators. The same authors remind us that

communication occurs not only verbally, but also non-verbally and that emotions play a central role in the communication process.

In a review of literature on gender differences in communication, Guerrero, Jones, and Boburka (2006) notably draw six conclusions. Firstly, women are generally more skilled than men at encoding and decoding emotions, and being emotionally sensitive to others. Men, on the other hand, seem better at inhibiting and controlling emotions than women are, except in the case of anger. Women display more immediacy behavior (e.g. smiling, standing close) than men do.

Men, however, can show more of certain behaviors of this type (e.g. touch) during courtship. Anger is displayed more aggressively in boys compared to girls, the latter more commonly displaying passive aggressive behavior when angry, but these differences are less evident among adults. Women are more likely to share and seek social support when in a saddened state. Men in this state of mind tend to engage more in distracting and, not uncommonly, dangerous behaviors. Finally, when jealous, women discuss their feelings more often than men, express them non-verbally and try to enhance their physical appearance.

Men, on the other hand, commonly offer gifts or spend money on the partner, or preoccupy themselves with the rival.

Of the conclusions listed above, the first is perhaps the most directly relevant to the present study, although some of the others may turn out to be useful in interpreting results.

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The first conclusion suggests that women, being more adept not only at reading (decoding) but also at communicating (encoding) emotional state, should be inherently more skilled at providing emotional support. This is notably supported by the different cultures thesis (DCT), which purports that men and women belong to different gender cultures and that one of the defining characteristics of these cultures is that they essentially live in different emotional worlds (Johnson, 1999; Tannen et al., 1990). However, Burleson and Kunkel (2006) refute this, arguing that it is not supported by research, and conclude:

Though some may pay homage to these fictions, they lack substance, are largely the product of the imagination, and represent an

increasing embarrassment to the good people of the community. The DCT constitutes a deeply flawed basis for theory and practice, and thus it should be rejected by theorists, researchers, practitioners, textbook writers, and others who seek to represent accurately the communication practices of women and men.

These authors instead make the case that the communication skills of men and women do have some distinguishing characteristics, but that they have far more in common than what sets them apart. In other words, they concede that there may well be some difference at the gender level, but interpret the extent of such differences, as well as their origins, vastly differently.

Not often does one in the literature find authors disagreeing more

uncompromisingly with one another than in the quote above, which makes the question of gender differences all the more interesting. This sets the stage for my second research question:

Research question 2 (hereafter RQ2): How do male and female school leaders communicate with their subordinates?

1.2 Definition of leadership

A couple of terms need to be defined here to ensure clarity. For historical reasons, it is common practice in Norway and elsewhere to use the terms

’leadership’ and ’management’ in an interchangeable manner. In this text, however, they will carry different meanings, as explained below.

Hackman and Johnson (2013) stress the crucial difference between leaders and managers, pointing out that leaders are associated primarily with change, while managers are equated with organizational stability. This is because they perform different functions.

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1.2.1 Leadership

A Norwegian upper secondary school’s leadership is typically comprised of a principal, a vice-principal and several middle leaders. All of these positions carry executive powers within their respective areas of responsibility. In addition all employees of the school have one of these as their immediate superior in the chain of command.

Being an employee’s superior entails certain personnel management (HR¹) responsibilities, although some of these may be supported by key members of the Management (see below). I have not examined the exact division of

labor/responsibilities at the school I have studied, as it does not have direct bearing on the questions that will be discussed within the scope of my thesis.

1.2.2 Management

The management is the office staff which performs a number of different support functions related to the daily operation of the school,e.g. switchboard, mail, archive management, HR management, and support functions in collaboration with members of the leadership, etc. This list is not exhaustive.

According to the definitions provided here, the key points of difference between leadership positions and management positions are the executive powers and HR responsibilities bestowed upon the former, but not the latter. Executive powers are a prerequisite in order to be able to instigate change and when coupled to HR responsibilities they provide the necessary tools to lead, as expressed in

Hackman and Johnson’s (2013) text, where they quote Grace Murray Hopper:

You manage things; you lead people.

1.3 Structure of this thesis

In the chapters to follow, I will first present theory on leadership styles as well as on social skill, communication and emotional awareness before detailing the methods chosen for this study and the results thus obtained. I will then discuss the results with reference to theory and empirical research on leadership styles and communication.

There is a great wealth of literature and theories on leadership in general, as well as on the theories I have chosen as a basis for the present study. Giving a good and comprehensive presentation of this body of knowledge is not within the

1For the sake of brevity I will from time to time in the remainder of the text use the abbreviation HR, which stands for ’human relations’, as a synonym for ’personnel management’.

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scope of my study. Instead, the chapter on theory will present the specific theories chosen as a basis for my inquiry.

Similarly, I have chosen to focus particularly on one important aspect of the theory on communication, but in order to clarify this choice, I have also outlined some of the surrounding theory in the section on the theory of social skill and communication.

In the chapter on methods I include a description of my research design, giving special attention to the precautions taken to ensure the best possible validity and reliability of the results. Furthermore, I describe my particular method of inquiry, the qualitative research interview, along with how the interviews were prepared and conducted. I treat validity and reliability in separate sections and condlude the chapter with an outline of how the data thus obtained were handled and analysed.

