African Philosophies of Education and Their Relevance to School Leadership in Africa: A Guide for Educational Systems and School Leaders

Abstract

Over the past few decades, significant research efforts have been devoted to establishing a relationship between African Philosophies of Education (APE) and School Leadership (SL). Such efforts have revealed how important African Union Philosophies of Education (AUPE) have been, or could be, in shaping School Leadership (SL) policies and practices. To achieve the above, this paper reviews contemporary literature on African Indigenous Education (AIE) and school leadership (SL) research. A descriptive and analytical interpretive approach is used to understand the methodological approaches used by existing research to redress an underdeveloped engagement with theory and practical claims from other studies. In so doing, we identify the salient values of these African philosophies of Education, bringing out their qualities as well as their limitations, and discussing ways in which they could be incorporated into the contemporary field of School Leadership (SL). This study proposes an epistemic theoretical framework to guide the delivery of African Philosophies of Education (APE) in School Leadership (SL) practice. Such a framework would be developed as part of the de-colonisation epistemic movement within the global south, noting that this movement has yet to be significantly felt in the field of educational leadership.