Exploring instructional leadership practices of leaders in Ghanaian basic schools

ABSTRACT

In the past decade learning outcomes in public basic schools in Ghana have fallen far below the targets of the Ministry of Education as less than a third of primary school children reach proficiency in English or in Mathematics. In the wake of this low performance, there has been a call for the professionalization and strengthening of instructional leadership in Ghanaian basic schools to facilitate effective teaching and learning. Employing qualitative research strategy through interviews, this study sought to investigate instructional leadership practices of 14 school leaders in the basic schools of one educational district of Ghana. The study found limited shared instructional leadership aimed at improving instruction. It seems instructional leadership was related to managerially focused idiosyncratic teaching and learning practices underpinned by behaviourism. Head Teachers had entrenched a leadership culture driven by central policies and expectations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Usman Kojo Abonyi

Usman Kojo Abonyi is a Lecturer at the Department of Educational Studies and Leadership at the University of Ghana, Legon. His research interests include educational leadership, school leadership development, workplace learning and transfer, human resource management in education and higher education - community engagements.

Francesco Sofo

Francesco Sofois a Professor Emeritus in Education at the University of Canberra, Australia. His career goal is to be the best he can in assisting in the learning and development of individuals, teams and organisations. He is a fellow of the Australian Human Resource Institute and a past winner of the Best Paper Award at ANZAM. His research is in the areas of educational leadership, transfer of learning, team performance, emotional competence, decision-making, intellectual styles of Chinese leaders and management of research and development cross-culturally.