The HoD is often referred to as a middle manager. Middle management is the label used to position teachers with subject/department and/or pastoral responsibility within an educational organisation (Gunter, 2001). According to the Employment of
Educators Act (RSA, 1998) the HoD is in charge of a subject, learning area or phase and occupies the second post level which is one post level above the teachers at school and a level below the deputy principal and the principal. Therefore, within schools in South Africa, there is a two-tiered management structure, the middle management tier (HoD) and the Senior Management tier (principal and deputy principal). Brown et al.
(2000a) state that the middle management level in schools is responsible for teaching, coaching (modelling good classroom practice) and managing the department (i.e.
leading professionals). However, it is the principal who is recognised as the
educational leader of the school (Caldwell & Spinks, 1998). As is the case in many other countries, the authority of the principal in South Africa is statutory (Bush, 2003, p. 49).
With the principal at the apex of the management hierarchy in the school, the HoD is located in the second management tier of the school and is sandwiched between the senior management team (SMT) and their educator colleagues. The role of the HoD should be as important a role as the other management roles within schools because HoDs are directly responsible for teaching and learning within their departments, and the main aim of the school is to ensure that effective teaching and learning takes place.
The general consensus is that, located within the current form of site-based
management, the middle manager such as the HoD in a secondary school, is “pivotal”
(Gold, 1998, p. xiii).
HoDs in secondary schools occupy a crucial position in the management hierarchy, and are seen as “linking pins” between their departments and the “upper executive” of the school (Collier, Dinham, Brennan, Deece & Mulford, 2002, p. 19). Collier et al.
(2002) state that, if there are any educational changes of a positive nature, the HoD
29 must guide and drive the change “both at the department and executive level” (Collier et al., 2002, p. 19). The “middleness” of the post creates a dilemma for the HoD, as the HoD has to be an educator and a manager and a leader, which can bring about conflicting role definitions. Koehler (1993, p.11) states that: “Department chairs walk a tightrope between the maintenance and survival needs of the school and the human and professional needs of the people within it”. This suggests that the HoD has to ensure that the administrative tasks within the department are adequately performed and, at the same time, the human and professional needs of the educators and learners within the department are satisfied. The role of the HoD is twofold in nature as it entails the HoD being both task- and people-orientated. The HoD has to balance the two tasks for the effective functioning of the department. The “middleness” of the role and being both an educator and manager at the same time, highlights the dual nature of the HoD‟s role.
The HoD is neither fully teacher nor manager, yet is a conduit for the tensions in the relationships between the teachers and senior managers in a school (Brown &
Rutherford, 1999, p. 232). The role is subject to pressures from the SMT and the teachers in their departments as both require the undivided attention of the HoD.
Brown and Rutherford (1999, p 231) state that within the UK and US secondary schools, organisation around department and subject HoDs is a “taken for granted”
feature. This illustrates the important role middle managers play within schools.
Leadership of the middle management team is seen as integral to developing a successful school (Brown & Rutherford, 1999). Blandford (1997, p. 3) states that the middle manager is a staffroom manager and a teacher. As the teacher the middle manager manages the “development of knowledge and understanding, skills and abilities of pupils” and the middle manager as the staff manager manages “the
knowledge and understanding, skills and abilities of colleagues” (Blandford, 1997, p.
3).
Bennet (1995) has shown that that there is some resistance to the label of middle managers and their positioning from within the profession, particularly within the primary school where the organising of learning is based on horizontal collaborative and co-operative networks. In the secondary school context, an HoD is regarded as central to the control function: “secondary schools are more likely to be places of
30 dispute and argument than places of consensus, and individuals are needed who can undertake the responsibility of trying to weld together the often disparate and disputing subunits into a coherent whole” (Bennet, 1995, p. 104).
Thus the HoD, located in the middle management tier, is placed in a conflicting situation because of the demands made by the principal above in the hierarchy and the educator colleagues below. Brown et al. (2000a) state that HoDs subordinate their own vision to those of the senior managers. In their study they found that the HoDs felt that senior managers‟ vision was inadequate or poor yet this was forced down on the HoDs and teachers in a non-consultative manner. They also found that the HoD‟s vision for the department was often under-valued and their professional judgement insufficiently recognised by the senior managers (Brown et al., 2000b, p. 250).
Turner and Bolam (1998, p. 351) state that contextual factors may affect the way in which HoDs work with their departmental colleagues. They found that HoDs have little decision-making power and are often used by principals to “rubber-stamp”
decisions made by the SMT (Turner & Bolam, 1998, p. 381). Such a situation poses an added dilemma for the HoDs to effectively perform their role and lead the team of educators within the department. Wallace and Hall (1994) however, found that the climate in most secondary schools in the United Kingdom appears to empower middle managers to contribute to school-wide policy and this enables them to have a
significant impact on management concerns that go beyond the sphere of their individual responsibilities. Principals who create a management structure based on their beliefs in a more collegial culture help to empower HoDs to be more effective managers and leaders of their department (Brown & Rutherford, 1999). These authors believe that HoDs can bring about successful change within their departments thereby contributing to the improvement of the whole school.
