Abstract
School leadership is pivotal to advancing teaching and learning; however, women remain significantly underrepresented in senior positions, particularly within rural contexts. In South Africa, female principals often lead and manage schools in patriarchal communities marked by limited resources and socio-cultural expectations that shape their professional experiences. In this study, I examined how female principals in rural primary schools in Limpopo Province navigate these gendered realities and exercise leadership agency within constrained environments. Although progressive national policies promote gender equality, women’s advancement into school leadership remains hindered by entrenched systemic, structural, and cultural barriers that continue to position leadership as a male domain.
Addressing a critical gap in the scholarship, this study explored the lived experiences of women leading rural primary schools, contexts that are fundamental to educational transformation. I adopted a qualitative approach within an interpretivist paradigm, employing an exploratory phenomenological design to capture the depth and meaning of participants’ experiences. Data were generated through in-depth semi-structured interviews and non-participant observations with 18 purposefully selected female principals from full-service Quintile 1 rural primary schools in the Vhembe East District of the Limpopo Department of Education.
The analysis was informed by African feminist theory, which offered a decolonial and contextually grounded framework for interrogating how gender, power, and culture shape leadership in rural education. This perspective challenges Western-centric models by foregrounding women’s agency, relational ethics, and community-rooted values aligned with Ubuntu. It was complemented by feminist and transformational leadership frameworks, which converge in their emphasis on empowerment, equity, and moral purpose. In addition, principles of resilient, social justice, community, spiritual, and servant leadership were integrated to illuminate the ethical and relational dimensions of effective school leadership...