The role of subject advisors in strengthening teacher instructional leadership practices : a case study of one education district office in KwaZulu-Natal.
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Date
2014
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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to explore the role of the subject advisors in strengthening teacher instructional leadership practices in schools. A case study was conducted in one education district office where the focal point was on the Districts’ General Education and Training Band subject advisors. The intention of the study was to get the real experiences and challenges encountered by the subject advisors when they perform their professional functions through the interaction that occurs. South African education context today requires the education personnel to clearly understand their roles and responsibilities and that there is that important link between the district office and the schools, so that teachers can be more effective when they perform their tasks. Therefore, the study also wanted to explore whether there is that paradigm shift in subject advisors’ mindset when they pursue departmental programmes and checking whether curriculum policies are being implemented or not. Through this study, I was able to note and learn the strategies that the subject advisors utilise when they focus on their scope of work and on how they deal with their challenges in order to ensure that there is progress in their respective schools.
The study was located within the qualitative case study. Furthermore, the study fitted in the interpretive paradigm because the subject advisors will construct different shared meanings with the researcher with a view to enhancing teaching and learning. The data generation methods that I used were interviews and documents reviews which enabled me to interpret and understand the subject advisors’ perspectives. I also reviewed relevant international, continental and local literatures in order to balance my arguments about the study. The theories that underpinned this study were instructional leadership theory and distributive leadership theory. The conclusions of the study were that the subject advisors’ were influential and played a prominent role in assisting teachers to properly deliver the curriculum. Based on the study findings I made some recommendations informed by the conclusions of the study. Some of those recommendations were that the subject advisors need to be continuously capacitated so that they can be able to meet those curriculum challenges, and that the DBE needs to speed up the curriculum delivery by ensuring the they fill up the vacancies, supply the subject advisors with the necessary resources so that they can perform their tasks with ease. The study also found that the teachers’ understanding of the subject advisors’ role helps to enhance teachers’ productivity.
Description
M. Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.
Keywords
Educational leadership--KwaZulu-Natal., Educational consultants--KwaZulu-Natal., School management and organization., Theses--Education.