An exploratory study of a professional development programme for school principals : implications for sustainable change in school leadership practices

Ph.D. (Education)Abstract: This study was designed to explore professional leadership development by examining the Advanced Certificate in Education: School Leadership and Management (ACESLM), which is currently offered to school principals as a professional leadership development programme. Literature on leadership development highlights the importance of virtuous school leadership for effective schools. Principals, as leaders and managers can function in turbulent school environments if they are committed, dedicated, receive the appropriate training and development and remain efficacious in the execution of their work. In the 21st century, the top challenge for principals is to become leaders for learning. This is possible if principals are provided with the necessary skills, values and attitudes to manage the responsibilities associated with leading and managing schools. On an international level, many countries have leadership development programmes in place for both practicing and aspiring principals. The consideration of leadership development in the South African context has an important historical dimension, where the apartheid regime undermined principals in three core functions, namely budgetary authority or influence over the flow of resources such as textbooks in schools; influence over the hiring and firing of staff; and curriculum decision making powers. However, changing South Africa’s education and training system for school leadership is only possible if there is harmony between the vision for transformation and the day to day realities of principals leading and managing schools. Through leadership development programmes, principals are able to enhance their professional self-managed growth, they are able to encourage collaborative learning, and work within a continuum of personal and collective experience. Principals can also draw from effective school leadership practices to address essential questions concerning problems of practice relating to management and leadership issues as well as teaching and learning matters. In addition, leadership development programmes assist in addressing significant problems related to principal and teacher effectiveness and student learning, thereby improving schools and the district’s goal for overall school improvement and student learning. This investigation was framed within a pragmatic paradigm using a mixed methods research design. An exploratory sequential strategy was preferred where the qualitative phase of data collection and analysis of data preceded the quantitative phase. For the..