Conversations in counterpoint, a narrative inquiry into the professional knowledge landscape of female administrators at a board of education

grantor: University of TorontoThis study discloses the impact of the social narrative between men and women on the educational system. Theoretically grounded in Clandinin and Connelly's landscape metaphor, it captures the complexity of the professional knowledge landscape of seven female administrators' lives during a period of political, economic and educational reform. The fundamental orientation of this thesis focuses on validating women's personal knowledge which is derived from their organizational experience in adult education. As an administrator in Adult and Continuing Education, I did not fully comprehend the influence of the board of education's structure. Contradictory ways of thinking and behaving in this institutional setting made me question how gender affected women's foundational concepts about theories of human nature, epistemology and ontology in a patriarchal environment. Over a two year period, I shared conversations with co-ordinators, principals and senior officials, individually or in a focus group. By naming the female experience, five feminist case studies were developed which offered us an opportunity to reconceptualize knowledge in organizations. Together, we began to construct a conscious sense of personal agency about our encounters with gender barriers. As these stories of disempowerment were told, the changing social narrative unexpectedly altered the relationship among these accounts. It shifted from issues of gender equity and authority to a theoretically analogous conflict between privileged day school teachers and marginalized Continuing Education instructors. Consequently, this work sketches an insider's view of adult education in transition, and its impact on the question of the fundamental purpose of a board of education. The most significant disclosure is the powerful commitment of these women in positions of responsibility, to the notions of equity, caring and community. By bringing gender to inquiry, their work narratives become valuable as a literature where women can read themselves into the narrative of administration and changing reforms. They expand the parameters of meaning in educational administration, as women's stories continue to modify the gendered construction of human experience.Ed.D