School leadership practices in high performing rural primary schools in Lesotho: a case study.
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Date
2022
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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to explore leadership practices in high performing rural primary
schools in Qacha’s Nek district. The duty of the principal is to provide every learner in the school
with access to education and to develop the learners’ leadership potential. It is therefore vital to
find out how the principals in high performing, rural primary schools enact leadership, and how
they utilise their leadership experiences to create a learning environment that is conducive for
teaching and learning. The study was theoretically envisaged in transformational and instructional
leadership theories, in order to explore the leadership practices of the principals. The study used a
qualitative case study design within the interpretive paradigm. Qualitative research seeks to
explain and understand social phenomena in its natural settings. It concentrates on the meaning
people have built concerning their world and the researcher is viewed as the primary tool for data
generation and analysis. Telephonic semi-structured interviews were employed to generate data.
A sample of twelve participants from the four selected high performing rural primary schools was
purposefully chosen, which constituted the research participants. These participants consisted of
four principals and eight teachers. Ethical considerations, including confidentiality and anonymity,
were maintained throughout the research study. The study reviewed related literature from Lesotho
and international perspectives on leadership practices, in order to understand how principals,
maintain high performance in rural primary schools. The research findings have revealed that
principals play an important role in transforming their respective schools into learning
environments that are conducive for teaching and learning through their leadership. The rural
school principals considered leadership as a collective effort and practised collaborative decisionmaking. Moreover, the principals’ leadership understanding, and experience enabled them to build
good interpersonal relationships with members of staff and other stakeholders. Hence, for the
school to perform well academically, it is very important to motivate the members of staff and
supervise their work frequently. The study has also identified several challenges pertaining to
leadership and rurality, which include excessive workload, lack of resources and limited official
visits. This study presented the recommendations for practice and for further research.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.