Public school secretaries: hearts of gold, voices of reason

Exploring agency in marginalised occupations: School administrative clerks’ deployment of “participatory capital” in establishing practice-based agency

“…School secretaries are generally given little recognition outside of their schools (Wolcott, 1973), their job descriptions are vague (Mann, 1980), they are generally poorly paid (Rimer, 1984;Crawford, 1995), and they feel like second class citizens in their schools (Jackson, 1989). Nevertheless, Kidwell (2004) found that the school secretaries in his sample were satisfied with their jobs despite its subordinate status; Ediger (2001) emphasised the contribution of the school secretary to positive public relations; Casanova (1991), Nystrom (2002), and Logue (2014) highlighted some of the additional tasks undertaken by the school office managers ;Casanova, (1991) as well as Bayat, Naicker and Combrinck (2015) found that they were key to the successful running of their schools, while Bayat (2012) and Bayat and Fataar (2018a and b) have highlighted administrative clerks' agency. In 2008, the Western Cape Education Department funded a training programme for school administrative clerks because they recognised the ongoing and potential contribution of school administrative clerks to their schools (Naicker, Combrinck & Bayat, 2011).…”