SCHOOL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES FOR THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF INCLUSIVE EDUCATION IN PUBLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS: A QUALITATIVE INQUIRY

This qualitative phenomenological study is to explore the required school leadership practices for the effective practice of inclusive education in public elementary schools in Gujrat district of Punjab, Pakistan, facing challenges of limited resources. Drawing on a theoretical synthesis of Transformational Leadership and Distributed Leadership, the inquiry focuses on ways that school leaders create an inclusive school culture, develop instructional capacity, address systemic challenges, and practice coping strategies. Sixteen participants (8 headteachers and 8 senior elementary teachers) were interviewed using in-depth semi-structured interviews through purposive sampling. The qualitative data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. The results indicate that elementary school leaders develop an institutional climate that is inclusive by engaging in values-driven leadership, implementing zero-rejection admission policies, and being active behavioral role models who challenge societal deficit mindsets. Distributed leadership mechanisms are established, including job embedded peer mentoring cells, collaborative planning circles and administrative safeguards of teacher autonomy in differentiated instructional and assessment adaptations, to sustain instructional capacity. Launched by school heads, who are subject to high stakes accountability pressures from the bureaucracy, school heads engage in dynamic adaptive agency to free teachers from non-teaching duties and to harness community philanthropy via School Councils to close material gaps, despite significant infrastructural neglect, lack of specialized personnel and other pressures. The study highlights the need to go beyond the compliance-focused path to implement decentralized instructional governance and training modules that are context sensitive. Keywords: Inclusive education, transformational leadership, distributed leadership, public elementary schools, instructional adaptation, thematic analysis, school culture.