The Role of Teachers as Instructional Leaders and Their Contribution to Quality of Education in Africa: A Case of Kenya

Abstract

The dual issues of quality education and teachers as instructional leaders will continue attracting attention in Africa and the world over. This is because the demographic, political, social, technological and global factors will continue shaping the education sector in ways that will demand effective leadership from teachers as leaders of learning. It is against this backdrop, that the Kenya Government has initiated curriculum reforms as a way of ensuring that quality education is maintained. The reform plan represents an effort to move largely away from a theory and test-based system to a skills-based system. This paper therefore sets out to analyse the role of teachers as instructional leaders and their contribution to quality education in the context of the on-going curriculum reforms. The paper will utilize the systems approach in its analysis and use performance data of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations based on 2015 and 2016 years. The paper will then provide some suggestions on how to enhance the leadership capacities of the teachers as instructional leaders.