School leadership competencies for teacher professional development : a Namibian case study

Abstract

There is a plethora of literature that argues the need of certain competencies for school leaders for them to be effective in their roles and responsibilities (Arman, Syamsul & Darman, 2016; Huber & Hiltmann, 2011; Komalasari, Arafat & Mulyadi, 2020; Mustamin & Al Muz-zammil bin Yasin, 2012; Owan & Agunwa, 2019; Yasin & Mustafa, 2020). Additionally, researchers also agree that for increased efficacy, school leaders should assume full responsibility towards the development of teachers’ professional competencies (Gutierez & Kim, 2018; Li, Hallinger & Ko, 2016; Louws, Meirink, van Veen & van Driel, 2016; Pambudi & Gunawan, 2019; Postholm & Wæge, 2015). Therefore, this study focused on understanding the relationship between school leadership competencies and teacher professional development (TPD). The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the existing relationship between the leadership competencies of school principals and heads of departments (HODs) in their efforts towards satisfying teacher professional development (TPD) needs. The study used a mixed method approach within the pragmatist paradigm underpinned by the Functional Distributed Instructional leadership theories. The study was carried out in two phases guided by the sequential explanatory design adopted. The sample consisted of 103 respondents comprised of school principals, HODs and teachers for the quantitative phase while the qualitative phase had 6 principals, 8 HODs and 9 teachers as participants. All the respondents and participants were sampled from the schools in the Otjiwarongo education circuit within the Otjozondjupa region in Namibia. The data on the role of school leadership competencies in enabling school principals and HODs to support teachers professional development were obtained by means of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. From the findings of this study, it was established that school leadership competencies are significant towards enabling principals and HODs to devise and execute strategies to support the professional development of teachers. Generally, the absence or presence of certain leadership competencies among school leaders affect the quality of support they provide towards the professional development of their teachers. This is because competent principals and HODs are more active and practically involved in the teaching and learning activities of teachers and have strategies in place to address the challenges faced by teachers. In contrast, the lack of certain competencies among principals and HODs cripples their efforts to support teachers for continuous betterment of their subject knowledge and their pedagogical practices. Therefore, vii leadership competencies affect the roles and responsibilities of school principals and HODs towards providing instructional supervision for improved teacher professional practices. The study contributes to a body of knowledge on school leadership and teacher professional development by revealing the current leadership practices to support professional development of teachers and the role of competencies in leaders’ ability to devise and execute support towards TPD. The study also proposes a competency model for teachers for teacher professional development that can guide school leaders to become more competent and to develop their own programs aimed at providing continuous professional development to teachers.