Instructional leadership is essential for the academic success of any schooling situation. Given this background, the researcher set out to investigate how instructional leadership is practiced and also could be improved in the Southern nations, nationalities and people’s region of Ethiopia; to this end, the researcher used a case study of four secondary schools. The main research question that framed the study was: How do principals practice effective instructional leadership role in secondary schools? A qualitative research method formed the basis of this study. The choice of schools for this study was deliberate, and was solely based on convenience. Participants in this study consisted of national educational experts, regional and district supervisors, as well as the principals of the selected schools from the sample areas. The following were selected from the sample areas: four school principals, six district supervisors and six regional experts. In addition, there were four experts from the Ministry of Education who also participated in the study. The analysis of the research data revealed that there is strong evidence of effective instructional leadership at the selected schools. However, despite the existence of this instructional leadership, these schools, like all other organizations, are still faced with a number of challenges that limit the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process. These challenges include lack of discipline, inadequate support, poor time management, lack of teaching and learning resources and poor training system. Participants were provided with a number of possible solutions to the problems identified. Principals were expected to be good role models in order to set examples for their staff members. An enabling environment had to be created for effective teaching and learning to take place. The researcher recommended the following new model: secondary school principals in the selected region were expected to have a vision and knowledge of instruction. In addition, they had to be committed to their work and be capable of creating a safe environment and a school culture conducive to effective teaching and learning. / Educational Management and Leadership / D. Ed. ( Educational Management)

Mentorship as a tool to develop the pedagogical and content knowledge of inservice teachers, regardless of experience, is a field in education which has gained popularity worldwide. The review of literature however, provided evidence that mentoring in education has primarily focused on the benefits received by novice teachers and not experienced teachers. Areas addressed in the literature review include the important role of continuous professional development programmes in the improvement of the teachers’ classroom practices and by inference, their learners’ achievements. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences and understandings of seven experienced natural science teachers as mentees in a professional development programme (the ILLS project). Through the use of a qualitative case study approach, I examined the activities that supported the development of the participants as they interacted with the guided support of a mentor teacher, and aimed to understand how the mentees made sense of their experiences in this mentoring relationship. The activities included lesson-planning, classroom observations and reflection meetings and the professional development support, through mentoring, was embedded on-site and in-context. This research revealed that the mentee teachers were motivated by the opportunity to enhance their professional growth through the support of a mentor. The teachers also perceived that their subject content and pedagogical knowledge were enriched by participating in the mentoring process. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

Mentorship as a tool to develop the pedagogical and content knowledge of inservice teachers, regardless of experience, is a field in education which has gained popularity worldwide. The review of literature however, provided evidence that mentoring in education has primarily focused on the benefits received by novice teachers and not experienced teachers. Areas addressed in the literature review include the important role of continuous professional development programmes in the improvement of the teachers’ classroom practices and by inference, their learners’ achievements. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences and understandings of seven experienced natural science teachers as mentees in a professional development programme (the ILLS project). Through the use of a qualitative case study approach, I examined the activities that supported the development of the participants as they interacted with the guided support of a mentor teacher, and aimed to understand how the mentees made sense of their experiences in this mentoring relationship. The activities included lesson-planning, classroom observations and reflection meetings and the professional development support, through mentoring, was embedded on-site and in-context. This research revealed that the mentee teachers were motivated by the opportunity to enhance their professional growth through the support of a mentor. The teachers also perceived that their subject content and pedagogical knowledge were enriched by participating in the mentoring process. / Science and Technology Education / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

