Teacher leadership in South African schools

Full text

I
nt. J. Management in Education, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2020 293
Copyright © 2020 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.
Teacher leadership in South African schools
Tsediso Michael Makoelle*
Graduate School of Education,
Nazarbayev University,
Nur-Sultan 010000, Kazakhstan
Email: Tsediso.makoelle@nu.edu.kz
*Corresponding author
Thabo Makhalemele
School of Psycho-social Education,
University of North-West,
Vaal Triangle, South Africa
Email: Thabo.makhalemele@nwu.ac.za
Abstract: The purpose of this study was to explore the role of teacher
leadership in the transformation of schools since the advent of the new political
dispensation in South Africa. This qualitative study using structuration theory
as a lens employed unstructured interviews with 44 teachers (including heads
of department, deputy principals and principals) selected from previously
advantaged and previously disadvantaged schools. Data were analysed using
inductive qualitative data analysis. Among the findings of the study, teacher
leadership is conceptualised differently among teachers with a privileged
background and those from less privileged backgrounds. The study has shown
that teacher leadership is a phenomenon that has political and professional
implications and that it was influenced by past struggles of teachers in the
previous education dispensation during the apartheid era. While the study has
found that political teacher leadership was dominant, it recommends more
training of teachers to enhance professional teacher leadership.
Keywords: education reform; teacher agency; teacher leadership;
transformation; structuration.
Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Makoelle, T.M. and
Makhalemele, T. (2020) ‘Teacher leadership in South African schools’,
Int. J. Management in Education, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp.293–310.
Biographical notes: Tsediso Michael Makoelle, PhD, DEd, is General
Director for Research and an Associate Professor in the Graduate School of
Education at Nazarbayev University. His research interest includes school
leadership, inclusive education and education law.
Thabo Makhalemele, PhD, is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at
North-West University. His research interest includes education support
services and inclusive education.
This paper is a revised and expanded version of a paper entitled ‘Teacher
Leadership in South African School’ presented at the ‘World Congress of
Comparative Education Societies’, Beijing, China, 22–26 August 2016.

294 T.M. Makoelle and T. Makhalemele
1 Introduction
The South African education system has a history of bureaucratic and centralised control.
The aim of control during the apartheid era was geared towards suppressing teachers,
especially teachers in Coloured, Indian and African school communities (Legodi, 2001).
The paranoid behaviour of the apartheid government was intended to ensure that schools
for designated population groups did not develop into institutions that could breed
resistance (Motlhabi, 1987). However, the student uprising of 1976 resulted in schools
becoming centres of political resistance against excessive political control and
manipulation (Rakometsi, 2008). Teacher training was geared towards making teachers
submissive and less critical to the ideology of apartheid. The philosophy of fundamental
pedagogics, which became central in teacher training, made teachers less critical and
encouraged them to follow teachings that more often than not were based on the
Christian dogma (Hofmeyer, 1982).
After 1994 the new government sought to involve teachers by ensuring proper
structures such as the bargaining chamber (Rezandt, 2015). These structures were
established to ensure teachers took the lead in matters concerning the teaching
profession. Teachers became members of school governing bodies and became
influential in determining how schools were governed (RSA, 1996a). Efforts were made
through programs such as Culture of Learning and Teaching (COLT) to resuscitate the
spirit of teachers to take the lead in the improvement of schools. The process culminated
in the emergence of teacher leaders who became influential in school reform beyond the
classroom (Makoelle, 2011). However, since 1994 the roles of teachers as leaders have
not been well researched and documented. It was therefore important to pose this
question:
 What influences the conceptualisation of teacher leadership in South African
schools?
In order to answer this question, the paper argues that teacher leadership in South Africa
is influenced by two distinct discourses, i.e. the discourse of professional teacher
leadership and the discourse of political teacher leadership. In this paper, it is argued that
the political discourse of teacher leadership overshadows the professional discourse of
teacher leadership.
2 Teachers’ leadership as agency
This study adopted the Giddens’ Structuration Theory (Giddens, 1984, 2013). According
to Giddens, there are three constituents of every social structure which are structure,
agents and agency. In this study, the three constituents of the social structure are the
education structure, teachers as agents within the education structure and teacher agency
which is their ability to influence or to be influenced the education structure. In order to
ameliorate the role of teacher leaders, it is important to understand teacher positioning
within the education structure. According to Giddens (1984, 2013), an agent uses its
agency to navigate through and within the structure. The structures also have the
constraining effect of the agency of the agent operating within them. Giddens postulates
that there is a duality between agency and structure. While the structure has a
constraining effect on the agency, when exercised, the agency may have an influence on
the structure. This dialectic nature of the relationship between structure and agency is
referred to as the duality of structure and agency. Rafiee et al. (2014) are of the opinion

Teacher leadership in South African schools 295
that the relationship between structure and agency is reciprocal and mutually dependent,
rather than characterised by the domination of structure and the subordination of agency,
or vice versa. The duality of structure and agency becomes critical, as it can produce
either change of the structure or constrain the agency. This Giddens concept of duality
becomes central in understanding teacher agency as exercised through teacher leadership.
These dualities illuminate the process by which the teacher leader’s influence and are
influenced by the educational structural milieu within which they operate. The leadership
capacity of the teacher leader may be encouraged or hindered by the structural
constraints. Therefore, the constant interplay between the teacher leader agency and
structural constraints exercised by the education structure becomes significant in
understanding the emergence and sustenance of teacher leadership within any education
structure. Therefore, the important questions are: what is teacher agency in the context of
professional practice and how do teachers enact their agency? According to Calvert
(2016, p.52), “In the context of professional learning, teacher agency is the capacity of
teachers to act purposefully and constructively to direct their professional growth and
contribute to the growth of their colleagues.” Riveros et al. (2012, p.208) suggest that
teachers can exercise agency through participation in professional learning communities.
They postulate that teachers should view learning within a school context; professional
agency will require a revision of assumptions about resistance and conflict, take into
consideration political climate and agents’ perception of social reality. On the other hand,
Priestley et al. (2015) posit that there is less agreement on whether teacher agency is in
an individual capacity or ability to work as a collective with other teachers. Teacher
agency is viewed as dependent on the relationship between individual efforts, available
resources and contextual and structural factors. Teachers enact agencies in three different
ways, i.e. iterational, meaning using past ways, thoughts and actions in current practical
activities; projective, implying imagining future trajectories of action in order to
reconfigure the future, and practical evaluative, which is to make practical and normative
judgements about alternative actions to respond to the new demands and challenges of an
evolving context. A teacher agency may not be exercised unless it is promoted and
nourished. Calvert (2016) avers that teacher agency is enhanced when teachers are
consulted on matters of professional identity and practice, formation of professional
collaborative teams, establishment of learning communities, ensuring professional
autonomy and decision-making, and taking into consideration the significance of the
context in which teachers are performing their professional duties (Sfakianaki et al.,
2018). Figure 1 shows how the duality between teacher agency and the education
structure influences the enacting and conceptions of teacher leadership.
Figure 1 Dual relation between agency and structure (see online version for colours)
Structuralconstrainingeffect
Education
Structure
Teacheras
Agent
Teacher
Leadership
Agencyappliedbyteachers

