Perceptions of Departmental Heads on their Curriculum Leadership Roles: Voices from South Africa

Abstract

ABSTRACT Departmental Heads (DH) has huge responsibilities of heading phases, departments, and teaching of subjects. At the same time, they need to focus on their leadership and management tasks as senior teachers. The predicament of being a teacher and leader-manager is exacerbated by more expectations from the principals and school management teams (SMT), staff, learners, and the community. The work of the DH is very demanding. The demands are ordinarily driven by expectations on curriculum leadership and curriculum delivery, emanating from DHs themselves and from other quarters within the school community. The expectations and perceptions can cause tensions in how DHs execute their roles. This article discusses the perceptions of the DHs’ point of view. The article followed a qualitative phenomenological approach underpinned by an interpretative paradigm based on the lived experiences of the participants. Purposive sampling was used to select 12 DH participants due to their knowledge, understanding, and proximity to the researched phenomenon. Using an interview guide, semi-structured, open-ended questions were employed to collect data to answer the research question “what are the perceptions of departmental heads on their curriculum leadership roles.” Among other things the literature review revealed that DHs perceived their roles as those of monitoring, motivating, role modeling, commitment, communication, goal setting, accountability, and of personnel management. The article also reported empirically on DHs perceptions and what can be done to assist them in executing their roles.