Abstract
Leading in deeply divided societies is at the same time an emotional, spiritual and political task. The volumes of instrumental writing on the subject of leadership, whether in the tentative language of academic writing or in the language of corporate certainty (“six steps or seven habits or twenty one laws …”), hardly begin to capture this complexity. It is much more than balancing the interests of very different groups – like black and white, men and women, and majority and minority; leadership in divided communities is about engaging and transforming diverse constituencies even as the leader seeks to keep everyone in conversation. It is more than seeking out and applying the right technologies, for the challenges at hand extend way beyond manipulable techniques or validated instruments. Human behaviour where the rawness of racial division is still fresh is far more complex than such reductionist measures presume. And it is not simply about imposing change on others; leading in divided contexts is about being transformed even as one sets out, perhaps presumptuously, to transform others. This chapter offers an extended deliberation on the nature, purposes and consequences of leadership and educational change in post-conflict societies, invoking the South African experience as a case in point.
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Notes
- 1.
For a useful discussion of the narrow and broad meanings of critical theory see the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy’s entry on Critical Theory (first published on Tuesday 8 March 2005), accessible on http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/critical-theory accessed on 26 January 2008.
- 2.
- 3.
- 4.
It is a point made by Gur-Ze’ev (1998) as well, noting the tendency of critical theory to assume a “weak, controlled, and marginalized collectives” sharing a “common optimistic view of change”; see next footnote for full source details.
- 5.
There is empirical substantiation for this point in the excellent study of integrated and non-integrated Catholic and Protestant schools in Northern Ireland; see Byrne (1997).
- 6.
As she digs into the personal history of apartheid’s most notorious killer, the man called “Prime Evil” in the South African press, Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela (2003) uncovers the operation of what she calls “constant themes” and “refrains” in Afrikaner family and adult discourses that shaped Eugene de Kock’s knowledge of past and future enemies, and that motivated his deadly ambitions (p. 21).
- 7.
Few post-conflict interventions have achieved such resonance among black and white teachers than the listening that comes through hearing stories of the Other, as in Facing the Past, a non-governmental organization in South Africa. See Tibbits (2006).
- 8.
Throughout the research for this book I would only encounter brief, often very emotional, reflections by white children on incidents in the course of growing up that had a lasting impact on their racial formation; there is, to my knowledge, no systematic inquiry on this subject in educational contexts.
- 9.
I am arguing here with McFalls and Cobb-Roberts (2001).
- 10.
I am grateful to Gene Carter, Executive Director of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, for sharing this conception of leadership with me.
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Jansen, J.D. (2010). Educational Leadership in Racially Divided Communities. In: Hargreaves, A., Lieberman, A., Fullan, M., Hopkins, D. (eds) Second International Handbook of Educational Change. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 23. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2660-6_21
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