Abstract
School leaders are regarded as the main role players in creating a conducive and welcoming environment that promotes and supports effective and meaningful teaching and learning for learners’ success. It is, therefore, taken for granted that they ought to lead in ways that foster teachers’ optimal use of their cognitive abilities and agency to realise organisational goals. However, drawing on the functional stupidity and critical leadership lenses, the possibilities of leadership approaches that foster teachers’ empty work is illuminated. This consideration is more pivotal in a South African context where post-apartheid, the government increased investments in education attaining considerable improvements, yet the education system is still unequal. Many South African children still attend poorly resourced and dysfunctional schools that are offering learners poor quality education. The combined impact of the apartheid legacy and poor governance and leadership continue to produce poor educational outcomes.
In pursuit of gaining insights into the dynamics of school leaders’ influence on teachers’ work engagement, a generic qualitative study was undertaken and the following themes emerged: Power of influence and control for the privileged; Chasing the paper trail; Pointless meetings; Token workshops; Staying in line – following instructions; and Power capture – why we obey. The findings revealed the dominance of autocratic leadership in some schools. Teachers were not included in the decision-making processes. Power was still monopolised by those who held positions of authority, such as the principal, vice principal and HODs. Autocratic leaders make every effort to encourage teachers to comply with their instructions, thus pushing teachers to a functional stupidity mode that propels them to obey leaders’ directives to do empty work. Stupidity management has blinded some school leaders to see teachers as empty vessels ready to be filled – a behaviour that leaves most teachers powerless and obliged to adopt a life of obedience and compliance.