The interactions between district-and school-based instructional leadership practices for the history subject in the Zaka district of Zimbabwe

This study investigated the interactions between district- and school-based instructional leadership practices for the subject of History in the Zaka district of Zimbabwe. The purpose of the study was to establish the nature of the relationships that exist between district- and school-based instructional leadership by exploring the research puzzle on how schools and districts interact in pursuit of instructional improvement for the subject of History in Zimbabwe, what policies and structures guide the interactions and what practices define the interactions. Conducted against the backdrop of separate and isolated studies of district instructional leadership on the one hand and of school instructional leadership on the other, the present study sought to examine instructional leadership structures and practices at the intersection of the two agencies of education, viz. the schools and the districts. A mixed methods approach was used, with a sequential explanatory research design adopted, in which quantitative and qualitative data was gathered and presented. In the quantitative phase of the study, 28 History leaders responded to a questionnaire on the dominant practices of instructional leadership at the point of intersection by schools and districts, while in the qualitative phase, 5 purposively selected History leaders were interviewed in addition to observations of 5 key instructional leadership events within the district. Data was presented sequentially starting with qualitative analysis, then the observation and interview data, with mixing at both the analysis and synthesis stages. Unsurprisingly, the study established that most instructional leadership practices for the History subject in Zimbabwe’s Zaka district are often limited to the traditional activities of the workshop type and that these practices are often narrow in scope and circumscribed in terms of time-duration. More importantly, it emerged from the study that the most unresolved issue for district- and school-based instructional leadership interactions for the improvement of History teaching and learning lies in the coordination and control of the leadership activities for supporting teachers. There was a clear contestation between what I have called the “bottom-up” approach which most teacher leaders advocated, versus the dominant and current practice of “top-down” district leadership approach. Most leaders in the Zaka district favour an increased role of the non-formal or non-positional leaders in the coordination of instructional leadership activities. The study concludes that instructional leadership interactions at the intersection of schools and districts have a great potential for improving classroom practice, especially if they are initiated and coordinated from the ground up, where contextual and locational conditions are taken into account. The success of instructional leadership interactions at the interface of districts and schools is strongly dependent on the level of involvement by all leaders at both levels, where leaders can become followers, interchangeably, at different times. On the structures of leadership, the study established that districts are rather ill-prepared to lead on instructional leadership, in part because of the lack of subject specialists at that level to provide expert knowledge and skills for subject based instructional leadership and guidance. A key recommendation is for the relocation of collaborative instructional leadership activities to the school level, in order to improve both capacity and commitment by the practitioners. More specifically for the case study district, the recommendation is for the district inspectorate to be reconstituted in terms of its composition in order to enhance its instructional leadership role. Subject specialisation should a key consideration for the inspectorate. Furthermore, it is recommended that school leaders should be continuously inducted and kept abreast on the developments in the field of subject based instructional leadership. Further research on the provincial structures and practices of instructional leadership is recommended with a view to suggesting possibilities for alignment of all structures that have a role in subject-oriented school leadership for the improvement of teaching and learning.