The role of departmental heads in curriculum transformation: Implications for the provision of quality education in South African public schools

South Africa has made significant strides to address children’s access to education and provide equitable funding to historically disadvantaged schools. However, several challenges such as ineffective curriculum management, lack of educational resources, overcrowded classrooms, and appointment of unqualified teachers, still exist. This has serious implications for the provision of acceptable standards of education. Departmental heads (DHs), as instructional leaders, should play crucial roles in curriculum transformation. They are compelled to evaluate and reimagine the transformation of teaching and learning and come up with sustainable educational platforms that are aligned with current and future societal needs. DHs should reframe the curriculum, interrogate underlying assumptions that shape curriculum norms, and re-evaluate the performance of learners, especially from historically disadvantaged communities. Using a qualitative approach within an interpretivist paradigm and phenomenological research design, I explored the perceptions and experiences of 6 DHs of public schools in the Limpopo Province of South Africa about their role in curriculum transformation. The findings revealed that due to their heavy administrative and managerial workloads, DHs pay very little attention to their core responsibilities of instructional leadership such as providing professional development for teachers. This has serious implications for high learner achievement and acceptable educational standards.