Rethinking Instructional Leadership: Deconstructing Teacher Marginalization to Foster Sustainable Accounting Education Practices

In many postcolonial education systems, authoritarian instructional leadership models continue to dominate, reinforcing hierarchical control and undermining teacher agency. This tension between top-down leadership and the need for justice-oriented, participatory approaches is particularly evident in curriculum-intensive subjects such as accounting. This study investigated how instructional leadership practices influence teacher identity and curriculum sustainability in secondary school accounting education in Lesotho. Grounded in transformative leadership theory, the research adopted a qualitative case study design and drew on semi-structured interviews with three accounting teachers and three school principals from purposefully selected schools. Thematic analysis revealed four interrelated leadership challenges: limited strategic support, lack of collaborative structures, ineffective developmental feedback, and teacher marginalization in decision-making. These findings demonstrate how entrenched managerialism contributes to professional disempowerment and curricular stagnation. Transformative leadership theory was chosen for its critical potential to challenge entrenched power relations and advocate for equity, inclusion, and teacher empowerment. In the Lesotho context, where instructional leadership often reflects inherited bureaucratic norms, the framework enables a reimagining of leadership as ethically grounded and socially responsive. The study’s findings underscore the need for policy reforms that decentralize decision-making, mandate subject-specific instructional support, and embed collaborative professional structures within schools. Furthermore, teacher professional development should prioritize context-sensitive, justice-driven leadership approaches that value teachers as curriculum co-constructors. By positioning teacher agency as central to educational change, this study contributes to decolonial and transformative discourses on leadership and curriculum reform in the Global South and offers actionable insights for building more inclusive and sustainable accounting education systems.