Exploring the role of principal leadership in Grade 12 learner performance

Abstract

Many of South Africa’s former disadvantaged schools are now known as no-fee schools. These schools were prioritised as no-fee schools post-1994 in terms of funding because they have the same context and service the poor communities that surround them. Despite similarities of their funding and contextual challenges, these no-fee schools produce varying overall results in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) examinations, which is what triggered this study. The explanation for this poor performance in Grade 12 is still unverified (DBE, 2016:46). It appears as if the learner performance in some of the no-fee schools, which are all located in townships, can be ascribed to the leadership practices of the principals. This study therefore intended to explore principals’ leadership practices at no-fee secondary schools, where good performance is a necessity for survival in future for the learner. The study also intended to investigate the impact the principal’s leadership practices may have on Grade 12 learner performance, specifically in gateway subjects such as mathematics, physical sciences, economics and accounting. Embedded in constructivism, a qualitative research approach with a multiple-case-study research design was employed for this study guided by instructional leadership theory as its theoretical framework and integrated it with other learning theories. Data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with principals and focus group interviews with teachers, all purposefully selected, and some document analysis and observation. The research sites were four township no-fee secondary schools from Emfuleni municipality in Gauteng province. The gathered data were then transcribed, coded into themes and analysed. The findings of the study reflected that no-fee schools have inexperienced principals who are unable to deal effectively with contextual challenges, and minimal parental support, and these factors affect learner commitment and finally compromise good learner performance. The study will be useful and add to the existing body of knowledge on the understanding of the complex leadership roles of principals of no-fee schools. It also revealed the best practices which can be employed by poor-performing principals in order to lead and manage no-fee schools effectively and efficiently and to improve Grade 12 learner performance.