Reframing Teacher Instructional Leadership in Curriculum Reform: A Practice-Based Model for Secondary Accounting Classrooms

Abstract

Despite ongoing curriculum and assessment reforms, secondary school Accounting education in many Global South contexts continues to reflect limited pedagogical transformation and weak curriculum coherence. In Lesotho, policy frameworks such as the Curriculum and Assessment Policy and the Lesotho General Certificate of Secondary Education advocate learner-centred, competence-based teaching; however, classroom enactment remains uneven, procedurally focused, and examination-driven. While instructional leadership is widely promoted as a lever for educational improvement, existing research largely conceptualises it as a formal, school-level function. This study examines how teacher instructional leadership mediates the enactment of curriculum policy in Grade 11 Accounting classrooms. Guided by Integrated Curriculum Theory, a qualitative multiple-case study design was employed across three secondary school contexts—urban, peri-urban, and rural. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews with Accounting teachers and principals, classroom observations, and document analysis, and were analysed thematically using cross-case synthesis. The findings indicate that instructional leadership is primarily enacted as a practice-based, classroom-embedded process through which teachers interpret curriculum policy, sequence Accounting concepts, and align pedagogy and assessment. Where such leadership was supported and legitimised, curriculum coherence and conceptual learning were strengthened; where leadership was structurally constrained, curriculum enactment remained fragmented and compliance-driven. Contextual conditions significantly shaped the scope and sustainability of instructional leadership practices. Based on these findings, the study proposes a Sustainable Curriculum Management Model for Grade 11 Accounting that positions teacher instructional leadership as the central mechanism linking policy intentions, pedagogical practice, and assessment.