The enactment of teacher leadership: a case study of three schools in the Pinetown District.
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Date
2019
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Abstract
Post 1994, the vision of the South African education policy system was to transform schools
into more effective places of teaching and learning. To achieve this vision, educational policies
suggest a shift or realignment in management practices from traditional autocratic headship to
more participatory leadership practices. This means a call for teacher leadership to
accommodate the new shift to a democratic dispensation in South Africa. This is because
teacher leadership has the potential to positively influence, nurture and support educational
improvement efforts of other teachers. This paradigm shift assumes that effective leadership
and management of schools might secure and sustain school improvement. It is evident from
this study that a lot needs to be done in South African schools to embrace the concept and
practice of teacher leadership in order to address factors that seem to impede the
implementation of teacher leadership. Against this backdrop, the purpose of my study was to
explore the enactment of teacher leadership in three schools in the Pinetown District. The study
explores how teacher leadership is enacted in schools by looking at factors which enhance or
inhibit enactment of teacher leadership in schools.
My study was conducted within a qualitative interpretive paradigm which adopted a case study
strategy in three schools in Pinetown. The study used purposive sampling with two teacher
leaders and one HoD per school as the unit of analysis. In this study data was generated using
semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews provided me with flexibility in terms
of responses, and the freedom to employ follow-up questions in order to obtain clarity and
more in-depth feedback. Since the research was qualitative in nature, it resulted in massive
transcribed data generated through interviews. Generated data from the research participants
during the semi-structured interviews were transcribed into a text. After transcribing data, a
process of ‘coding’ was used and each theme was assigned to a specific focus. This means that
data was analysed using thematic analysis. The findings of this study indicate that teacher
leadership is an unknown concept to teacher leaders but their responses show that teacher
leadership was enacted differently at the three school contexts depending on the culture and
structure of each school.
This study further reveals that teacher leaders who are subject heads seem to deal more with
the compliance and regulatory components by ensuring that all is done according to the book.
Findings also reveal that teacher leadership is mainly learner and outcomes driven.
Furthermore, findings pointed to a number of challenges that negatively impacted on teacher
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leaders’ motivational levels to engage in leadership roles. These challenges included little
support from School Management Teams (SMTs) and very little guidance on legal, behavioural
guidance and support. The study recommends that teacher leaders should take the initiative in
engaging in leadership roles. It also recommends that there should be mediations by the SMT
to assist teacher leaders with task performance. This study also recommends that the SMT
should recognise and reward teacher leaders for their endless leadership efforts in schools.
Lastly, the study recommended that there needs to be role clarification to avoid role conflict
and confusion going forward in managing issues around the needs of teacher leaders in schools.
The study therefore suggested that there is a necessity to reassign workload and provide time
management skills to assist teacher leaders in schools.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.