Use of the Collegial Leadership Model of Emancipation to transform traditional management practices in secondary schools

The Collegial Leadership Mo del of Emancipation (COLME) is used to address the concerns of transforming traditional management practices (TM Ps) in secondary schools . This model is based p rim arily on the princ iple s of co llaboration and p articipation that facilitate collegial leadership practices to flourish in an environment characterized by shared decision-making, shared values, shared vision, and shared leadership. Inevitably, this process impacts on all stakeholders. The positive effect that collegiality has on the improvement of learning and improved teach er pa rticipa tion and com mitment sugg ests that the effectiveness of a schoo l need no t be syn onym ous w ith pr ivilege no r sh ou ld inefficiency be synonymous w ith the disadvantaged comm unity. For the positive effects to be sustained, the collegial practices need to be evolutionary and em ancipatory in order to evoke the values of collegial leadership set out in this article. Research conducted at ten secondary schools stron gly suppo rted th e prin ciples espous ed in the C OLM E. It was ev iden t from the in terview s tha t the ex-mo del-C schoo ls were better equipped and had appropriately qualified personnel to incorporate elements of the COLME . This was not the case with all the his tor ica lly disadvantaged secondary schools (HDS S). How ever, all the re spo ndents agreed tha t collegia lity was a key com pon ent in transforming tradit ion al m anagem ent practice s in ou r sc hools . The COLM E p rovides a suitab le framew ork to achieve this notewo rthy go al.