<b>The Collaboration Overpowers a Bull: Invitational Leadership Practices in Tackling Learner on Teacher Violence in Selected South African Schools</b>

Learner-on-teacher violence is a challenge in many countries, including South Africa. While there is a growing interest in researching school violence, most of the studies focus on violence among learners. There is a need for more studies on violence instigated by learners against teachers. Literature suggests that despite initiatives and policies against violence, schools continue to report its occurrence. Therefore, we can liken it to a rogue bull, requiring the collective force of the crowd to subdue it. The aim of this paper is to explore invitational leadership practices for tackling learner-on-teacher violence in two selected South African schools. With the lens of Invitational Leadership Theory (ILT) and Social Learning Theory (SLT), we adopted a qualitative approach and purposefully selected 8 participants: 2 principals, 3 department heads, and 3 teachers from the 2 schools. As understood from the invitational leadership theory, the findings indicated the importance of people, teachers, parents, and police in tackling learner-on-teacher violence. We also found that policies play a crucial role in sending invitational messages against learner-on-teacher violence. The paper discusses practice and policy implications. Keywords: Invitational, collaboration, leadership practices, Learner-on-teacher violence