The role of the School Governing Body in supporting teacher resilience in the face of learner indiscipline in Western Cape high schools

Abstract

This study critically investigated the underexplored nexus between school governance and teacher resilience, specifically examining the capacity of school governing bodies (SGBs) to mitigate the effects of persistent learner indiscipline in Western Cape high schools. Positioned within South Africa’s decentralised democratic governance model, a salient contradiction was identified: despite their statutory authority, SGBs are largely constrained by administrative compliance, with their potential role in sustaining teachers amid behavioural crises remaining both conceptually and operationally underdeveloped. The research inquiry was theoretically anchored within an integrated framework that synthesised social capital theory (Bourdieu, Coleman, Putnam, Landman) and socioecological resilience theory (Bronfenbrenner, Ungar). This synthesis facilitated a systemic analysis that transcended individualised coping narratives, reconceptualising resilience as a relationally embedded phenomenon. An explanatory sequential mixed-methods research approach ensured methodological rigour. A quantitative survey of 355 SGB members established statistically significant consensus on the need for expanded SGB involvement in teacher support while revealing substantive deficits in training, role clarity, and structural guidance. Subsequent qualitative analysis of 30 semi structured interviews yielded four coherent thematic findings: the imperative to reconceptualise SGB roles beyond compliance; actionable governance strategies for resilience support; socio-community determinants of learner indiscipline; and contextual constraints in Western Cape schools. The study’s principal theoretical contribution is the empirically grounded School Governing Body Resilience Support Framework (SRSF). This cyclical framework – comprising four interdependent pillars, namely, Empowerment, Engagement, Intervention, and Evaluation – repositions SGBs as a pivotal coordinating node within schools’ socioecological system. The SRSF provides a theoretically coherent, contextually attuned model for leveraging social capital and aligning governance praxis with proactive teacher support. The study concludes by advancing evidence-based recommendations for SGBs, school management teams, and provincial education authorities, emphasising policy recalibration, structured capacitation, and institutional uptake of the proposed framework. By theorising teacher resilience as a governance-enabled collective endeavour, this research makes a substantive contribution to scholarship in educational leadership and offers a pragmatic instrument for policy reform, professional practice, and sustainable school advancement.