Principals’ narratives on balancing leadership, management and instruction in South African schools

Abstract

𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱: The role that a Principal plays in a school has become very complicated and very demanding. Scholars such as Fullan (1991) have been following the changing trends in Education and are convinced that the part played by the Principals in schools has truly been evolving, transcending from being instructional leaders to transactional leaders, and now lately to transformational leaders. Mestry (1999) asserts that Principals’ expectations have evolved from focus on management and control, to that of being entrusted with the responsibility to develop staff, encourage and increase parental involvement, and soliciting community support and learner achievement. This is supported by Blasé, Blasé and Phillips (2010), where they maintain that new responsibilities and activities have been compounded on the already demanding roles Principals currently have. On the other hand, Naicker and Mestry (2013) argue that the role of Principals have become riddled with controversy involving conflicting demands. Earlier studies by Hallinger and Murphy (1985) reveal that one of the main challenges of Principals was to establish balance between administrative roles and instructional leadership functions. They assert that one person cannot fulfil all the duties of a Principal, and go further to suggest that there was a need for empowering others to exercise leadership (Spillane, 2012; Katewa & Heystek, 2019; Peters-Hawkins, Reed & Kingsberry, 2018). Hence this study sought to answer the research question: How do Principals go about carrying out their dual mandate as instructional leaders and managers in South African schools? It is intended to explore how other Principals succeed and others do not, and what is it that sets them apart.

𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗱𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘆: This study is rooted in instructional leadership as a framework, using grounded theory, following interpretive paradigm. I followed a qualitative research methodology through the multiple case-study design (Creswell, 2013). Data were collected through observations, interviews, and documents analysis.

𝗦𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴: Four school Principals, purposively selected from prominently high-performing secondary schools in two provinces, the Free State and Gauteng, took part.

𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: In a nutshell, the policies on which the Principals relied appear to represent a mixed bag, with some providing more of an enabling context for them to balance the management and instructional leadership demands with some degree of success. The same policies, however, sometimes compound their ability to successfully navigate this balance in their schools. The findings also suggest that mounting pressure is being exerted inadvertently on school Principals to focus on Grade 12 learners’ performance, and that Principals rely on the teachers in their staff to volunteer their services beyond the normal school day programme. The study recommends that school principals undergo counselling in order to deal with the high stress levels they encounter on daily basis.