School leadership and its dexterity to provide access to quality instruction : a case of a private academy in Masvingo, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The study explored school leadership practices in high-performing schools with reference to a private academy in Masvingo district. Literature suggests that leadership has a strong influence on the performance of any school organization. The nature of leadership is not always known but leaders need the tools to make things happen. The rationale for this study was to explore the hallmarks of leadership in high-performing contexts. The study applied interpretivist philosophy and qualitative methodology. The case study research design was employed as it could draw experiences from a high-performing school. Data was generated using semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions, and open-ended questionnaires. The data was presented through themes that emerged from the data analysis process. Informed by the findings, the themes were discussed following the research questions. Major findings were that school leadership in high performing schools must have vision and direction, it must capacitate teachers with pedagogical and instructional skills, as well as improving the quality of teaching through supervision. Instilling student discipline is important to allow smooth instruction in the classrooms. School leadership must influence responsible authority to provide adequate financial, material, and human resources to reduce large class sizes to increase teacher commitment. The study recommends that staff development programmes that capacitate teachers be put in place so that teachers are equipped with deep approaches to teaching.