The Principals’ Professional Leadership Roles in Managing the Teachers’ Professional Development: the Case of Addis Ababa Senior Secondary Schools

The purpose of this research was to explore whether principals play the expected professional leadership roles in managing teachers’ professional development practices in the secondary schools of Addis Ababa. In an attempt to address this issue, a qualitative case study was conducted in four purposefully selected senior secondary schools.  Qualitative data obtained from the semi-interviews were analyzed and coded thematically. Thematic analyses were conducted on the data using narrative accounts.  Even though there was not a significant problem in both principals’ and teachers’ perceptions of the importance of CPD, findings suggested that principals did not play professional leadership roles in managing the CPD. To this end, the implementation of teachers’ professional development was handicapped due to several challenges such as lack of, inadequate professional motivation and support, too much paperwork and poor time management, and lack of incentive, monitoring, and evaluation system. Thus, it was concluded that the professional leadership roles played by principals have not satisfactorily managed and contributed to the effective implementation of teachers' professional development to enhance the sustainable quality of education.  The study recommends reframing the continuous professional development guideline to create accountability so that principals can develop practical competence to respond to the dynamics of CPD in a period of educational reform and transformation to influence teachers’ attitudes and commitment to their profession. This study can be utilized as a direction to actualize viable CPD and can be taken as a guideline in making strides in the professional development of educational leaders.