Sustainable Primary School Leadership in Sheger City, Ethiopia: the Anatomy of Policies and Manifestation of Practices
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Date
2025-06
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Addis Ababa Unversity
Abstract
I employed a qualitative case study design to explore sustainable school leadership (SSL) in primary schools in Sheger City, Ethiopia with emphasis on the anatomy of policies and manifestations of practices. I addressed these issues as related to principal succession, collective capacity, and school culture, which are elements of SSL. I collected data primarily from 10 relevant official documents and 24 purposively selected key informants: principals, potential candidates, and education officers. I used semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and, to a lesser extent, observation and field notes to collect data for the study. I analyzed the data using a combination of content and thematic analysis. The data indicated that policies both supported and undermined the materialization of SSL. However, policies that undermined SSL were more powerful than supportive policies, and the way policies were structured also reinforced the same effect. These factors made the overall influence of policies lean towards undermining SSL. In terms of the practice of SSL, potential candidates were disinterested in becoming principals, and incumbent principals were unwilling to stay long. There was a scarcity of staff, deficiencies in school principals’ qualifications, and the school staff was less motivated and committed to their jobs, which made the collective capacity of the schools ineffective. The strong culture of schools in the studied area was also largely lacking, and participants had difficulties understanding what school culture is, let alone reporting its practices. Therefore, the study concluded that one could not generate adequate guarantee for the materialization of SSL from the way policies were structured and practice prevailed in the study context. The implications of the study's findings are for the federal government, the Ministry of Education, the Oromia Education Bureau, Woreda/subcity education offices, and other educational stakeholders to restructure and refine policies and take steps to shape practices to enable the materialization of SSL.
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Sustainable Primary School Leadership in Sheger City