The Role of Heads of Department in the Professional Development of Educators: A Distributed Leadership Perspective

• Published in: Africa education review Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 1 - 19
• Main Authors: du Plessis, André, Eberlein, Eric
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Pretoria Routledge 02.01.2018; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Administrator Role; Classrooms; Communities of Practice; Department Heads; distributed leadership; Educational leadership; Educational Policy; Faculty Development; Foreign Countries; Head teachers; Heads of department; Instructional Leadership; Interviews; Leadership; Organizational structure; Principals; Professional development; Professional Development Schools; Professional Education; professional learning communities; Qualitative Research; Schools; subject departments; Teacher Administrator Relationship; Teacher Education; Teachers; South Africa
• ISSN: 1814-6627; 1753-5921
• DOI: 10.1080/18146627.2016.1224583

The qualitative study reported on was, undertaken from a distributed leadership perspective, and was an attempt to provide understanding of how heads of department (HoDs) develop educators within the organisational context of different schools and subject departments. The findings are related to the current policy framework for professional development in South African schools. Two fee-paying and two non-fee-paying schools were selected and interviews were conducted with HoDs from single subject (unitary) and multi-subject (federal or confederate) departments in each school. The data was transcribed, coded, analysed and related to the research question. The findings confirmed that HoDs are a key link between principals and the educators in their classrooms. This supports the view that HoDs have formal responsibilities and accountabilities and they wield a horizontal and a vertical influence. Recommendations are made to improve professional development practice by HoDs in particular and in the education system in general.