School Heads of Departments’ Roles in Advancing Science and Mathematics through the Distributed Leadership Framework

Munje, Paul Nwati; Tsakeni, Maria; Jita, Loyiso C.

doi:10.26803/ijlter.19.9.3

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 38 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The literature discusses the importance of middle leaders' sustained engagement in maintaining teaching quality by ensuring instructional time (Farchi and Tubin, 2019), checking teachers' lesson plans and work schedules, monitoring teaching progress and standards (Busher, 2005), conducting formal and informal classroom observation (Gurr, 2019;Hammersley-Fletcher, 2002) and inspecting homework (Feeney, 2009). In addition, middle leaders create conditions to improve teaching and learning by mobilizing appropriate resources (Shaked and Schechter, 2019), structuring team meetings to focus on teaching and learning, rather than administration (Farchi and Tubin, 2019), creating teaching materials (Busher and Harris, 1999) and establishing mechanisms for evaluation and improvement (Munje et al, 2020). Middle leaders also ensure the quality of students' learning experiences (Busher and Harris, 1999;Dinham, 2007;Harris et al, 2019) and focus teachers' efforts specifically on student learning (Bryant, 2019;Bryant et al, 2020).…”

Section: Roles and Practices Of Middle Leaders As Instructional Leadersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Secondary school middle leaders' instructional leadership is impacted by relatively larger student populations and the subject curriculum's comparatively advanced nature. In some contexts, secondary middle leaders are expected to have deeper, more specific subject expertise (Munje et al, 2020). Middle leaders in primary schools face different situational realities.…”

Section: Roles and Practices Of Middle Leaders As Instructional Leadersmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

School middle leaders as instructional leaders: building the knowledge base of instruction-oriented middle leadership

Tang

Bryant

Walker

2022

JEA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

PurposeThis paper aims to explore developments over the past 25 years in the knowledge base on instruction-oriented middle leadership in schools. The authors document the trends in the literature since middle leadership began to attract scholarly interest in the late 1990s and explore the shifting structural and content patterns in the knowledge base.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use a topographic methodology to analyse both structural elements and major results drawing from 147 peer-reviewed journal articles.FindingsThe authors draw on the review's outcomes to propose a model that frames a core set of middle leaders' instructional leadership practices. They also identify the personal, departmental, organizational and external influences shaping middle leadership practices and identify a lack of research conducted outside Anglo–American societies. This gap in the literature suggests the need for the increased study of middle leadership in different national settings and systems and how these influence the practice and enactment of middle leaders around instruction. There is also a need to employ a greater range of methodologies to understand middle leaders' instructional roles.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper lays a foundation for the future development of middle leadership for instruction and highlights signposts to guide future inquiry.Originality/valueThe paper contributes to the middle leader knowledge base by focussing on their enactment of instructional leadership.

show abstract

Section: Roles and Practices Of Middle Leaders As Instructional Leadersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Roles and Practices Of Middle Leaders As Instructional Leadersmentioning

confidence: 99%

School middle leaders as instructional leaders: building the knowledge base of instruction-oriented middle leadership

Tang

Bryant

Walker

2022

JEA

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Kabeta et al (2015) supported this assertion by opining that HoDs are not actively practising instructional leadership. It is not far-fetched therefore to suggest that HoDs could enhance their leadership practices by delegating some of the duties, depending on the task at hand, through the engagement of distributed leadership (Munje et al, 2020;Spillane et al, 2004) and the agency of the teachers. This is because leadership is one of the factors that can influence the quality of teaching and learning in schools (Kabeta et al, 2015;Lai & Cheung, 2013).…”

Section: Head Of Department Role and Responsibilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is expected that the HoD will have a proven track record and experience in the knowledge and teaching of a particular subject. Literature has reported opportunities for distributed or shared leadership in schools at multiple layers (Munje et al, 2020;Spillane et al, 2001), depending on the task at hand (Spillane et al, 2004) and the agency of the teachers (Sherer, 2008). We explore some of the credentials that are expected of the HoD by the department members and senior school leadership, and the capacity of HoDs to allocate resources and lead the department.…”

Section: Subject Departmentsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Instructional Leadership Capacity of Secondary School Science Heads of Department in Gauteng, South Africa

