Secondary School Principals as Curriculum Leaders: A New Zealand Study

This study explores the perceptions of a group of secondary school principals with regard to their role as curriculum leaders – a term used synonymously with the notion of instructional or educational leadership denoting a focus on the primary purpose of the school. It was conjectured that the role expansion of principals, occasioned by the demand that they perform both a professional leadership and chief executive role in self-managed schools, would after a decade have a negative impact on the principal’s functioning as a curriculum leader. A focus group interview and three in depth interviews contributed data for this study. The analysis isolated factors which have a negative or positive impact on the principal’s ability to be an effective curriculum leader and strategies that the principals employed to strengthen the role. The results show that this group of principals see themselves primarily as curriculum leaders. Factors that militate against the role were those of high administrative workloads and external agency demands. Factors that supported them in performing this role were quality of teaching and management staff and school systems that enabled communication and distribution of responsibility for curriculum leadership. Strategies that enabled the task to be performed in spite of challenges included shared management, personal time management involving prioritising, developing others as curriculum leaders and performing indirect curriculum leadership tasks. A key issue that emerged in the study was the principal’s need to adopt a strategic orientation to curriculum leadership. Given the recent Ministry of Education requirements for schools to plan strategically with a focus on improving student achievement, and the increasing emphasis on forms of distributed leadership leading to school improvement, this study has some important messages for school leaders and those with an interest in their professional development.