Educational administration and leadership in francophone africa5 dynamics to change education

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Chapter 2

Educational Administration
and Leadership in
Francophone Africa:
5 Dynamics to Change Education
Boniface Toulassi
Regent University, USA

ABSTRACT
Educational administration and leadership (EAL) is the thermometer and the offspring of the national
political leadership. Thus, a realistic national political awareness and conscience becomes the navigational tool towards a rigorous and relevant leadership development for the professionalization of
school leaders and teachers, the specification and the quality of the students in a qualitative and relevant
education system which incarnates an absolute congruence between educational results and citizens
who fit the needs of the globalized village, their time, and countries. La voie par excellence for any
strategic, transformational EAL passes through an educational revolution with initiatives and reforms
that spearhead the de-politicization, the decolonization, the digitalization, and the internationalization
of education in Francophone countries through innovational education in a tripartite partnership: government, business leaders, and the civil society. Leadership development should become an executive
goal and project not an entertainment.

INTRODUCTION
Building on Educational Renaissance in Francophone Africa (Toulassi, 2013), this chapter points out
that the 5 cardinal and navigational points needed to rebirth EAL in Francophone Africa are the five
dynamics for change education such as the de-politicization and decolonization of the institution for its
democratization, digitalization, and its internationalization with a genuine promotion of female education,
all in a tripartite partnership binding the government, business leaders, and the civil society. Essentially,
if what is taught in schools today, determines how the future generations will behave, then EAL becomes
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0672-0.ch002

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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

the pillar of the overall development of a country, to keep up with globalization and to successfully lead
processes of change (Hallinger, 2003; Kayikçi & Ercan, 2013). Thus, school leaders and managers need
educational preparedness “for an interconnected and globally focused workforce and for global civic
responsibility” (Agnew, 2013, p. 184). The pathology of higher education in Africa, reveals a system
rarely innovative and barely functioning, given the executive negligence, lack of reforms and funding
that characterize the institution which holds the pedigree of national development. Thus the prescription highlights the necessity to “prepare students and school leaders for leadership roles in schools, and
thus, offer a key arena for transformation and development of future schools’ leadership” (Yemini &
Giladi, 2015, p. 424) to prevent higher education in Africa to remain largely peripheral internationally
(Alemu, 2014, p. 1).
African Higher Education faces challenges from both external and internal factors such as, from the
outside, the asymmetric partnership with the center and non-contextualized policy influence, and from
the inside, poor political resolve and incapable capacity and lack of a working system, given that teachers are left behind within the agenda of internationalization of higher education (Burkart & Thompson,
2014, p.1). In that perspective, the best medicine to cure the educational administration and leadership
deficiency and time-lag is to meet basic prerequisites - resuscitating the vocation of education, its innovation, digitalization, internationalization, more funding for education, the promotion of key local
regional languages – and provide school leaders with relevant EAL know-how through the practice of
democratic constructed leadership, a systematic and officially supported gender-balanced leadership
development which comes through the breaking the Apollo culture which promotes traditionalism and
autocratic leadership decisions.

ZOOMING THE CURRENT EDUCATIONAL SITUATION IN FRANCOPHONE
This section paints the issues, controversies, and problems facing the Francophone educational administration and leadership.

Educational Issues, Controversies, Problems
The sub-Saharan Africa regional ministerial conference on education post-2015, gleaning data from 22

countries indicated some of the greatest continuing challenges identified to achieving Education for All
(EFA) goals in Africa namely low enrollment rate of girls compared to boys in school, severe lack of
youth skills necessary for employment, and high drop-out rates (42% of African school children leave
school early). UNESCO listed the rapid increase in the number of students, brain drain, low course quality, difficulties in governance structures, financial constraints, a growing demand for higher education
to contribute more consistently to national development as the difficult challenges facing the higher
education. Also, to incorporate views of others, the researcher sent a questionnaire to 30 professionals
seeking master’s degree in Administration and Management in an African country. Only one student
responded. Though this qualitative research recorded a very low response rate (3.37%), the response
highlights how deep and widen the gap between education and professional life in one hand is and how
crucially disappointing educational systems are in another. The name of the respondent is initialized for
political reasons.

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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

I: Define educational administration in your words.
R: It is simply the management of a didactic material, teacher assignment and planning of different
exams. This is to say that this administration has no tool in place for the follow-up and the orientation of the individual students, no strategic and organic educational cell to find solutions to the
thorny questions evoked by the inadequacy between job and training.
I: Define educational leadership in your terms.
R: It is the managerial structuration of the educational system; a process which starts from the definition
of a vision to the out-put, students trained and built-up to respond to labor issues and problems,
organizations, and communities. This calls for training of trainers, relevant classrooms, and didactics.
I: How would you describe your educational environment?
R: I am in an evening Master Program in a private institution where the education is supposed to be
research and presentations. But I would say the school environment is very approximate.
I: If you were to make suggestions to your Minister of Education, what would you suggest?

