This paper explores the perspectives of six contextually different primary and secondary school principals regarding the complexities, contradictions and benefits of ethical leadership practices. Underpinned by the interpretive research paradigm and chaos theory, a qualitative case study design was adopted to guide data generation. We used…

Despite women's increased participation in academic employment patterns, a global gender gap on senior leadership in universities remains. This mixed methods study explores toxic leadership as a potential contributing factor to the gender gap on senior management levels in universities in South Africa. The Schmidt Toxic Leadership Scale (2008) is…

Sustainable leadership is a necessity to achieve the goals of sustainable development, such as addressing complex global issues, preserving environmental and social balance, ensuring the well-being of future generations, and promoting innovation. Sustainable leadership in education is important to contribute to sustainable development goals by…

Through the lens of the contextual intelligence theory, this article utilises previous empirical research studies as a base to support the application of professional discretion practices of public-school principals. The study focused in particular on the factors that influence or limit their use of professional discretion in their daily tasks. A…

Schools are under intense pressure to improve quality and achieve long-term educational outcomes. To improve education, schools' teaching and learning environments must be improved. This research evaluated the various leadership philosophies used in South African schools to improve teaching and learning. The study's qualitative methodology…

This paper reports on a section of the findings of a study of which the purpose, among others, was to investigate and analyse the application of professional discretion by public school principals. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach from within a pragmatist research paradigm. Data was collected by means of quantitative and qualitative data…

Universities in South Africa are confronted with student unrest, which has hindered the effective university education process. They have faced various shortages of academic activities and teaching and learning because of protests and subsequent management responses that culminated in the closures of universities at most times. Student unrest has…

Integrating environmental education into the school curriculum in South Africa remains a concern. Various curriculum and instructional design factors affecting environmental education have been explored. However, the role of curriculum leadership in environmental education is not well understood despite research that shows that curriculum…

The study reported herein examined the influence of school contexts on leaders' leadership practices in South Africa. To this end, deputy principals were put under the microscope to scrutinize the relationship between their leadership practices and the school contexts in which they operate. The narrative inquiry - a qualitative methodology - was…

Engaging student leaders in knowledge creation in support of their own leadership development is an important strategy in the scholarship of integration which seeks to promote research-based, student-engaged professional practices. This article describes a strategy for engaging student leaders in support of such development, drawing on the…

School leadership matters. After teachers and teaching, school leadership is the most important determinant of learner achievement in school. Despite this, there is still uncertainty regarding what successfulschool leadership is and what successful school leaders do in non-Western contexts. In this mixed methods study I explored successful high…

The paper emanates from the inaugural lecture that I presented on the 22nd of November 2022 at the University of South Africa. It is well known that "The Zondo Commission" revealed numerous crises with principled leadership poisoning organisations in South Africa. The world is becoming more conscious of ethics and ethical leadership…

In the research reported on here we explored teachers' understanding of what they perceived as core values of ethical leadership in education. Using qualitative research within an interpretivist design, data were collected through semi-structured interviews with teachers and school management team (SMT) members and analysed using Tesch's coding…

This empirical paper reports on perceptions held by early childhood practitioners about leadership in a multicultural environment. The paper problematises leadership in early childhood development (ECD) centres dealing with diverse ethnic children from the Black South African communities. Among others, it discusses the attributes required for…

In this paper, we report on the findings of a study that sought to understand the nature of circuit managers' leadership in supporting teaching and learning in the context of multiple deprivations in South Africa. The paper aimed first at examining the nature of circuit managers' leadership for learning in deprived school contexts, and second to…