Passing the buck: this is not teacher leadership!

Despite an enabling democratic policy framework, the leadership of many South African schools remains firmly entrenched within the formal, hierarchical management structure. The potential for teacher leadership is, therefore, relatively untapped and, where it is enacted, it is often restricted. We report on a small qualitative study which explored how the School Management Teams (SMTs) in two primary schools distributed leadership, and the effects of this on the development of teacher leadership. Using questionnaire and interview data, it emerged that teacher leadership existed in both schools at the level of the classroom and in interactions amongst colleagues. However, teacher leadership in relation to school level decision-making, when it occurred, was largely delegated to senior teachers. The findings suggest the existence of two forms of distributed leadership in the schools-a dispersed form within the 'teacher domain' and an authorised form within the 'SMT domain'. We argue for a radical reconceptualising of the concept of leadership at the level of practice in South African schools in an attempt to move towards more dispersed and democratic forms of distributed leadership.