R: The primary school is too long and I don’t see the necessity for the 4th grade (can be removed). Rather
use it for other purposes like studying English and practical; allowing students to choose literature,
mathematics, or science as core classes from 8th grade. Electives are to be kept but with lesser time.
From high school, practical should be a daily activity in laboratory and workshops. A follow-up
and orientation team should be established to monitor the progress of each student in each school
through a relevant software and program.
I: Given how slow internet is in your country, how would you introduce electronics (Ipad, tablet, computer) in education?
R: Yes, it is true that internet is an issue. However, the internet-speed is sufficient enough for school
works. The most important is to have the material accessible and affordable.
Developing EAL seems to become the antidote to the systemic alarming realities Innocent alluded to.
The corrective steps should start with a paradigm shift, a review of education as vocation and embracing
change education (Fullan, Cuttress, & Kilcher, 2005).

Education Is Vocation
Is it not true that teaching begins with what the teacher knows? No wonder Aristotle coined teaching as
the highest form of understanding. This aristotelian understanding contradicts the contemporary view
of teaching just as a routine, tacked on, something almost anyone can do; must be amended. As Boyer
(1990) underlined, teaching means that “the teacher is well informed and intellectually engaged because
teaching is also a dynamic endeavor involving all the analogies, metaphors, and images that build bridges
between the teacher’s understanding and the student’s learning” (p. 23). Tarman (2012) showed that
traditionally, student teaching has been seen as the bridge between theory and practice which enables
prospective teachers to transfer the necessary knowledge and skills gained at the university level into
actual teaching practice (Bell & Robinson, 2004; Britzman, 1986). In clear, teaching both educates and
entices future scholars. Teacher educators typically see prospective teachers’ initial teaching experience
as a time for them to examine nontraditional ways of teaching, to apply pedagogical content knowledge
learned on campus (Onslow, Beynon, & Geddis, 1992), to take risks (Chandler, Robinson, & Noyes,
1994), and to focus on the “why” of teaching rather than the “how” (Pape, 1992).

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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

Pajares (1992) argued that the initial and evolving beliefs and perceptions prospective teachers hold
about teaching as a profession, play an important role during this transition process which is to go back
to the why of education, its mission or vocation. For spiritually-informed teachers and educators, to train
character based-students, the connection with the divine deems necessary. Surpassingly, it is believed
that many who join teaching has the passion to transform society. If so, a conscious and logic examination would be to answer is if our regular pays have not taken the bid over the vocation of education?
Ezer, Güat, and Sagee (2011) raised more questions regarding the beliefs of prospective teachers about
teaching as a profession as they enter teacher education programs, how those beliefs and perceptions
are impacted by the field experiences they have in their program of study, and how prospective teachers
frame the concept of teaching as they enter or exit their programs of study. Arguably, Tarman (2012) said:
Regardless of what beliefs prospective teachers hold, one may wonder about the extent to which prospective
teachers’ initial beliefs are subject to change by the experiences they gain in teacher education programs,
especially those related to subsequent field experiences gained during teaching practice. (p. 1964)
Whether beliefs change over time or not, Collier (1999) and Cakmákci (2009) explained that the difference between entering beliefs and existing beliefs may be also due to the fact that prospective teachers
may not consider teaching “[as a] complex process that begins and ends with students” (Enerson, 1997,
p. 12), whereas field experiences give teachers the opportunity to think about and experience different
parts of classroom teaching. With the help of field experiences, teachers have a better awareness of the
complex dynamics of the classroom. Actually, reviewing researches on prospective teacher’ beliefs, Pajares (1992) and Richardson (1996) emphasized the importance of beliefs held by prospective teachers
before entering a teacher education program, highlighting four important issues regarding prospective
teachers’ beliefs such as beliefs about teaching are well established by the time a student reaches college,
changes in beliefs during adulthood are quite uncommon, and when changes in beliefs take place, they
occur as a result to a “conversion” from being a student to being a teacher. Finally, these prior beliefs
about teaching come from personal experience, schooling and instruction, and formal knowledge (Pajares,
1992, p.14). How to get back what is lost?
Theodore Roosevelt knew how tremendously beneficial education is to a nation when he argued that
to educate a man in mind and not in morals is to educate a menace to society with the morality referred
to being foundationally that of the Bible. Though nobody would normally question the validity of the

impact of religious values and choices on positive and good citizen behaviors, a very prominent leader
diagnosed the problem from a totally different angle: education. In the same stand, Abraham Lincoln, the
sixteenth president of the USA, foresaw that what is taught in schools determines how future generations
will behave. With this claim, there is no better way to establish and prove the deterministic outcome of
education on social behavior and the connection between education and social morality and worth? Was
Sonia (2012) right to affirm that a man without education is no more than animal? Is it not true that state
and human development depend, primarily, on the quality of education? Robinson (2001) answered:
Going to school is about more than just gaining an academic education. As the major public institution
in the lives of children and young people, schools also have a responsibility to contribute to their development into well-adjusted, independent and successful adults who can contribute positively to both the
economy and to society. In light of this broader role, the social aspect of schooling is just as important
as the academic one. (Robinson, 2001, pp. 17-18)

