Perceptions of School Management Teams on the Influence of Instructional Leadership on Accounting Learner Performance in Secondary Schools

Abstract

The main objective of this chapter is to investigate the perceptions of School Management Teams on the influence of instructional leadership on accounting learner performance in secondary school. A sequential explanatory mixed-method design was applied to attain this objective. Instructional leadership is the educational process of managing the curriculum and teaching and learning instructions which are deemed to influence learner performance in schools significantly. This chapter followed the pragmatism paradigm which helps to present a representation of how an explanatory sequential design can be used to explain the perceptions of school management teams in influencing instructional leadership on accounting learner performance in secondary schools. Data were obtained from 61 accounting secondary schools in the North-West Province. A total of 180 school management teams were involved in the quantitative phase of the study, while 25 interviews were conducted among selected school management teams for the qualitative phase of the study. In the quantitative phase, the study found that instructional leadership practices and conditions influence learner performance. In the qualitative approach, the study established the different ways instructional leadership influences learners’ performance. Overall, the study concluded that variations in instructional leadership practices explain the observed differences in accounting learner performance across secondary schools.