The study sought to hear the voice of the Head of Department (HOD) in independent, non-government secondary schools in the ACT Region on their changing leadership role and their recommendations for targeted professional development. Heads of Academic Departments (HODs) face significant challenges by being in the middle of the organisational structure of a secondary school. They are required to be competent change agents for whole-of-school "macro" initiatives on one hand, yet on the other hand foster "micro" initiatives that support effective learning and teaching in individual classrooms. HODs deal on a daily basis with a broad range of important school issues that include influencing people; management; departmental structures; administration; leadership; student success and progress; educational theory and practice; department and school culture; communication; parents; external educational bodies; professional development; up-to-date pedagogy; and their own teaching and learning. There is frequently a lack of clarity of expectations about their role in a rapidly and ever-changing school system. The incumbents have rarely received targetted professional development for this crucial middle-ranking leadership position. The study describes and analyses the findings of detailed research with 24 Heads of Department and six Professional Development Coordinators at six independent, non-government secondary schools. The prime focus was on the changing leadership expectations of Heads of Department and, as a result, the professional development required to support the emerging requirements and expectations of and the directions for the role. The study followed an earlier Dinham et al. (2000) research project, of which I was one of the researchers, into the roles of Heads of Department in independent, non-government secondary schools. The study used analysis of existing job descriptions of Heads of Department, structured interview questionnaires that required quantitative categorisation and analysis, and open-ended interview questions requiring qualitative analysis. The respondents were all leaders of a major academic department within an independent, non-government secondary school. The five major themes that developed were the forces acting upon and tensions experienced by the Head of Department whilst maintaining credibility as an excellent teacher; the relatively newly developed Professional Development Coordinator role; the definition of the leadership approach, resultant implications and, as a result, the alternative structures that secondary schools are examining for academic leadership; communication between the middle ranking subject leaders and their senior executive; and the targetted professional development required for the changing role of a HOD. In independent, non-government secondary schools, the department structures and leadership quality can be powerful forces to assist or resist any reform agenda. Effective leadership of these academic departments becomes important to secure a constant quest to improve the quality of learning and teaching; to improve student outcomes; to nurture staff for more senior leadership positions and to transfer the benefits of a distributive leadership to more staff.

The aim of this research project is to investigate the roles and responsibilities of foundation phase heads of departments (HoDs) in the Mpumalanga Province in South Africa. A quantitative research approach was used to assess the perceptions of the foundation phase HoDs. Questionnaires were distributed to 274 foundation phase HoDs in Mpumalanga and SPSS 20 was used to analyse the data. The findings show that HoDs perceive that they are overworked, whereas in reality, the amount of time they spend in school is not as expected in the Personnel Administrative Measures (PAM) document. It emerged that most educators leave school earlier than normal and thus experience a lack of time for supervision and administration, which then becomes a stress factor in the completion of their roles and responsibilities. Twenty two percent of the respondents indicated that they are not familiar with the HoD duties as outlined in the PAM document. Furthermore, the study uncovered issues such as lack of support and training for HoDs, the role of parents as motivators in terms of learner achievement, and the importance of evaluating and developing teachers to provide quality education in the 21st century. This research project utilises instructional leadership as a conceptual framework and maps out the roles and responsibilities of the HoD as outlined in the PAM document. Due to the low Annual National Assessment (ANA) results in literacy and numeracy, the research focuses on the challenges that HoDs in the foundation phase face regarding fulfilling their roles and responsibilities towards ensuring a quality education. On Tuesday 28 June 2011, the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, revealed the results of the February 2011 ANA. In excess of 6.5 million learners from Grades 2 to 7 and a sample of G10s wrote tests in literacy/language and numeracy/mathematics. According to the statistics released