Instructional Leadership in Inclusive Secondary Schools of Zimbabwe: Balancing Multiple and Competing Expectations

Abstract

This article explores school heads’ enactment of instructional leadership practices in inclusive secondary schools in Zimbabwe. It provides answers to the central question: How do school heads enact instructional leadership practices in inclusive secondary schools and how does sense-making by school heads explain instructional leadership practices in this instructional environment? The article forms part of a larger study on the challenges of and opportunities for instructional leadership in inclusive secondary schools of Zimbabwe. The study employed a qualitative multiple case study research approach and was informed by the enactive sense-making theory. The cases comprised three secondary school heads purposively sampled in line with the extent to which they embraced inclusivity in terms of serving differently abled learners. Data were collected using a combination of semi-structured interviews on instructional leadership thought and practices, non-participant observation and documents analysis. The data were analysed using the interactional narrative analysis approach and presented using the case-by-case method. The study revealed that participants understood instructional leadership in their schools in the morphed sense of the concept as a multidimensional and stakeholder-based social activity built on equity principles. However, the concept of “equity” and purpose of education in society seem to be understood differently by different stakeholders across the social divide. As a result, instructional leadership practices by the school heads were characterised by struggles to balance competing expectations from stakeholders as the school heads sought to protect personal identity and guarantee self-legitimacy. Our findings have implications for policy and practice and contribute to scholarship by adding new insights into growing literature on instructional leadership for inclusive education.