The purpose of this study was to investigate how instructional leadership manifests itself and can be strengthened in a Namibian rural school. As a teacher, head of department and later an education officer, I have long held the view that committed school leadership is essential for the school’s instructional and academic success. Equally, I have always been aware of the impact of the past segregation and the unequal education provided by the colonial government in South Africa and South West Africa/Namibia. The inferior education provided to Africans posed a serious challenge to the leadership and management of schools, as would be principals were not adequately trained to provide the necessary “ingredients” relevant for instructional success. Given this background, I attempted, using a case study of one secondary school, to investigate how instructional leadership is manifesting itself and could be strengthened in a rural school in the Omusati region of Namibia. Research questions that framed the study were: firstly, how does the leadership approach in the school promote teaching and learning; secondly, what is the role of external players in enhancing instructional leadership and thirdly, what are the strengthening and inhibiting factors of instructional leadership. The population of the study was composed of an Inspector of Education, a school principal, a head of department (HOD) and four teachers from a secondary school, located in the Omusati region in Namibia. Data were collected through interviews, document analysis and observation. With regard to data analysis, I first immersed myself in the data. I developed themes that formed the basis of my discussion with my research questions in mind. The analysis revealed that instructional leadership is strongly evidenced at the case study school. However, it emerged that despite the existence of strong instructional leadership at the school, as with all other organisations, there are several challenges that limit the effective implementation of the teaching and learning programme. These challenges vary from indiscipline, poor time management, to lack of teaching and learning resources. Participants also provided a number of possible solutions to the problems identified, including that the principal should be a good role model for the staff and that an enabling environment for both teaching and learning should be created. The study also strongly suggested that participative leadership and management is a cornerstone to the academic success of the school.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:rhodes/vital:1633 |
| Date | January 2012 |
| Creators | Namukwambi, Nahum |
| Publisher | Rhodes University, Faculty of Education, Education |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis, Masters, MEd |
| Format | 112 leaves, pdf |
| Rights | Namukwambi, Nahum |
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