Visioning beyond expectations : leading successful primary schools - principals' instructional leadership approaches.

Abstract

Focusing on relations between principals, other School Management Team (SMT) members and teachers, this study examines the potential of their active collaboration around instructional matters to enhance the quality of teaching and student achievement. The analysis is grounded in the theory of instructional leadership- and the conceptual framework locates instructional leadership within the context of the instructional core and the role of the school principal and SMT exercise in the learning context. The main question that drove this research was: How does the work of the school principal influence classroom practice of teachers? My study investigated the following three sub questions: i)Does leadership contribute to the ultimate success of schools?; ii) What are the three successful schools doing? and iii)How do the principals of these schools recognise, implement and bring about change that contributes to their success? The main aims were to examine how the primary school principal leads and influences classroom practice to encourage improved academic performance and how the principal and other senior management team members work together to communicate with, monitor and evaluate teachers. In addition, it investigated how teachers perceive and interpret the actions of the school leadership around their own classroom practice. It looked into the particular behaviours, relationships and interactions between the principals and SMT members and educators that influenced or hampered the delivery of quality education in the classroom. The sample comprised of three case studies of primary schools in Gauteng, South Africa. The methodology used was structured interviews of the principals and senior management members, focus group interviews with teachers, observations and documentary evidence. Data was collected, coded and analysed under themes that emerged from examining the data and literature around instructional leadership. The research objective was to understand the role that primary school principals play in instructional leadership and how instructional leadership can lead to effective teaching and learning. My goals were to characterize “best practice” for instructional iii leadership; and to identify strategies used by the school principals that show how their work influences classroom practice. The study found that effective instructional leadership is central to enhancing teaching and learning in a primary school to improve student academic outcomes and that the instructional leadership behaviours of school principals were significantly related to teacher's commitment, professional involvement and innovativeness and to the overall improvement of student results. This study demonstrated that instructional leadership success is not based on a one size fit all model for instructional enactment of success.