Leading for Peace: Reimagining Instructional Leadership in Divided Societies

• In Event: Governing and Leading Education Reform: Policy, Partnerships, and Peace in Complex Systems

Proposal

Schools in divided societies are deeply intertwined in socio-political conflicts and structural inequities. Rather than serving as neutral spaces, they frequently reinforce social hierarchies and cultural divisions, minimising their potential as sites of reconciliation and reform. Instructional leadership, conventionally framed around pedagogy, curriculum, and teacher performance, has been constrained by technocratic paradigms that privilege efficiency, accountability, and standardised outcomes. Such frameworks obscure the fundamentally political nature of schooling and, in contexts of division, risk legitimising dominant ideologies, reinforcing systemic marginalisation, and silencing counter-hegemonic viewpoints. This study critically reimagines instructional leadership through the dual lenses of Critical Peace Education and Critical Leadership Studies. Critical Peace Education centres the ethical urgency to confront structural and cultural violence, cultivate justice, and position schools as arenas of peacebuilding. Yet, there remains the risk of romanticising peace education in overly principled terms that underestimate the entrenched realities of structural violence, political capture of education, and resource constraints; risks that can unintentionally position schools as “saviours” while systemic barriers remain unresolved. Critical Leadership Studies interrogates leadership as a socially constructed and contested practice, embedded in power relations that both reproduce inequities and enable resistance. These insights are also mitigated by recognition that reimagined leadership is constrained by neoliberal policy regimes that mandate efficiency and accountability, limiting the scope for justice-oriented, dialogic practices. The study employs comparative case studies on schools in divided societies such as Northern Ireland, South Africa, and Israel, critical discourse analysis, and narrative inquiry with school leaders to explore how leadership practices reproduce or unsettle societal divisions. The study contributes theoretically by reimagining leadership as a fundamentally political and ethical practice, critically by challenging technocratic paradigms, and practically by offering strategies for school leaders to promote reconciliation while navigating systemic tensions. Ultimately, it positions schools as transformative yet contested spaces for dialogue, justice, and peace in divided societies

Authors

• Lineo Amelia Mphatsoane-Sesoane, University of the free state

• Currell Jita, University of the Free State