Abstract
The apartheid government’s educational policies resulted in socioeconomic and systemic challenges that persistently affect the education of learners from historically disadvantaged communities. These exclusionary barriers to learning were acknowledged by the democratic government, which subsequently adopted inclusive policies to address the issue, most notably the Screening, Identification, Assessment and Support (SIAS) policy of 2014. These initiatives aimed to transform school environments, ensuring all learners have access to quality education, regardless of their circumstances. However, research indicates that many learners in ordinary schools experience educational breakdowns, primarily due to ongoing socioeconomic and systemic challenges. Many learners struggle to read for meaning or compute at grade-appropriate levels. Consequently, some learners are retained, progressed or even drop out of school because they cannot cope with the requirements. These examples highlight a disjuncture between policy intention and policy practice, which the literature primarily attributes to poor policy design, implementation capacity and school leadership challenges. School principals’ resistance to change, rigidity, outdated approaches, and inadequate leadership styles are blamed for schools’ lack of transformation. The study aimed to understand principals’ inclusive leadership practices in three deep-rural1 junior secondary schools in KZN to create supportive environments for learners experiencing barriers to learning. It employed a qualitative research approach, applied a case-study design within a constructivist paradigm, and was framed by Nancy Fraser’s social justice theory. The study occurred in three schools, where three participants were purposively selected per school and data was collected through structured interviews and analysed using thematic data analysis. The study's key findings revealed that the principals had a basic understanding of the SIAS policy and enacted inclusive transformational leadership practices. The study further revealed that many operational challenges, such as curriculum constraints and a lack
1 Deep rural areas: This concept has no formal definition. However, it can be described as remote regions within former homelands governed by tribal authorities and characterised by communal land ownership, high poverty levels, informal subsistence livelihoods, and limited access to services and infrastructure.
of adequate support from parents, the DBST and the Department of Basic Education, mitigated the principals’ efforts.