In the results chapter, I treat the interviews individually at first, constructing individual narratives for each informant. The chapter rounds off with a composite summary of my findings, structured according to the two research questions and preparing the ground for the ensuing discussion and conclusions.

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2 Theory

In this chapter, I first present theories on leadership style, followed by theories on social skill and communication, the latter centering on the core factor of emotion.

A comprehensive presentation of theories of leadership is outside the scope of this study. Instead, I first start by very briefly mentioning some developments in the history of leadership theory during the past century. I then focus on the contingency models of leadership practice, precursors to the Transformational and Transactional Leadership model on which my study is based, and to which I devote the remainder of this section. I include references to research focusing specifically on the role played by gender on how leadership is exercised.

Similarly, the following section starts with a very brief mention of some historic roots of current theories of social skill and communication. I then proceed to give the reader a definition of social skill and some insight into one model of

communicative performance which highlights the role played by emotions in the communication process. Next, I present a general definition of emotional

intelligence and theory on the the skill of emotional awareness, including references to research presenting evidence of a gender bias in the degree of proficiency at this skill.

2.1 Theory on leadership style

During the first half of the 20th century researchers initially were on a quest for personality traits that could be related to specific organizational outcomes (Chemers, 2014). However, these efforts turned out to be largely futile as the research failed to determine a definitive set of traits that could reliably predict desired organizational effectiveness and outcomes.

Subsequently, leadership research took a new turn, focusing on styles of leadership behavior and how these could be correlated with desired outcomes.

These efforts gave rise to a number of models of leadership effectiveness.

Chemers (2014) broadly groups these into, on the one hand the contingency models, with Fiedler’s Contingency Model (Fiedler, 1964) and House’s

Path-Goal Theory (House, 1971) being the ones that gained the most weight, and on the other, Bass’ Theory of Transactional and Transformational Leadership (B. M. Bass & Stogdill, 1990).

2.1.1 The contingency models

Fiedler’s Contingency Model (Fiedler, 1978) acknowledged the existence of a number of potentially unpredictable factors, notably the motivation of followers,

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that could influence the outcomes of leadership efforts. This model thus highlighted the importance of leadership efforts being balanced between targeting the task at hand and the cultivation of relationships to coworkers devoted to this task. The model further acknowledged that this balance could shift considerably according to the situation.

In the author’s own words (Fiedler, 1978):

The Contingency Model states that effectiveness of interacting groups or organizations depends, or is contingent, upon the

appropriate match between leader personality traits, reflecting his or her motivational structure, and the degree to which the leader has situational control and influence. Specifically, task-motivated leaders perform best in situations in which their control is either high or relatively low; relationship-motivated leaders perform best when they have moderate control and influence.

In this quote it is plainly apparent that Fiedler’s Contingency Model was

developed after a period during which the main focus of leadership research had been on personality traits, as this aspect is integrated into the model. This prior research, as pointed out by Chemers (2014) had experienced shortcomings in terms of its insufficient power to reliably predict organizational effectiveness and outcomes. The work of Fiedler and colleagues constituted an effort to address these shortcomings by attempting to identify the source of the discrepancies in predictive power. They showed that the situations in which leadership is

practiced can vary greatly, but at the same time, that one could point out aspects of these situations that together with the leader’s personality traits have

considerable influence on the outcomes of leadership efforts. These were leader-member relations, task structure and the leader’s positional power.

The model was developed to describe groups in which performance is the result of a collaborative process, thus depending on a coordinated interaction between the members. It is not particularly suited to the study of teams whose

performance is the sum of the team members’ individual and independent performances.

The study of the situational aspects of leadership was carried a step further with the advent of House’s Path-Goal Theory of Leader effectiveness. This theory examines how a leader’s behavior can affect subordinates’ satisfaction and motivation, and thereby their performance (House, 1971).

The theory grouped leadership behaviors into the five categories of Leader initiating structure, Consideration, Authoritarianism, Hierarchical influence, and Closeness of supervision. When House (1971) originally published the theory, he

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presented it together with a set of 8 hypotheses deduced from it, as well as some evidence of the validity of several of these. These hypotheses were formulated in a singularly instrumental fashion, concerning themselves with the above

leadership behaviors and the resulting measurable behavioral outcomes seen in group members. House only superficially touched on the leader-group member relationships, usually simply describing them as being varying degrees of positive or negative.

Thus, the contingency models of leader effectiveness acknowledged the shortcomings of prior research which was concerned solely with leader traits.

These models shifted attention towards the situational aspects of the

leader-member interaction, including leadership behaviors, collectively termed

’contingencies’.

A quarter century after originally publishing the Path-Goal Theory of leadership, House (1996) took a critical look at the theory and the research it had spiked, presenting advances in the field of leadership research. Reflecting on the original theory and subsequent developments, he writes:

Path-goal theory reflects the fact that the leadership scholars of the time were largely trapped in a paradigm of task and person oriented behavior with respect to leadership and a paradigm of cognitive orientation with respect to motivation. Little attention was paid to the importance of non-conscious motives or valence.

