Abstract:

During the past decade educational change has been marked by a shift from individualised school approaches, to change at the larger system level of school districts. This trend draws attention to the agency of school districts to initiate systemic change strategies in order to improve academic outcomes. A powerful catalyst for district-wide change is system leadership. A case study was employed to examine the prevalence of system leadership in a South African school district. The conceptual framework for the study was based on systems theory. Data were collected by means of interviews, observation and a structured questionnaire. It was found that system leadership was grossly inadequate since principals worked in isolation. Furthermore, district officials and principals lacked collegial working relationships. However, when these education leaders engaged in collective capacity building during the course of a three year leadership development programme, system leadership began to emerge to the benefit of the programme participants. It is therefore recommended that school districts employ collaborative mechanisms such as networks and professional learning communities to foster linkages among leaders thus promoting system leadership.

Keywords:

Educational change, district-wide change, system leadership, school districts, systems theory, collective capacity building, systemic change.