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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

Recognizing that education is more than just getting a diploma for jobs only but a calling, then,
education programs begin with who they prospective teachers are and what beliefs they bring to their
training. These questions are vital to the educational end-result which is “to form a balanced human
being in a harmonious and plenary way” (Robinson, 2001, p. 18). In other words, the basic requirement
for education is not the intellectual baggage nor academic prowess only, but the morality they left the
school with, the formed character needed for nation building and societal transformation. The above
questions centralize the discussion on the ‘why’ of education? For Griswoid (2013), there are three elements, which, woven together, can create green jobs that will serve society in significant ways. They
are workforce development, science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education; and
community education for sustainability. Griswoid’s list lacks the foundational cement that holds them
together: morality about which Biesta (2011) argued that:
Instead of understanding education as having to do with the production or promotion of a particular
kind of subjectivity, we should think of education as being interested in how new beginnings and new

beginners come into the world. Our educational interest into human subjectivity should then have a
template, without a pre-defined idea about what it means to be and exist as a human being; if not education and teaching in America might be only trying to overcome a humanistic determination of human
subjectivity. (p. 313)
The expression ‘coming into the world’ draws inspiration from Arendt’s (1977a), ideas on action, for
whom, to act means to take initiative, to begin something new. Having characterized human being as
an initium, a “beginning and a beginner” (p. 170). Arendt (1977b) argued that to begin something new
takes responsibility, defined in terms of political presence, not in legal nor moral terms. Political presence requires “both acting and belonging that is as consisting of actions actualizing a given and there,
therefore apolitical fellowship” (p. 39). The latter calls for citizenship education, which, comes through
educating for citizenship, citizenship education, teaching citizenship, education of citizenship, citizenship instruction (among others) and their word stems (to account for tenses and variations). The bottom
line for Hytten (2009) would be a rethinking of democracy which can help respond more productively
to the challenges of globalization even if Dewey maintained that “democracy is much more than a political system; instead it is a personal way of life, a mode of associated living, and a moral ideal” (p. 395).
To develop citizenship education and the prerequisites of educational administration and leadership,
education needs innovation.

Educational Innovation as Innovational Education
Educational innovation fits the need that education in Africa is traditionally and nationally oriented it
is traditional in that there is heaviness on changing (O’Connor & Zeichner, 2011); it is national because
the national culture and leadership transfers its DNA to EAL who transports it to the system and the
students. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, what to change is not the school leaders only, but rather the national and individual culture. For the latter to change, it has to be exposed to another culture, adapt it,
and apply it. Then, since school administrators are required to lead the staff and students, interacting
with local and national governmental supervisors is necessary to manage public relations, finance, academic performance, cultural and strategic planning, and relations with the external community within
the increasing global world (Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Waklstrom, 2004). So the change would
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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

come from many sources, not just the “usual suspects” – superintendents and principals. Since the roles
of school managers and leaders can be politicized, there should be a widespread interest in improving

leadership as a key to the successful implementation of large -scale reforms.
A leadership that only has its greatest impact in classroom instruction is not a productive response
to both external policy initiatives and local needs and priorities, and to how those practices seep into
the fabric of the education system, improving its overall quality and substantially adding value to the
students’ learning. Therefore, educational innovation tailgates on minimizing nationalism (nation) over
cosmopolitanism (world), and transnational or transcultural categories and values, thereby legitimizing discourses and practices that transcend the nation (Yemini, Nissan & Shavit, 2014). Strategically,
innovational education would consist of moving from theoretical approaches to practical and deductive
approaches. This is breaking the lack of self-confidence, fear of criticism and failure tendencies to conformity with others and lack of mental focus, lack of awareness from benefits of collaborative administration and overcoming activities to collective activity, lack of providence skills and lack of readiness
to encounter with future situations. Linking theory and practice calls for linking quality to quantity by
sending prestigious students to prestigious universities in the field. This cleanses the system and policies
from familism, which is the allegiance toward family or fulfill family roles to a greater extent than do
other ethnic groups, which emphasizes the family over the individual showing respect for elders, and
honoring the family name (Schwartz, 2007, p. 102).