The literature written about the role of the HoD has evolved over the years. According to Brown and Rutherford (1999), the HoD role has become more diverse, complex and challenging, and HoDs have acquired increased burdens of responsibility and accountability. This is due to the “bewildering plethora of macro, meso and micro policy changes” that have occurred internationally, particularly in schools in the UK (Brown & Rutherford, 1999, p.229). Glover, Gleeson, Gough & Johnson et al. (1998) concur that the role of the HoD is increasing in responsibility, because senior
31 managers are now delegating operational responsibilities to middle managers as their workloads too have increased. Glover et al. (1998) found in their study that the type of tasks given to middle managers by senior managers is seen as a status symbol, not only for the middle managers, but for the members in their department. Therefore, if HoDs are involved in policy-making at a school level, the educators in the department believe that the interests of their department or subject are represented at senior management level (Glover et al., 1998, p. 283). According to Glover et al. (1998) the tasks that are undertaken by the HoD are multiple and this can further complicate the functions of the HoD.
Similarly, there have been vast educational changes in South Africa, particularly since 1994. In South Africa, in Chapter A, Section 4.4 of the Employment of Educators Act 76 of 1998, it is stated that the job of the HoD in South African schools is to
engage in class teaching
be responsible for the effective functioning of the department
organise relevant/related extra-curricular activities so as to ensure that the subject, learning area or phase and the education of the learner is promoted in a proper way
The Employment of Educators Act 76 of 1998 clearly states that the duties and the responsibilities of the HoD are individual and varied and are dependent on the approaches and needs of each school. This means that the contextual factors of a school will determine the exact duties of the HoD and it can vary within each school.
Therefore, the HoDs could be assigned more duties than they are expected to
perform. This could pose a challenge to their management and leadership roles as too little time may be spent on the core function of managing a department. The Act outlines the five core duties of the HoD, which are: teaching, being in charge of extra- curricular activities, being in control of the learners and teachers in the department, being in charge of the personnel in the department, ensuring the planning and management of the department and being responsible for all communication within the department. The policy states that the HoDs are not limited to these core functions and duties which imply that more tasks can be assigned to them.
I see the HoD‟s role in classroom teaching as an educative role. According to Chapter A, Section 4.4 the Employment of Educators Act (1998), the HoD in a secondary
32 school is expected to teach at least 85% of the expected scheduled teaching time.
Therefore, the HoD is primarily a classroom-based teacher, with additional management roles and responsibilities. Responsibility for personnel within school defines that the HoD has a management and leadership role. Therefore South Africa‟s education policy presents a dichotomous role that could pose a problem for HoDs because they have to ensure that the educative and managerial roles are not in conflict with each other. The co-ordinating, administrative, liaison and networking roles flow from the duties and responsibilities of the HoD, and this suggests that this middle management tier, although very much sandwiched between and taken for granted by educators and senior management in schools, should be given far greater recognition as the role is varied and complex. The varied duties and responsibilities of a HoD suggest that the middle manager is not only an educator, but also an administrator, a manager and a leader with several tasks on hand.
Various scholars have written about the complexity of the HoD role. Dimmock (1999, p. 442) says that school leaders “experience difficulty in deciding the balance between higher order tasks designed to improve staff, student and school performance
(leadership), routine maintenance of present operations (management) and lower order duties (administration)”. It is also found that leaders routinely use words such as
“empower” and “delegate” to define the work they assign to their subordinates (Brower & Balch, 2005). Brower and Balch, (2005, p.73) clarify that “[e]mpowering someone to oversee a project, lead peers on a task force, head a department, or carry out visions – or any similar endeavour that contributes to the growth and well-being of the institution – requires someone to serve in the leader‟s capacity”. Middle managers are accepted as department leaders who look after human and teaching resources to bring about effective teaching and learning (Glover et al., 1998, p. 297). Therefore, women who are HoDs are not only managing a department, but also leading the educators within the department, delegating tasks and empowering individual
educators within the department. This shows that HoDs are not only managers but also leaders.
A recurrent theme in the research by Glover et al. (1998, p. 285) is that effective teaching and learning depends on the ability of the middle managers to “motivate, inspire and support teams of staff”. This suggests that the leadership ability of the HoD is an important aspect of school improvement and departmental effectiveness.
33 Brown and Rutherford (1999) also regard the leadership of the middle manager as key to implementing change and other processes that promote successful learning in their departments. These authors argue that principals of schools are “too far from
learning”, and their primary role is to provide direction for the school and to offer pressure and support that will help facilitate improvements in the quality of teaching and learning and in standards of achievement (Brown and Rutherford, 1999, p. 238).
These authors also note that HoDs have traditionally seen themselves as being responsible for the curriculum and not as managers of the members in their department.
The new role of managing and leading their colleagues in their departments can prove challenging. However, Collier et al. (2002) found in their study of HoDs in secondary schools that the women respondents valued facilitating the success of the educators in their departments and working with staff more highly than their male colleagues. The women department heads in the study were over-represented in identifying “workload pressure, dealing with under-performing staff, and interpersonal conflicts/problems with and between staff as the worst aspects of the role” (Collier et al., 2002, p. 23).
