Terrorism and female teacher leadership in girls’ secondary school

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore female teachers and vice principal’s leadership on girls attendance and learning, safety and security issues in rural girls’ schools experiencing Boko Haram insurgencies. The secondary purpose is to recommend innovative educational policy initiatives at the school, community and state levels, so as to ameliorate girls and teachers’ challenges, and to sustain girls in schools. Design/methodology/approach Qualitative educational research orientation and an ethnographic-narrative research design were used for the study. Purposeful sampling procedure was adopted through the selection of female teachers and a vice principal. Soft qualitative oral data (SQOD) were collected from structured interviews and focus groups and participant observation data. Data analysis engaged hand data analysis (HAD) for transcription, while the coding and theming process involved qualitative computer software data analysis (CSDA) of NVivo 8.0. The measures of validity involved the qualitative process of member checking, while ethical issues of anonymity with participants were addressed in the process of data collection, and reporting. Findings Major findings revealed a symbiotic relationship between female teacher’s moral leadership and the application of law of tort in the girls’ school; teachers’ adopted spiritual leadership and moral decision making process on girls’ safety, and learning motivation; and improved school community collaboration for security and safety of the girls and effective communication. Practical implications Educational policy options are prescribed. They include the training of teachers and girls on fire safety and conflict crisis; recruitment of female school counsellors; housing incentives for female teachers; support grassroot initiatives on school security; and sustaining school-community/parents involvement. Originality/value Boko Haram’s impact on teacher and school leadership in girls’ school(s) has not been studied so far. The paper is the first, thereby filling the gap of the literature on girls’ rural education and terrorism.

Positive Creativity in a Negative World

“…Those who have not themselves become ill or lost family are still prone to sleeplessness, depression, and anxiety focused on COVID-19 [1] or its related economic fallout [2]. Around the world, people worry about everything from climate change [3] to terrorism [4] to systematic racism [5]; even simply reading about these issues by 'doom-scrolling' on social-media negatively impacts people's emotional state [6]. Political differences are tearing families apart [7,8] as we continue to see increased violence against women [9] and, in the United States, the need for regular school shooter lockdown drills [10].…”

Teaching in the shadow of terrorism: An attempt of schools' rehabilitation

“…For instance, in 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped 276 schoolgirls in Chibok, Nigeria, burned classrooms, and raped girls (GCPEA, 2018). This tragic incident raised safety‐related concerns and ruptured parents' trust in schools' administration (Usman, 2018). Similarly, the detrimental role of the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) affiliated groups in Afghanistan also disturbed girls' education (GCPEA, 2018).…”