225 Teacher Leadership and Professional Maturity: Responding To Support Needs of Novice Teachers in Historically Black Schools in South Africa DOI: https://doi.org/10.31920/2633-2930/2024/v5n1a10 Vuyisile Msila Professor: Public Leadership Studies Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs University of South Africa msilavt@unisa.ac.za Abstract Universally, as schools have become more complex, the need for effective leadership has been embraced. School principals, school management teams, parents, and communities all need to work collaboratively to improve the school's performance inside and outside the classroom. Assiduous school leaders will always magnify the professional development programmes for all their teachers if they are to sustain effective teacher practice and improve learner success. In this case study, eight novice teachers from two historically black primary schools described their teaching experiences through narratives. The school principals from both schools communicated models that enhanced teacher responsibility such as teacher leadership and the entrenching of professional teacher maturity. The results demonstrated that many novice teachers would like to be part of school growth and school leaders need to listen. The major conclusions demonstrate that meticulous school leaders would build their schools by finding ways of developing the professional maturity of their novice teachers who should be prepared to be teacher leaders from the beginning of their careers. Schools that seek improvements as they obviate Journal of African Education (JAE) ISSN: 2633-2922 (Print) ISSN: 2633-2930 (Online) Indexed by EBSCO, COPERNICUS and SABINET Volume 5, Number 1, April 2024 Pp 225 - 243