An exploration of successful school leadership practices in challenging school context : case studies of two secondary schools in Soweto.

Abstract

The study explored successful school leadership practices in challenging contexts: A case study of two secondary schools in Soweto. The study involved two secondary schools in Soweto Township, Gauteng, South Africa. It focused on the roles and responsibilities of principals as leaders of schools in challenging contexts. It aimed to gain insight into how these principals led and managed their schools in order to understand why other township schools consistently performed well, despite the socio-economic status that existed in the township, where other schools failed; how these principals managed to stay on top, their leadership practices and why they made the choices they did. The primary research focus was to explore leadership that contributed to the success of the school. There were three objectives and these were to explore how leaders led and managed their schools. Secondly, the study sought to understand leadership practices of successful school principals and thirdly, to understand if there were special leadership qualities that successful leaders demonstrated. The study adopted a qualitative approach and it used interviews, focus group discussions, documents and observation schedules to gather data. The sample consisted of a mixed gender group of 16 participants. The research findings revealed that principals of the case study schools played an indirect but powerful role towards the school’s success. Further, in the case study schools, leadership was a shared entity. The findings also revealed that the schools succeeded by building and managing relationships, inside and outside the schools. .