Social Justice Development and Practice in School Leaders in Nepal

The focus of the thesis is on how Nepali school head teachers develop awareness, understanding and practice of social justice within educational leadership. There is extensive international research into social justice and educational leadership. However, key influences and experiences in head teachers’ personal and professional lives shaping social justice consciousness in the Nepali context is under-researched.
A mixed methods approach, underpinned by a pragmatic and transformative philosophy was adopted to gather qualitative and quantitative data from four focus groups, a survey with 108 respondents and interviews with 12 Nepali head teachers from different cultural, educational and geographical settings. Using an interpretive phenomenological approach, head teachers were provided with opportunities to share experience, insights and personal and professional stories through their own narratives.
The findings suggest both personal and professional influences and experiences impact equally on head teachers’ social justice understanding and practice. Analysis of survey data revealed differences of approach and understanding according to heads’ gender, their years of experience as educators and more significantly, heads’ geographical locations. Nepali head teachers’ conceptualisation of social justice is primarily focused on students’ welfare, characterised by recognition of injustices and wider societal challenges of inclusion. In seeking to elicit head teachers’ visioning for more effective social justice educational leadership, the need to collaborate with other stakeholders and address the lack of professional development were highlighted.
The study concludes with a model to enhance head teacher capabilities to promote social justice leadership within schools and encourage further professional development, especially at local and regional levels. Recommendations include utilising the interpretive phenomenological approach and narrativity analysis as professional development opportunities to assist head teachers in transforming their social justice leadership. Further research is proposed to capture a greater range of head teacher voices across this geographically and culturally diverse country.