Social Difference, Leadership and Career Mobility Aspirations for Elementary School Practitioners in Ghana and in Canada

Résumé du livre

This dissertation investigates and analyzes the experiences of elementary school principals and the processes they underwent in their promotion from educator to principal: that is, it interrogates the notion of career mobility in school systems. The purpose of conducting this study was to explore the social barriers that impede the career mobility of aspiring elementary educators, with a specific focus on race and gender. Previous research in the field of mobility and leadership in education has rarely brought together issues of race, gender and identity politics with notions of human, social and cultural capital accumulation. Specifically, studies to date have not identified the impact of race, gender and other social identity intersectionalities in terms of school promotion, and determine what attributes are associated with career success. As a response to these gaps I argue for a model of multiple forms of capital (human, social and cultural) that mediate and mutually constitute one another to produce the simultaneously racialized, gendered, and classed experiences and outcomes of educational career mobility. Using a cross-cultural comparative and narrative methodological approach supported by survey-styled data, in-depth interviews and observations within qualitative research traditions, and using a social, human and cultural capital theoretical framework, the study investigates 15 Ghanaian elementary school principals and 15 Canadian elementary school principals. The principals consulted had varied entry points and access to promotional opportunities. Through this triangular approach of individual interviews, survey-styled data and observations, all supplemented by relevant research, the study provides professional and personal insights to help visible minorities and women educator candidates, and across two distinct cultural/national settings to enhance their understanding of the system, to gain access to higher level positions of school leadership. The Canadian and Ghanaian study participants were of diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds, age range, gender, school boards and denominations, and class. Key findings, horizontal mobility is valued in Canada and not in Ghana. Canadian and Ghanaian respondents show reluctance to acknowledge under-representation of visible minority groups/ethnicities in school leadership positions as well as female principals did report delays in career due to family/childrearing. The "Conscious Career Elevation" model is an agency tool created.