Can situatedness bridge critical pedagogy and cultural-historical activity theory to advance contextually grounded school improvement plans?

This article advances a conceptual framework for school improvement by bringing into dialogue two influential but seldom connected theories namely, critical pedagogy and cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT). Through an analysis of the core tenets of each theory, the article demonstrates how situatedness emerges as a critical bridging concept that advances contextually grounded school improvement plans (SIP). In contexts marked by postcolonial legacies and structural inequalities, such as many African schooling systems, conventional school improvement models such as the whole school evaluation (WSE) framework is more compliance-driven and often neglect the lived realities of teachers, principals, and community members. By theorising situatedness as both a philosophical orientation and a practical imperative, the critical-contextual school improvement framework (CCSIF) offers an alternative lens for rethinking pedagogy, participation, and change in schools. The contribution lies not in empirical findings but in reconfiguring theoretical relationships to open new debates about what it means to improve schools in ways that are contextually grounded, socially just, and globally resonant.