This article explores school heads' enactment of instructional leadership practices in inclusive secondary schools in Zimbabwe. It provides answers to the central question: How do school heads enact instructional leadership practices in inclusive secondary schools and how does sense-making by school heads explain instructional leadership practices in this instructional environment? The article forms part of a larger study on the challenges of and opportunities for instructional leadership in inclusive secondary schools of Zimbabwe. The study employed a qualitative multiple case study research approach and was informed by the enactive sense-making theory. The cases comprised three secondary school heads purposively sampled in line with the extent to which they embraced inclusivity in terms of serving differently abled learners. Data were collected using a combination of semi-structured interviews on instructional leadership thought and practices, non-participant observation and documents analysis. The data were analysed using the interactional narrative analysis approach and presented using the case-by-case method. The study revealed that participants understood instructional leadership in their schools in the morphed sense of the concept as a multidimensional and stakeholder-based social activity built on equity principles. However, the concept of "equity" and purpose of education in society seem to be understood differently by different stakeholders across the social divide. As a result, instructional leadership practices by the school heads were characterised by struggles to balance competing expectations from stakeholders as the school heads sought to protect personal identity and guarantee self-legitimacy. Our findings have implications for policy and practice and contribute to scholarship by adding new insights into growing literature on instructional leadership for inclusive education.

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This chapter explores the state of inclusive education in the secondary schools in Zimbabwe decades after independence and the Salamanca Declaration. The thrust of the chapter is very important at a time when inclusive education is increasingly being viewed as a critical element of basic education and a step towards social justice. The chapter shows that inclusive education has remained an illusion at a time when the inclusive framework is expected to have fully developed and to be bearing fruit. This paradox is explained in terms of the historical, cultural, and economic context prevailing in the country. This Zimbabwean context focuses public education on political and economic goals only, disregarding equity and social justice objectives. It is therefore recommended that the purpose of education be redefined to fully embrace the needs of ‘all' and the social justice logics, bearing in mind the context of the local environment.

This article shares the authors’ reflections and experiences gained from a pilot study that was recently used in completing a larger qualitative educational research study on the challenges and opportunities for instructional leadership in inclusive secondary schools in Zimbabwe. Historically, pilot studies have not been reported. When interest in this area started to emerge, the focus was on quantitative research, especially in health-related disciplines. In recent times, there has been growing debate on the place of pilot studies in qualitative and mixed methods research. However, a number of questions still remain unanswered, especially in the area of educational research. One of the worrisome features of these questions seems to be the taken‑for‑granted assumption that once a researcher conceives of an educational research idea, they are automatically clear and specific on the onto-epistemological and methodological tools that may best be employed to answer the questions at hand. This view is reflected when, for example, the few writers on pilot studies generally specify a particular research approach, such as importance of pilot studies in quantitative research, importance of pilot studies in qualitative research, or importance of pilot studies in mixed methods research, and do not talk about the value of a pilot study in educational research learning as a search for a good theory-method fit. This article focuses on pilot studies in educational research learning in order to close this gap. The central theme in this article is that pilot-studying may itself determine, for example, whether a study should follow a qualitative, mixed methods or quantitative approach. It also determines the appropriateness of research tools for the task at hand. Specifically, pilot-studying helps especially student researchers to find an appropriate theory-method fit and thereby makes researching possible. Following a pilot study, educational research that was originally planned to be mixed methods research or quantitative research may end up embracing a qualitative approach and vice versa. Our desire to share reflections and experiences gained in completing the main PhD study which informs the current article, coupled with ongoing debates on pilot studies in educational research, inspired us to pen this article. The article contributes to scholarship by elaborating and adding new insights on the work of earlier writers on the important research practice of pilot-studying in educational research processes.   Received: 29 September 2021 / Accepted: 8 December 2021 / Published: 5 March 2022