The renewal of invitational education through principal succession in a South African primary school

This presentation used a qualitative research design and reports on the way in which a school under the leadership of the new principal maintained and renewed the practice of invitationa

African primary school

Prof GM Steyn

Department of Educational Leadership and Management, University of South Africa

P O Box 392, Pretoria 0003 E-mail: steyngm1@unisa.ac.za

Abstract

Numerous studies on leadership succession indicate that new principals have to address various challenges when they are appointed at a new school This presentation used a qualitative research design and reports on the way in which a school under the leadership of the new principal maintained and renewed the practice of invitational education in the school As such the lens used for the study focussed on the practice of invitational education Data were collected through a number of interviews with the principal, including photo-elicitation interviews, and focus group interviews with staff who were present during the principalship of the predecessor These interviews were conducted in the first and third year after the new principal took office at the school It was evident from the findings that principal succession can have significant implications for a school’s culture, especially after a predecessor’s length of service in the school, an established school culture and the leadership style of the new principal It was in particular the new principal’s leadership style that he realised he needed to change He experienced some challenges to treat people with more care and less autocratic In conclusion, under the new principal’s leadership the school showed a clear focus on caring for people; it changed the physical environment; and it adapted and changed policies and programmes to allow for the development of all people in the school The processes revealed in the study orchestrated these four qualities in a collaborative and cooperative way for the sake of sustaining and enhancing an inviting culture in the school

Introduction

Studies in school principals continues unabated (De Villiers & Pretorius 2011:574; Drysdale, Goode & Gurr 2009:697; Kelly & Sanders 2010:127) Recent studies in

particular have focussed on how new principals experienced principal succession (Bartlett 2011; Berrong 2012; Martinez 2007; Meyer, MacMillan & Northfield 2009; Meyer & Macmillan 2011) The studies of Berry (2004:4) and Zepeda, Bengston and Parylo (2012:142) showed how school systems managed and planned principal succession, while Glasspool (2006:64) studied the way in which socialisation influenced new principals in specific school contexts In the study of found Meyer and Macmillan (2011:1, 2) they found that there are certain factors such as teacher loyalty, efficacy, trust and morale that had implications on teachers’ performance before, during and even after principal succession (Meyer & Macmillan 2011:1, 2)

However, according to Zepeda, et al (2012:137) and Meyer and Macmillan (2011:5) limited studies on principal succession were undertaken during the first few years after a new principal was appointment Furthermore, the mounting concern to maintain quality leadership in schools, especially in South Africa, required a study on leadership succession in order to inform school practice about the necessary strategies

to plan for effective leadership succession in schools (Garchinsky 2008:30; Zepeda, et

al 2012:137) For the purpose of this article principal succession is viewed as the replacement of a previous school principal by another principal due to resignation, promotion or retirement, which leads to changes in people and in organisations (Glasspool 2007:123)

This presentation reports on the principal succession within a South African primary school in which the new principal replaced the retired predecessor in 2009 after he was more than two decades principal of the school The school in the study received the inviting school award from the International Alliance for Invitational Education during the previous principal’s term in office As an Afrikaans, urban, primary school it is situated within a middle-class socio-economic community in Gauteng

At the beginning of 2010 the new principal took office at the school The researcher believed that the new principal faced certain challenges considering the many years his predecessor was in office and that he might have a different approach to implement invitational education in the school This study which forms part of other studies on principal succession in the school, focussed on the way in this the new principal transformed and internalised the inviting culture in the school Previous studies in the

school described the way in which the school adhered to its inviting school culture throughout the years (Steyn 2007), while the other studies focussed on the school’s previous principal; his perceptions of professional development (Steyn 2010); the moral and transformational dimensions of his leadership practice (Steyn 2012a) and the principal’s leadership practice through a servant-leadership lens (Steyn 2012b) Novak and DiBiase (2006:252) believe that it is possible that with the departure of leaders ‘the benefits of their initiatives and their successes’ also disappear The research question that emerged in the study was: How did the school under the leadership of new principal maintain and renew the practice of invitational education in the school?

