Reframing disciplinary practices in inclusive education: Leadership role of departmental heads in South African schools

Abstract

The South African education system has increasingly progressed in educational access and promoting equity within historically marginalised schooling environments. Despite these reforms, managing learner discipline has become a challenge because it is an under-theorised feature of inclusive education. This study explores the experiences of ten departmental heads (DHs) in implementing inclusive disciplinary practices for learners in digitally evolving classrooms. Underpinned by the inclusive pedagogical theory and transformational leadership theory, this study utilised a qualitative approach within an interpretivist paradigm and a phenomenological design. Data were collected through open-ended questionnaires and semi-structured interviews and analysed through thematic analysis. The findings indicate that although DHs possess robust conceptual understanding of inclusive and restorative discipline, their capacity to implement these practices is limited by systemic and contextual challenges, including entrenched teacher beliefs, resource disparities, policy-practice disjunctions, and escalating administrative demands. However, DHs are strategically positioned to reframe disciplinary measures in inclusive education through well-conceptualised professional development programmes.