by the Department of Basic Education (DBE), the average mark for literacy for G3 learners was a mere 35%. Grade 3 learners scored an average of 28% in numeracy. Amongst the Grade 3 learners, the Western Cape performed the best in both literacy and numeracy with 43% for literacy and 36% for numeracy. In Mpumalanga, Grade 3 learners scored 27% in literacy and only managed to score 19% for numeracy (DBE Report 40). If learners can’t read, write, spell and calculate at Grade 3 level, surely there is something wrong. Where are the foundation phase managers and how do they spend their time? Internationally, teachers responsible for supervising Grade R-3 are called middle managers. In South Africa, middle managers are called heads of departments (HoDs). The duties and roles of middle managers (or HoDs) in the foundation phase might be the cause of poor performance of learners in numeracy and literacy, due to insufficient support being provided to educators and learners. The role of HoDs in schools is not widely understood (Turner, 1996; Blandford, 1997; McLendon&Crowther, 1998). As a consequence, the literature relating to their role and functions is sparse. What is apparent, however, is the dual role that HoDs play, namely an administrative role within the school, as well as a teaching responsibility. A great deal of the work in managing the teaching-learning process operates at the middle management level in schools. However, management development often occurs at the senior management level, and HoDs remain the forgotten tier in schools. HoDs co-ordinate all educational activities between the top management of the school and the educators. Gold (1998:1) describes the role of HoDs as the most exciting and probably the most influential position in a well-organised school. Given the dual roles of HoDs, it is evident that they are exposed to a dilemma in executing duties carrying competing demands namely managing a department and being a class teacher at the same time (Blandford, 1997:13). This dual role becomes a particular challenge in the foundation phase, depending on the type of school, e.g. private school, former model C school, township or rural schools (which normally fall under Quintile 1-3), and lastly farm schools. It is challenging, especially in township and farm schools, to manage teaching, supervise educators, ensure learners cooperate positively in a class, and to be responsible for all the classes in a phase, including the own HOD’s class. Educators are experiencing overcrowding in their classrooms and schools are under staffed. A thorough study needed to be conducted to ensure that HoDs in the foundation phase are operating as effectively as those in the intermediate, senior and FET phases. It is critical to formulate strategies to ensure that learners progress positively in the foundation phase, especially in terms of their literacy and numeracy. HoDs must be able to perform their roles and responsibilities to ensure that learners can read and write at Grade 3 level. The PAM document clearly spells out the roles and responsibilities of the HoD; however when an HoD has 90% of their time allocated for teaching, one wonders if it is fair to expect them to carry out their administrative role in the remaining 10% of their time. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

This study compares an effective school and ineffective school, in terms of how internal leadership and management of each school contribute its effectiveness. As a result, the study explores why one of two schools located within the same socio-economic environment, funded uniformly and controlled by the government at same levels of commitments is effective, while the other seems ineffective. Therefore, this thesis raises questions to know how internal school stakeholders’ leadership and management practices contribute to school effectiveness in each of the schools. A comparison was undertaken by firstly exploring how school leadership and management practices of School Leadership and Management Teams (SLMT) and secondly, understanding how teachers’ classroom leadership and management contribute to school effectiveness respectively. Therefore, in an attempt to answer the main research question: How do leadership and management dynamics contribute to school effectiveness? Other identified sub-questions were raised. Furthermore, a review of relevant literature uncovered what makes good and quality school leadership, management and; classroom leadership and management in ensuring school effectiveness. Data was collected from identified key role players within the two sampled schools. They include a school principal, vice-principal, Head of Departments (HOD), a teacher and classroom student leader (class captain) each, making-up a total of ten participants in the study - (five participants from each school). The researcher utilised one-on-one semi-structured interview, observations and document analysis or review in order to obtain rich qualitative data. By adopting the a-priori approach of data analysis, codes were generated manually from the interviews, observations and documents analysis/reviewed and measured