Generation, management and use of school data by the school management team in one primary school.

Abstract

A qualitative based study underpinned by the interpretive paradigm which was undertaken to explore how does the School Management Team (SMT) perceive learners’ data generation, management and usage in one primary school to inform school practices. This study employed transformational leadership and distributed leadership theories to understand and explore the phenomenon. Data was generated using individual semi-structured interviews involving 7 SMT members: the school principal, two deputy principals, and four departmental head. The study is grounded by a study by which addresses the importance of data collection in a business or organisation for gaining quality information for making informed decision/s for further analysis, study and research, which may result in stumbling of organisations or companies and working in the dark should they operate without data or using the outdated data (Big Data, 2015). Findings indicated the importance of data generation, management, and use by the SMT to understand learner needs better, improving both learner and school performance and assisting in informed decision-making.