The continuous transformation in education globally and perpetual changes in the education landscape have had an impact on many facets of the organisational structure of education, leadership and education provision (Howard et al., 2019; Tintor´e et al., 2022). Although education change is difficult, it is crucial to adapt to worldwide change and needs. Considerable investments in education have been made by many countries, in the hope of school improvement. Despite the investments made, there is still a global concern that numerous schools are not functioning optimally and achieving required throughput rates.

Circuit managers (CMs) are uniquely placed to influence education reform, quality of education and school improvement. The CM is also known as the school inspector or superintendent. CMs have many challenges to deal with that are often beyond their control or mandate (Bantwini & Moorosi, 2018a; Myende et al., 2020). The numerous transformations in education have placed CMs under tremendous pressure, as they are accountable and responsible for the performance of the schools and learners in their circuit areas (Nkambule & Amsterdam, 2018). The support role of CMs has become an integral driver for transformation in schools. CMs should support principals in managing and leading their schools and ensure that principals are capacitated in dealing with many varying disparities (Bantwini, 2018a; Ndlovu, 2018). As such, CMS are central to the success of change initiatives in education. Unprecedented education changes have had an enormous impact on the expected support CMs need to give to principals (Arar, 2020; Kaul, 2021).

Multiple diverse factors influence the support that CMs provide to principals such as required training, context, geography, culture, socio-economic gap, unionised school environment, political interference and leadership of each school (Arar, 2020; Mthethwa, 2020; Myende et al., 2020; Przybylski et al., 2018; Tamadoni et al., 2021). Not all CMs are capacitated to effectively implement the required education changes and deal with school personnel and principals who show resistance to mandatory changes (Myende et al., 2020; Zulu  et al.,  2021). The findings of various studies show that CMs do not provide principals and schools with sufficient support (Bantwini & Moorosi, 2018b; Kaul et al., 2021).

There is an outcry from principals to be prepared, mentored, trained and developed to deal with education change (Bantwini & Moorosi, 2018b; Myende et al., 2020). The problem is that most education districts and CMs do not provide initiatives or opportunities for principals to be developed to deal with the challenging context in which they find themselves. The responsibilities of principals for ensuring continuous quality education and school improvement rely mainly on the leadership of the CMs in education districts to implement change. The significance of the CMs support to principals during education change cannot be overemphasised and need to be researched (Myende et al. 2020).

The significance of the CM in supporting principals, improving schools, and enhancing student learning is central to achieving greater educational transformation in diverse contexts. To assist CMs in dealing with multifarious factors and enable them to provide principals with effective and sustainable support, the researchers designed a support framework for CMs to support principals during education change.

The main research question: How can Circuit Managers (CMs) effectively execute their support to principals during education change, guided this research. The objectives were to determine multifarious factors that influence CM support, explore the experiences, expectations and needs of school principals pertaining to support provided by CMs; and design a support framework that can be implemented by CMs to support principals during education change. A conceptual and a theoretical framework was essential to anchor the research. Deming’s organizational change theory and Lewin’s theory of change and action (three-step change model) were used as the theoretical framework that underpinned the study. The theory and model were selected as the focus was on people and how elements within a system need to work together to bring about change and to deal with change. A qualitative approach with a phenomenological research strategy, embedded in an interpretive paradigm was regarded as suitable for this research. Phenomenological research allowed the researchers to gain insight into participants’ perceptions and lived experiences regarding the research phenomenon in their natural setting. Various steps were undertaken to unsure trustworthiness of the research, The chosen method of data analysis for this study was the inductive process of content analysis. The researchers obtained an ethical clearance number to conduct the research from the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Education of the North-West University and abide to all ethical regulations set out by the university. Permission was granted from the director of the Department of Education and the district directors. Consent forms were signed by all the participants. Purposeful sampling was used to sample participants in the research. The researchers used an independent district official in each district to select participants. The sample consisted of 17 participants: two CMs from each district and 13 secondary school principals from South Africa. Individual semi-structured interviews provided access to the participants’ perceptions, experiences, and practices. In these interviews the participating CMs and principals were probed with general and open-ended questions contained in a planned interview schedule. Conducting interviews allowed the researchers to collect in-depth, context-specific, ethical and case-sensitive qualitative data pertaining to the support of CMs to principals during education change. The phenomenological mode of inquiry aided the researchers in the development of a support framework for CMs to ensure the effective and sustainable support to principals during education change.

The provision of CM support to school principals are critical and cannot be ignored if principals are to succeed in their leadership role during education change. The support task of CMs is overwhelming, and CMs face many challenges and must deal with multifarious factors when supporting principals during education change. The success of principals and schools are dependent on the effectiveness of leadership and the ability of the CM to provide principals with support and navigate them through the turbulence of change in the context in which they work. The researchers found that principals were not effectively supported by CMs. The findings also revealed that principals needed context-relevant professional development and training, resources, motivation and guidance through CMs’ support actions, strategies and plans to enable them to deal with education change. The significance of this study is rooted in the contribution towards enhanced support by CMs to principals. The study addressed the influence of multifarious factors in the provision of CMs support to principals. The findings of the study can be used to guide officials in assembling policies regarding the provision of CM support during education change, as current legislation is vague and unclear on the role and responsibilities of CMs. The recommendations of the study can be employed by CMs to enhance principal leadership, school management, culture and climate in their districts and circuits. Enhanced CM support may also contribute to effectiveness, capability, management motivation and participation, as well as overall school performance. The body of knowledge arising from this study will assist education departments, education districts and especially CMs in using the support framework to support principals in challenging contexts and during education change.

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