From service to ethics: the enactment of ethical leadership through servant leadership in South African faith-based schools

This study explored how servant leadership enacts ethical leadership in South African faith-based schools, with particular attention to its contribution to building ethical school cultures and promoting positive learner discipline. Although servant leadership and ethical leadership have been widely studied as distinct leadership paradigms, limited empirical research has explored the relationship between these constructs within faith-based educational contexts in South Africa. Guided by an interpretivist paradigm, the study employed a qualitative phenomenological research design to explore the lived experiences of six principals purposively selected from faith-based secondary schools across three South African provinces. Data were generated through semi-structured interviews and analysed using Braun and Clarke's thematic analysis. Three interrelated themes emerged from the findings: servant leadership as the foundation for ethical leadership; ethical leadership in building ethical school culture; and servant leadership and ethical leadership in promoting learner discipline. The findings revealed that principals enact ethical leadership by demonstrating humility, stewardship, compassion, fairness, integrity, accountability, and service, thereby cultivating school cultures characterised by trust, collaboration, inclusivity, and shared responsibility. Furthermore, learner discipline was approached through restorative, values-based, and relationship-centred practices that emphasised character formation rather than punitive control. The study concludes that servant leadership provides a practical and sustainable framework for operationalising ethical leadership within South African faith-based schools. It recommends that leadership development programmes, school governance policies, and learner discipline frameworks intentionally integrate servant leadership, ethical leadership, and restorative practices to strengthen ethical school culture, learner development, and sustainable school improvement.