In the Education Act 16 of 2001, the Namibian Ministry of Education makes provision for secondary learners to participate in decision-making. The Education Act specifically mandates that “every state secondary school must establish a body for learners to take part in school leadership” (Republic of Namibia, 2001:s. 60(1)). This provision is reinforced by the revised Education Act 3 of 2020, which stipulates that “schools must create appropriate spaces, platforms and an environment where learners meaningfully participate in school governance” (Republic of Namibia, 2020:s. 16(1)). Although learner leadership is broadly advocated, research shows that students are often excluded from genuine democratic participation and instead occupy tokenistic managerial roles. Class captainship is a prevalent form of learner leadership in Namibian and South African schools, yet it is largely unsupported by policy and underexplored in the literature. Despite its widespread practice, class captainship lacks formal recognition and guidance, limiting its potential to foster meaningful leadership and democratic engagement. This gap underscores the need for further research into class captainship as a legitimate form of learner leadership. Working from a critical premise and informed by the work of Engeström, in this article we draw from 2 theoretical constructs particularly relevant to this study, namely the change laboratory workshop (CLW) method and the expansive learning cycle. While CLWs provide a learning platform coupled with stimulus to activate participants’ understanding, the expansive learning cycle stimulates participants to begin expansive learning processes to improve the practice of class captainship. Moreover, expansive learning processes enable the development of generative solutions to problems identified during these workshops. Challenges such as a lack of support, policy frameworks, guiding documents, induction programmes, and training hinder the effective implementation of class captainship. In response, we initiated several school-based interventions, including the development of a guiding document, the facilitation of a workshop for class captains, and the introduction of annual election campaigns. The findings inform policymakers, school leaders, and education programme designers in developing formal policies and capacity-building initiatives to recognise and strengthen class captainship, particularly in Namibian and South African schools. Data were generated using a formative change laboratory method and analysed through inductive and abductive approaches within the framework of the cultural historical activity theory (CHAT). Inductive analysis of qualitative data from CLWs enabled the identification of themes and multiple perspectives, while abductive analysis offered contextually relevant theoretical insight (Van Hulst & Visser, 2025). We used CHAT as the primary theoretical lens to interpret the system of class captainship.

https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v46n1a2545

ORCiD iDs of authors:
Jacobina Taukondjele Nehunga - https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9956-2983
Farhana Amod Kajee - https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6269-0025