Mentoring of novice school principls by experienced principls in the Khomas region in Namibia
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Date
2016
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Publisher
University of Namibia
Abstract
Namibian schools are faced with many and serious challenges and skilful leadership of school principals is essential as it is a major contributing factor to school improvement and effectiveness. However, it should be ensured that school principals are well trained and receive continuous professional development (Bush & Oduro, 2006). This may for example be through mentoring novice school principals. Although novice principals in Namibia receive induction from school inspectors, unfortunately the inspectors tend to focus merely on policy implementation (Mushaandja, 2006) and little on helping beginning principals become acquainted with their new leadership roles. It is against this background that the researcher aimed to find out if there is a need for novice principals in the Khomas region to be mentored by experienced principals. The study employed a mixed method research design involving questionnaires and interviews as instruments. The study population consisted of 111 participants (10 novice and 94 experienced school principals and 3 school inspectors), from the Khomas region. A sample of 33 participants (3 school inspectors, 10 novice principals and 20 experienced principals) were selected using systematic and purposive sampling techniques. The results revealed many leadership needs that novice principals face. The major ones were: difficulty in understanding educational policies and acts; challenges in attending to all tasks and demands of principalship; difficulty in managing staff and lack of time for mentoring. This study has shown that support and assistance of novice principals, especially during their critical first years of principalship is essential. Thus the researcher recommends in developing a comprehensive and at least one year long mentoring programme for novice principals, so that they get to know the nature of the duties that they face. Also, the Ministry of Education (MoE), universities and regional offices of education should share the responsibility for the quality of mentoring programmes. They should jointly develop training materials and provide support to mentors and mentees.
Description
A thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Master in Education (Leadership, Management and Policy Studies)