The Perceived Heads of Departments’ Infusion of Ubuntu Values in Curriculum and Knowledge Sharing Leadership in Under-Resourced Public Schools

Abstract

The article reports on the findings of a qualitative inquiry involving a sample of nine (9) teachers (three participants per school) drawn from three schools within the locality of three education circuits of Emalahleni in Mpumalanga Province (South Africa). The primary objective of the article was informed by the paucity of literature that establishes an intersection between Indigenous epistemologies of Ubuntu philosophy, instructional leadership and the sharing process of knowledge management within the domain of primary and secondary education. By eliciting teachers’ views on heads of departments’ (HODs’) curriculum leadership practices, the article attempts to narrow down the knowledge gap on the topic of instructional (herein referred to as curriculum) leadership— a domain whose preoccupation often slants towards the principal’s role at the exclusion of other key stakeholders within the school ecology. In terms of the findings, democratic (participative), autocratic, transactional, transformational and managerial (in no particular order) leadership styles were found to have been used by individual HODs alongside instructional leadership style to strengthen their curriculum leadership role. It however, became apparent that both participative and transformational leadership styles sufficiently promoted the ethos of Ubuntu in HODs’ curriculum leadership role and thus enhanced curriculum delivery processes and knowledge sharing behavior among teachers as well as between HODs and teachers. The findings of the article demonstrate how a non-adversarial intersection between indigenous and mainstream leadership practices, might add an impetus to HODs’ curriculum delivery and knowledge sharing leadership role in under-resourced schooling contexts.