This highlights the supportive and collegial nature of the women HoDs. They prefer facilitating and working with staff to dealing with conflict situations and under- performance of educators within their departments that requires them to be firmer and less consultative with the educators under their jurisdiction. This is also suggested by Thornton and Bricheno (2009) who state that women in education are often associated with pastoral care, or with a particular age phase within the school and with subjects such as arts and humanities that rank lower in status than subjects such as
Mathematics and Science.
Harris (2000) elaborates on the complexity of the HoD role when she distinguishes four dimensions in the HoD‟s work. The first dimension concerns the ways in which the HoD translates the perspectives and policies of senior staff into the practices of individual classrooms. This “bridging” or “brokering” function (Busher & Harris, 1999, p. 307) of curriculum leaders is a central responsibility of HoDs. Blase and Anderson (1995) assert that it implies a transactional leadership role, where HoDs use
“power over” others to secure working agreements with departmental members about how to achieve school and departmental goals and practices.
34 According to Harris, (2000) a second dimension focuses on how HoDs encourage a group or team of members to cohere and form a group identity. The areas of subject knowledge that the department shares, usually defines the boundaries of the group.
Harris (2000) develops these ideas when she contends that an important role therefore, is for the HoD to foster collegiality and shared leadership within the group by shaping a shared vision (Busher, 2005). This implies a leadership style that empowers others and that involves subject leaders using “power with” or “power through” other people to bring about collaborative departmental cultures (Blase & Anderson, 1995). This style of leadership is people-oriented, and requires a leadership approach that helps other people to transform their feelings, attitudes and beliefs. This implies a
transformational leadership role and, according to Harris (2000), transformational leaders do not only manage structure, they also purposefully impact on the school culture in order to change it. Therefore, an important dimension of the HoD‟s work is to shape and manage the departmental culture.
Harris‟ third dimension is about improving staff and student performance. At one level this role can be viewed as a transactional leadership role, where for example the HoD might monitor the school goals and how the school is meeting prescribed levels of curriculum performance. However, Glover et al. (1998) add an important aspect of mentoring, or a supervisory leadership role, that supports educators‟ development and the development of pupils academically and socially. For mentoring and supervision of educators in their departments, the expert knowledge of the HoD is vital.
Harris (2000) outlines the fourth and final dimension of the HoD‟s work as a liaison or representative role. This requires that the HoD be in touch with outside sources of information in the external environment of the school, and to negotiate, where needed, on behalf of other members of the department. Harris (2000) sees part of this
dimension of the HoD role as being to represent and communicate the views of departmental members to senior staff and other middle managers within the school.
Busher and Harris (1999, p. 307) view the role of the HoD as that of a translator whereby “the perspectives and policies of senior staff” are put into practice in individual classrooms. The HoD is therefore the implementer of policy that is laid down by the SMT. The management role of the HoD is to maintain efficiently and effectively the “current organisational arrangements” in a school and the “overall function is towards maintenance rather than change” (Cuban, 1998, p. xx). My
35 understanding of South Africa‟s policy on the duties and responsibilities is that the HoD, apart from the administrative and management roles, also has a leadership role, and therefore should not only be seen as a translator and implementer of policy. The HoD as a leader of a department will “shape the goals, motivations and actions of others” (Cuban, 1988, p. xx). Gunter (2001, p. 111) suggests that middle managers exist as „performers‟ because of the need to respond to “external change rather than through the requirements of their subject discipline or to facilitate pedagogy”.
Therefore, given the complexity and challenges as outlined above, the role of the HoD has to be clearly defined, understood monitored and evaluated within secondary schools. The size of a department renders different demands on the HoD. This is one of the findings from Glover et al. (1998). They found that the focus of work for the middle manager is different in a large department compared to a small department.
Leaders of small departments do not see themselves as managers but as teachers with additional administrative duties to perform. They also state that single-subject
departments mean that the middle manager has a shared disciplinary identity and expertise with the educators in the team, compared to a head of a large department, with more than one subject, who is disconnected from this knowledge base (Gunter, 2001, p. 108).
For the past two decades, responsibility for the management performance of a team, through, for example, classroom monitoring and departmental review, was regarded as essential but not widely understood (Gunter, 2001). Glover et al. (1998, p.281) found that middle managers tended to “see their work as a large number of unconnected duties required by the administrative machine of the school”, rather than them having a highly developed understanding of the role. By this, they suggest that the HoD has to also ensure that innovations within the department are made and policies are implemented effectively, therefore, the management and leadership roles of the HoD are equally important. Adey (2000) found that middle managers were beginning to adapt to their changing role in respect of their managerial responsibilities, but they had yet to develop their leadership role. The increased workload of the HoDs means that they have additional responsibility for the quality of teaching and learning within their subject as well as having the responsibility of contributing to the shaping of school policies and priorities of the whole school (Adey, 2000, pp. 419-420). Middle