More Funding for Education
Africa loses an estimated 20,000 skilled personnel a year to developed countries, (Chabasseur, 2010)
indicated that in very calamitous conditions, many teachers and professors prefer to go to USA, Morocco
and England or Anglophone Africa for better pay and job. Students follow the same dance since immigration to France is becoming more and more complicated (Chabasseur, 2010). In a nutshell, French Africa
experiences a lot of brain drainage. Funding educational materials and curricula in local languages deem
critical with the aim that the educational de-politicization also invites educational leaders and actors to
reconsider educational expenses than their political expenses and ambitions. Lange (2007) recalled that
Francophone educational system lives on foreign finances which supports Bianchini’s (2004) diagnosis
that, school is a forgotten institution by political African leaders and analysts.

Promoting Local Languages
Since early eighties, Ki-Zerbo (1979) suggested the decolonization of education and endogens educative modes that will valorize African cultures in order to really break from colonial schema through the
promotion and the teaching of local languages. This proposal does not undermine the colonial language
which, was useful to bridge all the multiple languages, dialects that are there in the region. Being colonial, the education system depreciated orality and verbalization. Precolonial education was exclusively
and essentially oral, with orality being Ong’s (2002) “technologizing of the word,” whereby the sounded
word means power and action with memoires as the database or the archives of the whole knowledge

and wisdom of a people group. Espousing Saussure’s (1959) linguistics, writing should be “a kind of
complement to oral speech, not as a transformer of verbalization” especially that writing “has simultaneously ‘usefulness, shortcomings and dangers” (p. 23-4). The domestication of oral modes of thought and

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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

expression by written modes has limited the dissemination of education. Education should become oral
not orality becomes educated. To that end, educational transfer from one context to another “not only
occurs for different reasons, but also plays out differently” (Steiner-Khamsi, 2004, p. 202). This undertaking supports the premise that globalized education does not automatically imply or require uniformity
among all motivations regarding and implementation of internationalization (Anderson-Levitt, 2003).
Ki-Zerbo also recommended an equilibrium of school population between areas, cities, and villages.
But still, Chabasseur (2010) observed that 60% of students are in urban areas whereas in rural areas about
100 students learn from only 1 teacher. With French being used in schools whereas the students speak
local languages at home, other crucial problems are low teacher quality, inadequate facilities, unsteady
cooperation with industry, ineffective learning and poor performance management, private institution
are jeopardizing the educational arena of African countries. Vocational learning termed by UNESCO as
a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is a means whereby governments and international institutions are paying increasing attention to, and known to be one of the eight priority areas in
the African Union’s second decade of education (2006-2015), is enhancing the ability of the learner as a
member of the public in conducing reciprocal relationship among the social environments, the ability of
learners to develop themselves in line with the advancement of science, technology, and the arts; preparing learners to enter the work field and to develop a professional attitude allows personal excellence in
the nation which determines superiority of a nation in today’s era of globalization (Saliruddin, Syamsul,
& Husain, 2014, p. 32). The promotion of local languages goes with the de-politicization of education.

De-Politicization of Education
Duru-Bellat and Zanten (1992) observed that the sociology of educational stake in Francophone Africa
is not only a place where individual actors meet but also “a political space because the educational
institution is invested by external and internal groups mainly the central State in a very strategic optic

that is with projects aiming to transform its functionality (p. 9). This pre-colonial factuality made Francophone education an incarnation of political wings so that, in the contemporary so-called independent
states, schools and teachers simply represent the means to social and political ends. Bianchini (2004)
purported that it was in colonial times, school crises are also known to be structural crises which, are
determined by heavy factors (demographic, economic, cultural…and demonstrations). The structural
crises are followed by crisis in the teaching systems, then evenemental crisis, etc. To this end, Mazzocchetti (2006), argued that “When you observed how students fight, it is political. It is because they don’t
like the political system that they demand certain things and want a change” (p. 84).
The magazine Courrier International (2012) explained that when the number of student strikes is
higher than 50% of normal hours of class, the school year is invalidated: no exams, no diplomas. Some
countries have two to three années blanches (Lange, 2007) and années blanches (White years) simply,
means, that students have not been able to go to school or class for a whole academic year (at least 7
consecutive months) because of political crises, social demonstrations or security concerns; revealing
the intrinsic relationship that primarily exists between state and education. Making education a political instrument is a historic process as proven by Bianchini. This is another vital reason that explains
the necessity to decolonize the Francophone education. Another reason is how contrary the French
anthropology is to Anglo-Saxon anthropology (Copans, 2001), with this thematic of acculturation remained absent in the classic French anthropology. To cure this well-known and diagnosed disease, the

