The perceptions of school leaders and teachers on ethical leadership in a South African context

Abstract

The South African education system is in dire need of ethical leadership. Ethical leadership is essential when it comes to leading a school organization, thus previous empirical studies have demonstrated this type of leadership to be lacking in some of our leaders today whilst principals are the ones mostly implicated. MacIntyre’s theories support the internal goods or values which need to be practised by our school leaders. This study employed a descriptive, qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews to collect the data drawn from the perceptions and experiences of 14 teachers, SMT members, and principals of four schools in the Pretoria North region. A thematic analysis was utilised to generate data, accumulating the following; The findings reveal that the values of equality and excellence and virtues of listening, integrity, accountability and empathy are espoused by the respondents and suggest that ethical leadership can help curb unethical behaviour and practices. There was a clear indication of exasperation from some of the participants of the schools regarding ethical conflicts. The findings further illustrated differing perceptions of ethical leadership and its values by the participants, with some of them deeming it as objective and universal, while others understood it as subjective and personal. This study recommends systematic elements and/or ethical systems to be put in place for school leaders such as forming ethics committees in schools, to ensure accountability as well as making it mandatory for them to undergo a course in ethics prior to their placement as a school principal. The system needs a new generation of leaders who perceive ethics as vital, are informed about it, and who understand the subject to its core in the new modern social order.