Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to develop and explain an effective educational leadership framework for under-resourced secondary schools in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran, by repositioning financial stewardship as a foundational driver within a validated hierarchical model and enriching its interpretation through selected comparative evidence from India and South Africa. The study adopts a qualitative design based on the secondary analysis of a model originally developed through semi-structured interviews with 15 purposively selected educational experts. Interview data were coded into 40 indicators and 9 themes, refined through the Fuzzy Delphi method, and structurally organized using Interpretive Structural Modeling (ISM) and MICMAC analysis to identify hierarchical levels and driving–dependent relationships. To deepen the comparative interpretation, policy documents, official reports, and peer-reviewed studies on education financing in India and South Africa were reviewed, focusing on how resource governance shapes the sequencing of leadership interventions under scarcity. Findings indicate that financial stewardship functions as the deepest structural driver enabling downstream domains such as governance quality, teacher professional development, supervision, and school–community interaction, culminating in improved teaching and learning. While this hierarchical logic is evident across contexts, differences emerge in operational pathways: constrained fiscal autonomy and uneven resource distribution delay mid-level leadership functions in Iran and India, whereas targeted funding mechanisms in South Africa partially accelerate governance and teacher-support processes. The results suggest that in disadvantaged school contexts, strengthening transparent budgeting and equitable resource allocation should precede instructional reforms, offering a practical sequencing logic for policymakers and school leaders.