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philosophy of education is to explain and teach education as vocation and leadership as calling in order
to break away with Balandier’s (1982) colonial situation and its double culture, and a double historical
reality which prevails.
Vaccinating teachers against the colonial double-culture virus would immunize the system against
double standardization, which is one education for strong and rich people, and another for poor and disfavored people), and help embark on transformational policies, curricula, and management. Decolonizing education is also justified by the strategic and genius colonial intention to sap moral ingenuity and
creativity. For fact, the academic colonialism or the academic imperialism (Alemu, 2014), was proven
incapable to help transcend any historically geographical demarcations instead of ethnic clashes and
wars through morality and character-based politics. Clignet (1967) affirmed, “if the attitudes of students
from different ethnics are still distinct, one can notice that such a diversity characterize other social

environments (a part from the school) as well” (p. 378). Decolonizing Francophone education does not
only bring educational development but necessary for a real cultural revival of Black Africa and her
economic development (Brochier, 1965). Strategically, decolonizing education is working intensively
and afrikologically toward the abrogation of the colonial language. Moumouni (1964) argued that “after
a deep analysis of the traditional educational system, then the colonial educational system, there are
some gaps in the current educational policies still largely inspired by the former colonizer” (p. 339).

Bridging Educational Ideals with Professional Ordeals
Education is very dense and very filling. Citizens are being taught the whole world. The teaching is rigorous
and evaluations are not a joke. Though this makes us well cultivated and knowers of almost everything,
it poses a high problem of specialty needed to be a master of a specific job. (H.K.E. Innocent, age 41)
Innocent’s viewpoints credit UNESCO’s equation on the ‘quality of education’ especially that Chabasseur (2010) observed that in francophone countries, the schooling system remains irrelevant to the current realities of the world and to the evolution of African communities in almost all African countries.
Came as to save the situation the technical, professional or vocational training, supposed to be the spare
wheel of the system lacks more nutrients than the existing official schools. Pigozzi (2006) saw the need
for a new approach to understand the private education because “its traditional meaning is no longer
adequate for the merging educational needs of the new millennium…the kind of education that is being
offered in many school systems is no longer pertinent to the societies in which we live” (p. 39). Time
has come to rethink the concept more comprehensively, particularly in regard to the understanding of the
need to focus on ‘learning’ in the twenty-first century. Time is now to place and understand education
in terms of a larger context that reflects learning in relation to the learner as an individual, a family and
community member, a citizen and as part of a world society (Pigozzi, 2006, p. 42). This wake-up call
echoed the truth that today, all students are required to achieve the level which enables them to study
on a higher level and be prepared for lifelong learning. The real aim of school should be “to build the
world, which cannot consist in a mechanical reproduction of the established conditions but rather in
consistent reconstruction so that as many individuals as possible could enjoy access to education and
have a chance to live with dignity” (Fullan & Crevola, 2006, p. 86).
In that light, Francophone Africa has to answer the burning question “What is school for?” Educational leaders know squarely well that “schools respond both to change in society and are themselves
agents of change. The way in which schools educate children influences the role that those children will
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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

play in the world of tomorrow” (Robinson, 2011, p. 18). In a nutshell, education is both a product of,
and reflection of the society. Whilst education may have facilitated social mobility, it has not increased
social fluidity. This is because the influence of class in society is not completely mediated by education
(Robinson, 2011). Thus, a crucial but problematic way forward is the digitalization of the education.

Digitalizing Education
For a teacher to come, every evening, from 60 kms away by motorbike to my visiting lectureship in
Lomé, Togo, West Africa (November 2015) at the Advanced School of Administration and Management
(ESAG-NDE), from 6m-9pm local time, speaks volumes to the urgency of the integration of information
technology into education which is Web-Based Education (WBE). With the application of web technology, learning activities can be easily conducted by learners anytime and anywhere that felt secure by the
learners. The limited space, distance and time is no longer a complicated problem to solve. In a sense,
though Vargas (1992) confidently affirmed that one of the new forces of science and technology is information and communication technologies and their networks which have profoundly revolutionized
the modes of interaction in research, education and business, the access to these technologies requires
investment in telecommunication systems which are currently beyond the reach of a vast number of poor
countries, thereby posing the risk of further enhancing growing education and information gap between
them and the rest of the world,
It is known that all that glitters are not gold. Likewise, the digitalization of education poses the
problem of instructional differences reported in three areas: the instructor-student interaction (the extent to which learning is observed or measured in real time); second, the learner interaction (the extent
to which ideas and information are exchanged between and among students); and third the attendance
(the extent to which students are motivated and accept responsibility for learning). (Kowalski, Dolph,
& Young, 2006, pp. 29-30). Saliruddin, Syamsul, and Husain (2014) argued that e-learning must have
many characteristics such as, just in time means available to students when they need the Internet to
accomplish their tasks and exercises. The web-based learning “brings learning to the learner rather than
to students learning” (p. 35). In a sense, the digitalization of francophone education should account for
Kowalski et al. (2006) four motives for choosing online courses: convenience, cost savings, flexibility,
and instructional preference. Factually, La Rocque and Latham (2003) claimed that adopting e-learning

in Africa will increase education access and quality, as well as lower education cost.

