Abstract:

The South African Department of Basic Education has developed a policy on principalship criteria to address the issue of leadership quality called the South African Standard for Principalship (SASP). The SASP applies to the function and responsibilities of the principal in every public school in South Africa. This Standard defines the fundamental elements of the principal's general job and specifies the basic values and characteristics that the principal should possess in order to perform the role effectively. This is in response to rising pressure on school administrators to foster an environment favourable for quality education. The researcher developed the South African Standard for Principalship Rating Scale (SASPRS), a new instrument for assessing the quality of education offered by educational institutions based on the SASP. The SAPRS was next piloted and then field-tested using principals' self-reports (n= 8), which were compared to teacher responses (n= 276) at the principals' schools. The findings indicated that there were no significant differences across respondent groups, which contrasted with previous findings in comparable studies. However, further examination of these non-significant differences revealed that the magnitude and direction of principal-teacher differences varied between sample schools. Multiple regression analyses established the significance of qualifications and gender. Thereafter, SASPRS was analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). There were no variables with cross-loadings, which suggests a factor structure that is simple and easy to interpret. Each factor had at least three significant loadings (> .32), which is indicative of a strong and solid factor. The SASPRS model revealed the presence of moderation and mediation effects.

Keywords:

Structural Equation Modelling, Principalship, policy, quality education, moderation and mediation.