In the wake of Path-Goal Theory there emerged new theories. One that gained considerable momentum, and which is commonly referenced to the present day is the Transactional and Transformational Leadership Theory (B. M. Bass, 1985, 1998; B. M. Bass et al., 1996; B. M. Bass & Bass, 2009; B. M. Bass & Stogdill, 1990) .

2.1.2 Transactional and Transformational Leadership Theory

Transactional and Transformational Leadership Theory is in agreement with the contingency models of leadership when pointing out that the style of leadership employed by the leader can have a significant influence on follower motivation (B. M. Bass, 1998; Chemers, 2014; Fiedler, 1978), thus promoting or limiting desired organizational outcomes. However, this model directs attention

specifically to the follower’s viewpoint, thereby further stressing the importance of the leader-follower relationship. B. M. Bass and Avolio (1996) devised the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ) for the specific purpose of exploring how leadership style was conceived by followers and how it, in turn, could be related to organizational outcomes.

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Based on this research, B. M. Bass (1985, 1998) presented a model of leadership behavior based on seven factors that can be divided into three categories. These are firstly the Transformational Leadership factors, secondly the Transactional Leadership factors and thirdly the Non-leadership factor.

Transformational Leadership factors

The Transformational Leadership category comprises four different factors.

First of these is Idealized Influence (sometimes termed Charisma). This factor reflects that the follower has a very high level of confidence in the leader’s ability to achieve an important vision and overcome any obstacle along the way.

Leaders demonstrating a high degree of Idealized Influence can commonly show a willingness to place their followers’ needs above their own. The follower’s willingness to follow springs out of her/his confidence in the leader’s person.

The second factor is called Inspirational Motivation. Although this factor overlaps with the previous one, it is more centered around the emotional appeal of the vision that the leader communicates, rather than on the leader’s person or abilities. The leader manages to arouse optimism and enthusiasm for the goal or vision to be attained, and manages to generate and maintain high individual and team spirits in connection with the work to be accomplished.

The third factor belonging to the Transformational Leadership category is Intellectual Stimulation. This factor reflects the leader’s encouragement of the subordinate’s independent thinking and questioning of past and present ideas. An important component of this factor is the leader’s ability to create an atmosphere in which followers feel that occasional failures are an inherent part of exploring new ideas and solutions, and that they do not risk any ridicule or other negative repercussions when this happens.

Finally, the last Transformational Leadership factor is Individualized Consideration. This factor reflects the leader’s skill in treating subordinates differentially while taking into account their individual needs, thus giving them the experience of being treated in a satisfying manner. The leader tends to assume the role of mentor or coach, thereby contributing to the individual follower’s personal growth.

Transactional Leadership factors

The second main category known as the Transactional Leadership category, includes two factors: Contingent Reward and Management by Exception.

The Contingent Reward factor reflects a leader’s tendency to give positive reinforcement to desired behaviors displayed and outcomes achieved by the

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subordinate. Such positive reinforcement can take many forms, depending on what the individual subordinate would view as a reward.

Management by Exception is a negation of sorts of the previous factor, reflecting the leader’s tendency to take action only when the need arises to correct things that go wrong. When practicing active Management by Exception the leader closely monitors for errors or deviances in order to be able to intervene promptly with corrective measures when these occur. This factor may also be practiced in a less active manner, as would be the case if the leader was more prone

responding with corrective measures when errors were discovered, despite not monitoring very actively for them.

Non-leadership factor

The last category, termed the Non-leadership factor, comprises only the single factor: Laissez-faire. This is a French term which translates literally to “let do”, i.e. to let events run their course. In the leadership context it therefore reflects the degree to which the leader omits to intervening and taking action of any kind, but also indicates leadership without clearly communicated expectations and goals.

The above model has been redescribed and reaffirmed in subsequent publications (B. M. Bass, 1998; B. M. Bass & Avolio, 1993; B. M. Bass & Bass, 2009;

B. M. Bass & Stogdill, 1990).

2.2 Theory on social skill and communication

2.2.1 Overview

There is little evidence of the study of social skill prior to the mid 20th century, but motor skills had already received considerable attention dating back to the early 19th century (Hargie, 2018).

In the early 1960s psychologists began to apply the then accumulated knowledge and theory that had previously been applied to man-machine interactions, to the study of interactions between people (Crossman, 1960; Welford, 1980). This was the starting point of the development of theory and models for the study of interpersonal, or social, skills.

2.2.2 Definition of social skill

Hargie (2018) gives an account of how the concept of social skill has caught the interest of researchers in many fields, resulting in different definitions of the term. The definition offered by Hargie (2018) himself is:

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A process in which the individual implements a set of goal-directed, situationally appropriate social behaviors, which are learned and controlled.

Communication, as an example of a social skill, conforms well to this model. It is indeed a goal-directed process, generally involving both verbal and non-verbal behaviors that are controlled and tailored to the situation based on previous experience,i.e.it is the result of a learning process. Leadership, clearly, can be described in the same way.

