Learning from the outsider within : five women's discourses within the culture of the high school principal

Abstract

This study examines the place of women in the culture of the high school principal. I used feminist analysis as a critique of the positivist paradigm of educational bureaucracy and the masculinist discourse that forms the culture of the high school principal. I used this culture as a microcosm of the larger culture. Through semi-structured interviews with five female high school principals from northern Ohio, I provided an opportunity for them to give voice to their discourses regarding their places in the culture of the high school principal. Through an examination of their discourses, I looked for expression of resistance and acceptance of the masculinized discourse of the culture that they inhabit. I proposed that an interpretation of their discourses can be used to make visible the link between gender and power relations. This visibility will further enable people to re-evaluate their own processes and situations and may provide a forum for mulitvoiced negotiation of difference and possible emancipatory constructions.