EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING: EXPLORING THE TRANSFORMATIVE POTENTIAL OF TEACHER UNION CONFLICT IN PUBLIC SCHOOL LEADERSHIP

South African public schools operate within a governance environment in which school leaders, teachers and teacher unions interact around authority, accountability, policy implementation and organisational processes. Although existing scholarship has examined teacher unions as important actors in labour relations and education governance, less attention has been given to how teacher union–school leadership conflict simultaneously constrains leadership practices and creates opportunities for organisational learning and transformation. This study examines how teacher union–school leadership conflict shapes the transformation of school leadership practices in public ordinary schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa. Guided by Institutional Theory, the study adopted an interpretivist qualitative approach and a phenomenological design. Purposive sampling was used to select 12 participants comprising four principals, four departmental heads and four teachers affiliated with teacher unions. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that teacher union–school leadership conflict manifests through contestations over decision-making authority, tensions in policy implementation and compliance, competing professional and union priorities, and struggles over legitimacy and influence. These dynamics can constrain leadership autonomy and accountability and contribute to delays and resistance in organisational processes. However, the findings also demonstrate that conflict can create opportunities for role clarification, accountability, adaptive leadership and collaborative problem-solving. The study contributes to school leadership scholarship by conceptualising teacher union–school leadership conflict not solely as a disruptive force, but as an institutional tension that can have both constraining and potentially transformative consequences. The findings further demonstrate that the effects of conflict are shaped by how competing institutional logics, interests and power relations are negotiated within school leadership and governance practices.