296 T.M. Makoelle and T. Makhalemele
3 Conceptualising leadership and teacher leadership
The concept of leadership is understood to mean different things. Firstly, leadership is
regarded as the influence the person has on others. Secondly, it could mean an ability to
transmit or project particular values in such a manner that they influence others. Finally,
leadership is associated with the ability of the person to be visionary and able to direct
others towards the achievement of a particular goal (Bush, 2011). However, these are but
some of the ways in which leadership is understood. Leadership is often associated with
one person called the leader and this person has to have some qualities to be recognised
as a leader. While these qualities could differ from person to person, it is assumed that a
leader would influentially be visionary and embody a set of values that can inspire
followers. According to Lee-Piggott (2014), teacher leadership is a relatively new
concept that is well developed in counties such as the USA, Canada and Australia and
has recently emerged strongly in the UK. It seems to be a relatively underdeveloped
concept in Africa and Latin America, but is also emerging in Asian countries such as
Singapore (Hairon, 2017). However, there is still little agreement on what exactly the
concept means, although there is a general consensus on associating teacher leadership
with both formal and informal influence towards school’s effectiveness and the
improvement. For instance, the concept of teacher leadership has been described as
informal leadership by teachers (Frost and Durrant, 2002, 2003a; Harris and Muijs, 2002;
Day and Harris, 2003). This opinion is affirmed by Ross et al. (2011) who state that
teacher leadership includes both formal and informal roles such as acting as the leader of
professional learning communities or as peer coach. However, Scribner and Bradley-
Levine (2010) advance that teacher leadership can be described by formal work roles or
social interactions in which teachers engage in organisational activities. According to
these authors, it implies particular ways in which teachers garner power and exert
influence on other members of the school organisation.
Most of the models of leadership presuppose the aggregation of followers towards the
person called the leader. Several leadership models are found. However, for the purpose
of this study, the summary of leadership theories by Bush (2011) was found helpful and
relevant. Bush (2011) identifies several models of leadership, i.e. the formal, collegial,
political, subjective and ambiguity models. Formal, political and collegial leadership
models are significant in understanding teacher leadership. Formal leadership is vested in
the authority of a position, e.g. that of principal (Lin and Kuo, 2007). In this instance, the
teacher leaders can undertake formal roles and responsibilities regarding school
management and leadership, such as curriculum leadership, auditing, etc. (Al-Taneiji and
Ibrahim, 2017; Grant, 2017; Gülbahar, 2017). On the contrary, teacher leadership is not
based on any formal authority, but on the influence the teacher has on other teachers and
the school community (Anderson, 2008). Scribner and Bradley-Levine (2010) argue that
leadership is not necessarily located in formal positions, but is distributed across school
organisations through interactions that are intended to influence organisational activity.
Hence, Frost (1999) refers to teacher leadership as non-positional. Political leadership
has to do with the contestation of groups for power and dominance. In a school context,
teacher leaders emerge as group leaders in contestation for power and influence.
However, the political dominance of teacher leaders does not necessarily mean dominant
professional leadership.

Teacher leadership in South African schools 297
In the collegial model of leadership, where a teacher leader has to demonstrate
competence in terms of influence regarding professional matters, teacher leadership is
demonstrable. Teacher leaders are not viewed as occupants of formal leadership roles by
their colleagues, but acclaimed as connoisseur teachers who provide situational
assistance to other teachers cooperatively and collegially (Ghamrawi, 2013). Teacher
leaders are known to be collegial and inspire confidence among their colleagues in many
ways. For instance, the following models of collegial leadership seem to be associated
with teacher leaders: transformational, which mean working with and through others to
accomplish organisational goals (Frost and Durrant, 2003b; Singh and Lokotsch, 2005;
Grant, 2010, 2017); interpersonal, entailing the ability to appeal to others and maintain a
high level of interpersonal relations with others; distributed and participative leadership,
which means being able to share responsibilities with others in a way that allows fair and
equitable distribution of duties (Grant, 2017). Thus distributed leadership is a cornerstone
of effective teacher leadership.
4 Distributed leadership and teacher leadership
According to Neumerski (2013) and Cheng and Szeto (2016), there is no consensus on
the definition of teacher leadership, but the key idea is grounded in teachers influencing
others to contribute to school improvement or educational practice. Thus, teacher
leadership has its roots in distributed leadership. However, some publications draw
parallel lines between distributed leadership and teacher leadership (Harris, 2003).
Distributed leadership is regarded as a collective shared leadership role among partners
in the same institution or system. Cheng and Szeto (2016) conclude that distributed
leadership refers to the work of all individuals who contribute to leadership practice,
whether or not they are formally designated or defined as leaders. It departs from the
premise that teachers are leaders in their own right within their sphere of influence. This
view is supported extensively by Harris (2003), who concurs and draws a distinction
between teacher leadership as an individual influence and teacher leadership as a
collective influence. Harris (2003) indicates that distributed leadership decentralises
leadership powers to teachers and goes further to posit that the current hierarchal nature
of the school structure and the hero-worshipping of principals militate against effective
distributed leadership, which is key for teacher leadership.
Therefore, there is a view that distributed leadership exercised in a top-down
structural approach inherently has a constraining influence on teacher leaders, as the
concept of ‘distribution’ is still tied to one who distributes, e.g. in a school context the
principal or any leader at the helm of an organisation. Distributed leadership among
the principal, teachers and members of the school leads to school development and a
better school climate (Fairman and Mackenzie, 2012; Al-Taneiji and Ibrahim, 2017).
Furthermore, distributed leadership maximises the benefit from teachers’ capabilities,
encourages interconnection among colleagues and enhances the sense of commitment to
the school by helping schools manage the significant challenges of reform more
gracefully (Leithwood et al., 2009; MacBeath, 2009). According to Williams (2011),
distributed leadership influences teachers’ ability to produce knowledge, practices and
procedures. Teachers do not become mere passive implementers of knowledge developed
by others. Williams (2011) postulates that distributed leadership thrives only when
teachers are empowered. Furthermore, Williams (2011) cautions about the dominance of

