The Principals’ Praxis of Pedagogical Leadership in Nurturing Teaching and Learning in Cambodian Primary Schools

Abstract

The research was undertaken to find out the strategies adopted by principals to exercise pedagogical leadership in nurturing teaching and learning in Cambodian primary schools. The exploratory sequential mixed design synthesized by holistic multiple-case study in the first, and survey design in the second phase. Punhea Lueu and Kandal Steung district in Kandal province were chosen as research field. Specifically, 4 principals from Punhea Lueu were selected purposively for semi-structure interview. Then, the qualitative results were utilized as the basis for designing a questionnaire for survey data collection. 38 principals from both districts were randomly selected. Analytically, content analysis supported by Nvivo software was applied with qualitative data whereas percentage of descriptive statistical analysis was quantitively computed. As results, trustworthiness, social relation, norm of reciprocity, and expectation were built for social capital while cultivating hardworking habit, self-discipline, student cooperation and cohesion among students are the important components for building academic capital. To build intellectual capital, teacher autonomy, sharing knowledge, experience and problem were practiced. For professional capital, principals have promoted evidence-based teaching strategies, provided enough pre-service, in-service and developed external cooperation. This study provides practitioners the social-based strategies to lead teaching and learning effectively.