HABILIDAD DE LA ESCUCHA

Emerging from the data, the principals revealed that curriculum changes introduced over the last decade has brought about and imposed additional roles and responsibilities and added to the significant challenges they already experienced. Responsibilities related to curriculum facilitation amounted to: confronting curriculum demands; implementing changes at various levels of the schooling system; positively influencing teacher attitudes towards curriculum change; preparing teachers to embrace curriculum changes, teacher training; and changing teaching and learning policies to reflect the newly introduced curriculum changes. Here, Stringer and Hourani (2015:09) points out that the principals’ roles are now multi- dimensional that encompass complex duties and responsibilities.

The findings of this study depicted that principals essentially describe their functions as managerial with very little emphasis on curriculum matters. This finding concurs with Hargreaves (2009), who states that principals grapple with discarding their managerial role for instructional leadership role. Taylor, Van der Berg and Mabogoane (2013) on the other hand assert that the main role of a principal is that of an instructional leader who is responsible for ensuring that effective teaching and learning takes place and that curriculum changes are implemented successfully.

Extracts presented below suggest that both, SMT members and teachers where emphatic in their argument that principals need to be instructional leaders. T3 from School A maintained that:

Instructional leadership, I believe are all the actions that the principal engages in, in order to promote quality teaching and learning.

Furthermore, in response to the question: “Who do you consider should assume the role of instructional leaders at your school?” HOD 1 from School B emphatically stated:

The Headmaster [principal] should assume this role. He or she is the most senior official expected to provide leadership and direction to the school. He or she is expected to inspire change and influence the school as any change process begins with him or her.

This shows that the participants in the focus group mostly felt that principals should assume the role as instructional leader.Participants in the focus group were asked to describe what

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they perceived to be the core roles and responsibilities of the principals at their schools. Most of them mentioned the following:

 attending to daily administrative duties;

 attending to the management of financial resources;  seeing to building and maintenance issues;

 dealing with learner discipline;  attending to meetings with parents.

The notion that principals mostly play a managerial role was validated by most of the participants as they pointed out different duties carried out by the principal that were not directly related to the management and facilitation of curriculum changes. Further evidence suggest that the four principals spent most of their time on managerial issues rather than on instructional duties, this was retrieved from the various minutes of meetings in the four schools. The following statements reflect this:

I cannot be disturbed today as I have meetings with parents scheduled for the entire day. (P1)

I have two disciplinary hearings today. (P3)

I will be meeting with the plumber as the pipes are rusting. (P4)

Furthermore, I sometimes only see our principal on a Monday morning at our staff meeting, she is always busy in her office (T1, School C).

Mrs X (P4, School D) is always in meetings. You have to make an appointment to see her (T2, School D).

Recent literature confirms that one of the principal’s instructional responsibilities is to be involved in supervising and monitoring the curriculum (Mestry, 2013; Naidoo & Petersen, 2015). Further, the demands of the principal’s tasks are complex and demanding, captured in the statement by P1:

Generally, my school days are consumed with administrative duties, dealing with learner issues, parent queries and complaints and the everyday operations of the school.

The demand for principals to be instructional leaders is highlighted in the literature review above (see section 2.3). It was however evident from the responses by most participants that instructional leadership did not fall within the ambit of principals hence more and more demands fall on the shoulders of current principals to practice instructional leadership.

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Furthermore, participants in the focus group interviews were asked if they regarded their principal as an instructional leader and whether or not they believed that their leadership practices had any impact on the facilitation of curriculum changes. All the participants, except two teachers, T1 from School A and T1 from School B disagreed that the role of instructional leader is the sole responsibility of the school principal. Their feelings were expressed when they stated the following:

T1, from School A emphasised the instructional role of the HOD:

Mmm, I too would have to answer differently. I strongly believe that it is the role of the HOD with the guidance of the principal. The HOD spends most of her time collaborating and working with teachers and learners. Therefore they are in the best position to assume the role of instructional leader.

T1, from school B expressed similar sentiments:

I think that the person who is regarded as an instructional leader, it can be any person in a management position, like the HOD, Deputy Principal or the Principal. Reason being is that they have all the power to run and give direction to the school and ensure that teaching and learning is taking place, effective teaching and learning.

In support of these two teachers’ views, Fulmer (2006:110) argues that it is impossible to look to the principal alone for instructional leadership, when instructional leadership is everyone’s work. Findings revealed that while the principals in the study agree that they need to be more involved as instructional leaders and less as managers, they find that this paradigm shift is often difficult for them to come to terms with as they are already feel engulfed by the amount of managerial and administrative tasks that also consumes their time and focus. Bush and Heystek (2006) indicate that many principals neglect their instructional leadership role and tasks, because of too many interruptions and a seemingly endless stream of administrative and managerial issues divert their attention (Blasé et al., 2010:4; Goslin, 2009:15). When asked to narrate the challenges and successes in this regard, it was disturbing to note that all four principals tend to overlook their instructional leadership role in facilitating curriculum changes and seem to be engaged in a variety of day-to-day activities. These activities include attending to learner discipline, attending to parent issues, administering paper work, monitoring the maintenance of the physical environment, to mention but a few. This confirms the findings of Naidoo and Petersen (2015: 6) who revealed that most of the time principals view their work to be that of an organisation’s manager. In

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support of this, Bush and Heysteck (2006) and Mestry et al. (2013) assert that South African principals, in particular, are too busy attending to administrative duties at the expense of curriculum and instruction. I would have to argue that until principals acknowledge that they have to assume an instructional role in their schools, learner achievement will not be attained. Another key finding that emerged from the responses regarding the roles and responsibilities of principal as instructional leaders is that it has changed dramatically over the last decade. The complex role and responsibilities of the principals advocated in the above discussion are highlighted in the literature review above (see sections 2.5 and 2.6). A greater emphasis is placed on principals to be experts in the facilitation of curriculum changes.