The role of deputy principals: Perspectives of South African primary school principals and their deputies

Abstract

Education leadership literature indicates that relatively little attention has been given to the specific duties and responsibilities of South African deputy principals in comparison with other leadership and management positions in schools. As a result, their roles and responsibilities remain vague. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to explore the roles of deputy principals in selected well-resourced fee-paying primary schools. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the principal and two deputy principals of each of the five participating schools. The participating schools were selected for having a reputation of being high-performing schools and being most likely to provide rich data. The findings suggest that the sub-context of a school is an important factor influencing the role of a deputy principal. In addition, principals play a key role in determining the job description of individual deputy principals. This is often accompanied by purposeful leadership distribution and a reconfiguration of conventional management structures. In addition, deputy principals were generally viewed as ‘principals-in-training’ and their relationship with their principals characterised by shared leadership practices.