Not a panacea, but vital for improvement? Leadership development programmes in South African schools

The authors use interviews and observations to examine the potential role of a leadership development programme, Partners for Possibility (PfP). PfP pairs business leaders with school principals to help develop leadership capacity and ultimately school improvement.   Findings suggest that while PfP partnerships supported school principals' learning, the cost of the programme limited its scalability and resulting changes had limited effects on school culture. Policy implications include the need to focus school leadership and improvement programmes on classroom practices, to increase the quality of teaching and learning.