Developing Inclusive, Collaborative Initiatives in Curriculum Delivery: The Role of School Management Team and Sustainable Leadership

Background

The SMT's role is vast and complex (Department of Education, 2010) and closely related to addressing the exclusionary practices of the apartheid education system. School Management Team is a formal and compulsory structure in all public schools in South Africa. Its role is to ensure that teachers deliver curriculum and practical aspects of teaching and learning (Department of Education, 2010; Khumalo, 2014). The SMT structure includes the principal, deputy principal, and head of the department. In some schools, a post-level one teacher is coopted as a member of SMT (Department of Education, 1996). The Employment of Educators Act, 76 of 1998, which also contains the Personal Administration Measure (PAM) (Government Gazette, 2016), clearly indicates the curriculum functions of each SMT member. For example, the core areas of the principal include “leading the teaching and learning in the school” and “developing and empowering self and others” (p.20) (Department of Basic Education, 2015).

Further to this, Dayson (2016) emphasizes that principals could improve curriculum delivery through collaborative work with SMT taking into account the unique needs in their environment (in this case, COVID-19). In the South African school context, SMT performs functions of curriculum delivery. They support day-to-day formal school days, assigning duty loads to educators, encouraging learners' involvement in curriculum matters, and setting up a functional subject committee (Department of Education, 2010).