298 T.M. Makoelle and T. Makhalemele
officialdom in school leadership, inhibiting teachers’ confidence to participate in
decision-making processes. In the same breath, Harris (2003) indicates that a
precondition for successful teacher leadership is allowing teachers space to engage in
school curricular planning and organisational matters on continuous professional
development and to collaborate more in a way that enables them to influence one
another. The emphasis is on teacher leadership and the development of professional
collaborative networks, which affords teachers the ability to grow and be confident to
lead on their own (College, 2010). Aliakbari and Sadeghi (2014) state that the type and
level of education can also have an influence on teacher leadership. Caldwell (2013)
postulates that conceptualisations of teacher leaders, as harvested from definitions by
Fullan (1994), Childs-Bowen et al. (2000), Growther et al. (2002), Murphy (2005) and
Danielson (2006), all indicate that a teacher leader has the ability to influence other
teachers, students and the school community in general. Caldwell goes further to identify
the main characteristics of teacher leaders, which include a high work ethic, teamwork,
leadership skills, openness, being visionary, positive effect, risk-taking and effective
teaching and management skills.
On the other hand the concept of teacher leadership has been closely aligned to self-
managing schools, as these schools are well-known for their distributive leadership
nature. Day and Harris (2003), Fairman and Mackenzie (2015) and Al-Taneiji and
Ibrahim (2017) suggest that teacher leadership has to do with school management
principles and their implementation in the classroom and also with collective
participation by teachers. The argument is that the more distributive the leadership at the
school is, the more self-managing and effective the school functionality would become.
Therefore, the more leadership is distributed among the teachers, the higher the level of
leadership expectation for teachers. Caldwell (2013) talks about how the self-managing
school has decentralised authority, which is fundamental for distributed forms of
leadership that create a favourable environment for teacher leadership.
5 Teacher leadership in South Africa
Leadership in the South African education system has long been influenced by the
bureaucratic administrative model. To understand how leadership is operationalised in
the South African education system, the model of administration has to be regarded as
the framework from which one should start. The South African education system is
heavily bureaucratic and hierarchical. This model influences how decisions are made at
different levels of the hierarchy. According to this model, teachers constitute the lowest
level of the hierarchy and are therefore only partially involved in the decision-making
processes. The hierarchical nature of the education system in terms of the National Policy
Act (RSA, 1996b) starts with the Minister of Education, his/her deputy and the council of
education ministers, which is composed of members of the executive council from all
nine provinces. Consequently, the committee of heads of education is chaired by the
Director General. The committee comprises the heads of the provincial education
departments of the nine provinces.
The role of teachers is at the bottom of the hierarchy and is confined to school-level
decision-making processes, although Williams (2011) and Grant (2017) are emphatic that
the South African Schools Act (RSA, 1996) urges the introduction of democratically
elected and representative school governing bodies at all public schools to recognise

Teacher leadership in South African schools 299
the rights of learners, parents and educators to drive the process of educational
transformation and renewal. While teachers are part of the school governing bodies, their
role in issues of curriculum, school management and other aspects is still engineered
around the hierarchy of the school management team (Ntuzela, 2008; Mokoena, 2017).
The leadership of the school is influenced to a great extent by the school principal,
deputy principal and heads of departments (HODs) (Grant, 2006; Williams, 2011). Lately
teacher career path positions of senior teachers and master teachers who take leadership
of a specific subject area, based on their experience, have been introduced. However, the
hierarchical nature of school organisation is part of the two dominant teacher leadership
discourses, i.e. political and professional.
The notion of teacher leadership in South Africa seems to be heavily influenced by
two dominant discourses, i.e. a discourse of political leadership or unionism and a
discourse of professional leadership based on the teaching competency of teachers. The
discourse of unionism presupposes a teacher leadership inspired politically to achieve
labour or political ends (Zengele, 2013). Conversely, the discourse of professionalism
presupposes outstanding performance in the school and in the classroom (Mthiyane and
Grant, 2013). Zengele (2013) touches on how the discourse of unionism has influenced
professionalism through influence in processes such as promotions, resulting in low
morale of teacher leaders within the discourse of professional performance. While efforts
are being made to reward and value hard-working teachers, this endeavour seem to be
insignificant, as it affects only a minority population within the professional discourse of
teacher leadership. The political discourse of teacher leadership remains dominant.
According to Msila (2014), the impact of unions in school leadership in South Africa is
immense. While efforts are in place to reward and value hard-working teachers this
seems to be insignificant, as it constitutes only a minority population within the
professional discourse of teacher leadership. The political discourse of teacher leadership
remains dominant. It seems as though teacher leadership is influenced by past teacher
training and the process of political transition, which appear to have rewarded political
teacher leaders rather than professional teacher leaders. According to Grant et al. (2010),
teacher leadership in South African schools is restricted to classrooms and there is less
evidence of teacher leadership in the wider school community context. Because of this,
Grant (2006) postulates that given this South African context, teacher leadership requires
enthusiasm and courage, as the odds are too many to exercise teacher leadership
effectively. In Grant’s analysis of teacher leadership in South Africa, a teacher leadership
model was developed. This model describes teacher leadership in four distinct areas or
zones. These explain the potential areas where a teacher can demonstrate leadership. The
four areas are in the classroom, outside the classroom in curricular and extra-curricular
activities, in the whole school dimension and beyond the school into the community.
The model describes the different roles that teachers may assume at these different levels
(Grant, 2017).
This study was conducted in a context in which some schools in South Africa are
doing well in terms of their effectiveness, basic functionality and student performance,
while others are doing poorly in terms of all these criteria. The South African Department
of Education has embarked on efforts to revitalise the effectiveness of schools and reduce
the number of dysfunctional schools. These efforts have been slow to produce results
in schools that are heavily infested with the discourse of political teacher leadership.
The influence of the discourse of political and professional leadership on school
effectiveness, school functionality and student performance has been visible, but not

