Leadership for teaching and learning: an investigation into a headteacher\u27s practices in a private secondary school in Dar es salaam, Tanzania

Leadership for teaching and learning should be the core activity of any school. Headteachers find themselves concentrating on administrative responsibilities rathe than the teaching and learning roles. Leadership for teaching and learning has not been much researched on in Tanzania. The literature available on leadership for teaching and learning is scanty. Nonetheless, this study was carried out in a co-educational private secondary school in Dar es salaam. The study aimed at investigating a headteacher’s leadership practices in a private school with a bias to teaching and learning and to highlight the human resources which are Sergiovanni’s, (1998), human capitals, namely; the social, academic, intellectual and professional these are vital in the development of leadership for teaching and learning. I used the qualitative design of a case study, which I thought was suitable for an international multi-curricular school. In this study, I mainly used interviews, document analysis and observation to obtain data. Finding from the study indicated that the head teacher of Raymond Secondary school balanced between administrative and teaching and learning activities, although a bit more time was spent on administrative work. He cared to develop the teachers and the students through catering for the four capitals. The good facilities of the school probably contributed to that ability. I recommend that headteachers be trained and prepared adequately for school headship to ensure that they give teaching and learning activities adequate attention in the schools. This would go a long way in ensuring the quality of learning and teaching in schools. It is very important for head teachers to enhance teachers’ professional development because they would likewise promote students achievements. Apart from workshops and seminars, more professional programmes should be encouraged in the school and external ones as well to promote sharing of knowledge