Abstract
An unacceptable number of learners in under-resourced schools in South Africa are failing to perform adequately in national and international benchmark tests. Poor learner performance has been linked to poor-quality teaching, which, in turn, can be attributed in part to a lack of instructional leadership at schools. According to policy, heads of department (HODs) are best placed to offer such leadership, but in many schools this is not happening. We explain how we engaged HODs in one such school in a participatory action research process, to help them construct a framework for improving their instructional leadership. Qualitative data was generated through open-ended questionnaires, transcripts of recorded action learning set meetings, photovoice narratives, and reflective journals, and these were thematically analysed. The action learning framework developed by the participating HODs, while not being a definitive answer to improving the quality of teaching and learning, may provide guidelines for other HODs to improve their own instructional leadership practices. Since it is a process-based model, application of the model as an approach to improve instructional leadership could prove beneficial in both well-resourced and under-resourced contexts. Keywords: action learning; action research; distributed leadership practice; instructional leadership; participatory action research; school improvement; teacher professional development
Highlights
In many under-resourced schools in South Africa, learners are failing to meet the required academic standards, according to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), as well as in terms of matriculation results (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy & Foy, 2007)
In the first cycle of this larger action research project, where data was generated from two under-resourced schools, we found that involvement of the participating HODs in instruction tended to be limited to acting as “final checkers” of teachers’ reports of work covered, where they adopted a task-oriented management role, rather than working with teachers on an ongoing basis to improve instruction (Seobi, 2016)
The question that guided the process in the cycle that we report on was ‘how can heads of department in under-resourced schools improve their instructional leadership practices?’ We first explain the theory that helped us to facilitate and make sense of the emerging process, before outlining the methodology used to explore the research question
Summary
In many under-resourced schools in South Africa, learners are failing to meet the required academic standards, according to the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), as well as in terms of matriculation results (Mullis, Martin, Kennedy & Foy, 2007). The literature overwhelmingly identifies the principal as the main instructional leader, and local research has suggested that schools where principals teach do show better academic results (Roberts & Roach, 2006), the majority of principals in so-called “township” and rural schools are too occupied with the daily challenges of just keeping their schools functioning, to fulfil the role of main instructional leader. In such cases, it makes more sense for them to delegate their task to heads of department
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