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

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 a...

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Main Authors: Brandon Arendse, Heather Nadia Phillips, Zayd Waghid
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of the Free State 2024-12-01
Series:Perspectives in Education
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/7044
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author Brandon Arendse
Heather Nadia Phillips
Zayd Waghid
author_facet Brandon Arendse
Heather Nadia Phillips
Zayd Waghid
author_sort Brandon Arendse
collection DOAJ
description 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. Management teams perceive their roles to be managerial and administrative and detracts from leading teaching and learning and curriculum coverage. Furthermore, there are few systems to hold principals and teachers accountable for the academic performance of learners. This makes school leadership’s role inimitable with regard to creating a learning environment for teachers where they realise the value professional development has for the effective management of schools as well as improved learner performance. Fullan’s (2002) theory: “leadership in a culture of change” purports that school leadership has the responsibility to transform schools through collaborative efforts, working towards creating change as education evolves preparing for 21st century teaching and learning. This interpretive, qualitative study explores how principals and school management teams lead professional development in public schools in order to improve learner performance. Two principals and their management teams were purposively sampled.  Data was collected through semi-structured and focus group interviews and was inductively analysed. The results show evidence of the importance of school leadership understanding the value of managing and leading development in order to attain organisational goals. Continuously capacitating teachers improved teaching and learning and ultimately improved learner performance.
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spelling doaj-art-86c4a16bb6f04628a497e7bdbddc1ae82024-12-07T11:38:37ZengUniversity of the Free StatePerspectives in Education0258-22362519-593X2024-12-0142410.38140/pie.v42i4.7044Leadership dynamics: Managing and leading continuous professional teacher development in schools to enhance learner performanceBrandon Arendse0Heather Nadia Phillips1Zayd Waghid2Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South AfricaCape Peninsula University of Technology, South AfricaCape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa 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. Management teams perceive their roles to be managerial and administrative and detracts from leading teaching and learning and curriculum coverage. Furthermore, there are few systems to hold principals and teachers accountable for the academic performance of learners. This makes school leadership’s role inimitable with regard to creating a learning environment for teachers where they realise the value professional development has for the effective management of schools as well as improved learner performance. Fullan’s (2002) theory: “leadership in a culture of change” purports that school leadership has the responsibility to transform schools through collaborative efforts, working towards creating change as education evolves preparing for 21st century teaching and learning. This interpretive, qualitative study explores how principals and school management teams lead professional development in public schools in order to improve learner performance. Two principals and their management teams were purposively sampled.  Data was collected through semi-structured and focus group interviews and was inductively analysed. The results show evidence of the importance of school leadership understanding the value of managing and leading development in order to attain organisational goals. Continuously capacitating teachers improved teaching and learning and ultimately improved learner performance. https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/7044Continuous professional teacher developmentincreased performanceleadership principalsschool management teams
spellingShingle Brandon Arendse
Heather Nadia Phillips
Zayd Waghid
Leadership dynamics: Managing and leading continuous professional teacher development in schools to enhance learner performance
Perspectives in Education
Continuous professional teacher development
increased performance
leadership
principals
school management teams
title Leadership dynamics: Managing and leading continuous professional teacher development in schools to enhance learner performance
title_full Leadership dynamics: Managing and leading continuous professional teacher development in schools to enhance learner performance
title_fullStr Leadership dynamics: Managing and leading continuous professional teacher development in schools to enhance learner performance
title_full_unstemmed Leadership dynamics: Managing and leading continuous professional teacher development in schools to enhance learner performance
title_short Leadership dynamics: Managing and leading continuous professional teacher development in schools to enhance learner performance
title_sort leadership dynamics managing and leading continuous professional teacher development in schools to enhance learner performance
topic Continuous professional teacher development
increased performance
leadership
principals
school management teams
url https://journals.ufs.ac.za/index.php/pie/article/view/7044
work_keys_str_mv AT brandonarendse leadershipdynamicsmanagingandleadingcontinuousprofessionalteacherdevelopmentinschoolstoenhancelearnerperformance
AT heathernadiaphillips leadershipdynamicsmanagingandleadingcontinuousprofessionalteacherdevelopmentinschoolstoenhancelearnerperformance
AT zaydwaghid leadershipdynamicsmanagingandleadingcontinuousprofessionalteacherdevelopmentinschoolstoenhancelearnerperformance