Am I my brother's keeper? learner leadership development in a secondary school in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Against the background of a re-emphasis of human rights, social justice and democracy, learner leadership has become a topic of interest and importance. An absence of any meaningful form of leadership development among learners in formerly disadvantaged schools in South Africa prompted this interest into exploring the development of learner leadership. A more recent approach to learner leadership in many countries, including South Africa, has been to look at providing the necessary platform for learners to experience a more shared, cooperative, transformative and service approach within schools in order for them to develop their capacity to lead. This is supported by theoretical developments in the field of leadership, such as Distributive Leadership and Servant Leadership, which emphasise shared leadership. These developments were based on dialogue and strong relationships, where learner leaders situated their practices in moral action, with signs of individual growth, social justice and democratic positioning. In spite of this, not much is known of learner leadership development in South Africa. There are very few studies, none using approaches which look at the context and situation holistically. Hence this study, using Cultural Historical Activity Theory and Critical Realism as under-labourer, for its stance on ontological, epistemological and principled expectations of reality and its understandings on agency and structure, is advanced. Transformational leadership theories, in particular Distributive and Servant Leadership, are used as lenses to help make sense of the nature of learner leaders’ practice and the development of leadership. The aim of the single case study was to discover and explore how and under what circumstances learner leadership could be developed. To this end the researcher established a leadership development group at a previously disadvantaged secondary school. This project provided the platform for leadership development initiatives and became the activity which is the focus of this research. The study examines how leadership is learned and practised, and how the participants interrelate and influence learning and practice in their activity system. It examines the challenges that the learner leaders faced within their communities and what the underlying causes of these challenges were. Qualitative semi-structured interviews, document analysis, direct observation and focus groups were used to collect data. Non-probability sampling, in particular purposive sampling, was used in selecting the sixteen learner leader volunteers who participated in the study. These learners represented various ages, gender and leadership positions that were held in the school. Using inductive, abductive and retroductive modes of inference, the data was abstracted and analysed. The Change Laboratory workshop was used to boost the growth of shared collective views of the learner leaders within the changing object and activity system, in order to build and develop new practices, tools and models. The study recognized that learner leadership was generated by numerous mechanisms, which included the need to overcome the calamitous scarcity of virtuous leadership within their communities; the need to address cultural and historical assumptions, prejudices, and values that existed which reinforced their existing perceptions and behaviour towards leadership; the need to create a space for learner leaders to share responsibilities, thoughts, and become reciprocally dependent on each other, developing together due to their cooperative efforts; the need to demonstrate a willingness and the necessary resilience to survive in an environment whose socioeconomic demands and effects are restrictive and disempowering; a need to respond to the demand for impartiality and access to leadership; and a need to know that one is able to transform the practice of leadership, without it necessarily affecting one’s culture, in such a way that the needs of the people are met. This thesis reports on encouraging signs of leadership growth within the activity, observed and documented over a period of three years. The intervention led to behaviour and attitudinal development that suggests transformative learning and agency. The study’s findings further clarify the many challenges the potential learner leaders faced. Chief among these was the lack of adequate and efficient structures and systems in their communities in order for effective leadership to be established and practised in their communities. These included weak social structures in homes that were unable to support and meet the needs of the learner leaders due to the breakdown of families. Negative forces included high levels of authoritarian leadership practised by a restrictive socialised patriarchy. The underlying causes of these challenges include the perceived threat to individual dignity and survival; the fear of change; the feeling of powerlessness; a lack of hope which fuelled an apathy, a low self-esteem and poor attitude to education; adverse socioeconomic conditions; poor communication skills; a lack of adult role models and willpower; the demand for impartiality and access to leadership knowledge. In order to encourage learner leaders to advance their practice of leadership, the study recommends that adolescents be made to feel valued and included in the development process of leadership so that their willingness to engage with the process becomes pre-emptive. Learner leaders prefer structure, so it becomes all the more important to ensure that any rules, policies and guidelines that are established exhibit a demonstration of transparency and accountability. The study also recommends that when developing an understanding of the learner leaders’ behaviour, using their socio-cultural and historical contexts, they are provided with a non-threatening platform. This enables them to become empowered to actively participate, debate and dialogue collaboratively. They have an opportunity to demonstrate a willingness to engage with each other over tensions that arise, breaking the bonds of socialized pathology