Professionalization of Educational Leadership for the Members of the Association of African Universities

Abstract

This study sets out to theorize and conceptualize internal stakeholders’ provision of Educational Leadership for the Members of the Association of African Universities (AAU). It reviews research materials, policies and modalities in developing educational leadership, African Philosophies of Education (APE) and interviews of university academic staff and students in measuring the success of professionalization of educational leadership. The purposive sampling technique of data collection is used to ensure representativeness and qualitative methodology, including the use of document-based content analysis in order to generate valid, reliable and rich data based on interviews with academic staff, administrators and students. The findings of this study will contribute to the deeper understanding of internal stakeholders’ provision of a decolonized Educational Leadership Curriculum (DELC) objective at Postgraduate Diploma, Master’s and Doctorate programmes in Educational Leadership is therefore proposed for African universities. This will enable education leader, schools and School system leaders to play a critical role in having a clear vision, the ability to communicate the vision to team members, the ability to organize in an effective and efficient manner, inspiring subordinates towards the fulfillment of the organization’s goals, and balancing the conflict of interest of all subordinates and stakeholders. The proposed leadership learning programs focus on the actual improvement of schools and the educational systems to achieve equity, diversity, social inclusion, peace, economic growth and prosperity. These leadership programmes will address the challenges of developing human capital and well-being, promoting employment and economic integration, governance, strategic management and democracy in the different African union countries.