300 T.M. Makoelle and T. Makhalemele
empirically accounted for. This paper attempts to provide evidence of the concept of
professional teacher leadership and political teacher leadership and their impact on the
general performance of schools in terms of effectiveness, basic functionality and student
performance.
6 Research methodology
6.1 Research design
The study adopted a critical interpretative qualitative study using structuration theory as a
lens employed to conduct unstructured interviews with 12 teachers, six HODs, two
deputy principals and two principals selected from two highly effective secondary
schools (from privileged background) and 12 teachers, six HODs, two deputy principals
and two principals selected from two less effective schools (from non-privileged
background).
6.2 Participants and research sites
Participants were selected through purposeful sampling. Purposeful selection implies that
participants are selected because they can provide a rich data about the phenomenon
under study based on their lived experiences (Welman et al., 2005). Teachers were
purposefully selected to be representative of the following criteria: two experienced
(15 years and above) two mid-experienced (5–10 years) and two less experienced
(less than 5 years). The criteria for the selection of HODs, deputy principals and
principals were that they should have been in their positions for no less than 3 years. The
names of teachers, HODs and deputy principals were put in three boxes in order to select
the required number randomly by picking names. The selection of deputy principals and
principals was automatic, as all eight met the requirements to participate in the study and
all expressed interest in taking part. Table 1 shows a summary of information on the
participants.
Table 1 Summary of participants
Participant School A School B school C School D Total
Teachers 6 6 6 6 24
HOD 3 3 3 3 12
Deputy principal 1 1 1 1 4
Principal 1 1 1 1 4
44
To ensure representative perspectives on teacher leadership, two types of schools were
chosen. Privileged schools which represent highly resourced schools usually previously
served white learners during the apartheid years. They were formerly known as Model C
schools. The majority of these schools are regarded as highly effective or performing
well. Two of these secondary schools were selected. The criterion for selecting
two highly effective secondary schools was that they should have attained an average
pass rate of 90%–100% in the matriculation examination from 2012 to 2014. The non-

Teacher leadership in South African schools 301
privileged schools represent less resourced schools, which usually served black learners
during the apartheid years. Most of these schools are regarded as less effective or
performing poorly. They are also referred to as township schools. The criterion for
selecting these schools was that they should have attained an average pass rate of less
than 60% in the matriculation examination from 2012 to 2014.
6.3 Data collection
The interviews were conducted in English, audiotaped (with consent from the
participants) and transcribed after the interviews. Interviews lasted for approximately one
hour. The interviews were held in a designated room away from disruptions. The
following main question framed the unstructured interviews with all participants:
What do you think is teacher leadership and which factors, according to you, influence
teacher leadership? Follow-up questions were asked when necessary.
6.4 Data analysis
Data were analysed using an inductive qualitative data analysis approach. The following
steps were taken in the process of analysis (Laws et al., 2003, p.395):
 Step 1: Reading and rereading all the collected data. Reading the data ensured that
the researcher was familiar with the data, thus making the process of analysis much
easier and more manageable.
 Step 2: Making a preliminary list of themes arising from the data. The process of
categorising data into themes, referred to as ‘coding’, was conceptualised by Miles
and Huberman (1994) as labels or texts assigned to units of meaning of pieces of
data collected. Similarly, Neuman (2006) refers to the process as organising raw data
into conceptual categories in order to create themes that will be used to analyse the
data. Subsequently, the data were categorised into themes.
 Step 3: Reading the data again to confirm the themes. It is crucial that data be studied
several times to verify that the interpretations are correct and valid. The data were
read several times to confirm the themes.
 Step 4: Linking themes to quotations and notes. The researcher then wrote themes
next to the quotations and notes while examining the data.
 Step 5: Examining and interpreting the categories of themes. The structuration theory
was then applied to give credence to the phenomenon of teacher leadership as seen
through the eyes and minds of teachers themselves. To maintain the trustworthiness
of the study, the following was done: to ensure credibility, different sources of data
were triangulated; to ensure transferability a thick description of the context was
provided; to ensure confirmability, all interpretations made were supported by direct
quotations from the data. Dependability was ensured by making sure that the data
collection was systematic, well planned and logical (Nowell et al., 2017).

302 T.M. Makoelle and T. Makhalemele
6.5 Ethical considerations
All ethical procedures were observed, i.e. participants were made aware that participation
was voluntary, they were free to withdraw from the study at any time and anonymity
(pseudonyms were used in all documents of the study) and confidentiality (information
were only used for the purpose of the study) were strictly maintained.
7 Findings
The analysis using Giddens Structuration Theory entailed looking at the two dimensions
of the duality between structure and agency. Firstly, application of agency by teachers;
and secondly the constraining or enabling factors found in the education structure and the
impact of these on teacher conceptions of teacher leadership. The following themes
emerging from the data analysis are discussed in relation to these two dimensions.
7.1 Privileged or non-privileged background
The status of the school in terms of privilege appeared to be one of the structural factors
affecting the conceptualisation of teacher leadership. The study demonstrates that
teachers in previously advantaged schools (ex-model C) tended to view teacher
leadership from a professional discourse, hence they were inclined to indicate that
teaching performance was an important aspect of demonstrating teacher leadership. The
effectiveness of these schools seemed to influence teacher conceptions of teacher
leadership. For instance, in describing their understanding of teacher leadership, one
principal from a previously advantaged school stated, ‘teacher leadership is a process of
mastering one’s work and being able to guide others towards [a] similar outcome’. The
attributes of a teacher leader were identified as for among others mastering subject
content, being highly motivated and being actively engaged. The following statement
from the head of department at a previously advantaged school was indicative of this:
‘I always regard a teacher leader as someone who could advise others on [the] subject, be
able to inspire others in the subject and be very active in the subject community’.
On the other hand, teachers from previously disadvantaged schools viewed teacher
leadership as informed by how well the teacher was in the forefront of teacher unionism
and mobilisation. Asked about what teacher leadership is, one of the teachers from a
previously disadvantaged school said that ‘teacher leadership is when one is leading in
terms of teacher conditions of work, salary negotiations and making sure that the rights
of teachers are protected’. However, there were some of the teachers who contended that
teacher leadership can also mean being a leader in terms of knowledge. For instance, one
of the teachers from a previously disadvantaged school postulated, ‘while I think union
leadership is important in understanding teacher leadership, I also believe that a teacher
leader should be exemplary in terms of good teaching and personal behaviour; he should
be a role model for young teachers’.
7.2 Teaching experiences
Data from the study highlight that more senior teachers than their junior counterparts
understood teacher leadership as the exercise of [a] more advanced professional

