The aim of this research is to understand the views of teachers regarding
professionalism and leadership. As a researcher, I also wanted to investigate whether
teachers were given opportunities to lead within a professional capacity in their
schools and to examine the factors that promote the development of these teacher
leaders as professionals as well as those factors that hinder such development. In view
of the recent public servants strike in 2007 and 2010, teachers have been brought
under the spotlight in a very negative manner. The teaching profession has been
viewed with scrutiny ever since and most if not all teachers were being painted with
the same brush of, lack of integrity and respect.
The purpose of the study was to examine how teacher leaders performed leadership
roles and also to establish whether such roles were within professional parameters or
not. There was a need to understand how teacher leaders understood the term
professionalism as well as to ascertain what factors promoted and hindered the
development of teacher leaders as professionals.
The study was conducted within a qualitative, interpretive paradigm and took the
form of a case study of five educators, who were two Heads of Department and three
post level one teachers’ in an urban primary school in KwaZulu-Natal. Data
collection techniques included semi – structured individual interviews, a focus group
interview, questionnaires and observation. Data were analyzed using thematic content
analysis.
The findings of the study revealed that although teachers were actively engaging in
leadership roles, very little was done to develop these teachers as professionals. This
study acknowledges that management members of schools play a crucial role in the
development of teacher leaders as professionals by creating opportunities for this
professional development. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ukzn/oai:http://researchspace.ukzn.ac.za:10413/8622 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Govender, Sylvia. |
| Contributors | Avery, Neil Eric. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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