The current leadership roles of school managers in a changing educational environment / George Themba Motsoeneng

• Main Author: Motsoeneng, George Themba
• Language: en
• Published: North-West University 2009
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10394/2440

Post-apartheid South Africa is characterised by policy changes in political, social and economic spheres. Reforms implemented in education indicate how schools should be organised and managed. The school managerial principal as a key figure in the functioning of the school must exhibit capacity in managing change. This is because: change is, and will continue to be a feature of education; schools are expected to continue education delivery without major disruptions to teaching and learning processes; and change in South African schools is mainly transformational and legislative. This study firstly, focuses on the rationale for a focus on leadership roles of school managers, clearly depicting school managers' leadership and management roles during the apartheid era in South Africa, which exposed school managers to numerous criticisms and ultimately being deemed as failures. In this regard, the democratic, non-sexual and non-racial education system which was introduced through the advent of democracy, initiated changes in education and schools, which demands of the school manager to be capacitated in terms of knowledge and skills on change management. Secondly, reasons for continued implementation of changes in education are emphasized through policy initiatives, which guide and inform the process of change. This presents challenges to school managers to ensure that school communities understand and implement educational transformation policies. This calls for insight into the essence of change and school organizational change. This research identifies a need for school managers to be capacitated with regard to appropriate leadership roles so as to manage the implementation of new change initiatives and still maintain school organisational stability and effectiveness. Consequently, this research propounds the attributes of the instructional, transactional and transformational leadership roles as appropriate for a changing educational environment. For this purpose, this study presents the tri-factor leadership model. This model integrates instructional, transactional and transformational roles as appropriate for school managers' change management practices in a changing educational environment. === Thesis (Ph.D. (Education))--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2006.