Leadership Research Summary:
• The study explores African women school leaders’ constructions of their leadership identity. Using self-perception theory which sees changes in self-perceived leadership skills and dispositions as being related to changes in perceived leader identity, constructions of African women’s leadership identity are mapped over a life-long career. Leader identity is, in this sense, inextricably linked to gender and an attempt is therefore made to understand these leader identities as gendered. The paper presents an analysis of the interviews of three women selected from a bigger study of 89 school leaders from four countries in sub-Saharan Africa.
• The three narratives of women leader identity construction are drawn from three of the four case study countries. The narrative approach to data analysis reflecting women school leaders’ experiences of leader identity construction involved reading transcripts and coding them with themes characterizing the processes of becoming a leader and being identified as one.
• Findings suggest that processes of becoming a leader are influenced by women leaders’ experiences of early socialization that gave them ways of doing leadership as well as values and attributes that shape their approach to leadership. These women grew up with a strong perception of who they are, and this instilled a sense of agency that facilitates leaderful actions. These actions were then affirmed through their different stages of growth and career development, thus strengthening their leader identity. It is concluded that understanding women leaders’ experiences of leader identity is an important ingredient of leadership development.
Leadership Research Implications and Findings:
• While important aspects regarding leader identity construction within school leadership have been raised, it is noted here again that similarities between the countries in terms of practice, cultural background, and socio-economic conditions despite the per capita size of South Africa, made this analysis feasible. Although these countries may differ slightly in their gross domestic income, mainly because of their size and their sources of income (see OECD, 2019), the socio-economic conditions of the people on the ground are similar.
• At the time of study, South Africa had just completed its pilot study of a national leadership development programme, while there were no similar programmes in the other countries. Despite the sporadic presence of leadership development programmes in some universities in all countries, principals were appointed largely on the basis of their teaching experience as the literature has consistently shown (see Bush, 2020). However, the analysis of the three women’s narratives suggests that some cross-cultural learning is possible.
• First, this work offers some useful insights into African women’s leader identity construction and it has also opened more questions and suggested more avenues for further research in this area. An understanding of how leader identity construction can benefit women or translate into a focus on leadership development for women needs to be advanced. It is recommended that women be encouraged to reflect more on their leadership practice and acknowledge their leadership identity. It is mainly by perceiving themselves as leaders that they will identify their weaknesses and embark on growth and development processes that will make them effective as leaders. As previous research has shown, a strong leader identity leads to leadership effectiveness.
• Second, although African countries are known for their lack of formal leadership development programmes, this study suggests that individual countries need to invest in developing both existing and aspiring leaders, particularly women who have previously been excluded from leadership. Women are under-represented in all these countries and this is even more surprising for Lesotho that boasts a higher female literacy than the rest of them. While it may be desirable to suggest formal university programmes for leadership development, because of overburdened economies this may not be feasible. It is suggested that leadership development could be contextual and could be linked to an already existing repertoire of skills and dispositions within communities and schools. This can be realized by the development of policies that put provinces (in the case of South Africa) and districts into account.
• Third, for future research purposes, it is part of my role as a feminist researcher to be reflexive about the extent of the claims made, while allowing the study to open up questions for further research. It is acknowledged that the narratives in this paper were constructed from women leaders’ self-reports of identity construction. This analysis is based primarily on identity work which, by definition, involves self-perception and thus is in line with self-perception theory (Bem, 1972), particularly since it involves stories and narratives of women. However, involving others such as those who follow leaders would give insight different from that gained by interviewing leaders themselves; this could lead to further research.
• If leader identity construction is a collective process of claiming and granting as DeRue and Ashford (2010) have claimed, it follows that perspectives of the followers might add useful insights to our understanding of leader identity construction as part of leadership development. Indeed, Day (2011) asserted that “leadership is typically measured through the reports of others who have had a history of interaction and shared experiences with the target leader” (p. 565).