ECCE Centre Managers' Understanding of Instructional Leadership in Rural South Africa

The purpose of this qualitative paper is to explore Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) centre managers' understanding of instructional leadership. Leadership skills are sometimes developed on the job. However, instructional leadership requires vision, a sound managerial style, relevant knowledge, skills, organisational acumen, and self-development. While these skills fall under management rather than leadership, Early Childhood Care and Education centre leaders in rural areas must still ensure that their centres function smoothly. Due to the minimal research conducted on the Early Childhood Care and Education centre managers' understanding of instructional leadership of rural ECCE centres in South Africa, the study aims to highlight the challenges, knowledge, practices and support provided to ensuring instructional leadership is achieved in the centres. A qualitative research approach was conducted in the Early Childhood Care and Education centres in the Black settlement areas of the Gauteng Province. Five centre managers were purposively selected from five rural community settings and interviewed using face-to-face semi-structured interviews to generate data. Data were thematically analysed to get themes and subthemes. Findings reveal that Early Childhood Care and Education centre managers' understanding of instructional leadership was constrained by uneven funding, lack of support and training in ECCE centre management. The conclusion is that most managers rely on untrained, poorly remunerated practitioners for the daily operations in the centre. For Early Childhood Care and Education centres to be well managed for sustainable development, well-trained, informed, visionary, experienced, and critical-thinking leaders and practitioners are needed. The study may be helpful to centre managers, policy-makers and other stakeholders. [For the complete Volume 20 proceedings, see ED622631.]