ESPÍRITU DE CUERPO

The Principal initiated and encouraged a participatory decision making process through regular staff meetings, consultation with implementation committees and heads of department and a dialogue with students.

Regular staff meetings.

Unlike the academic teaching-staff meetings, mentioned earlier, where only academic issues were discussed, the regular staff meetings catered for all issues, ranging from teachers’ welfare, students’ discipline, parents’ support, teaching and learning and academic performance to sports, recreational activities and socio-cultural issues.

During one of his visits to Aarie (11/01/2010), the Researcher noticed that none of the teachers was present in their classrooms. The classrooms were quiet and the students were busy doing some class assignments. He knocked on the door of one of the classrooms and upon an invitation he entered. He greeted the class and inquired about the whereabouts of their teachers and was informed that they had all gone to attend a staff meeting with the Principal. He queried them further to know whether this was just an impromptu meeting or a standard practice. The students almost in unison responded: “Headmaster always meets our teachers when we reopen school” (Field Notes,

11/01/2009). Basic Schools had just reopened in Ghana after the 2009 Christmas break and the Principal was meeting his teachers for the first time. The Researcher thanked the students and dashed to the teachers’ common room where the meeting was taking place. He was fortunate to have been spotted and invited into the staff common room by the Principal. A teacher was speaking about the team that would visit and express the School’s condolences to a parent who had been bereaved. Another teacher spoke about

58 the reason why the English Spelling Committee was unable to organise more spelling quizzes during the past term and what the Committee was planning to do during the new term that was just commencing.

This account illustrates an aspect of the collegial effort of Arrack to involve teachers in decision making and in running the School. Arrack stated that: “I have to meet the whole staff to discuss with them their plans for helping the children to pass this year (2010 BECE exams) with higher grades” (Aa Principal Interview, 21/12/2009). He organised regular staff meetings, discussed and formed different implementation

committees for academic and non-academic affairs. These committees comprised teachers, both trained and untrained, with the head of a department or an experienced teacher as the leader (Aa Teachers FG Meeting, 16/01/2010).

Consulting implementation committees and heads of department.

In order to sustain a regular line of communication and feedback with his teachers, Arrack consulted on a regular basis not only the formal departmental heads of Mathematics, English and Social Studies, Science and ICT but also the conveners of other staff committees that he has established. These were the English Spelling

Committee, which was responsible for organising quizzes in English spelling across all the classes; the Academic Committee, which managed time tabling, provided counsel on suitable teachers for various subjects, organised and supervised the setting and correction of all examinations across the School. The Examinations Committee was tasked with the logistical preparation of all important internal examinations, including the end of term examinations and practice examinations, while the Welfare Committee oversaw all welfare issues concerning teachers and socials. These committees would contact the School Prefect or other students for their input when that was deemed appropriate.

Principal’s dialogue with students.

The Principal informed the students of happenings in the School and of major events and activities through daily morning assemblies with students and teachers. Sometimes, through the students’ School Prefect and Girl’s Prefect, he obtained relevant feedback from students on academic, disciplinary or financial concerns of students. He encouraged students to meet and discuss certain issues among themselves and to report back to him. He also met students inside their classrooms from time to time to discuss directly academic as well as other concerns (Aa Current Students FG Meeting, 21/12/2009; Aa Ex-Students FG Meeting, 18/12/2009).

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Principal also teaches.

In addition to his managerial and supervisory leadership functions, Arrack also sometimes taught students, mainly when a teacher was absent and the lesson to be taught was one that he was familiar with. Thus, he had shared the experience of teacher frustration in managing students. This had made it easier for him to discuss these issues with teachers and students (Aa Principal Interview, 21/12/2009). Some teachers

interviewed stated that their Principal was ready to visit their class and teach a particular subject topic or concept in his area of expertise whenever they invited him to do so. According to them this flexibility of the Principal to help teach the students whenever the need arose became motivation for some of them to accept additional tasks that the Principal sometimes requested of them. Moreover, in the absence of adequate teaching and learning materials, Arrack had put at the disposal of his teachers some of his personal teaching resources like text books, personal computer and past lesson notes on subjects that he had taught as a classroom teacher (Aa Teachers FG Meeting,

16/01/2010). Thus, Arrack had cleverly combined, from time to time, classroom teaching with his normal leadership role.