Internationalization of Education
Dale and Roberston (2003) noted that “[f]ormal education is the most commonly found institution and
most commonly shared experience of all in the contemporary world” (p.7). The internationalization of
the African education is not anything new but a useful reminder, that, Africa is one of the continent
whose higher education has been connected to the Western system through the colonial bond established
since the 18th century (Alamu, 2014). In sort, higher education institutions in Africa “were therefore
internationalized from an earlier period” (p. 3) but called a primitive “academic colonialism” and “academic imperialism” (Hans & Jooste, 2014). Thus, internationalization of African education must not
only start with its decolonization and depoliticization but also the de-traditionalization of the meaning
of the term. Thus, the initiative is positioned here at two levels: those who affect the level of the learner
and those that affect the level of the education system. To be effective, this work negated the first three
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conceptualization of internationalization namely the traditional description as interdisciplinary programs,
the second view as the interaction of domestic students with students and faculty of/from other nations,
the third conceptualization as the technical assistance which US institutions offer to other countries to
land on the fourth which calls to reform higher education to prepare people to function in an increasingly
international and culturally diverse environment. This is the infusion of international and cross-cultural
information throughout the curriculum (Mamrick, 1999) under the stronger and broader influences of
phenomenon of globalization. Essentially, the internationalization of education may incur a process of
integrating an international, intercultural, or global dimension in the purpose, functions or delivery of
postsecondary education (Altbach, Reisberg, & Rumbley, 2009). It also includes a wider range of academic
related activities such as student and staff mobility, internationalization and harmonization of curricula,
quality assurance, and inter-institutional cooperation in teaching-learning, research and community
services (Vught, n.d.). In sum, the internationalization of education in Francophone Africa will be to

move from localized to internationalization education if, internationalism as an educational phenomenon
still represents desirable situation in the light of technological and cultural developments (Dimmock &
Walker, 2000). With these prerequisites, school leaders need EAL development and implementation.

SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Educational Administration and Leadership Know-How
Kowalski et al. (2006) argued that educational administration and leadership have to have a plinth namely
beliefs, goals, ideas, national and globalized cultures. These items can be grouped into educational environment, a key determinant of the effectiveness of a learning program. A good environment nurtures
motivated students, polishes their talents and bring out their best. Educational environment (EE) is connected to educational climate (EC), which is an amalgation of the physical, emotional, and intellectual
environment that has the most impact, and consisted of the supervision rendered to the students, the
learning opportunities available and guidance plus encouragement given by colleagues and supervisors.
EC “determines the expertise of its students and affects both the quantity and quality professionals produced and also influences their performance” (Hashim, Razikin, Yusof, & Rashid, 2015, p. 407). The
next section covers educational leadership.

Educational Leadership (EL)
Even as leadership concept can be defined with theory, historical, and practical approaches in 50 different ways (Glasman & Glasman, 1997), this chapter viewed EL of a country as the offspring and/or the
victim of the national political leadership of that country. Inherited traditionally, succession has become
“an institution due to the fact that Africans are used to it and also it serves social needs” (Ake, 2000, p.
75) in modern Africa, where then, it is important to find a blend in order to avoid endless jarring notes
that generate deep crises and hamper the development of these countries. This singular heroic leadership
actually hinders instructional improvement in schools and reinforce an individualistic, dominant notion
of leadership (Elmore, 2000). To transform schools’ leadership, leadership must move beyond what
the principal, alone, can accomplish (Galloway & Ishimaru, 2015). The goal is to provide an equitable
education for an increasingly diverse student population. The new EL should be embedded in leadership
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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

for equity, where each high-leverage practice entails enacting conceptions of leadership that call for the
sharing of power and authentic and democratic participation in organizations, rather than an individualistic or hierarchical conception (Anderson, 2009; Marshall & Oliva, 2010; Ryan, 2006; 2014). Such
democratic, collective, and distributed leadership is enacted across an organization and within multiple
role (Ogawa & Bossert, 1995). This development is articulated as a shift from “entity” conceptions of
leadership (embodied exclusively in formal positions or particular individuals) to a relational, “constructionist” perspective on leadership, where the work of leadership is a process of social construction
mediated through practices, meanings, and interactions among people over time (Ospina & Sorenson,
2006). For sustainable reasons, Banoğlu (2011) thought of an inquiry-embedded leadership which is to
hold school leaders accountable for using processes of inquiry and continuous improvement. This culture
of inquiry is critical for surfacing and addressing school inequities.

