Leading schools amidst challenges : a case study of school principals' strategies for promoting student behavioral engagement in male secondary schools of Herat, Afghanistan

Abstract

Following the political power transition of August 2021, Afghan male secondary students have retained formal access to school, but under state-imposed conditions on dress code, appearance, and discipline, enforced by the Ministry of Education and the Wizārat-e Amr bil-Ma'rūf wa Nahī 'an il-Munkar (Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice). Research on Afghan education since 2021 has concentrated on the exclusion of girls; how school principals manage this altered landscape for boys, positioned between state authority and students' daily experience, remains understudied. This study explored the strategies principals in Herat Province male secondary schools used to sustain student behavioral engagement, how they interpret and implement dress code and disciplinary mandates in practice, and what challenges and contextual factors constrain their efforts. The study applied an interpretivist paradigm and an exploratory single case study design with three embedded units, following Yin. The bounded case comprised three government male secondary schools in urban Herat. Nine semi-structured interviews, one principal, one teacher, and one parent from each school, were conducted through encrypted online calls and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The Adaptive Buffering and Engagement (ABE) Framework, a study-specific synthesis of Adaptive Leadership Theory, Student Engagement Theory, and School Climate Theory, informed data interpretation. Three strategies were found. Principals relied on relational and paternalistic leadership, using advice and reassurance rather than threats to build an emotionally safer school environment. They also drew on families, community councils (Shuras), and mosques to monitor attendance and retain students at risk of dropping out. Finally, in the near-total absence of government funding, principals improvised material incentives, rewards, competitions, and basic repairs, using personal funds and charitable donations. These strategies did not appear to produce behavioral engagement. Across all three schools, students continued attending mainly to avoid being declared Mahroom, or formally disqualified after accumulating unexcused absences, rather than out of interest in learning. The study describes this pattern as surface compliance: attendance was sustained, but principals' strategies functioned more as tactics for keeping students enrolled than as means of fostering authentic behavioral engagement. Three contextual factors shaped what principals could do. Surveillance by the Ministry of Vice and Virtue left them with limited room for independent decision-making. Economic pressures, including child labor, a rise in uniform costs, and low teacher pay, narrowed their options. Community networks played a dual role. These findings point, tentatively, to a form of crisis leadership not fully captured by existing frameworks, one shaped by a threat originating from the state rather than from an external or non-state actor. The findings contribute to understanding educational leadership in constrained political environments and offer insights on schooling under conditions of state coercion.