Shuti Steph Khumalo1
Abstract
Research notes a significant rise in varied practices of abusive supervision within the
schooling context. Abusive leadership is a social justice dilemma which needs
sustained confrontation. This qualitative conceptual study provides a philosophical
exploration of the practices of abusive school leadership towards teachers with
dissenting voices. This paper takes a conceptual methodological approach and
deploys dominant social justice theories espoused by Miranda Fricker and Nancy
Fraser as underpinning lenses. Extant and established scholarly literature on abusive
supervision was identified and critically analysed. In its examination, the guiding
research question was: what are the attributes of abusive school leadership and how
do such leadership react to voices that are dissenting? This study is significant
because there seem to be inadequate scholarly and empirical contributions on
abusive school leadership practices towards teacher dissenting voices.
