Principals’ perspectives on the assignment of duties to deputy principals in selected township secondary schools

Abstract

From a South African perspective, the job description of deputy principals, as stipulated in the Personnel Administrative Measures (PAM), is not straightforward but requires some discernment from principals. In this article we report on a study in which we sought to understand principals' perspectives on the assignment of duties to deputy principals in selected South African township secondary schools. The distributed leadership perspective constituted the theoretical framework of the study. We adopted the qualitative research approach and a case study design to engage with principals who were purposively and conveniently sampled. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and subsequently analysed by means of thematic analysis. The findings reveal that the participating principals engaged in capacity-informed delegation, fostered collaboration between the principals and deputy principals, and positioned deputy principals as part of and leaders in internal committees. The principals followed this approach to prepare deputy principals for the principalship. The apt manner in which principals perceived and deployed their deputy principals, was noticeable. The principals appeared to invite their deputy principals to co-lead with them, which is a sign of distributed leadership.