Re(cognizing) Leadership: Women in Early Childhood Education and the Academy

Abstract

The internal conflict between “work” and “life” is a defining experience for many women. There exist competing demands in academic work and one’s private life and this chapter examines the extent to which these cause connectedness or dissonance for women in the academy. Is it a matter of time available for participation in these different spheres or is it something more complex than this? We examine how women experience their position within the academy in relation to the perceived norms of the institution, exploring the apparent sense of disequilibrium between the self in one’s private life and the expectation of the self in the academy. We examine this disjunctive by engaging in a narrative method of inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) framed by gendered experiences. A sense communicated through the conversations analyzed is that there are many “perceived norms” that interrupt a sense of continuity for women between self and identify in the academy. For example, Tompkins (1996) identifies the perceived norm of competition saying “An atmosphere of competitiveness, never spoken or named, permeated the classes and the casual conversation. You could taste it in the coffee and smell it in the corridors” (p. 77). Such norms have implications for the engagement and recognition of women and the extent to which the “disappearing” of women’s leadership and contribution can become an institutional practice (Fletcher, 2004).