Peruskoulun rehtoreiden johtamisen eroja : sukupuolinen näkökulma

Abstract

Riitta Juusenahon väitöskirjan mukaan sukupuoli määrittää peruskoulun rehtorin työtä joiltain osin. Vaikka koulujen rehtorit tekevät kaikkialla pääosin samaa työtä, johtavat kouluja, heidän sukupuolensa mukainen tapa ratkoa ja hoitaa eteen tulevia asioita korostui. Haastateltujen rehtoreiden koulujen opetussuunnitelmiin perustuvien suunnitelmien (opspesujen) tutkiminen paljasti naisrehtoreiden eroavan edukseen miesrehtoreista mm. oppilashuollollisten asioiden sekä kodin ja koulun yhteistyön tarkan kirjaamisen suhteen.Naisrehtorit painottivat pehmeitä arvoja, neuvottelua ja kykyään olla helposti lähestyttävä johtaja. Miesrehtorit painottivat johtamisessaan auktoriteetin saannin helppoutta ja hallinnollisten asioiden merkitystä.

The aim of this study is to identify possible differences in the leadership and management styles of Finnish comprehensive school principals from the perspective of gender. Following the principles of data triangulation, the research material consists of open-ended questionnaires, interviews and the curricula of the schools of the surveyed principals, drawn up on the basis of the national and municipal curricula. The research material was collected in 2001 and 2002, and altogether 100 principals – of whom 53 were women – participated in the study.The research method also follows the principles of triangulation, as both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in analysing the data. This is an empirical ex post facto type of survey study, which does not attempt to make broad generalisations or find statistical regularities; instead, it seeks to describe the actions, thoughts and experiences of the surveyed principals from their personal perspective. The operation of a school as an organisation is approached through systems theory and chaos theory. Using the latter in ob-serving the school organisation is considered appropriate because of society’s accelerating pace of change which affects schoolwork by increasing the number of demands set for the daily operation of the institutionalised educational system. The role of the principal as head of school is defined as consisting of all those actions with which he or she ensures that the objectives set for the school by society are achieved.A key concept of this study is gender. Following the model created by Silius (1992) and Karento (1999), gender is seen as an asymmetrical and unequal relationship that involves a biological dimension, is context dependent and socially constructed.The basic premise of the study is that the leadership and management style of female principals differs from that of their male counterparts at least in some aspects.he results show that the surveyed female principals emphasise softer leadership than the men. The women underline the importance of ensuring the welfare of pupils and of maintaining good relationships in the workplace. In contrast, the male principals place more emphasis on good administration, resource acquisition and financial management. On the other hand, the study also reveals that younger male principals tend to stress softer values, such as pupil welfare. The female principals clearly face more problems at work than the men. They draw special attention to problems related to gender, salary, working hours, combining work and family, and their feeling of isolation at work.he results indicate that even though the work of principals is basically the same regard-less of the geographical position of a school and the problems encountered at work are thus very much alike, the principals tend to approach problems in different ways depending on their gender