Conceptual framework: Invitational Education

The lens used for the study focussed on the practice of invitational education which also serves as a guiding model for school improvement Invitational education addresses five basic areas (the 5P’s) that make up every school (Purkey & Novak 2008:19-24; Purkey

& Siegel 2003:106-126):

1 People: Inviting schools begin and end with people in them People are viewed as being able, valuable and responsible and are to be treated accordingly Respect for every individual and intentional caring are crucial aspects in sustaining inviting schools

2 Places: The physical environment is an excellent point to start and maintain invitational education in schools Clean, efficient and aesthetic places send powerful messages that people in the school care for others in the school

3 Policies: They include the official vision and mission statements in the school and all the codes of conduct that regulate the operations in the school Again these policies should be viewed as caring, respectful and fair for the sake of a positive impact on people’s attitudes

4 Programmes: All programmes in the school, both curricular and extracurricular, should work for the benefit of everybody in the school Such programmes should also encourage active involvement of all role players in the school

5 Processes: IE is ‘built on the fundamental interdependence of human beings’ (Novak

& Purkey 2001:13) This implies that schools should develop a cooperative, collaborative learning culture through meaningful involvement and participation to

influence the learning of staff and learners Where people work in isolation, the practice

of invitational education is hindered

Research methodology

This qualitative study adopted a narrative inquiry (Fouché & Schurink 2011:322) to investigate the way in which the new school principal approached invitational education

in the school Data were collected through by means of a number of interviews with the principal (Fouché & Schurink 2011:313), including obtaining photo-elicitation interviews (Epstein, Stevens, McKeever & Baruchel 2006:4; Ortega-Alcázar & Dyck 2011:108) and school documents The first two interviews with the principal were conducted during the first year of his appointment at the school, while the other interviews and the photo-elicitation interviews were conducted during his third year as school principal Focus group interviews were conducted with staff during the first year of the new principal as well as during his third year in office These staff members were present during the principalship of the predecessor Field notes were also taken during these interviews, while e-mails from the principal elaborated on his interviews

During his third year as principal, I requested the principal to take a number of photographs that would reveal his socialisation into his position as principal During the photo-elicitation interviews I explored the changes the principal made in maintaining en developing the IE culture of the school All interviews were recorded and transcribed and translated into English The study occurred within the primary school and interviews were conducted on the school premises Member-checking of the transcribed data was done with the principal and one staff member of the focus groups to ensure accuracy of the information I obtained the informed consent from all participants to participate in this study

I employed an interpretivist approach to understand the way in which the practice of invitational education was internalised under the leadership of the new principal (Nieuwenhuis 2010:60) In the data analysis I coded the interviews from the 5P’s of the practice of invitational education I employed Lincoln and Guba’s model to ensure the trustworthiness of the study (Poggenpoel 1998) To maintain credibility, the study was done over a period of three years and all interviews from participants were recorded,

transcribed and analysed I ensured applicability by presenting adequate, descriptive information that could also be usend in similar future studies The study also ensured dependability by considering certain variables which could possibly influence particular changes owing to the nature of the research design To achieve confirmability, I did member checking with participants which implied that the transcribed data were submitted to them to ensure that all the transcripts were correctly recorded

Findings

Based on the five basic areas of the practice of invitational education, the following categories emerged from the data: Background of the new principal and the school; People: Handling people with ‘care’; Places: Focussing on the physical school

environment; Policies: Making ‘the best school’; Programmes: Ensuring an inviting, successful school; Processes: Considering the product

Background of the new principal and the school

The new principal in the study was previously a high school principal and was appointed

in 2010 at the school in the study His experience as a high school principal, revealed his leadership approach He principal explained: ‘I was … definitely a bit autocratic as far as the school work and academic work were concerned’ He was also familiar with the school in the study since his two sons had previously attended this particular school His previous experiences implied that the new principal had developed certain constructs of the school before to his appointment at the school (Kelly & Saunders 2010:131) His predecessor was the principal of the school since 1982 until he retired at the end of 2009

People: Handling people with ‘care’

The new principal initially felt very threatened when he initially heard about his this appointment According to him he had ‘no illusions about the fact that he had big shoes

to fill… Mr X [the predecessor] is really a legend and he makes a person feel inferior…

He was a formidable principal’ Participants also acknowledged that Vertaal asb Die hoof moes regtig groot skoene volstaan… and that they often compared him to his

predecessor On various occasions the principal had to remind them that he was not Mr

Y and not Mr X

On his first day at the school girls hugged the principal’s legs and the principal and staff noted that he was quite uncomfortable about it He became more relaxed since then and even liked the children’s spontaneity (See photograph 1)

Photograph 1 A child hugging the principal

The principal explained how the school’s inviting culture influenced him

As a person, I found myself… My relationship with my wife, children and Creator has improved I have become softer where I was previously strict and task oriented… My own children were amazed when they saw the children hugging their father’s knees

He also referred to a particular occasion where a boy’s mother remarked that her son had also seen the principal change This boy noticed the principal’s deep frown on his face on which scared him However, this boy also admitted that his ‘frown was now gone’

Although the principal could see that staff were ‘accepting’ him as their new principal after a few months in office, he realised that he had to change his leadership style to fit the inviting culture of the school He considered himself to be ‘very task oriented’ and preferred to set measurable objectives However, it was necessary to ‘handle them [teachers] with care’ since they had ‘very, very thin skins’ and took critique personally

