Producing Transformative Leaders in Africa through Education Pipelines

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to the draw the attention of national governments and educators to the escalating poverty of transformative leadership in African society. Governments need to invest in the development of effective leaders for every section, sector and strata in society to transform the continent. On the contrary, education pipelines in Africa are skewed to produce a few university graduates to take up apex leadership positions in society. Yet school dropouts become field leaders who play a critical role in local governance and national transformation initiatives without a leadership education. In this study, the researcher used deductive and inductive methods to thematically analyze current approaches to pedagogy and leadership education in Africa from published literature, academic journals and descriptive statistics. The author suggests that school teachers are in a unique position to reverse the trend of poor leadership in society by equipping students with life skills to resolve social-economic challenges in their circumstances. However, empowering teachers to successfully address this need will require a substantive review of the foundations, philosophy and objectives of national education pipelines. There is also a need to review education structures, curriculum design, teacher training, examination boards and develop supportive policy frameworks to produce transformative leaders for the continent.