The performance of South Africa’s educational system in national and international tests indicates that a large proportion of its public schools are underperforming. Ineffective leadership has been put forward as one reason. This paper analyses a leadership development programme, Partners for Possibility (PfP), which seeks to strengthen leadership in underperforming schools. PfP employs a one-year, cross-sector social partnership that pairs school principals with business leaders. Literature on leadership development attests to the problem of learning transfer. Interviews were conducted with 9 PfP principalbusiness leader dyads and 4 PfP unpaired participants. The research also included observations of PfP meetings and analysis of PfP reports. Although PfP’s partnerships were found to support the school principals’ learning, the cost of the programme limits its scalability. PfP’s group learning component was also found to sometimes divert partnerships from transformational to transactional forms. This study contributes to the understanding of learning transfer within social partnerships. It also highlights a limitation of programmes such as PfP, which aim at school improvement, but are not focused on instructional practice. The article explores ways in which partnership programmes could be strengthened. Keywords: cross-sector social partnership; leadership development; learning transfer; Partners for Possibility; principals; school improvement; school leadership

中文翻译：

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不是灵丹妙药，但对改进至关重要？南非学校的领导力发展计划

南非教育系统在国内和国际测试中的表现表明，其大部分公立学校表现不佳。无效的领导已被提出作为原因之一。本文分析了一个领导力发展计划，即合作伙伴的可能性 (PfP)，该计划旨在加强表现不佳学校的领导力。PfP 采用为期一年的跨部门社会合作伙伴关系，将学校校长与商界领袖配对。关于领导力发展的文献证明了学习迁移的问题。采访了 9 位 PfP 主要业务领导者和 4 位未配对的 PfP 参与者。该研究还包括对 PfP 会议的观察和对 PfP 报告的分析。尽管 PfP 的合作伙伴关系被发现支持校长的学习，该程序的成本限制了其可扩展性。还发现 PfP 的小组学习组件有时会将合作伙伴关系从转型形式转移到交易形式。本研究有助于理解社会伙伴关系中的学习转移。它还强调了诸如 PfP 之类的计划的局限性，这些计划旨在改善学校，但不侧重于教学实践。本文探讨了可以加强伙伴关系计划的方法。关键词：跨部门社会伙伴关系；发展领袖能力; 学习迁移；合作伙伴的可能性；校长；学校改善；学校领导 本研究有助于理解社会伙伴关系中的学习转移。它还强调了诸如 PfP 之类的计划的局限性，这些计划旨在改善学校，但不侧重于教学实践。本文探讨了可以加强伙伴关系计划的方法。关键词：跨部门社会伙伴关系；发展领袖能力; 学习迁移；合作伙伴的可能性；校长；学校改善；学校领导 本研究有助于理解社会伙伴关系中的学习转移。它还强调了诸如 PfP 之类的计划的局限性，这些计划旨在改善学校，但不侧重于教学实践。本文探讨了可以加强伙伴关系计划的方法。关键词：跨部门社会伙伴关系；发展领袖能力; 学习迁移；合作伙伴的可能性；校长；学校改善；学校领导 学校改善；学校领导 学校改善；学校领导