Turning around a dysfunctional school : an auto-ethnography

Abstract

This research represents a particularly personalized account of my journey in turning around a dysfunctional school. Poor performing schools, poor quality education and schools that are dysfunctional have become an enduring challenge in South Africa and much theorising has gone into advising schools on what they should do to turn their schools around. This study approaches the problem from a different angle where I document my own journey in turning around a dysfunctional school. In the study I narrate my leadership experience through a self-study to further understand how my leadership impacted a primary school and succeeded in turning it around. Two important strands in the literature inform the theoretical lens of the study: Fullan�s ideas on the management of change, and Nieuwenhuis� notion of developing a learning (or value-driven) school. Using auto-ethnography as the qualitative research approach, I reflected on and documented my experiences and supplemented these with interviews with stakeholders involved in the process of turning the school around, thereby ensuring a 360? view of what had happened. This type of qualitative research is a conversation between me and the individual reading it and brings the reader inside my personal experience as principal. My evaluation through the methodology of an auto-ethnography narrative illustrated the complexities I faced as a newly appointed principal in a dysfunctional school. My leadership experiences, personal trials, staff interactions and challenges involved in handling change in a school setting were documented through lived experiences as a principal and may resonate with the experiences of other principals faced with similar challenges. My analysis provided me with a deep understanding of myself as leader and an understanding of continually developing and building meaning and purpose, while reminding the staff of the school�s vision and value, what was to be accomplished and who was being served as a result. Leadership from my lens offered me the opportunity to foster change that was meaningful and impacted positively on the school community. I was able to grow professionally in an environment conducive to learning embedded in my mission to serve. The journey may be of value to those who are appointed as principals in dysfunctional schools and may add to the knowledge field of the practical management of schools.