2.2.3 Hargie’s model of communicative performance

The present study will not concern itself with social skills in general, but instead focus on the communication skills of leaders and particularly on the emotional factor in the communication process (section 2.2.4).

I have already pointed out (section 1.2) that leadership is about working with the human element. It is about transmitting the vision of some goal to be attained, about building relationships, excerting influence, excercising power, and facing and surmounting crises or instigating change through interactions with people.

All of these elements share a common factor: they happen through communication, making this perhaps the most essential leadership skill (Hackman & Johnson, 2013).

Hargie (2018) offers an operational model of communicative performance based on the motor skill model.

The model acknowledges the fact that interpersonal communication is a

transactional process which involves a goal, or goals, and the motivation to reach them. In its simplest form this communication takes place between two

individuals each of which brings to the table his or her goals and motivation.

They are inter-dependent.

Considering the communication process from the viewpoint of one of the participants, it involves the elements of perception, translation/mediation and response. Specifically, the person perceives what the other person is saying and doing (verbal an non-verbal communication), then interprets the meaning of these actions through a process of translation/mediation and finally responds in a manner judged situationally appropriate and suited to attaining the goal at hand.

This is a continual process that takes place rapidly and involves a high degree of automation, but which also necessitates a person’s conscious control in order to be effective. In the words of Hackman and Johnson (2013) “the process involves the negotiation of shared interpretations and understanding.”

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There are two core mediating factors in the process of communication (Hargie, 2018): cognition and emotion.

While the importance of cognition is demonstrated in the description above, the emotional factor requires some attention, specifically because there have been reports of gender bias connected with this factor (see below).

2.2.4 The core factor of emotion

It has been demonstrated that the process of communication is heavily dependent on the mood and emotional state of the participants, which can consequently play a key role in shaping close relationships (Planalp, 2003) but also relationships in the workplace (Fineman, 2000). Therefore, a skilled communicator must be able to not only decode and respond appropriately to the emotional state of the person he/she is communicating with, but also have a high awareness of his/her own emotional state and take this into consideration as well.

2.3 Emotional intelligence and emotional awareness

Goleman (1996), while not being preoccupied with the definition of terms, presents compelling arguments and examples in support of emotional intelligence as an even more important factor than IQ. Lane (2000) broadly defines emotional intelligence as

The ability to use emotional information in a constructive and adaptive manner.

This ability is dependent upon the ability to register and interpret one’s own emotional responses as well as that of others, also termed emotional awareness (Lane, 2000). Guerrero et al.’s (2006) treatise on sex differences in emotional communication notably supports this, although they do not use the same term.

Lane and Schwartz (1987) argue that emotional awareness is a cognitive skill which undergoes development during the course of an individual’s life, passing through stages sharing characteristics with Piaget’s stages of cognitive

development.

In other words, emotional awareness is an acquired cognitive skill. It follows that different individuals can display significantly different levels of emotional

awareness and consequently also different degrees of emotional intelligence.

In accordance with Hargie’s model of communicative performance (section 2.2.3) an important part of communication is being able to correctly decode the situation,e.g. the emotional state of the person being communicated with.

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Clearly, this is where a person’s emotional awareness comes into play. However, decoding emotions is not alone sufficient in order to ensure an effective

goal-directed communicative process. It is also paramount for a leader to master the skill of responding to, sharing and expressing emotions (Hackman &

Johnson, 2013). Thus, in the workplace relationship between leader and group member the skilled leader can influence the group member’s emotional state in a favorable direction,e.g. by transmitting a particularly compelling vision or by conveying emotional support.

Burleson (2003) gives a detailed account of characteristics of more or less effective efforts at conveying emotional support. He also presents evidence that the skill of the helper varies according to demographic such as age or sex, but does not point out specific character traits of the effective helper that can easily be identified and evaluated. This does, however, support the notion that not only emotional awareness, but also conveying emotional support is a skill that can be learned and perfectioned, and that these skills may be unequally represented in women compared to men. Although a number of authors have found evidence of such differences (Burleson & Kunkel, 2006; Johnson, 1999; Rosener, 1990;

Tannen et al., 1990) their explanations differ.

Some examples of characteristics commonly found in messages that are effective in conveying emotional support are the expression of a desire to provide support, an acceptance of, and positive regard for the subject, the expression of concern, care and interest, alliance, acknowledgement and understanding, as well as simply expressing one’s availability to the subject (Burleson, 2003).

These characteristics may be of help within the present study in order to discriminate between leaders based on how adept they are at discerning and responding appropriately to the emotional state of their group members.

2.4 Summary

This chapter has given the reader an outline of the leadership theory on which my inquiry is based, namely Bass’ Theory of Transactional and Transformational Leadership (B. M. Bass & Bass, 2009), after first briefly describing its historical roots in its contemporary leadership theories. This is followed by a presentation of theory on social skill and communication, focusing particularly on the core factor of emotion and leading to definitions of emotional intelligence and emotional awareness, stressing the importance of these in the communication process.

