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Investigating the Role of Rectors as Pedagogical School Leaders in
Monitoring Teaching: A Case Study in Mauritian State
Secondary School
Mrs Sangeeta Ramsurrun Nunkoo
Deputy Rector
29th October 2014
What prompted me to embark on this research?
Thirst for more knowledge
Need to perfect practice
Indefinite liking for research
Opportunity to address a major concern of
Mauritian Rectors
“Schools teach a 19th century
curriculum in 20th century buildings
to 21st century students”
John West Burnham
My Research Questions
1. How far are present-day Rectors
pedagogical leaders ?
2. What are the major roles and
responsibilities of a pedagogical leader?
3. In what way(s) does/do effective
monitoring of teaching by Pedagogical
Leaders impact on school effectiveness?
Aims
Explore major challenges of
Rectors in assuming their role
and responsibilities as
pedagogical leaders
Bring to light ways and means to
better assist Rectors as
Pedagogical Leaders in their task
of monitoring of teaching
Literature Review
Pedagogical Leadership
Pedagogical versus Instructional Leadership
Roles and Responsibilities of the Pedagogical
Leader
Pedagogical & Distributed Leadership
Monitoring of Teaching by the Pedagogical
Leader
Scrutiny of pedagogical Documents
Lesson Observation
Non-Probabilistic Sampling
Method
Convenience Sampling
Enables easy access to participants for Observation and administering the Survey Questionnaire
Purposive Sampling
Most suitable to gather information through Survey Questionnaire and Interview
Avoids hassle of establishing rapport with
My Sample
Educators & Rectors
• Age
• Gender
• Level of interest in subject
Ethical Issues
• Permission of Rectors
• Explanations given to Participants
• Anonymity of Participation
• Findings to be communicated to Participants
Data - Gathering Tools
Observation – Educators at work
• Participant /Non-participant Observer
Survey Questionnaire – Educators
• Close & open-ended questions
Interview – Rectors
• Semi-structured
Analysis of Data
Qualitative
• Detailed and rich
• intensively descriptive
• Interpretative, critical and reflective
Quantitative
• Descriptive Statistics
• Tables, pie or bar charts do not lie provided they are understood
Blend of both helped achieve a somewhat good balance and reach a valid data
Results
Rectors cannot assume their role as pedagogical
leaders fully as they are bogged down by too many
administrative duties and hosts of other
responsibilities thrust upon them by the Ministry
Rectors agree that monitoring of teaching is a pre-
requisite for students’ improved performance and
impacts on overall school effectiveness but deplore
the fact that due shortage and incompetency of
staff they cannot be effective pedagogical school
Leaders
Results
Rectors practice distributed leadership as
far as pedagogy/Monitoring of Teaching is
concerned
Contribution to the professional
development of educators is limited to staff
and department meetings where matters
pertaining to teaching and learning are
usually discussed
Reflection on Results
The pedagogical school leader should focus fully on the
planning, organisation and implementation of the curriculum
and on the monitoring of teaching and learning
To be an effective pedagogical school leader, the Rector
needs to practice distributed leadership and should also
favour the professional development of staff
Monitoring of teaching is challenging and is mainly carried
out in schools for the sake of administrative convenience
When the monitoring exercise is irregular and ineffective,
the quality of teaching suffers and the vision of Quality
Education of MOEHR faces a setback
Recommendations MOEHR
• Issue of shortage of staff to be resolved
• Creation of post of discipline master
• Pool of officers available for replacement of staff on leave
• Training of Rectors ,Senior Educators and School Superintendents
The School &The Rector
• Teachers , students & parents to alter mindset
• Performance standards to be raised and laxity of any sort not to be tolerated – PMS in force
• Practice of distributed leaders for ‘unpedagogical’ tasks
• Clinical supervision and classroom walkthroughs to be encouraged
• Regular in-house training sessions for educators