ACCESS TO SCHOOL MANAGEMENT OF EARLY AND PRIMARY FEMALE TEACHERS: BARRIERS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Abstract

This work presents the process and the results of a research that aimed to describe the barriers that hinder women access to school management in early years and primary education. Through a several-stages method (which combines a random stratified procedure with a cluster-sampling design), a sample of 622 female teachers from the eight Andalusian counties was selected. Data was collected through an ad-hoc-made questionnaire containing three types of questions: questions about professional and personal information; questions about opinion and experiences with regard to the school management; and items of a scale named Barriers in the access to school management, whose dimensions reflected possible barriers to the career development, such as role-conflict, self-esteem, success expectations, etc.. Results show that a majority of respondents think there is not discrimination against women in the access to the school management. Despite of this, they recognise that family responsibilities and having another priorities in life are behind the fact that women do not aspire to or develop the school management.