Transformation schools into professional learning communities (PLCS) : perspectives from 5 primary school principals who completed ACE in Uthungulu District.
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Date
2014
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Abstract
This study explores the perspectives of rural primary school principals that completed the
Advanced Certificate in Education: School Leadership (ACE: SL) in their efforts of transforming
schools to professional learning communities (PLCs) in order to improve learner achievement.
The coming of the democratic dispensation in South Africa in 1994 has generated the idea that
transformation in education, within the backdrop of demands for school effectiveness and learner
achievement must be driven by school principals. Policies and pieces of legislation issued by the
Department of Education (DoE) are some of the initiatives that were put in place in order to
transform schools into effective learning organisations. One of these policies is the South African
Schools Act (1996) which states explicitly how public schools should run and be governed.
School principals were then identified by the DoE as drivers and agents of transformation who
have to translate these written policies into practice. The study was conducted with five rural
primary schools whose principals completed ACE: SL and a qualitative approach was employed
to generate data. The case study methodology was utilised to conduct research. The case of the
study was the five school principals that completed ACE: SL. The methods used to generate data
were semi-structured interviews, documents review and records of notes from my unintended
informal observations. This study was underpinned by the collaborative and distributed conceptual
frameworks and by Steyn’s dynamic theoretical frameworks.
The findings revealed that after completing the ACE: SL, change started with the principals. Their
leadership and management styles were then informed by distributive and collaborative
leadership. They further revealed that while principals claim to have shifted from the old style
some are still conservative. They regard the principal as the only figure to be listened to. The
findings also indicated that poor transport determines the ways in which schools are run in terms
of time since teachers and learners rely much on public transport to travel to and from schools.
Furthermore, principals consider the provision of support by the DoE in schools as inadequate
such that schools are under resourced in terms of physical buildings and finances which hinders
the implementation of PLCs. It is recommended that the DoE should ensure that principals should
not only receive training in leadership and management skills only but also in the creation of PLCs
in schools through ACE: SL. The implication of the study is, principals that completed ACE: SL
were equipped by the programme and as a result their mode of running schools has changed.
Therefore if the DoE can make this a policy, all principals can easily transform their schools to PLCs.
Description
M. Ed. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban 2014.
Keywords
Instructional systems -- Design., Educational technology -- South Africa., Transformational leadership -- South Africa., Professional learning communities -- South Africa., School principals -- South Africa., Theses -- Education.