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3 Methods

In this chapter I take the reader through a description of the research design used in my study and how it is adapted to my particular inquiry. This includes how interview subjects were selected, the information they were given prior to being interviewed, and how their anonymity was ensured throughout the process.

The study is based on qualitative research interviews, and I present and explain the methods I chose and the particular adaptations I made, producing a somewhat innovative approach. This is followed by a detailed description of the process of analysis of the accounts given by the informants, illustrated by selected

examples.

I conclude the chapter with an explanation of how the design and methods were chosen and planned to ensure the validity and reliability of the results.

3.1 Research design

Creswell (2013) divides qualitative research designs into the five categories narrative research, phenomenological research, grounded theory, ethnography and case studies.

In narrative research the researcher secures stories from the informant’s life which are then retold along a timeline, exposing the views of the informant, sometimes combined with the researcher’s. In phenomenological research the researcher conducts interviews to uncover the lived experiences of several individuals in connection with a phenomenon. Grounded theory is a line of inquiry whereby the researcher studies a process through the eyes of participants, deriving a general abstract theory based on their views. In ethnography, the researcher studies a cultural group in its natural environment over time seeking to uncover different types of shared pattern ofe.g.behavior or language. Case studies, commonly used in evaluation, are characterized by an in-depth analysis of a situation or activity and those involved in it.

My design qualifies as a case study, since it is based on, and limited to, the accounts of four informants selected from the same school and interviewed at approximately the same point in time about activities all four are engaged in:

leadership and communication practices.

I conducted qualitative research interviews with four middle leaders selected from the same Norwegian upper secondary school. Since the goal of the project is to explore possible gender related differences in leadership style and

communication style, care was taken to select a school that could provide two

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women and two men for the interviews. The process of securing participants is detailed in section 3.2 below.

The question of gender differences being at the core of my study, care needed to be taken in order to keep other likely explanatory variables in check wherever possible. This was the reason for securing informants who all worked at the same upper secondary school. Using this design ensured that the informants all

operated within the maximum number of common constraints such as the set of values and leadership philosophy adhered to by their school, and the expectations put to them by their common principal. Limiting the number of variables in this manner permits more reliable judgement as to whether any individual differences uncovered by my study could conceivably be put down to a difference in gender.

The reason for choosing to base the study on qualitative research interviews was to explore the individual informant’s understanding of her/his role and the reasoning behind the choices she/he made in day-to-day work. This being a time consuming research method, the number of informants needed to be limited.

Furthermore, since the aim of the study was to examine possible evidence of gender-related differences, care needed to be taken to eliminate other possible sources of variation. Thus an important concern was to try to find informants having the greatest possible number of factors in common, among those which could have an impact on the manner in which they exercised their profession.

This is the reason for choosing middle leaders (heads of department) rather than school principals for my study. A school principal has a somewhat higher degree of autonomy compared to a middle leader, and typically does not meet her/his superiors on a day-to-day basis, like the middle leader does. It is therefore to be expected that middle leaders working at the same school have a noticeably higher degree of common expectations and constraints put to them, compared to school principals, as well as probably being more frequently reminded of these and of their school’s basic values by their superior, the principal.

3.2 Selecting school and informants

Participation of informants was secured by contacting a number of upper secondary schools² before finding one with a sufficient number of willing

2As a note to non-Norwegian readers, students enter upper secondary school at age 16 in Nor- way. Norwegian upper secondary schools cover grades 11 to 13 for students of the academic programs. Upon completion, these earn a Certificate of Upper Secondary Education and Train- ing. Students of vocational disciplines spend two years in upper secondary school (grades 11 to 12), then proceed to complete an apprenticeship lasting for two years before earning their Craft Certificate.

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informants. The principals of eligible schools (upper secondary schools with a sufficient number of women and men in middle leadership positions) were contacted by email with a follow-up by telephone.

Once a school with a sufficient number of informants was found, the individual informants were contacted by email to secure their participation and obtain their consent to the terms outlined below. Thus, four informants were secured for this study, all of which are employed by the same upper secondary school. I have given them fictitious names in the text. The informants are presented in table 1.

Table 1: List of informants.

Name (fictitious) Gender Leadership experience

(years) Number of followers

Jill ~ 4-5 26

Jack | 3 16

Jim | 1 1/2 27

Joyce ~ 12 18

The school from which the informants were selected has a leadership team consisting of a principal, a vice-principal and a number of middle leaders with varying areas of responsibility. As is often the case in Norwegian upper

secondary schools, the school teaches both academic and vocational programs.

The individual middle leaders are responsible for certain subjects or groups of subjects being taught in their department, and for the teachers who teach them.

They can also carry additional areas of responsibility,e.g. for the management of school-wide projects.

Middle leaders in Norwegian upper secondary schools lead a staff of teachers typically numbering from 15-30, as is also the case with the informants in my study (table 1).

3.3 Prior information to the informants and guarantee of anonymity

The project was vetted with The Norwegian Centre for Research Data. This is a standard requirement for research of this kind in Norway. The confirmation of approval is included in appendix A.

All informants received prior information detailing the conditions of their participation and specifically guaranteeing their anonymity. The informants’

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consent was secured in the form of an electronic letter of consent (email) in which they confirmed that they had read, understood and agreed with the terms.