Teacher leadership in South African schools 303
teaching and administrative role. This was evident in both previously advantaged and
disadvantaged schools. When asked to define teacher leadership, one of the experienced
teachers said that ‘teacher leadership has to do with the extent to which one can exercise
teaching, subject administration and student assessment in ways that you become an
example to other teachers’. This was echoed by an experienced teacher who said, ‘once
you can have all your workbooks, lesson preparations and assessment tasks all well
organised in ways that you do not need guidance from [the] HOD, you are a mature
teacher and therefore a leader in your subject area’.
However, the more inexperienced teachers seemed to identify more with other
aspects in describing teacher leadership. For example, one of the inexperienced teachers,
in defining a teacher leader, said ‘a teacher leader should be able to advise other teachers
on teacher rights, he should be a person more inclined to policy developments in
education and should take the interest of fellow teachers at heart’.
7.3 Union affiliation
The study seems to suggest that union affiliation in the South African school context
continues to influence teacher conceptions of teacher leadership. When asked what
teacher leadership is, a teacher affiliated to the South African Democratic Teacher Union
(SADTU) thought it was important to view teacher leadership from a political
perspective. The understanding of teacher leadership of those sharing this view is first
becoming familiar with teacher micro- and macro-politics and then at the same time
being competent in one’s teaching tasks. They felt that one cannot separate teacher
politics from teacher leadership. They view politics as inseparable from professional
teaching. This is attested to by the following statement of a teacher affiliated to SADTU:
… a teacher leader should be informed by the struggles of teachers. He/she
should know and understand most of the resolutions from the bargaining
chamber, be aware of most circulars about the working conditions and rights of
teachers. However, a teacher leader should also a good pedagogic performer in
the class and be productive in the teaching and learning environment.
It became clear from teachers affiliated to the National Association of Teachers of
South Africa (NAPTOSA) and Suid-Afrikaanse Onderwys-unie that a teacher leader
should be the person who first prioritises the right of learners to education. They were
adamant that engaging in labour strikes could constitute good behaviour of a teacher
leader. However, they believed that prioritising the rights of teachers is important, but not
more important than being a master of teaching and good classroom performance. The
view was that teaching should be kept apolitical and it was thought that politics were a
disruption to the course of effective teaching. For instance, one of the teachers from
NAPTOSA highlighted, ‘the role of [a] teacher leader is to firstly ensure that learner’s
rights are protected by providing quality teaching and making sure the learners receive
knowledge. I do think a teacher leader should think twice before going on strike’.
7.4 Historical performance of the school
The study has shown that teacher conceptions of teacher leadership were influenced by
the level of school performance. Teachers who were in highly performing schools tended
to understand teacher leadership from the perspective of excellent performance of
professional duties such as teaching, extracurricular activities, subject administration,

304 T.M. Makoelle and T. Makhalemele
assessment of learners and classroom management. For instance, one of the teachers
from a highly performing school, when asked about how teachers enact teacher
leadership, replied: ‘teacher leaders are effective teachers with good mastery of subject
content, who are able to manage their classes effectively and have good communication
and recordkeeping skills’.
Conversely, in poorly performing schools the emphasis was on the rights of teachers
rather than on performance. For example, one of the teachers affiliated to a poorly
performing school averred: ‘a site steward has to ensure that that our rights as teachers
are protected while we do our work, so that teachers are not abused by management’.
7.5 The management style of the principal
The understanding of teacher leadership in schools seems to be influenced by how well
the principal encourages an environment of collegiality and collaboration. The study has
shown that when the principal was encouraging teamwork and collaboration, teacher
conceptions of teacher leadership were more professionally oriented. For example, asked
about how teachers enact teacher leadership, the principal of a highly performing school
characterised by the prevalence of high teacher collaboration had this to say: ‘… in any
of the committees usually emerges a leader who is more knowledgeable that the rest, a
person most of us look up to as a professional mentor’.
On the other hand, where principals are autocratic and centralise power, there seems
to be a barrier to teachers initiating leadership. Leadership was more inclined to be
exercised by the hierarchy such as the principal, deputy principal or HOD. For instance,
one of the teachers said, ‘you are not free to take leadership if some of the managers
think you are a threat to their positions; even if you have a good idea, you don’t mention
it because it’s you (an ordinary teacher), no one is going to take you seriously’.
7.6 Gender and teacher leadership
While the notion of teacher leadership cuts across the gender divide, the study has
revealed that female teachers, unlike their male counterparts, were more inclined to
understand teacher leadership from a professional perspective. For instance, in describing
teacher leadership, one of the female teachers said that ‘teacher leadership means
professional competence in your work, i.e. the ability to teach excellently, to have good
classroom management and organisational skills’.
While the male teachers also believed that this was true, the inclination to lead
debates on policy, salaries and other conditions of service and other politically oriented
discussions regarding teachers were more prevalent among male teachers than among
their female counterparts. Male teachers appeared to be more power-oriented and in their
conceptions of teacher leadership they were more inclined to refer to their role in teacher
unions and their role in structural teacher political systems, such as the bargaining
chamber and others.
8 Discussion
The dual relationship between teachers (as agents exercising agency) and the education
structure (as enabling and constraining on agency) seems to play out in teacher

