Optimising school leadership development for 21st-century learning: An in-depth analysis of South African private secondary schools in KwaZulu-Natal

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There have been significant and rapid improvements in information and communication technology (ICT) since the early 1990s. Subsequent global changes have increased with the onset of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and have dictated pedagogical transformation. Many countries have moved from traditional approaches of education to 21st-century Learning (21CL). 21CL is ICT-aligned, inquiry-based, and includes the development of affective abilities. School leadership influences all structures and individuals directly in a school. It has the potential to be one of the cornerstones of the paradigm shift to 21CL. I investigated how school leadership is developed to facilitate 21CL and how it can be improved. I required quantitative and qualitative data to achieve the research objectives. Therefore, I adopted a mixed methods research approach that is underpinned by the positivist and interpretivist paradigms. I used a case study design. The data collection methods I employed were questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and focus group interviews. Phase one of the research involved the quantitative data collection from twenty-five schools, of which five schools were purposely sampled for the second qualitative phase. The use of transformational leadership, strategic leadership, system leadership, and ecological leadership in enacting 21CL featured prominently in the reviewed literature. However, the research findings show that, largely, these four leadership theories were not incorporated in leadership development in South Africa. The results also show that school leadership development specifically designed for 21CL, was limited. The leadership training that is available focused more on administrative tasks instead of on leadership theories and skills to facilitate 21CL. I recommend that further research be conducted in both private and public schools in other South African provinces.