Investigating school principals’ practices in managing instructional time in township and former Model C schools, Gauteng province

Abstract

This study focused on the instructional leadership roles and practices of selected township and former Model C school principals. Its main focus was therefore to explore and understand the roles and practices used by township and former Model C school principals in managing instructional time optimally so as to influence effective teaching and learning in their schools with minimal interruptions to teaching time. A qualitative research method was used to conduct a case study with four high schools: two township and two former Model C schools respectively. Sixteen participants were purposefully sampled: four school principals and twelve Post Level 1 teachers. The data was collected using individual interviews, document analysis and literature review. From the data, four themes emerged in this empirical study. Although the findings revealed that school principals from both township and former Model C schools do engage in meaningful steps and strategies to ensure that instruction time is optimally used in their schools, they are still faced with a number of challenges leading to time wasting of instruction time. However, school principals from former Model C schools seem to manage instruction time better than their counterparts in township schools. The findings revealed that for effective teaching and learning to take place, school principals ought to put stringent measures in place to ensure that instruction time is optimally utilised which can be achieved by minimising or eradicating all the timewasters.