Each individual was given the right to withdraw her/his consent at any time, but none chose to do so.

3.4 The qualitative research interview

I chose the interview guide approach for this study because of it’s flexibility of use. This method is based on a preliminary set of questions (the interview guide) and permits the interviewer to ask follow-up questions that were not originally anticipated, but which he deems necessary in order to close logical gaps in the respondent’s account, or to gain a better understanding of the respondent’s point of view (Cohen, Manion, & Morrison, 2013).

The interview is in essence a social interaction (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015) and therefore requires the interviewer to abide by certain unwritten rules of social exchange in order to establish the desired open and relaxed atmosphere. The interview guide method is well suited in this respect, as it permits the interviewer to be somewhat flexible in the wording of the main questions as well, thus giving him a bit of leeway when seeking to keep the dialogue as natural as possible as the interview progresses.

In order to ensure the necessary flexibility of use, the interview guide was not formulated in the classical way, as a set of numbered questions. Although this would have been perfectly feasible, it would have entailed skipping back and forth between questions on the list as the interview progressed, and there would have been a risk of omitting something potentially important. Additionally, the conversation could conceivably have become more rigid as a consequence of the interviewer having to strive a bit to ensure all aspects were covered while at the same time giving the impression of following a natural line of thought. This was my personal experience gained when testing this approach prior to conducting the interviews for this thesis, and the results were not to my satisfaction. I consequently chose to modify my approach.

Thus the interview guide (appendix B) was developed with special attention to flexibility of use, following guidelines in Kvale and Brinkmann’s (2015) chapter onConducting an interview. I formulated the guide as sets of questions

combined into presentation slides centered around different main ideas or areas of inquiry. Key questions linked the different slides together, making for natural transitions through the course of the interview. This structure ensured the highest degree of both flexibility and ease of use. The idea was that by not getting caught up unnecessarily in doubts about which line of inquiry to follow at any given

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point of the interview, I could concentrate more on delivering the questions in a natural manner, listening actively using mirroring techniques as well as paying more attention to my own paraverbal and non-verbal communication. This may possibly be seen as a somewhat innovative approach when collecting data, not quite identical to the traditional interview guide approach.

The goal of these preparations was to ensure that the account obtained from the interview subject should be as true to her/his reality as possible.

3.5 The interview guide

The interview guide itself is divided into four main parts. The first part specifically targets leadership styles with reference to

Transactional/Transformational Leadership Theory (B. M. Bass, 1985, 1998;

B. M. Bass et al., 1996; B. M. Bass & Bass, 2009; B. M. Bass & Stogdill, 1990).

This part is intended to shed light on RQ1.

A second part deals with styles of communication with reference to Hackman and Johnson (2013). This choice is based on these authors’ classification of communication styles into authoritarian, democratic and laissez-faire, clearly echoing the Transactional and Transformational Leadership styles theory of B. M. Bass (1985). Also, the authors reported evidence of women adopting on the average a more democratic style of communication compared to men (Hackman & Johnson, 2013). The idea here was that by shifting the perspective from leadership style to communication style, the answers obtained should contribute to strengthening the reliability of the results on RQ1, while at the same time shedding some light on RQ2 as well.

A third part focuses on the informant’s emotional awareness, both with respect to herself/himself, but also her/his consciousness of the emotional states of

subordinates. This choice is based on the previously presented theory that points to emotion as a core factor in communication, but also on the research that indicates that women may be more adept than men at interpreting and conveying emotion. This part relates to RQ2.

The final part focuses on the roles a leader can adopt according to the situation she/he is faced with. This part explores some common roles classified by

Jacobsen, Thorsvik, et al. (2013) as evidence of a leader’s interpersonal behavior, information dissemination behavior or decision making behavior. A

predominance of one of these categories in the account of an informant might strengthen (or conversely draw into doubt) conclusions that could appear natural based on other parts of the interview. Thus the intent here was to provide a

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possible means of corroborating or refuting conclusions pointed to by other evidence in the interviews.

3.6 The recording and transcribing of the interviews

A sound recording of the interview was produced using an Android cell phone with a voice recording application. A second simultaneous voice recording was generated using a laptop with a similar application placed on the table between the interviewer and the interview subject. This was done as a precaution in the event of something going wrong and, in fact, one of the recordings made on the smartphone was inadvertently deleted shortly after completing the interview.

This interview would have been permanently lost had it not been for the additional recording created simultaneously on the laptop.

The technology used for recording is so ubiquitous and inconspicuous today that it did not in any way disturb the dialogue during the interviews. All interview subjects confirmed that they were completely at ease with it.

The duration of the interviews varied between 50 and 72 minutes.

The four interview subjects were all aware of the participation of their three other colleagues in the same project. They had, as previously mentioned, received the same prior information about the project. Three of the interviews were conducted on the same day. The fourth was conducted a week later.

At the end of each interview (save for the last) the person was kindly requested not to share the questions with their colleagues who had not yet been

interviewed. It was explained that this was important in order to insure that their responses were, to the greatest degree possible, their own and not unduly affected by different levels of advance preparation.

