Leadership dynamics: Managing and leading continued professional teacher development in schools to enhance learner performance

• Published in: Perspectives in education Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 305 - 319
• Main Authors: Arendse, Brandon, Phillips, Heather Nadia, Waghid, Zayd
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bloemfontein University of the Free State 01.12.2024; University of the Free State, Faculty of Education
• Subjects: Academic achievement; Accountability; Administrative Organization; Adult Basic Education; Adult Learning; Change Agents; Classrooms; Collaboration; Continuous Professional Teacher Development; Educational Environment; Educational leadership; Educational Objectives; Educational Quality; Head teachers; Increased performance; Informal Education; Instructional Leadership; Leadership; Leadership Effectiveness; Leadership Role; Learning; Learning environment; Learning Modalities; Literature Reviews; Low Achievement; Management development programmes; Management teams; Motivation; Opportunities; Principals; Professional development; Professional Development Schools; Public schools; School Effectiveness; School environment; School management teams; Student Improvement; Teacher Characteristics; Teacher Effectiveness; Teacher Leadership; Teaching; South Africa
• ISSN: 0258-2236; 2519-593X
• DOI: 10.38140/pie.v42i4.7044

Principals and school management teams are expected to provide unwavering leadership and professional and sustainable support to create opportunities for teachers and themselves to develop professionally. Currently, the lack of teacher content knowledge, low rates of motivation and accountability are key challenges resulting in the low-quality education systems in South Africa (Mlachila & Moeletsi, 2019). School management teams perceive their roles as managerial and administrative, detracting from leading teaching and learning. Furthermore, there are few systems to hold principals and teachers accountable for learners’ academic performance. This makes school leadership’s role inimitable concerning creating a learning environment for teachers where they realise the value professional development has for the effective management of schools and for improved learner performance. Fullan’s (2002) theory, “leadership in a culture of change” purports that leadership is responsible for transforming schools through collaborative efforts, working towards creating change as education evolves, and preparing for 21st-century teaching and learning. This interpretive, qualitative study explores how principals and school management teams lead and manage professional development in public schools to improve learner performance. Two principals and their management teams were purposively sampled. Data were collected through semi-structured and focus-group interviews and were inductively analysed. The findings show that the principals and their School Management Teams (SMT) play a role in developing their staff to improve or maintain learner academic performance.