Uppeldi og menntun - 01.01.2001, Page 45

GUÐNY GUÐBJORNSDOTTIR
ABSTRACT
TItís is a qualitative study of the discourses of performativity and gender in educational
management in Icelandic schools. TlTe study builds on social constructivism and post-
structuralism with a feminist slant. Key concepts are discourse, subjectivity, performativ-
ity and gender. Participants in the study are women educational leaders and managers at
'the tum of the 21 st century at all school levels, from preschools to the University.
Interviews with 11 leaders were taken, transcribed and used both verbatim and in gener-
al as a reflection of the dominant discourses of educational management. The main focus
in the interviews in the first half was on the work of the leaders from their perspective. In
the second half an open questionnaire was used, with an emphasis on power and gen-
der. Gradually the emphasis on performativity emerged, and in this article the discours-
es of performativity and gender are in focus.
TlTe results show that the discourse of performativity with an emphasis on efficiency
is salient at all educational levels. To some extent it is in opposition to the discourse on
gender and the expectations of women as educational leaders and administrators, with
resulting conflicts that vary according to individuals and educational levels. Tlie dis-
course of gender is constructed differently at different educational levels, partly due to
organizational culture. Tlie discourses of gender and performativity are resisted or react-
ed to differently, according to situations, school levels or individual opinions.
TlTe author concludes that it is important to use the strengths and varied experiences
of women as leaders and managers in education if the emphasis on perfomTativity and
efficiency is not to de-emphasize values of equality, care and multiculturalism. Men can
of course emphasize these values as well, although tradition, prejudices and cultural
ideas tend to associate them more with one gender than another.
Tliis study encourages research on gender in a gendered society but wams against
essentializing gender. Gendered ideas and prejudices against women managers need to
be deconstructed and it is important to work against the resistance experienced by these
gendered subjectivities, not least through the education of teachers and school managers.
The consequences of the emphasis on perfomTativity or efficiency in school man-
agement are not yet clear. In order to prevent the emphasis on performativity from
devaluing culturally accepted values like equality and care it is recommended that these
values should be embedded in the criteria for success, instead of relying solely on finan-
cial criteria and traditional tests of academic acliievement. Neo-liberalism is after all a
political viewpomt, not a natural law, and should oiily be used in agreement with demo-
cratically accepted educational laws and values. The author encourages research and an
open discussion between those that oppose or resist the discourse of performativity and
those that are in power both politically and educationally.
Guðný Guðbjömsdóttir
er prófessor við Háskóla íslands
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