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Understanding school leadership : a study of the ACE school leadership programme and leadership practices

Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014.

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Other Authors: Bipath, Keshni
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2015
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access_status_str Open Access
author2 Bipath, Keshni
author_browse Bipath, Keshni
author_facet Bipath, Keshni
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2015 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria.
description Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014.
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institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:39:51.634Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2015
publishDateRange 2015
publishDateSort 2015
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
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source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/44145 Understanding school leadership : a study of the ACE school leadership programme and leadership practices Bipath, Keshni ekgwete@yahoo.com Pillay, Venitha Kgwete, Ephraim Matala Principals Preparation Programme Leadership Practices UCTD Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. The South African Department of Education (DoE) introduced a new threshold qualification, Advanced Certificate in Education (School Leadership), which was the first concrete step towards implementing a compulsory professional qualification for principalship. The qualification is called ACE ‘School Leadership’ but the outcomes in the learning content designed by the DoE tend to focus on ‘management’. Since this qualification was only implemented from 2008, the synchrony between the theory and practice has not yet been investigated. The focus of this paper was to determine whether the ACE promoted leadership practices (ideographic dimensions) rather than just management skills (nomothetic dimensions). This study employed qualitative case study research methods and procedures to investigate the influence of the ACE School Leadership programme on leadership practices. Six principals who had completed the ACE School Leadership programme and their 24 subordinates from Mpumalanga, one of the poorest provinces in South Africa, were purposively selected. The findings display ample evidence of the nomothetic dimensions of the social systems theory outweighing the ideographic dimensions in the principal preparation programme. Principals showed confidence in management and this gave rise to unconscious leadership practices. Subordinates in their schools scored them highly regarding compliance and stated that they were more participative in their approach. The contribution that this research makes is that future preparation programmes be balanced regarding the social systems theory and contain contextual case studies; networking opportunities and strategic and innovative thinking which would result in principals not just being compliant, but competent and capable of leading school improvement. The study suggests a model for future effective leadership preparation programmes. The model outlines the threshold principal roles and the principal primary roles. The study acknowledges the need for more research on how principal leadership preparation programmes influence leadership practices. The ACE school leadership programme demonstrated in this study its ability to develop principals’ management practices and a need to develop principals’ leadership skills more. Findings in this study demonstrate improvement in learner performance for the principals who attended the ACE programme. The refinement of the ACE programme’s curriculum could lead to school leadership improvement tm2015 Education Management and Policy Studies PhD Unrestricted 2015-03-25T07:35:00Z 2015-03-25T07:35:00Z 2015-04 2014 Thesis Kgwete, EM 2014, Understanding school leadership : a study of the ACE school leadership programme and leadership practices, PhD Thesis, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd <http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44145> D15/4/3 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44145 en © 2015 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Principals
Preparation
Programme
Leadership
Practices
UCTD
Understanding school leadership : a study of the ACE school leadership programme and leadership practices
title Understanding school leadership : a study of the ACE school leadership programme and leadership practices
title_full Understanding school leadership : a study of the ACE school leadership programme and leadership practices
title_fullStr Understanding school leadership : a study of the ACE school leadership programme and leadership practices
title_full_unstemmed Understanding school leadership : a study of the ACE school leadership programme and leadership practices
title_short Understanding school leadership : a study of the ACE school leadership programme and leadership practices
title_sort understanding school leadership a study of the ace school leadership programme and leadership practices
topic Principals
Preparation
Programme
Leadership
Practices
UCTD
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/44145