Middle-Tier Educational Leaders' Role in Implementing Inclusive Education in District West's Public Secondary Schools: A Qualitative Study
Keywords:
Inclusive education, middle-tier leadership, instructional leadership, distributed leadership, policy-practice gap, District West Karachi, SDG 4Abstract
Inclusive education remains a global priority (SDG 4), yet its implementation in low-resource settings is hampered by a persistent policy-practice gap. This qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study examines the role of middle-tier educational leaders—School Heads and Taluka Education Officers (TEOs)—in implementing inclusive education in public secondary schools of District West, Karachi. Semi-structured interviews with 15 purposively sampled leaders reveal that while these leaders express intrinsic commitment to inclusion, their effectiveness is severely constrained by administrative overload (63% of time on compliance tasks), chronic resource scarcity (education budget at 0.8% of GDP), and lack of practical inclusive education literacy. Thematic analysis identifies four core themes: (1) The “Missing Middle” as a strained intermediary; (2) Administrative burden versus instructional leadership; (3) Systemic scarcity and the “missing facilities” crisis; (4) Inclusive leadership fostering teacher agency. The study contributes to international discourse on middle-tier leadership by showing how decentralised autonomy, weighted funding, and context-specific professional development are prerequisites for translating inclusive mandates into classroom realities. Findings offer actionable policy recommendations for Sindh’s Vision 2026 and have implications for other developing countries facing similar implementation challenges.
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