The purpose of this study was to examine the principal's understanding and experiences with school management. Therefore, this study adopted transformational leadership concepts to explore the principals' leadership experiences.
Introduction
Background
Achieving these transformational goals of the South African education system requires effective participatory leadership. It is therefore important that we gain an in-depth understanding of how school leadership is perceived and experienced in the context of the South African school system, as is often the case in developing countries.
Statement of the Problem
Thus, with the introduction of democratic education in South Africa, it became inevitable that school leaders had to change their leadership styles in accordance with the Constitution and the South African Schools Act (SASA) 84 of 1996. Furthermore, school leadership is important in creating an environment in which what training can take place.
Research Questions
Focus and Purpose of the Study
Rationale
This view is also supported by the Department of Education's Task Force Report (1996) which states that these changes in the new democratization of management in schools caused many principals to be ill-prepared for their new role. Many teachers continued in the mode of complacency and waited to be given instructions instead of taking the initiative, simply because they believed that it was the principal's responsibility to lead and the teachers to follow (Grant, 2006). .
Delimitations
Significance of the Study
These observations sparked my curiosity to explore the kinds of experiences principals have of leadership that influence them to create learning spaces for successful learner experiences. I believe that this study can make a small contribution to the current debate about how principals can best be trained and empowered to create learning environments that open up opportunities for learner success.
Outline of the Thesis
Introduction
Leadership
According to Bush (2003), the most important function of leadership is to unite people around shared values, toward a purposeful goal. What is clear from these descriptions of leadership is that the role of the school principal has become extremely complex.
Management
In the context of any school or organization, leadership is often confused with management, so it is necessary to clarify the term management. For the purpose of this study, the term management is used to refer to efforts to improve the organizational performance of "school effectiveness, school effectiveness and school relevance".
Leadership and Management
Therefore, the difference between leadership and management is based on the roles of each position. In this study, the investigation of principals' understanding and experience of school leadership involves a combination of leadership and management skills.
School Leadership
Leadership and Context
The context of each school is different. 1996) argue that the characteristics of the school, the community it serves, and the prior experience and background of principals create the context in which principals exercise leadership. South African schools are highly unequal in terms of human and financial resources' (Christie, 2010, p. 702) and these additional responsibilities have a profound effect on the context in which principals exercise their leadership.
Leadership Challenges facing Principals
Moreover, knowledge of technological integration in teaching and learning is also of great importance for the director who wants to be relevant in the 21st century. To be effective and better understand their role as leaders, I argue that principals must be supported and developed.
Training and Development of Principals
However, in harmony with the views of Ibrahimi (2011), I believe that these programs must be continuous and relevant to be effective. In the next section I discuss several leadership theories with a view to exploring the potential impact they have on managers' understanding and experiences of leadership.
Theories of Leadership
Situational Leadership Theory
The situational or contingent approach “recognizes the diverse nature of the school context and the benefit of adapting leadership styles to a particular situation, rather than adopting a one size fits all position” (Bush, 2007, p. 402). The nature of a particular situation is considered to be the most important variable that determines how the leader functions. Put differently, the principal or manager is expected to behave flexibly so that he or she can determine the management style in accordance with the situation.
Instructional Leadership Theory
Instructional leadership focuses on teaching and learning and on teachers' behavior in working with students. The principal must have his or her finger on the pulse of the teaching and learning process (Teddlie & Reynolds, 2002).
Transformational Leadership Theory: Theoretical Framework
Furthermore, Leithwood et al. 2006) stated that transformational leadership is based on three fundamental goals that drive the pursuit of a successful educational environment. The literature shows that transformational leadership can be viewed as distributive because it focuses on the development of a shared vision and commitment to school change.
Conclusion
Introduction
Research Design
Working within the Interpretive Paradigm
It was only through direct contact with the principals involved that I was able to explore their experiences and perceptions of leadership. Because it would be difficult to separate the phenomenon being studied from the context of the specific schools, a qualitative case study within the interpretive paradigm was chosen as research design.
Locating the Research as a Qualitative Study
One of the greatest strengths of the qualitative approach is “the richness and depth of the explorations and descriptions it produces” (Maree, 2007, p. states that the most distinguishing factor in qualitative research is the 'thick descriptions'. This made thick descriptions possible of actual life experiences that apply to the daily activities of the clients.
Case Study Research
Hamel (cited in Maree, 2007) describes this singularity as the focus of the global in the local. It is in the context of the school where they developed and experienced their leadership and professional skills.