Educational Leadership Development (ELD)
For school leaders to be effective and efficient, educational administrators and leaders need leadership preparedness, being ready for the “what if”? Because Africa is a developing continent, leadership
preparedness should also comport preparedness for rural practice, rural culture, and rural community
leader. The latter includes challenges like self-management of lack of anonymity as someone ‘under the
magnifying glass,’ and matching one’s needs, interpersonal style and priorities to a suitable community
(Woloschuk, Crutcher, Szafran, 2005, p. 5). Rural culture appears to reflect the core of the small town
way of life. ELD preparedness is crucially vital as it represents the vaccine or the antidote to autocratic,
self-centered educational administration and leadership. Knowing that leadership development is different
from leader development (Day, 2014) with the former focusing on developing the organizational human
capital and the latter the developing of the social capital, the social networking, the new Francophone
ELD would be about developing a good leadership which is “the combination of leader development and
the development of the leader” (p. 4) in addition to building organizational capacity and using collective
power of the group to define and take action (Galloway & Ishmaru, 2015, p. 390). This preparedness
should align with a set of equity standards, focused not only on developing or assessing a candidate’s
individual skills and knowledge, but also Ryan’ s (2014) questions related to who participates in decision making and How do community members participate, etc. Tese leaders should be involved into
expansive learning which is collective learning activity – as community learners – situated in a particular
context and focused on the work of transforming and creating new cultures and practice (Engeström,
1995; Nicolini, Mengis, & Swan, 2012; Wenger, 2000).
Cowie, Jones, and Harlow (2005) argued that leadership including a vision for change and planning
for action to implement this vision is crucial in any educational change. Timperley (2005) said that this

leadership is something that is exercised by one individual is slowly being replaced by a view of leadership
that is distributed across multiple people and situations. Elmore (2002) carefully located the authority
and responsibility for improving teaching and learning “in the daily work of all those connected with the
enterprise of schooling” (p. 377). When the goal is sustainable, systemic innovation and change, individuals at all levels of the education sector/system need to provide leadership for change and they need
to work together to promote and support change (Copland, 2003; Fullan, 2003; 2005). Locally, Cowie
et al. (2005) supported that “any interpretations made and actions taken, will depend on the interaction
between the policy, knowledge, beliefs, and current practices of the organizations and individuals, and
the setting, which of itself has been shaped by responses to previous policy initiatives” (pp. 49-50).
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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

Because “Leadership is an essential aspect of an educator’s professional life” (Lambert, 2002), educators and policymakers alike seek a framework for instructional leadership that will produce sustainable
school improvement. Leadership capacity development provides such a framework by adopting Lambert’s
definition of “leadership capacity” as broad-based, skillful participation in the work of leadership in
schools where learning and instructional leadership becomes fused into professional practice. Factually, regular forums should be established where principals and teachers, as well as many parents and
students, “participate together as mutual learners and leaders in study groups, action research teams,
vertical learning communities, and learning-focused staff meetings” (Lambert, 1998). The link between
fear and education should be broken.

Removing the Culture of Fear
Despite compelling evidence to the contrary, Sullo (2009) affirmed that many teachers still believe
that fear—fear of failure, fear of an unwanted call home, fear of the teacher, fear of ridicule, or fear of
an unpleasant consequence—is a prime motivator for students to do high-quality work. Contrary, fear
compromises the ability to learn, undermines teacher’s capacity to inspire high achievement by creating a classroom environment infused with fear. Thus, educational leaders must face the culture of fear
(Palmer, 1998) although it involves the necessity to question the traditional approach to interpersonal
relations in the professional context. It is said that there is no evidence that threats are an effective way
to meet long-term academic goals (Mazurkiewicz, 2009a). Unfortunately, it is a derivative of what happens outside school. Mazurkiewicz prioritized educational leaders’ assignments arguing:

The priority of educational leaders will always be to support students in learning and teachers (or
other people) in teaching. He/she cannot - teach for them. He/she must know how to make people learn.
The best approach to school management is to treat that process as similar to the process of teaching.
The school should become a learning community where everyone – including teachers, administrative
and auxiliary staff as well as leaders – can learn and everyone does it. Being the leader means above
all making people aware of what they want and not what they should. I will show below in what ways
educational leaders may strengthen the process of learning and teaching through concentrating on
particular aspects of that process. (p. 89)