I had to make a concerted effort not to walk in here and handle these guys in the same autocratic manner These guys also come from a system where things were done differently They worked with a principal who did things differently than what I

do

However, he noted that he was a ‘bit of a ‘control freak’ who often had to make unilateral decisions ‘to ensure that everything is done right’ His perception of himself was in a way confirmed by staff who regarded the principal as ‘firm’, but also a ‘people-person’ and ‘really very kind’ He might look a ‘reserved, but it was actually a surprise when staff got to know him: ‘He is just wow!’ For them the principal ‘set clear boundaries’, but he would ‘walk through the fire for them’ which gave them a lot of security One teacher elaborated:

Vertaal asb … Teuels wat voorheen slap gehang het, trek hy nou styf… Hy is regverdig en konsekwent… ons eet uit sy hand uit… Ons het die wêreld se respek vir hom… So bang soos wat ek was vir hom, so sien ek hoe ons almal nou saamgesnoer is Hy weet presies wat rondom hom aangaan, tog voel ‘n mens nie dat hy op jou spioeneer nie

The principal nevertheless had the desire to ‘prove things to myself and yet also be myself’ He wanted things to run smoothly, and ‘hated it when the schools did not succeed or did what they proclaimed to do’ He elaborated:

Vertaal asb So ek trek maar ‘n paar handskoene langs die pad aan Maar ek

verstaan, dis my verantwoordelikheid … ons is nie hier om mekaar se beste pelle te wees nie, ons is hier om werk te doen en ons doen dit goed Ek probeer ‘n “nice” ou en

‘n gawe ou wees maar dis maar moeilik Dis moeilik om standpunt in te neem,

konfrontasie te hanteer

When reminiscing since his appointment at the school, the principal stated that he felt much more confident and very good about himself and what he had been able to achieve He acknowledged that the school faced numerous challenges, but he felt

‘good’ about the changes he had been able to make since his appointment at the school `

In line with the practice of invitational education, the findings in this study showed the principal’s intentional care and respect for people This implied that he had to adapt his leadership style to make it more inviting and to continue the established inviting school culture In doing this he succeeded in honouring, maintaining and even enhancing the inviting culture of the school and also gaining the trust and support of staff However, consistent with the invitational education, he often had to take a firm stand and not being ‘nice’ This view is supported by Novak and DiBiase (2006: 251): ‘Nice people doing nice things is nice, but the inviting perspective needs to go beyond niceness to sustain inviting schools in not-so-nice times.’

Places: Focussing on the physical school environment

Under the principal’s leadership a few structural changes occurred in the school To him the foyer was a ‘real old-fashioned school foyer’: uninviting and unfriendly As such he

‘drastically’ changed it by refurnishing it to make it ‘brand new’ and more inviting The vase with fresh flowers should send an inviting and welcome message to the school’s visitors (see photograph 2) The principal also explained how also they ‘drastically’ changed the front office of the administrative staff and his secretary’s office, five administration offices in the administration building and the financial office Apart from these changes the school also built an administration block, a new double storey building and changed the Kids Development Academy Hall into extra classrooms Although the school had previously cherished the gardens, the principal added more gardens to beautify the school premises (see photograph 3)

Photograph 2 Fresh flowers in the foyer

Photograph 3 The new garden on the

school grounds

The principal adapted the menu of the tuck shop Healthy foods, on a weekly menu, were served and tables and chairs were fitted so that even parents could also enjoy food and beverages while they wait for their children (see photograph 4)

Photograph 4 Tables and chairs in the

tuck shop

According to Purkey and Siegel (2003:117, 121) the physical environment of a school is considered to be ‘a socially constructed support system’ in which its people extend their ideas about themselves and which contribute to a sense of ownership and belonging

In line with the practice of invitational education the findings show that positive changes

in the physical environment show a commitment to ‘enhancing truly welcoming schools’ (Purkey & Novak 2008:19) It showed how the school paid careful attention to efficient and aesthetic qualities in the school (Purkey & Novak 2008:22) Places according to the practice of invitational education always offer a remarkable way in making invitational education visible and sending powerful messages that ‘people in the school care and are on top of any situation’ (Purkey & Novak 2008:22)

Policies: Making it ‘the best school’

Already in during the first few months at the school the principal realised that to lead and manage the school, the school required a new vision and mission He believed that both the vision and mission were ‘too elaborate’ Members of the school governing body, the school management team and a few other staff members and parents revisited the vision and mission The revised vision and mission were ‘almost totally new’ The vision and mission statements were then framed on a background that portrayed the growth and the life of the school The vision statement (photograph 5