Research Methodology
Sampling
I would like to inform the reader that the focus of my study was not on gender issues, but on the participants' experiences and understanding of leadership within their specific field. Merriam (2001, p. 64) states that “the size of the sample is not important, what is important is the adequate number of participants to answer the questions asked”. This is similar to Patton's (2002, p. 230) contention that “qualitative research usually focuses in depth on relatively small samples, even single cases, purposively selected.”.
The Identity of Participants
Permission to Conduct Research
To ensure that all participants were fully informed before agreeing to participate, I offered them the opportunity to follow up on this letter by contacting me or my thesis advisor with any concerns or questions they had regarding the research process. In addition, all participants were assured that their identities would remain confidential and anonymous before the study began.
Methods of Data Generation
The Interview as Data Generation Instrument
The presence of the researcher in the lives of the participants invited to be part of the study is central to the paradigm. Questions pertaining to the biographical and historical aspects of the interview schedule allowed the researcher to gain a fairly good understanding of each participant.
Reflective Journal Writing
According to Josselson (cited in Collins, 1998, p.8), "given events and described experiences are more substantial, more real, by being recorded and written down." Therefore, a good quality digital voice recorder was used to record all interviews. Reflective writing allowed participants to practice critical analysis and reasoning about their practice.
Data Analysis
During the data analysis, I broke down the data and looked for key words or phrases. I also looked for themes and patterns that emerged from the data on leadership experiences and perceptions that directly related to my research questions.
Trustworthiness
This is what Patton (1990) refers to as "inductive analysis" because patterns, themes and categories of analysis emerged from the data rather than being imposed on them prior to data collection and analysis.
Ethical Considerations
Limitations
I went on to discuss how I selected the participants and how my data analysis was conducted. This is due to the subjectivity that emphasizes the information provided by the participants and the small sample size.
Introduction
Profiles of Participants
- Principal Kate
- Principal Ben
- Principal Clare
- Summary
As student enrollment increased at the school, he became head of department and later became vice-principal. The school's rapid growth and progress resulted in greater demands being placed on him as a leader, prompting him to enroll on a leadership and management course at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).
Themes from the Data
Leadership as a Collective Endeavour
I agree that in terms of showing the democratic trend of decision-making, it is transformational in nature and in line with the expectations of the Ministry of Education. This is also in line with the views of Morrison (1998) and the Ministry of Education (2004) that part of the responsibility of managers and in this case principals is to create an environment and circumstances that will allow teamwork to flourish. and make a positive difference in the school.
Leadership can make a Positive Difference
This could motivate teachers, students, parents and the community to trust their school more, especially if all stakeholders are involved in the development and production of the school's vision. The data revealed that the principals encouraged their teachers to continue their studies, especially those who were unqualified and underqualified, and to take up leadership positions in the school.
The Professional Conduct of Leaders and Teachers
This testifies to the principals' intention to involve all members of staff and stakeholders in the decision-making process. This was mainly due to their lack of understanding of the concept of professionalism.
The Principals’ Perspective on Professional Development
Participants believed that teachers should be encouraged to develop their full potential as professionals because this would ultimately benefit students. Therefore, from the results, you can see that the principals understood that their management was characterized by very skilled and knowledgeable people.
Challenges facing the Principals’ Leadership
The low level of parental interest in their children's learning processes also contributes to the stress of the principal and staff. Newer teachers come in with new ideas and say, come on, let's try this... Older staff will say, 'Oh, we've never done it like this before - we're not going to do it like this now'." (Interview, p.12).
Conclusion
According to the data, the principal claims that the older teachers' resistance in giving up their comfort zone is challenging her ability to complement the old with the new. Teachers' reluctance to embrace change can be attributed to uncertainty about how the proposed change would affect them.
Introduction
Summary of the Main Findings
The experience of the principals was that where a group of people interact, the potential for conflict can either affect relationships negatively or positively depending on how such conflict is handled. In the principals' attempt to address these situations, networking sessions were organized to communicate these issues to staff in a transparent manner.
Conclusions
What emerged strongly from the findings was that the way in which the principals understood leadership determined how they managed their schools. Moreover, the principals understood that their leadership roles were typified by highly skilled and knowledgeable individuals.
Recommendations
The Role of Transformational School Leadership in Meeting the Challenges Facing Primary Schools in Limpopo, a dissertation submitted in accordance with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education in Education Management. A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of. the requirements for the master's program at the Faculty of Education:
The information you provide during interviews, your identity and that of your school, will be treated in the strictest confidence. The results of this research will be used for academic purposes only and the information will be published in the form of a thesis.
