Abstract:

Schools like any successful organisations, need effective leaders to drive their core business - teaching and learning and improve learner performance (Botha, 2019). However, different schools in the same area or district often produce different results, particularly in Grade 12. This study sought to explore how school principals apply Instructional Leadership Practices in selected schools in Queenstown Education District. This study was underpinned by Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Theory (SLT) (1969) and Burns Transformational Leadership Theory (TLT) (1979). This study used both quantitative and qualitative research approaches to resolve the research to collect rich, descriptive data from 8 school principals, 8 heads of departments and surveyed 24 teachers participating in the study. Convergent Parallel Mixed-Methods Design (CPMMD) was adopted as it suited the purpose and objectives of the research. The qualitative data from the principal-participants was thematically analyzed and the quantitative data from the 32 respondents was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The two types of data sets were collected concurrently and triangulated to confirm the findings. This study found four categories of instructional leadership practices that enhances effective teaching and learning, namely, behaviour practices, task practices, culture practices and administration practices all aimed at a common goal – learner achievement. The study therefore concludes that Instructional Leadership Practices need to be applied in integrated and coherent manner to achieve the intended objective, - to improve, learner performance. From the emerging results, this study shows the need for further research on the role played by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in supporting schools in deprived contexts as well as the principals’ mentorship programme to support them in application of instructional leadership practices.

Keywords:

Leadership, instructional leadership, vision, mission, school culture.