An exploration of how school leaders navigate the possible tensions between the ‘ideals of inclusion’ and the ‘ideals of excellence: a CHAT perspective.   

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 In contemporary school leadership, there is a competing tension between the demands of academic excellence and inclusion. There is a growing literature on the utilization of Change Laboratories as an approach to managing complex value-based problems that school leaders need to address. This paper describes an action research study from South Africa that explores the utility of this approach in addressing the vexing dilemma of this tension.In schools across South Africa, principals are faced with the unenviable task of navigating the critical proximities associated with an agenda for inclusion and an  agenda for excellence that co-exist simultaneously, where the motives that inform each agenda are divergent. Navigating this paradox can be challenging for school leaders. Do they find a way to pursue excellence, while still staying true to the ideals of inclusion? Or do they foreground one at the expense of the other?

The premise of this study is that navigating an agenda of excellence together with an agenda for inclusion cannot be seen as a simple problem to overcome, instead, it must be considered against the historical backdrop and manifested complexities that exist within a school. Complexities are identified as particularly vexing for school principals, as the origins of these new challenges are compounded by a multitude of complex factors that are non-linear in nature, and difficult to define. Considering this backdrop, twenty school principals, from a diverse range of schools in South Africa participated in interviews. These interviews explored firstly, what specific challenges leaders were facing when simultaneously navigating both inclusion and excellence, secondly, what leadership strategies they were implementing at the managerial level, and finally what support they were providing to teachers to meet the challenge of being pedagogically responsive to the range of different learning needs they encounter in their classrooms.  This data was used as the model/tool’s component in a series of Change Laboratory interventions inspired by Cultural Historical Activity Theory. Findings indicated that through Change Laboratory workshops the principals, gained a deeper appreciation for the complexity of their roles as leaders in complex systems, and identified leadership strategies to advance inclusive practices while simultaneously advancing the demands for academic excellence. This paper shows that Engeström’s Change Laboratories can facilitate transformative agency in school leaders to overcome contradiction and offer powerful opportunities for finding concrete solutions to complex challenges.