against identified school leadership and management and; classroom leadership and management sub-themes/criteria in the literature reviewed in this study. From the data obtained, analysed and discussed, it was found that School A was exceptional in terms of leadership and management practises compared to School B. Although School A and B showed similar, but negligible characteristics in school planning, organising, management of change and; coordination of school teaching and learning, School A’s strength in terms of management of the school, lies in its availability of school policy on teaching, decision-making, delegating, control, motivating, communicating, management of interpersonal relationships, school climate, culture, change, management of conflict and school school-community relationships. In addition, even though School A and B teacher exhibited similar elements like, teaching methods ability, planning of their teaching and they both lack written classroom policy in their classroom leadership and management practices, differences like classroom leadership, motivation, communication, classroom climate and control exhibited by School A teacher during teaching and learning makes him far better, in comparison to School B teacher. Conclusively, the exceptional leadership and management practices by the School Leadership and Management (SLMT) of School A and its teacher in comparison to School B brought about multiplicity of other findings in this study. In the overall, it is believed that the interrelatedness of the exceptional leadership and management behaviour and practices of school A SLMT and teacher, is a consequence of the culture of the school, which has been built and maintained over the years and thus, influenced its climate in contributing to school effectiveness. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

It has become a norm that most learners from rural areas drop out of the school system early, and become beneficiaries of the welfare system at an early age to establish factors that could be contri buting to the low academic performance among grade 12 learners. The study examined the role of the principal, SMT and teachers in contributing factors of poor performance in grade 12 learners in rural high schools. A qualitative investigation at three publ ic high schools in the Maleboho done. Data were collected by means of document analysis and in-- West Circuit was depth interviews. The study revealed that learners and teachers are managed by ineffective management and support by SMT, challenges with teachi ng and learning, lack of parental involvement, the new progression policy of the department and ineffective leadership by Head of Departments. Recommendations were made on how SMT and teachers might solve these problems in the future. iv / Polelo ye o e lego melomong ya batho ke gore ge o bona ngwana yo monnyane a boputse lesea, tseba gore o tswa dinagamagae fao tlala e ikepetsego ka medu Barutwana ba fao ba bona pelego e le lehumo la ka pejana la go ikhweletsa tshelete ya mmuso ya mphiwafela. Se se theosa seriti sa thuto, kudu seemo sa dipoelo tsa marematlou. Go rothisa dinala ga dihlogo tsa dikolo, dihlogo tsa dithutwana dikolong, le barutwana go bonala e le bona bahlodi ba mpherefere wow a dipoelo tsa go nyamisa tsa marematlou. Dinyakisiso tseo di tseneletsego ka ngalaba ye, di dirilwe dikolong tse tharo tseo di phagamego, tseo di abago thuto ya batho ka moka sedikothutong sa Maleboho Bosubela (MalebohoWest). Barutwana, barutisi le ditokomane di somisitswe go hwetsa dikarabo tsa maleba dinyakisison g tseo. Go hweditswe tseo di latelago. Barutwana le barutisi ba hlahlwa ke bafahlosi bao ba se nago bokgoni bjo bo tibilego thutong. Batswadi bao ba se nago maikemisetso thutong ya bana ba bona. Melawana ya thuto yeo e nyefisitswego, ya go fetisetsa barut ya ka pejana. wana mephatong Go hloka maitemogelo ga hlogo ya thuto ka mosomo wa gagwe. Ditshisinyo tseo di ka thusago go hlomola naga mootlwa mo thutong ya ban aba rena yeo e tsenetswego, di laeditswe ka botlalo. / Swi hundzukile ’ ntolovelo leswaku vadyondzi vo tala va le matiko xikaya va tsika xikolo eka malembe ya le hansi ya dyondzo, va hola mudende wa mfumo va ha ri vatsongo; lexi xi nga xin wana xa swivangelo swa mbuyelo wa le hansi wa vadyondzi va giredi ya khume mberhi. Tsalw a leri ri langutisile xiavo xa nhloko ya xikolo, vufambisi bya xikolo na vadyondzisi eka mbuyelo wa le hansi wa giredi ya khume mbirhi eka swikolo swa he henhla swa le matiko xikaya. Vukambisisi byi endliwile eka swikolo swa mfumo swi nharhu swa le henhla eka xifundzantsongo xa dyondzo xa Maleboho Vupeladyambu. Vuxokoxoko bya tsalwa leri byi kumiwile hi ku lavisisa ematsalweni ni ku burisana na vanhu vo karhi. Ku na mintlotlo yo tala hi tlhelo ra dyondzo, ku nga: vufambisi bya swikolo, vatswari a va khum beki hi tlhelo ra dyondzo ya vana va vona ’ ni polisi ya mapasiselo ya vadyondzi. Tsalwa leri ri humesile swibumabumelo leswi nga tirhisiwaku hi vufambisi bya swikolo nga tirhisiwaku hi vufambisi bya swikolo kun we ni vadyondzisi ku ololoxa mintlontlo ya dyo ndzo. / Educational Management and Leadership / M. Ed. (Education Management)