Teacher leadership in South African schools 305
conceptions of teacher leadership and how they enact teacher leadership in this study
(Giddens, 1984, 2013). This shows the two dimensions, which are firstly the application
of agency by teachers and secondly the constraining or enabling factors imposed by the
education structure. This implies that there is a dialectical relationship between agency
and structure (Rafiee et al., 2014).
 The constraining and enabling influence of education structure on teacher agency
and therefore teacher leadership.
o School historical status (context): The study demonstrated that conceptions and
enactment of teacher leadership is influenced by structural context and the
exercise of agency in such a structural context. How teachers in privileged and
non-privileged school contexts are enabled or constrained by the context to
enact teacher leadership seemed evident. Teacher leadership as conceptualised
in the literature tends to be viewed as professional conceptions rather than
political conceptions, which remains a dominant discourse in teacher leadership
that continues unabated in the South African context. This concurs with the
view of Calvert (2016), who refers to teacher agency as enhanced by consulting
teachers on matters of professional identity and practice, formation of
professional collaborative teams, establishment of learning communities,
ensuring professional autonomy and decision-making and taking into
consideration the significance of the context in which teachers perform their
professional duties. The study demonstrated that teachers in previously
advantaged schools (former model C) schools tended to view teacher leadership
from a professional discourse, hence they were inclined to indicate that teaching
performance was an important aspect of demonstrating teacher leadership. The
effectiveness of these schools seemed to influence teacher conceptions of
teacher leadership.
o Positional leadership: The study has confirmed that formal positions still
influence how teacher leadership is understood. There seem to be a
contradiction between the professional conception of teacher leadership and the
political conception, the main argument here being that perhaps the use of
teacher leadership as positional had been the core of how teacher leadership was
conceptualised in the past education system of South Africa. Therefore, the
positional conception of teacher leadership is viewed as overly controlling and
constraining in the emerging engaging and involving trends of leadership in the
post-apartheid 1994 education reforms. According to Grant (2006) and Williams
(2011), leadership in South African schools is still strongly influenced by the
school principal, deputy principal and HODs, thus making teacher leadership
positional.
o School performance and effectiveness: Teachers in highly performing-privileged
schools values the professional view of teacher leadership that their counterpart
in less performing – underprivileged contexts. The exercise of teacher
leadership seems to depend on aspects such as school performance, management
style of the principal and the principal’s inclination to adopt distributed
leadership which is more prevalent in effective and highly performing schools.
There seems to be a clear indication that effectiveness of school plays an
important role in teacher conceptions and enactment of teacher leadership.

306 T.M. Makoelle and T. Makhalemele
Distributed leadership creates a collaborative culture and empowers teachers to
take part in school improvement processes and decision-making hence creating
a conducive environment for teacher leadership to thrive (Day and Harris, 2003;
Fairman and Mackenzie, 2015; Al-Taneiji and Ibrahim, 2017).
 Teacher application of agency
o School micro-politics and unionism: It is important to note that the role of
teachers in the politics of power has far-reaching implications for how teacher
leadership is understood and operationalised by South African teachers. This
finding concurs with that of Riveros et al. (2012), who refer to the significance
of context, assumptions about resistance and conflict within a given political
climate and the agent’s perception of social reality. In South Africa, unions are
still very influential in determining teacher conceptions about leadership
(Zengele, 2013; Msila, 2014).
o Individual teacher experience and knowledge: The study has demonstrated that
an experience was a good teacher, as there seemed as though there is evidence
to suggest that teacher leadership is acquired overtime. According to Hunzicker
(2017), teacher leadership is acquired progressively overtime along with
mastery of knowledge and pedagogy. Apart from knowledge, teacher leaders are
characterised by appropriate dispositions (beliefs, attitudes and values), and a
high level of motivation, as well as by being action-oriented, which comes with
years of teaching experience (Poekert et al., 2016). Academic experience and
performance are regarded by Mthiyane and Grant (2013) as cornerstones of
professional teacher leadership.
o Collaboration and collegiality: The study demonstrated that teacher leaders are
able to apply their agency by working through and with others. According to
Ghamrawi (2013), the collegial model of leadership places strong focus on
teacher professional competencies. This idea is echoed by Singh and Lokotsch
(2005) and Grant (2010, 2017), who contend that a teacher leader works with
and through others to achieve professional goals. The conditions at a school,
such as the school culture, have to create a favourable environment for teacher
leadership to thrive (Beck and Frederiksen, 2008). According to Hunzicker
(2017), growth towards teacher leadership is enhanced through collaboration
and professional development (College, 2010).
o Leadership style of management: The study concluded that the leadership style
of the principal is important for creating a favourable environment for teacher
leadership to thrive. In this study, it became evident that in cases of shared
leadership, teachers are able to exercise their agency and thus teacher
leadership. It is clear that an unsupportive leadership style displayed by a
principal can become a barrier to effective teacher leadership (Harris, 2003;
Cheng and Szeto, 2016).This is consistent with the view of Sebastian et al.
(2016). According to Williams (2011), autocratic leadership in South African
school principals is attributed to an authoritarian mentality, fear of the loss of
power, school cultures that are steeped in deeply ingrained attitudes, values and
skills as well as ethnic, cultural and gender biases.