Malinga

Jita

Bada

2021

IJLTER

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Natural sciences (NS) is an amalgam of five science disciplines, but the teachers of this subject are usually generalists, or have specialised in a maximum of two of the disciplines. This poses a major challenge to heads of department (HoDs), who are expected to lead instruction in these disciplines. We investigate science HoDs’ capacity to provide instructional leadership in South African secondary schools. The study was quantitative in nature and adopted the survey design. The investigation involved 77 secondary schools out of the 243 schools in the Gauteng province of South Africa. A data set from 142 participants (HoDs = 30; teachers = 112) was used to explore the capacity of science HoDs to provide instructional leadership in secondary schools, using questionnaires. The findings suggest that the capacity of science HoDs to lead instruction is limited by their inability to differentiate between curriculum management and instructional leadership and the relatively insufficient time allocated to provide instructional leadership. Unless schools and local district offices review the grouping of subjects in science departments and in the allocation of natural science teachers and HoDs, much stronger subject-based instructional leadership may potentially continue to remain a mirage. We recommend more focused subject-specific training in natural sciences for both teachers and HoDs, and that leadership should be distributed along science disciplines.

show abstract

“…HoDs normally have a major role as instructional leaders. They are accountable for learner performance in their departments (Munje et al, 2020) and have a significant responsibility in the leadership structures of schools (Mpisane, 2015). It is therefore important that they are fully aware of their supervisory mandate.…”

Section: Introduction To the Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Supervision of English Language Teachers in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya: A Critical Role of Heads of English Department

Barasa

Onchera

Okari

2022

JEP

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Purpose: The study assessed the role of heads of English department in the supervision of English language teachers in public secondary schools in Kakamega county, Kenya among other objectives. Supervision is key in enhancing learning-teaching experiences. In order to ensure better supervision of English language teachers, the heads of English department should play a key role in supervision. When their roles are not carried out efficiently, the teachers may not reach their full potential and learners may underperform. In Kenya, there is no official supervision approach that is exclusively used for supervising teachers of English in secondary schools, which means that teachers of English are not being effectively supervised, and this leads to negative impact on curriculum delivery. Methodology: This article is based on the research study done in Kakamega County, which explored English Language Teachers` opinions about the usefulness of Collaborative Peer Supervision (CPS) approach in enhancing Teacher Effectiveness in the teaching of English Language in public secondary schools in Kenya. The study adapted the Convergent Mixed Methods Research Design, where, 25 heads of English department were purposively sampled from the 417 public secondary schools in Kakamega county, and were interviewed using a researcher-developed in-depth interview schedule. Data collected was thematically analyzed using NVIVO12 Software. Findings: The results revealed that, the major supervisory roles of HODs currently, is administrative i.e., supervision of curriculum implementation at the departmental level, conducting teacher appraisals, and general management of departmental issues. This is formal supervision through the Teacher Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD) tool, which is the current supervisory approach, recognized by the Teachers` Service Commission (TSC), the teachers` employer in Kenya. The study also revealed that HODs are not fully sensitized about other key supervisory roles that they should play, in accordance with the literature. The results were presented thematically, by way of verbatim quotes as expressed by the participants` responses, and researcher commentaries. Unique Contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study concluded that teachers of English in public secondary schools in Kenya, are not being effectively supervised because the HODs are not fully sensitized about their full supervisory roles. The study recommends the development of capacity building programs on supervisory roles for HODs through workshops and seminars, and the introduction of CPS as a complementary supervision approach for supervising teachers of English in secondary schools, in which HODs will take the centrality of guiding supervision in their departments. This should guarantee the delivery of high-quality instruction.

show abstract

School Heads of Departments’ Roles in Advancing Science and Mathematics through the Distributed Leadership Framework

Cited by 4 publications

References 38 publications

School middle leaders as instructional leaders: building the knowledge base of instruction-oriented middle leadership

School middle leaders as instructional leaders: building the knowledge base of instruction-oriented middle leadership

Instructional Leadership Capacity of Secondary School Science Heads of Department in Gauteng, South Africa

The Supervision of English Language Teachers in Public Secondary Schools in Kenya: A Critical Role of Heads of English Department

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About