The purpose of this research project is to determine empirically the roles of principals as
instructional leaders. Ever since a new educational era started in the new South Africa, schools
cannot afford to be led by ignorant school principals. For schools to be efficient, instructional
leadership roles have to be defined and each role should be carried out diligently.
Success in schools can only be realised if school principals are capable of implementing the
school curriculum according to instructional leadership principles. The tasks of instructional
leadership have to be streamlined. The school principal must concentrate on the most important
and key functions of his work. This approach would lead to the realisation of the school vision
and mission
Both quantitative and qualitative research paradigms and methodologies were used for
gathering data from eighty-four public schools in the Setla-Kgobi Area Project Office of the
Central Region in the North-West Province. Participating schools were randomly selected. The
sample consisted of forty-two schools (thirty primary schools, six middle schools, six secondary
schools) and eight randomly selected teachers from each school were used in the study to
answer questionnaires. Nine school Principals or Deputy Principals from Setla-Kgobi Area
Project Office (i.e:- three primary schools, three middle schools and three secondary schools
Principals or Deputy Principals) were purposefully used in the study to answer interview
questions
A quantitative approach was used to quantitatively analyse derived data. The Statistical Package
for Social Sciences (SPSS) was employed with the help of the statistical consultant of the
North-West University. The computation of percentages, mean, standard deviation and Chi-square
was conducted. Secondly, a qualitative descriptive approach was used to analyse data
that was qualitatively gathered. A Textually Oriented Data Analysis (TODA) strategy was
adopted in this regard.
The findings exposed that principals were not effectively fulfilling their roles of instructional
leadership. The findings also revealed that principals were not monitoring and moderating the
quality of education that students were getting from teachers. Principals were found to be
ineffective and they failed to plan their work adequately.
Recommendations given by the participants suggest that there is need for principals to be more
focused. They .also need to have a vision and mission statement for their schools. More energy
should be directed at monitoring the quality of learning and teaching that takes place in schools.
Participants reflected a poor picture of principals as instructional leaders. More effort should be
put into the students' instructional achievement, teacher motivation, supervision of training and
the use of external subject experts. Whole curriculum evaluation should be earned out regularly
at every school, so as to provide feedback to students and teachers. Principals should have
checklists that will guide them towards the realisation of their aims and objectives / Thesis (M.Ed) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2010
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:nwu/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/15662 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Tong, Sebusang Sophia |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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