This dissertation is the result of a qualitative research that had the overall objective of investigating the relationship that the students of Degree in Mathematics established with the pedagogical knowledge offered in their training. As theoretical assumptions were used the notion of relationship with Charlot´s knowledge and Pimenta´s and Tardif ´s teaching knowledge. The subjects were students and coordinators of the above course. Data were collected by Documental analysis, interviews and questionnaires. As a result of the document analysis, we concluded that the Basic training disciplines discuss the knowledge and Complementary Training courses have pedagogical knowledge, however, do not reach the study of pedagogical knowledge oriented training of the mathematics teacher. We inferred that, a possible gap in the training of these future teachers. In the interviews, we found in the speeches of the coordinators both understand teachers and pedagogical knowledge as those that are being worked on in the teaching subjects, assessment and curriculum practices and others, and teaching knowledge those worked in specific disciplines. In the questionnaires, according to the answers given by students we ascertained that they understand by teaching knowledge those worked in disciplines such as teaching, psychology of learning, assessment and curriculum and others, and knowledge of knowledge of the specific disciplines of mathematical calculation. And the relationship that is established between this knowledge will give according to their interpretations by pedagogical knowledge. / A presente dissertação é resultado de uma pesquisa qualitativa que teve o objetivo geral de investigar a relação que os discentes de um Curso de Licenciatura em Matemática estabelecem com os saberes pedagógicos ofertados em sua formação. Como pressupostos teóricos foram utilizadas as noções de relação com o saber, de Charlot (2000) e de saberes docentes, de Pimenta (2012) e Tardif (2014). Os sujeitos da pesquisa foram quatorze discentes concludentes de licenciatura em Matemática e dois coordenadores pedagógicos – um geral e outro específico – de um Centro Universitário no interior da Bahia. Os dados foram coletados pela análise documental, entrevistas e questionários. Como resultados da análise documental, concluímos que as disciplinas de cunho de formação básica discutem os saberes disciplinares e as disciplinas de formação complementar apresentam os saberes pedagógicos, contudo, não atingem o estudo dos saberes pedagógicos necessários à formação do professor de Matemática. Depreendemos, a partir disto, uma possível lacuna na formação desses futuros docentes. Nas entrevistas, constatamos nas falas dos coordenadores que ambos compreendem os saberes docentes - pedagógicos como aqueles que estão sendo trabalhados nas disciplinas de Didática, Avaliação e Currículo, práticas e outras, e por saberes docentes - conhecimento, aqueles trabalhados nas disciplinas específicas. Nos questionários, segundo as respostas dadas pelos discentes, averiguamos que eles entendem por saberes pedagógicos aqueles trabalhados em disciplinas como Didática, Psicologia da Aprendizagem, Avaliação e Currículo e outras, e, por saberes de conhecimento, as disciplinas específicas do Cálculo Matemático, sendo que a relação que é estabelecida entre esses saberes dar-se-á segundo suas interpretações pelos saberes pedagógicos.

Instructional leadership is essential for the academic success of any schooling situation. Given this background, the researcher set out to investigate how instructional leadership is practiced and also could be improved in the Southern nations, nationalities and people’s region of Ethiopia; to this end, the researcher used a case study of four secondary schools. The main research question that framed the study was: How do principals practice effective instructional leadership role in secondary schools? A qualitative research method formed the basis of this study. The choice of schools for this study was deliberate, and was solely based on convenience. Participants in this study consisted of national educational experts, regional and district supervisors, as well as the principals of the selected schools from the sample areas. The following were selected from the sample areas: four school principals, six district supervisors and six regional experts. In addition, there were four experts from the Ministry of Education who also participated in the study. The analysis of the research data revealed that there is strong evidence of effective instructional leadership at the selected schools. However, despite the existence of this instructional leadership, these schools, like all other organizations, are still faced with a number of challenges that limit the effectiveness of the teaching and learning process. These challenges include lack of discipline, inadequate support, poor time management, lack of teaching and learning resources and poor training system. Participants were provided with a number of possible solutions to the problems identified. Principals were expected to be good role models in order to set examples for their staff members. An enabling environment had to be created for effective teaching and learning to take place. The researcher recommended the following new model: secondary school principals in the selected region were expected to have a vision and knowledge of instruction. In addition, they had to be committed to their work and be capable of creating a safe environment and a school culture conducive to effective teaching and learning. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. ( Educational Management)