Instructional Leadership in South Africa

Bush, Joubert, Kiggundu, and Van Rooyen (2010) states one of the most essential activities for principals and school leaders is managing teaching and learning.  Direct leadership involvement in the participation of curriculum planning and professional development is likely to improve student achievement.  As I reflect on my visits to several schools in Port Elizabeth, in general, principals stayed in their office and focused on managerial aspects of school such as technology infrastructure, budget, day-to-day operations, etc.  I believe these components are important to the functionality of school; however, teaching and learning should be top priority.  What I observed concurs with Bush and Heystek (2006) which discuss that South African principals focus on financial and human resource management and policies.  Therefore, the heads of department (HoD) are responsible for curriculum and instruction in schools.  The head of department is similar to what we call department heads,   in the fact that each subject area has a lead teacher, he/she renders support to teachers through mentorship and/or meeting regularly to discuss curricula and create conditions to support effective teaching and learning (Bush et. al, 2010).  This position differs because in South Africa, head of department evaluates teachers and monitor the curriculum.   These responsibilities place HoDs in a supervisory role instead of mentorship.  Our department heads are solely responsible for supporting teachers through modeling, observation and feedback to assist with refining their craft and meet regularly to share best practices.  They are expected to be instructional leaders in the school, especially within their department.  This position supports principals in their roles as an instructional leader.   Thus, as a school leadership team, principals, assistant principals and department heads meet to discuss instructional issues and problem solve. 

Bush et al . (2010) noted that in South African context, managing teaching and learning includes oversee the curriculum, ensure lessons, evaluate learner performance, monitor the work of HoDs to ensure they are monitoring teachers in their areas, conduct classroom visits and feedback and ensure resources and materials are available.  Thus, HoDs play the primary role of instructional leaders in a school even though, principals supervise their work.  In Port Elizabeth, it was not a practice for principals to observe teachers; however, they would receive feedback from the HoDs.   Nevertheless, at Grey Primary and High Schools, the principal visits classrooms to build relationships with students and examine the quality of student assignments and work.  I believe analyzing student work can/will provide insight on the quality of teaching and learning in a classroom.  Student work reveals the cognitive demand, alignment to curriculum standards, expectations, etc.   Thus, as instructional leaders our main priority should be student learning and outcomes. 

In order for HoDs to be effective, Bush et al. (2010) discuss that a systematic review of performance (i.e. monitoring and feedback) should be in place, model lessons, and employ content area strategies.  As HoDs assess teaching and learning, these strategic plans create common language and expectations among departments within a school. 

Successful schools that we visited exemplify several characteristics in Quadrant D as listed by the International Center for Leadership in Education.  The following are:  help students learn priority skills deeply, teach skills in context, look for evidence of good learning and share best practices.  They also structured and managed time effectively.  The International Center for Leadership in Education has four quadrants to describe instructional leadership:  Quadrant A – Level or Declining; Quadrant B - Partial Traditional Success; Quadrant C - Islands of Innovation; and Quadrant D - Rapidly Improving.  Below are characteristics of instructional leadership: 

Quadrant A Leadership	Quadrant D Leadership
Define learning in terms activities required to teach	Define learning in terms of skills and knowledge as results
Define learning from specific skills up to total student	Define learning from “whole” student down to specific skills
Cover as many topics as possible.	Help students learn priority skills deeply
Break apart curriculum	Integrate curriculum
Entire curriculum mandatory	Curriculum includes  some student choice
Teach skills in isolation	Teach skills in context
Focus is on deficiencies	Focus  is on proficiencies
Look for evidence of good teaching	Look for evidence of good learning
Standardize procedures	Share best practices
Give separate assessments	Give embedded assessments
Isolate instruction from community	Connect instruction to  community

  

References

Bush, T. & Heystek, J. (2006).  School leadership and management in South Africa: principals’

perceptions.  International Studies in Educational Administration, 34(2), 63-76.

Bush, T., Joubert, R., Kiggundu, E. & Van Rooyen, J. (2010).  Managing teaching and learning

in South African schools.  International Journal of Educational Development, 30(2010), 162-168.