Leadership is not about having the answers to all challenges but about creating ways for new answers to emerge. It is a balance between direction and control – with less emphasis on control and more on creating clear direction by inviting people to step up and share leadership. Such collaborative culture in Pakistani private schools practically does not exist in a fully functional form. Schools in Pakistan need a collaborative working environment where teachers participate in decision-making, principals share leadership responsibilities and facilitate teachers’ and parents’ involvement in schools’ affairs. The primary purpose of this mixed-methods study was to investigate the readiness of Pakistani private school leadership for the future implementations of appreciative leadership – which is a strength-based approach that continually focuses on capacity building, seeing possibilities and opportunities, building relationships, integrating, and reviving abilities, and enabling colleagues to grasp their potential. Furthermore, this study examines how social learning systems can contribute to the sustainability of appreciative leadership.

A survey was administered to a random sample of 550 school principals in the private sector within the nine districts of the Punjab province in Pakistan. Structural equation modelling (SEM) within a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) is used to ensure the reliability and validity of the survey questionnaire. In addition, semi-structured interviews with a purposive sample of 14 school principals were conducted in order to obtain an in-depth understanding of the current school leadership practice in private schools and the influence of religious beliefs and socio-cultural norms on leadership practices in private schools.

The findings revealed that school principals’ leadership practices align considerably with the principals of appreciative leadership. The research results indicate that some of the socio-culture norms have a significant connection with appreciative leadership., including features of contemporary school leadership in Pakistan that can support appreciative leadership. All these associations indicate the feasibility of the implementation of appreciative leadership in schools in Pakistan.

This research study makes an original contribution to the knowledge of the potential for the implementation of appreciative leadership in education in Pakistan. It contextualises appreciative leadership in the Islamic context of Pakistan and integrates consideration of societal, cultural, and institutional factors that support, or undermine, this form of leadership. This study makes a methodological contribution by adopting an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design and with development of a research instrument by combining the three different constructs to find the attributes of appreciative leadership. The research also examines the supporting role of social learning systems for appreciative leadership in creating a collaborative environment.