Teacher leadership in South African schools 307
o Gendered view of leadership: The study confirmed that teacher leadership is still
gendered in the South African school context. The fact that in this study women
were more inclined towards a professional view of teacher leadership arises
from leadership still being slanted to male dominance. This confirms Grant’s
(2011) view that gender still plays a significant role in the conception of teacher
leadership in South Africa.
9 Conclusion
While there are similarities between how teachers conceptualise and enact teacher
leadership in South Africa and the ways teachers in other parts of the world do this, it is
abundantly clear that the political discourse of teacher leadership, historically influenced
by the liberation struggle in which teachers rejected controlling positional and imposed
forms of leadership in the past, continues to influence teachers’ understanding of teacher
leadership and how it is to be enacted. However, the arguments in the paper provide a
platform from which South African teachers’ conceptions and enactment of teacher
leadership could be examined very closely, given the fact that some schools have not
been able to make the transition from a state of ineffectiveness to improved and sustained
effectiveness and performance.
References
Aliakbari, M. and Sadeghi, A. (2014) ‘Iranian teachers’ perceptions of teacher leadership
practices in schools’, Educational Management Administration & Leadership, Vol. 42, No. 4,
pp.576–592.
Al-Taneiji, S. and Ibrahim, A. (2017) ‘Practices of and roadblocks to teacher leadership in the
United Arab Emirates’ schools’, International Education Studies, Vol. 10, No. 6, pp.87–99.
Anderson, K.D. (2008) ‘Transformational teacher leadership: decentring the search for
transformational leadership’, International Journal of Management in Education, Vol. 2,
No. 2, pp.109–123.
Beck, S. and Frederiksen, L.F. (2008) ‘Teaching, leadership and school culture from loose to tight
coupling’, International Journal of Management in Education, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp.1–13.
Bush, T. (2011) Theories of Educational Leadership and Management, 4th ed., Sage Publications,
London.
Caldwell, B.J. (2013) ‘Leadership and governance in the self-transforming school’, Paper presented
at The Annual Conference of the Australian Council of Educational Leaders (ACEL),
4 October, Canberra.
Calvert, L. (2016) ‘The power of teacher agency: why we must transform learning so that it really
supports educator learning’, www.learningforward.org, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp.51–56.
Cheng, A.Y.N. and Szeto, E. (2016) ‘Teacher Leadership Development And Principal Facilitation:
Novice teachers’ perspectives’, Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 58, pp.140–148.
Childs-Bowen, D. Moller, G. and Scrivner, J. (2000) ‘Principals: leaders of leaders’,
NASSp Bulletin, Vol. 84, No. 616, pp.27–34.
College, M. (2010) ‘ESL co-teaching and collaboration: opportunities to develop teacher leadership
and enhance student learning’, Tesol Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp.3–22.
Danielson, C. (2006) Teacher Leadership That Strengthens Professional Practice, Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development, Alexandria, VA.

308 T.M. Makoelle and T. Makhalemele
Day, C. and Harris, A. (2003) ‘Teacher leadership, reflective practice and school improvement’, in
Leithwood, K. and Hallinger, P. (Eds): Second International Handbook of Educational
Leadership and Administration, Kluwer Academic, Dordrecht.
Fairman, J. and Mackenzie, S. (2012) ‘Spheres of teacher leadership action for learning’,
Professional Development in Education, Vol. 38, No. 2, pp.229–246. Available online at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/19415257.2012.657865
Fairman, J.C. and Mackenzie, S.V. (2015) ‘How teacher leaders influence others and understand
their leadership’, International Journal of Leadership in Education, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp.61–87.
Available online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2014.904002
Frost, D. (1999) Teacher-Led School Improvement: The Development Through Action Research of
a School-Based, Award-Bearing form of Support, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Centre for
Applied Research in Education, University of East Anglia.
Frost, D. and Durrant, J. (2002) ‘Teachers as Leaders: exploring the impact of teacher-led
development work’, School Leadership and Management, Vol. 22, No. 2, pp.143–161.
Frost, D. and Durrant, J. (2003a) ‘Teacher leadership: rationale, strategy, and impact’, School
Leadership and Management, Vol. 23, No. 2, pp.173–186.
Frost, D. and Durrant, J. (2003b) Teacher-Led Development Work: Guidance and Support, David
Fulton Publishers, London.
Fullan, M.G. (1994) ‘coordinating top-down and bottom-up strategies for education reform’, in
Anson, R. (Ed): Systemic Reform: Perspective on Personalizing Education, US Department
of Education, Office of Educational Research & Improvement, Washington, DC.
Ghamrawi, N. (2013) ‘Teachers helping teachers: a professional development model that promotes
teacher leadership’, International Education Studies, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp.171–182.
Giddens, A. (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, University
of California Press, California.
Giddens, A. (2013)The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, John Wiley
& Sons.
Grant, C. (2006) ‘Emerging voices on teacher leadership: some South African views’, Educational
Management Administration & Leadership, Vol. 34, No. 4, pp.511–532.
Grant, C. (2010) Distributed Teacher Leadership: Troubling the Terrain, Unpublished PhD Diss.,
University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg.
Grant, C. (2011) ‘Teacher leadership: gendered responses and interpretations’, Agenda, Vol. 19,
No. 65, pp.44–57.
Grant, C. (2017) ‘Distributed leadership in South Africa: yet another passing fad or a robust
theoretical tool for investigating school leadership practice?’, School Leadership &
Management, Vol. 37, No. 5, pp.457–475. DOI: 10.1080/13632434.2017.1360856
Grant, C., Gardner, K., Kajee, F., Moodley, R. and Somaroo, S. (2010) ‘Teacher leadership: a
survey analysis of KwaZulu-Natal teachers’ perceptions’, South African Journal of Education,
Vol. 30, pp.401–419.
Gülbahar, B. (2017) ‘Investigation of perceptions regarding teacher leadership among
secondary school teachers in Turkey’, Journal of Education and Training Studies, Vol. 5,
No. 2, pp.111–119.
Hairon, S. (2017) ‘Teacher leadership in Singapore: the next wave of effective leadership’,
Research in Educational Administration & Leadership, Vol. 2 , No. 2, pp.170–194.
Harris, A. (2003) ‘Teacher leadership as distributed leadership: heresy, fantasy or possibility?’,
School Leadership & Management, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp.313–324.
Harris, A. and Muijs, D. (2002) Teacher Leadership: A Review of Research, National College for
School Leadership, University of Warwick.
Hofmeyer, J.M. (1982) An Examination of the Influence of Christian National Education on the
Principles Underlying White and Black Education in South Africa: 1948–1982, Unpublished
Master Thesis, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