Although there is no definite guarantee that this request was in fact fully

honored, the remainder of this thesis will build upon the assumption that it was.

The interviews were all conducted in the respondents’ mother tongue, namely Norwegian. Relevant passages were transcribed at a later stage during the

process of analysis of the interviews (see section 3.7) and subsequently translated into English for inclusion in the text.

The reason for not transcribing the entire interviews was mainly due to time constraints. This being said, the fact that this project follows a qualitative

research design, and as such does not depend primarily on strict quantification of data extracted from the interviews, was deemed a relevant supporting

justification for this choice.

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3.7 Analysis

For the analysis of the results, I used an adaptation of the method of open coding commonly used in grounded research (Cohen et al., 2013; Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015), following a sequence of steps typically found in phenomenological research (Hycner, 1985). In grounded theory research the theory itself is developed in a continuous interplay between existing grounded theory and collected observations without being subject to very strict methodological constraints (Strauss & Corbin, 1994), while the goal of the phenomenlogical researcher is to attempt to see and understand the world through the eyes of the interview subject while at the same time setting aside as much as possible of his own presuppositions (Hycner, 1985). For my inquiry, I chose to employ a

combination of these methodologies adapted to my particular research design, as described below.

Since my study aims to identify evicence of different styles of leadership and communication as well as the informants’ emotional awareness, and since one cannot expect the informants to use a predefined set of keywords (codes) when describing their practice, it would be counterproductive to search only for the occurrence of such a set of predefined terms in their accounts. A more flexible approach is necessary, hence the recourse to the method of open coding

commonly used in grounded theory research. However, the coding undertaken in my study is not strictly open in the sense that the theory does not spring from the identified units of meaning in the interviews. Instead, these are selected by virtue of the evidence they provide with reference to predefined theory.

In the first phase of the analysis I listened to each interview, attempting to set aside my own views and expectations, and seeking to get a sense of the whole.

This is also referred to as ’bracketing’ (see section 3.8)

Next, I identified units of meaning relevant to the research questions, noted the time stamps where these began in the interview, and formulated the essence of each in my own words (see table 2). Along the way, I transcribed selected passages from the interviews that illustrated specific points. I then regrouped the units of meaning according to the categories they provided evidence for, thus clustering them. This gave a sense of the main tendencies in an informant’s account, which was important to ensure that the ensuing written analysis and summary of the interview would be as accurate as possible.

Table 2 shows an excerpt from the table generated from one of the interviews.

(For the complete tables, please refer to appendix C.)³

3Note that although the table headings and categories are in English, the remainder of the contents in these tables have not been translated from Norwegian.

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The table shows that in a passage starting at 16 minutes, 15 seconds into the interview, the informant describes how those of her colleagues who share her educational background can perceive her as charismatic at times. The next time stamp at 17 minutes, 0 seconds indicates a passage where she explains that she has no such effect on colleagues who are generally adverse to organizational change.

Table 2: Interview with first informant.

Category Factor Time stamp Unit of meaning

Transformational Idealized

influence 16:15

She is viewed this way by teachers who share her educational

background

17:00 She is not viewed this way by those adverse to change The example in table 2 does not contain any transcription from the interview. As mentioned above, I only did this for selected passages that are highlighted in the text (chapter 4).

Finally, after performing these steps on the four interviews, I proceeded to write a composite summary of the interviews in order to shed light on some interesting similarities and differences.

The individual steps I followed in my analysis, listening through the whole interview first, identifying and formulating units of meaning, transcribing selected passages, clustering units of meaning, summarizing individual

interviews and creating a composite summary of all the interviews, constitutes an adaptation of Hycner’s (1985) 12 phases of analysis of phenomenological data.

Several of the phases have been omitted and the order slightly changed.

However, as this author stresses, in this type of research it is not imperative to strictly follow a predefined set of steps. Instead, the method should be adapted in a suitable manner to the situation at hand, as I have done, and indeed, as House (1996) puts it:

We too often use existing measures merely because they are available. We justify the use of such measures by citing their prior use in published papers, as if that demonstrates both validity and appropriateness for the topic under investigation. Thus we get trapped in our measurement system and apply it blindly to new questions for which it is inappropriate.

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3.8 Validity

Validity within qualitative research in the field of social science is an expression of the degree to which a chosen method is suited to provide an answer to the research question at hand (Kvale & Brinkmann, 2015). Threats to the validity of qualitative research where the researcher comes into direct contact with the research subjects fall mainly into two categories: bias and reactivity (Maxwell, 2012).

Bias occurs when the researcher tends to be more attentive to data supporting existing theory or expected conclusions and consequently runs the risk of failing to acknowledge data that would suggest otherwise.

Bias is specifically addressed in Hycner’s (1985) method of analysis through the process of "bracketing", whereby the interviewer consciously suspends as much as possible of her/his own interpretations and meanings prior to listening to the interview. It follows that the extent to which bias can be effectively kept in check is contingent upon the interviewer’s own ability to set aside her/his preconceived ideas, meanings and interpretations. This is necessarily at best a non-quantifiable variable, which is subject to individual variability.

