Perspectives of educators on leaderships' handling of conflict in schools in the Phoenix circuit

Abstract

This study focused on the perspectives of educators on leaderships’ handling of conflict in schools in the Phoenix Circuit. The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary and primary school educators’ perspectives of prevailing leadership styles when resolving conflicts within the school context. Conflict management by leadership is important as it reflects on the type of leadership skills used in an institution. The role of a leader in an organization is vital as it impacts significantly on the institution at large. A leader is accountable for everything that transpires at the institution. In light of the aforementioned, the school principal should be seen as a fundamental agent of transformation, creating a space for deliberation and dialogue. School leaders need to work closely with their educators, hence there needs to be collaboration amongst them. Inappropriate leadership styles have a tremendous impact on the culture of teaching and learning and the performance of learners. Moreover, the morale of educators is affected. The researcher conducted the study in the Phoenix Circuit as this area had many documented cases of unresolved conflict (SADTU Member Welfare Case File 2014). The members (SADTU Member Case File 2014) put forward a motion that within Phoenix, there were conflicts between leaders and educators in various schools that required urgent intervention from the South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) Phoenix Branch. Owing to the many unresolved cases of conflict in the Phoenix Circuit from 2013, the researcher found that this warranted investigation. The members (SADTU Member Case Files 2014) stated that cases of unresolved conflict in schools was a cause for concern as there were grievances from educators regarding conflict management at their schools. SADTU is the largest teacher union in South Africa, representing 70% of the teaching force. Hence the researcher purposively selected SADTU and furthermore, the researcher is an executive member of the Phoenix Branch of SADTU. The aim of the study was to investigate the perspectives of educators on leaderships’ handling of conflict in schools. The three objectives were: to determine the challenges experienced by leaders in schools; to analyze how conflict is managed within schools; and to critically analyze the appropriateness of leadership styles employed in conflict management. This study used Transformational Leadership theory to address the complexity around leaders and the Co-operation and Competition theory to address the issues underlying conflict management, which underpinned the analysis of leadership and conflict management in schools in the Phoenix Circuit. The perspectives of educators and school management teams (SMTs) was explored using a combination of interview schedules for SMTs and survey questionnaires for educators. The Phoenix Circuit, which was the focus of study, falls under the Mafukuzela-Gandhi Circuit Management Centre, Province of KwaZulu - Natal. The researcher, being an executive member of the SADTU Phoenix Branch, had access to reports on conflict from 2013 which were pending and warranted the urgency of this to be researched. The study revealed that quite often, whether conflicts are resolved or aggravated depended on the leadership styles of school principals in particular and members of the SMT in general. Authoritarian styles of leadership aggravated school conflict situations, whilst authentic democratic, transformational leadership styles contributed significantly to the resolution of conflict situations and the restoration of a culture of teaching and learning.