Teachers’ and middle managers’ experiences of principals’ instructional leadership towards improving curriculum delivery in schools

South African Journal of Childhood Education

 
 
Field Value
 
Title Teachers’ and middle managers’ experiences of principals’ instructional leadership towards improving curriculum delivery in schools
 
Creator Chabalala, Grace Naidoo, Parvathy
 
Subject — teacher; principal; curriculum; leadership practice; middle managers; instructional leadership
Description Background: This study was designed to explore teachers’ and middle managers’ experiences regarding their principals’ instructional leadership practices aimed at improving curriculum delivery in schools. Literature on instructional leadership indicates how failing schools can be turned around to become successful if principals consider instructional leadership to be their primary role within schools. The authors, therefore, argue that it is the responsibility of principals to ensure that learners’ results are improved through intervention and support provided by the principals to capacitate teachers and middle managers in delivering the curriculum effectively. Globally, literature promotes the significance of the continued professional development of teachers, and many scholars allude to the pivotal role principals or school heads play in teachers’ skills advancement.Aim: The aim of this article was to identify principals’ instructional practices that improve curriculum delivery in schools, which are examined through the experiences of teachers and middle managers.Setting: The study was conducted in two schools in the Gauteng province of South Africa.Method: The researchers employed a qualitative approach, utilising three domains of instructional leadership as its framework, and these are defining the school mission statement, managing the instructional programme and promoting a positive school learning climate. Four teachers and four middle managers were purposefully selected at two schools for data collection conducted through semi-structured individual interviews, which were analysed using thematic content analysis.Results: Three themes emerged, namely, understanding good instructional leadership practices, teacher development as an instructional practice and instructional resource provisioning.Conclusion: The study highlights the importance of teachers and middle managers in understanding that principals are merely not school managers or administrators, but rather instructional leaders whose primary role is to direct teaching and learning processes in schools. Principals need to create time within their constricted schedules to become instructional leaders, which is their main purpose in schools. If the roles and responsibilities of middle managers are not explicit, their ability to simultaneously perform the dual task of being teachers and middle managers will be compromised.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor
Date 2021-05-31
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — —
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajce.v11i1.910
 
Source South African Journal of Childhood Education; Vol 11, No 1 (2021); 10 pages 2223-7682 2223-7674
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/910/1834 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/910/1835 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/910/1836 https://sajce.co.za/index.php/sajce/article/view/910/1837
 
Coverage — — —
Rights Copyright (c) 2021 Grace Chabalala, Parvathy Naidoo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
ADVERTISEMENT