For my own part, I attempted to achieve this by first preparing a framework for registering the data I observed. This took the form of a spreadsheet where I listed the categories that I would be searching for pertaining to each of my research questions (e.g.Contingent Reward and Management by Exception, both categories of Transactional Leadership practice). Having completed this, I looked over the spreadsheet prior to starting a listening session with any one of the interview recordings. I consciously told myself that any given passage of the interview might contain signs of more than one of the categories listed and tried to keep an open mind so as to not miss such occurrences. My initial focus was therefore instrumental in nature, as I was concentrating on finding signs of behavior or thinking that might fit into the different categories. I attempted to consciously put off the interpretation of my findings until I had completed a listening session and could go back over the notes I had made in my spreadsheet.

Reactivity, the influence of the researcher on the setting or the subjects being studied, can conceivably constitute a potent threat to the validity of the present study. This would occur if the interviewer, consciously or sub-consciously, prompted the interview subject to provide answers that s/he felt were politically correct, based for example on what her/his school deems to be desirable

leadership practices. Naturally, this effect is impossible to quantify. It is, however, both a likely and an understandable consequence of an interview subject’s desire to represent herself/himself in a favorable light when opening up

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to a stranger in an interview setting. The only thing the interviewer can do to limit this effect is to make every effort to ensure an open and relaxed atmosphere during the interview. This requires a continuous and conscious effort on behalf of the interviewer to control her/his verbal, para-verbal and non-verbal

communication in such a manner as to avoid in any way giving the interview subject the feeling that s/he is being evaluated against some form of scale of best practice.

Clearly, this form of reactivity could easily ensue if the information provided in advance about the study had elements that suggested the interview subjects’

practices would be evaluated as part of the goal of the study. In an effort to limit possible reactivity little advance information about the goal of the study was provided to the interview subjects, specifically omitting any reference to

leadership effectiveness or differences in leadership style between the sexes. The interview questions were not provided in advance, either.

However, a certain minimum level of information had to be provided in order for the informants to decide whether they should agree to take part or not. This is also a requirement from The Norwegian Centre for Research Data (see section 3.3). To this end, it was simply put to the informants that the study was

concerned with leadership and communication at the middle leadership level (i.e.

head of department) in Norwegian upper secondary schools.

3.9 Reliability

The reliability, or consistency and reproducibility, of interview results can generally be strengthened by being analyzed by more than one person (Kvale &

Brinkmann, 2015). Failing this, the researcher can also reanalyze the interview transcript after a certain time-lapse.

I employed the latter approach here, but owing to the fact that complete

transcripts were not available, this took the form of relistening to the interviews several times, both whole interviews and parts of these, as described in the previous section.

Furthermore, as described in section 3.5, the interview included questions designed to make the informant take different perspectives in order to check whether this caused any inconsistency in her/his account. If no such

inconsistency occurred, this could be taken as an indication of strengthened reliability.

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3.10 Summary

This chapter has introduced the reader to the research design of my inquiry, which is based on qualitative research interviews conducted on four informants occupying middle leadership positions at the same Norwegian upper secondary school, two men and two women. I analyzed the individual interviews through an adapted process of open coding designed to bring out and highlight evidence of the informants’ leadership styles and their communication skills including

particularly their emotional awareness. The final part of the chapter explains how the issues of validity and reliability have been taken into account in my inquiry.

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4 Results and Analysis

In this chapter I present the individual interviews one by one, based on the tables which are included in the appendices. Following this, in an effort to clarify the main points from these accounts, I include a composite summary of all four interviews.

4.1 The individual interviews

The individual interviews are presented here in the order in which they were conducted, although, as explained above (see section 3.6), the chronology is not presumed to be of significance. I present the interviews separately at first in order to create a narrative of each individual leader’s views, values, strengths and weaknesses, before delving into the research questions.

The individual presentations start with a very brief general description of each informant’s job and responsibilities followed by her/his own expressed opinion of which skills are the most important in her/his day-to-day work. This is

followed by the presentation of evidence that indicates the informant’s leadership style and communication style, including evidence of her/his degree of emotional awareness. I have given the individual informants fictitious names in order to make this chapter more readable.

4.1.1 First informant: Jill

Jill commands staff of 26 teachers. She is responsible for two main subject groups at the school, one of which is academic and the other vocational. She describes the two groups of teachers as carrying views that are significantly different in some respects, and clearly influenced by the traditions that accompany the the subjects they teach.

According to Jill, the teachers of the academic program tend to view their

teaching role as one which should focus on the presentation of the subject matter, placing high emphasis on the students’ individual responsibility for ensuring their own learning progress by studying and completing work and assignments.

These teachers view themselves as responsible for preparing the students for an even more autonomous reality once they embark on higher education.

The teachers of the vocational program, on the other hand, adopt a teaching role with higher emphasis on individual guidance and coaching approaches,

compared to their colleagues in the academic program. They tend to have a higher sense of responsibility for catering to the students’ individual needs for overcoming learning challenges of various kinds.

School Leadership and Gender