Abstract
Despite strong policy commitments to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) within the South African schooling system, the implementation of sustainability initiatives remains uneven and difficult to sustain, particularly in under-resourced public schools. School food gardens are widely promoted as pedagogical spaces for experiential learning, sustainability consciousness, and food security; however, many initiatives remain fragmented, weakly institutionalised, and dependent on individual champions rather than systemic support. This study investigated how school leaders integrate technology into sustainability consciousness and Education for Sustainable Development to enhance the implementation of school food gardens in public schools in the Tshwane district, Gauteng. The study was framed within an integrated theoretical framework drawing on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, Transformational Leadership theory, and Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model. A sequential exploratory mixed-methods research design was employed. In the qualitative phase, semi-structured interviews with school principals explored leadership practices, sustainability education, and the use of digital technologies in managing school garden initiatives. Findings from this phase informed the development of a quantitative questionnaire administered to teachers to examine the extent to which the identified practices were evident across a broader sample. Qualitative data were analysed thematically, while quantitative data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The findings indicate that sustainability education and school food gardens are more likely to be sustained where school leadership actively promotes a shared sustainability vision, supports structured change processes, and enables the purposeful use of digital technologies. Technology adoption was found to be shaped by leadership support, perceived usefulness, and facilitating conditions, rather than by access alone. The study contributes to educational leadership scholarship by offering a contextually grounded framework for technology-enabled sustainability leadership and provides practical implications for school leaders, policymakers, and professional development initiatives seeking to institutionalise ESD practices in South African schools.