The role of current school leadership models in promoting African values: The impact on Botswana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe school leadership systems

Chikezie Ignatius Ugwu, Simangele Makore, Etlhomilwe Raditshego, Kaone Maboka and Nkobi Owen Pansiri

African Educational Research Journal
Published: September 7 2022
Volume 10, Issue 3
Pages 302-311
DOI: https://doi.org/10.30918/AERJ.103.22.049

Abstract

The heterogeneous nature of African society has led to increased demand for transformational leaders rooted in African values and ideology necessary for Africans to thrive in the 21st Century. This study explored the role of post-colonial school leadership (SL) models in instilling African values among learners. The original African meaning and purpose of leadership and the extent to which African school leadership systems instil African leadership values in learners were re-considered. The study adopted a qualitative research approach underpinned by interpretivism. It compared the perspectives of fifteen (15) participants purposively selected from three former British colonies namely, Botswana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Interviews were used to collect data that were analysed thematically and presented using verbal utterances. Findings showed that leadership in the traditional African context was characterized by humanism, collectivism and moral virtues. Leaders guided their followers to achieve their goals for the effectiveness of the communities’ excellence and integrity. It was established that, in addition to school leadership training which was rampant in pre-colonial Botswana, both Zimbabwe and Botswana gave the male and the female genders a shot at leadership while Nigeria paid lip service to gender balance issues. In the three countries, the current SL systems do not have properly designed and coordinated curricular models that develop African leadership values such as Ubuntu and Botho. This study underlines the need to strike a balance between Eurocentrism and Africanism in the current SL systems in Africa.

Keywords: Africanism, school leadership, Eurocentrism, Ubuntu, Botho.

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