Teacher leadership in South African schools 309
Hunzicker, J. (2017) ‘From teacher to teacher leader: a conceptual model’, International Journal of
Teacher Leadership, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp.1–27.
Laws, S., Harper, C. and Marcus, R. (2003) Research for Development, Sage Publications, London.
Lee-Piggott, R. (2014) ‘When teachers lead: an analysis of teacher leadership in one primary
school’, Caribbean Curriculum, Vol. 22, pp.105–132.
Legodi, M.R. (2001) The Transformation of Education in South Africa since 1994: A Historical-
Educational Survey and Evaluation, Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of South Africa,
Pretoria.
Leithwood, K., Mascall, B. and Strauss, T. (2009) ‘New perspectives on an old idea: a short history
of the old idea’, in Leithwood, K., Mascall, B. and Strauss, T. (Eds): Distributed Leadership
According to the Evidence, Routledge, London, pp.1–14.
Lin, L.C. and Kuo, T.H. (2007) ‘Linking school effectiveness and principals transformational
leadership: the role of school culture’, International Journal of Management in Education,
Vol. 1, No. 4, pp.352–370.
MacBeath, J. (2009) ‘Distributed leadership paradigms, policy, and paradox’, in Leithwood, K.,
Mascall, B. and Strauss, T. (Eds): Distributed Leadership According to the Evidence,
Routledge, London.
Makoelle, T.M. (2011) Exploring Practices Determining the Effectiveness and Improvement of
Secondary Schools in the Free State Province, Doctoral Thesis, University of South Africa,
Pretoria.
Miles, B.M. and Huberman, A.M. (1994) Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Source Book,
2nd ed., Sage Publications, London.
Mokoena, S. (2017) ‘Analysis of the role and leadership capacity of heads of department in
secondary schools’, International Journal of Management in Education, Vol. 11, No. 3,
pp.284–310.
Motlhabi, M. (1987) ‘Black resistance to apartheid’, Journal of Black Theology
in South Africa. Available online at: http://disa.ukzn.ac.za/sites/default/files/pdf_files/
BtNov87.1015.2296.001.002.Nov1987.4.pdf (accessed on 9 January 2019)
Msila, V. (2014) ‘Teacher unionism and school management: a study of (Eastern Cape) Schools in
South Africa’, Educational Management Administration & Leadership, Vol. 42, No. 2,
pp.259–274.
Mthiyane, S.E. and Grant, C. (2013) ‘Re-imagining novice teachers as leaders in building a
community of educational leaders and researchers’, Africa Education Review, Vol. 10, No. 1,
pp.207–225. DOI: 10.1080/18146627.2013.855445
Murphy, J. (2005) Connecting Teacher-Leadership to School Improvement, Corwin Press,
Thousand Oaks, CA.
Neuman, W.L. (2006) Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches, 6th ed.,
Pearson, Munich.
Neumerski, C.M. (2013) ‘Rethinking instructional leadership, a review: what do we know about
principal, teacher, and coach instructional leadership, and where should we go from here?’,
Educational Administration Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp.310–347.
Nowell, L.S., Norris, J.M., White, D.E. and Moules, N.J. (2017) ‘Thematic analysis: striving to
meet the trustworthiness criteria’, International Journal of Qualitative Methods, Vol. 16,
pp.1–3.
Ntuzela, M.A. (2008) The Role of the School Management Team in Developing Teacher
Leadership: Case Studies of Two Public Primary Schools on the Lower South Coast of
KwaZulu-Natal, Unpublished Master of Education Dissertation, University of KwaZulu-Natal,
Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Poekert, P., Alexandrou, A. and Shannon, D. (2016) ‘How teachers become leaders: an
internationally validated theoretical model of teacher leadership development’, Research in
Post-Compulsory Education, Vol. 21, No. 4, pp.307–329.

310 T.M. Makoelle and T. Makhalemele
Priestley, M., Biesta, G.J.J. and Robinson, S. (2015) ‘Teacher agency: what is it and why does it
matter?’, in Kneyber, R. and Evers, J. (Eds): Flip the System: Changing Education from the
Bottom Up, Routledge, London.
Rafiee, M., Mirzaee, H., Mirzaee, A. and Hashemzadeh, A. (2014) ‘The relationship between
structure and agency in communicative action theory’, Bulletin of Environment,
Pharmacology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 3 (Spl II), pp.141 – 149.
Rakometsi, M.S. (2008) The Transformation of Black School Education in South Africa 1950–
1994: A Historical Perspective, Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Free State,
Bloemfontein.
Republic of South Africa (RSA) (1996a) The South African Schools Act, No. 84 of 1996,
Government Printers, Pretoria.
Republic of South Africa (RSA) (1996b) National Policy Act, No 27 of 1996, Government Printers,
Pretoria.
Rezandt, P. (2015) Collective Bargaining in the Education Sector in South Africa: Should This
Sector be Classified as an Essential Service?, Unpublished Master Thesis, University of Cape
Town, Cape Town.
Riveros, A., Newton, P. and Burgess, D. (2012) ‘A situated account of teacher agency and
learning: critical reflections of professional learning communities’, Canadian Journal of
Education, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp.202–216.
Ross, D., Adams, A., Bondy, E., Dana, N., Dodman, S. and Swain, C. (2011) ‘Preparing teacher
leaders: perceptions of the impact of a cohort-based, job-embedded, blended teacher
leadership program’, Teaching and Teacher Education, Vol. 27, pp.1213–1222.
RSA (1996) South African Schools Act 84 of 1996, Government Printers, Pretoria.
Scribner, S.M.P. and Bradley-Levine, J. (2010) ‘The meaning(s) of teacher leadership in an urban
high school reform’, Education Administration Quarterly, Vol. 46, No. 4, pp.491–522.
Sebastian, J., Allensworth, E. and Huang, H. (2016) ‘The role of teacher leadership in how
principals influence classroom instruction and student learning’, American Journal of
Education, Vol. 123, No. 1, pp.69–108.
Sfakianaki, E., Matsiori, A., Giannias, A. and Sevdali, I. (2018) ‘Educational leadership and total
quality management: investigating teacher leadership styles’, International Journal of
Management in Education, Vol. 12, No. 14, pp.375–397.
Singh, P. and Lokotsch, K. (2005) ‘Effects of transformational leadership on human resources
management in primary schools’, South African Journal of Education, Vol. 31, No. 1,
pp.55–73.
Welman, C., Kruger, F. and Mitchell, B. (2005) Research methodology, 3rd ed., Oxford University
Press, Cape Town.
Williams, C.G. (2011) ‘Distributed leadership in South African schools: possibilities and
constraints’, South African Journal of Education, Vol. 31, pp.190–200.
Zengele, T. (2013) ‘Leadership within the South African education system’, Journal of Social
Sciences, Vol. 35, No. 1, pp.61–69.