Restricted teacher leadership : a case study in a township high school in Port Elizabeth

摘要

The South African education system prior to 1994 was characterised by hierarchical management structures with top-down communication systems. After 1994, there was a policy call to shift leadership and management practices to more democratic ways of working. These policies required the principals to share their power with teachers, replacing the leader-follower system of leadership. The post-apartheid era in the South African education system marked a turning point where, in policy discourse at least, teachers were seen as leaders, opening the doors for teacher leadership. The aim of this study was to explore the enactment of teacher leadership in a township secondary school in the province of the Eastern Cape. It also sought to investigate the factors that enhanced or hindered this leadership enactment as teachers operated as leaders in their natural setting. Under the umbrella of distributed leadership as a theoretical framework, the research study was located within the interpretive paradigm and a qualitative case study was adopted. Three teacher leaders at the case study school were my primary participants. Data collection methods included interviews, questionnaires, observations, self-reflective journaling and telephonic conservations. I used Grant’s Model of teacher leadership as my analytical tool. My findings indicated that teacher leadership was enacted in all the zones of teacher leadership but to varying degrees. My teacher leaders enacted leadership in Zone 1 where they showed strong leadership in the classroom. They also enacted leadership in Zone 2 and 4 where they showed leadership in working with other teachers and learners outside the classroom in curricular and extra-curricular activities as well as in other neighbouring schools. However, in Zone 3 the School Management Team (SMT) controlled most of the leadership and management activities. Teacher leaders were not included in decision-making in this zone as the SMT thought that it was their sole duty. Teacher leadership in this school was thus characterised as ‘restricted’ following the characterisations of teacher leadership by Harris & Muijs (2007). Using Gunter’s (2005) categories of distributed leadership, I categorised the case study school as an example of authorised distributed leadership.