Implementing educational reform—cases and challenges

Abstract

as a philosophy is captured in the Zulu/Xhosa saying Umuntu ngumentu ngabantu “A person is a person through other people”... In other words, I am what I am through the humanity of others’ (p. 60). Ngara’s philosophy of – and approach to – educational leadership is grounded in this notion of ‘I am what I am through the humanity of others’. From this perspective, leadership is not an honour gained through the conferment of a particular leadership role, but an achievement earned – in whatever assigned institutional, professional, or societal role one fulfils – through the practice of certain virtues: namely, generosity, hospitality, compassion, caring and sharing. These are the virtuous dispositions that shape true leadership. One of the central chapters of the book translates the notion of Ubantu into the idea of ‘servant leadership’. Some of the characteristics of ‘a servant leader’, suggests Ngara, are that ‘[s]ervant leadership comes first and leadership second’; that ‘servant leadership comes from the heart’ and that there should be consistency between what leaders do in private and what they proclaim in public; that ‘[t]he servant leader recognizes human potential and acts to bring out the best in people’; that [t]he servant leader seeks to empower other leaders and other people, not to control them’; and that the servant leader ‘is not only accountable to the present generation but also to past generations and, more importantly, to future generations’ (pp. 81–82). In the final chapter Ngara outlines the challenges facing African academics and educational leaders. These include the twin dangers of what he terms ‘colonizerlity’ (‘The colonizer has a predetermined attitude about the humanness, culture and mental capabilities of the colonized people which tends to express itself in the form of racism’ p. 202) and ‘nationalistic populism’ (‘This is the overvaluing of “the golden past” and turning a blind eye to the negative aspects of traditional culture’ p. 203). The colonial legacy has to be felt and understood in both the racist heritage of the coloniser and the attempts by the formerly colonised to forge a radically new and liberated heritage. The book ends with an appendix devoted to ‘reflection exercises for students and interested practitioners. These are helpful for any reader whomay wish to reflect further on the significance and implications of the book’s arguments but are particularly useful as a pedagogical resource within academic development and postgraduate teaching contexts. For comparativists, this is a book that affirms the importance of understanding across cultural and professional boundaries and that provides important insights into African perspectives on educational leadership.