School clusters as sites for instructional leadership: a case of the better schools programme of Zimbabwe

English: Inter-school collaborations or clustering has a long history, dating back to the 1940s in Nepal and Great Britain and it has spread across many parts of the world. Zimbabwe is no exception to this trend of adopting inter-school collaborations as a reform strategy for improving teaching and learning in schools. This innovation, which was initially meant to bring together disadvantaged rural schools, has spread to include urban schools. Despite its promise, however, the utility of clusters or inter-school collaborations in terms of improving the quality and efficacy of teaching and learning remains a matter of scholarly debate and inquiry. The present study adds insights to the debates on the utility of clusters for improving teaching and learning in schools. The efforts to improve teaching and learning in schools are what this study defines as instructional leadership. Whilst many studies have been conducted to understand instructional leadership practices at either the school or district levels, very few of these studies have explored instructional leadership within a school collaborative or cluster specifically. This study took the challenge by exploring whether and how the Better Schools Programme of Zimbabwe (BSPZ), an example of a school cluster or collaborative, serves as a site for instructional leadership for the participating schools and teachers. The investigation took a pragmatic stance and adopted a mixed methods approach in order to take advantage of the strengths of both the qualitative and quantitative approaches. Using a multiple case study of four BSPZ clusters in the Masvingo district of Zimbabwe, the study employed a sequential explanatory mixed methods design where a sample of 101 participants responded to a questionnaire on the range and depth of instructional leadership practices and artefacts that are used by their clusters, as well as their perspectives on the utility of clusters for improving teaching and learning. In the qualitative phase of the study, purposively selected groups of participants that included two heads of school (or principals), two teacher leaders and two ordinary class teachers from two of the selected clusters were interviewed and observed. The qualitative phase was designed to confirm the participants’ perspectives and get an inside picture of how instructional leadership operates in practice within the clusters. The study has established that school clusters do carry out some activities that qualify to be classified as instructional leadership for the teachers in the participating schools. The drive for the instructional leadership programme of the clusters, however, is very moderate at best, and considerably weak in terms of its conception and influence on teaching and learning in schools. The dominant practices of instructional leadership at the cluster level include the administration of cluster tests, supervision of classes, as well as the conduct of some professional development workshops for the teachers. Significantly, the study also established that instructional leadership within the clusters is sometimes distributed, albeit by default, to include teacher leaders and other non-formal school leaders. The incentives for participation in general and for leadership of teaching and learning within the clusters are rather poor to non-existent, something that needs the urgent attention of educational leaders and policymakers in Zimbabwe. The study concludes by arguing that school clusters, especially the BSPZ clusters, are in a relatively good position to provide opportunities for instructional leadership to schools and teachers even though it is inevitable that their leadership activities will vary based on the will and capacity of each cluster. The study thus recommends the involvement of local school authorities, such as districts and provincial authorities in providing much needed support to ensure effective instructional leadership within the school clusters. Further research on the agendas of school clusters and how they are carried out in different contexts (and countries) is needed in order to understand how it may be possible to institutionalise instructional leadership practices within such school collaboratives or clusters.