Gender-Balanced Educational Leadership
The socialisation of women into gendered roles is argued to corrupt their views so that no trust can be
placed in their accounts of their experience and their depictions of a valued present or future (Choi,
2006; Lather, 1997; Nussbaum, 2003). From a putative position of cultural superiority and mistrust of
women’s own views, Lumby (2013) argued that “a logical sequitur is to impose liberation” (p. 434). If
the African Proverb, “When you educate a boy, you educate one person; but if you educate a girl you
educate a family, and a whole nation,” is true, then ‘using knowledge to create social change’ (Small,
1995, p. 946) should become the metric for gender-balanced leadership whereby women are unhemmed
from patriarchy to have equal rights, which is the prerequisite for Education for All Females (EFAF):
Logically, if one has misdiagnosed a problem, then one is unlikely to prescribe an effective. I was eight
years old when I heard about going to school for the first time. A girl, to school? That is doomed to

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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

nothing [grandma shouted out that evening]. A girl is made to work in the kitchen or farms, but never
to school. (Matip, 1958, pp. 17-18)
Education is the solution to this female subjection under the political authority of a village head, not

bad in itself, except that it became an instrument for down degrading women with the only right to reside
in a village and cultivate its land which is contingent on obedience to the village head and conformity
to custom (Mill, 1968, p. 29). This explains the scarcity of women in top leadership. Even, few women
who rose steadily through the ranks eventually crashed into an invisible barrier, they couldn’t just break
through the glass ceiling. If this is the situation in industrialized nations (Eagly & Carli, 2010, p. 439),
the situation in Africa hinges on the traditional perceptions there is.
Comparing Mill’s (1968) and Eagly and Carli’s evidence regarding the leadership positioning of
African women would be to highlight how Africans perceive female leadership using the sample of the
Ewes people group in Togo, West Africa. This expansion is validated by the reality that traditional cultures
are similar along the Atlantic West coast of Africa (Hale, 2004a; 2004b). Unless these implicit theories
are changed, the scarcity of women in EL would be a vestige of prejudice and the navigation towards
gender balanced leadership education and practice would remain utopic and vague. Table 1 presents the
general perception of female leadership in the Ewe society (an extension of general traditional African
view of female leadership).
Table 1. Ewe perception of female leadership (Toulassi, 2015, pp. 193-194)
Male Perception

Female Perception

1

God created women to serve but never to be chief of a village.
That law must be revoked: “It is like a gun been brought and
placed in our hands.” It is not in our traditions like in Ghana
where chieftaincy is matrilineal. Never, will there be a female.
A woman cannot be a chief for she is a girl, and will marry
elsewhere. In consequence, making her a queen or chief does not
make sense. (Anonymous)

Men don’t want women to be promoted and many do not

understand women assertiveness and development. Some men
don’t want women to be seen, become visible. This explains
why do not encourage female leaders … without women, men
could not do much. (Queen Mother Agbenowabu II, age 60)

2

We cannot say women cannot or do not become traditional
female notable nor leaders. That thinking is archaic, for in those
days, female responsibilities existed. Nowadays, because things
are changing and we called it: le monde à l’envers [a world
upside down]. But women are becoming traditional chiefs.
(Afagnan canton traditional Chief Chaold III, age 57)

Women were not considered nor associated to decisionmaking processes and settings. She should be in the kitchen
… When my husband became chief, he initiated female
participation in the college of notables in the palace. (Obim,
Lolan chief’s wife, age 54)

3

We want you to learn that beating a woman is forbidden in this
kingdom;
it is not a courageous behavior either. (Lolan Notables, Aneho,
Togo)

A woman can lead because they study just like and advance
just like men do. They have qualities and can surely lead
except that they are afraid though they may have leadership in
their blood. For instance, madame Adjamagbo Ameganvi is a

leader and her actions prove it. She can lead if she so wishes.
(Essenam, age 30)

4

The Notsie Declaration stipulates that women should have equal
sharing in parental heritage. Widow age is to be improved and
reviewed. (MC, personal communication, January 24, 2015)

Women should become traditional chiefs because women do
better than some men. God gave women intelligence. (Akuvi,
age 51)

5

A woman can be chief because she is also created by God and
God uses each uses each of His creature the way He wants. God
can give a woman the capability to lead if she fears God. It all
depends on how humble she is, her self-respect and reactions,
and the way she talks in public (Aziakpati, age 49)

No more should women be at the fringes of society. They are
competent as men. (Koboyoh, age 32)

6

What can a women do? (Koutoukpa Elders)

Without women, men do not do much. (Queen Mother,
Agbenowabu II, age 60)

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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

Though the Koutoukpa elders challenged their queen mother about her leadership capabilities and
competences, women know that without them, “men do not do much.” In clear any leadership education
void of female education and assertiveness is a colonization in itself, even if justified by customary and
ritualistic practices and ceremonies. Thus, female maximization would be to join traditional female leaders
(for instance queen mothers, growing in their number in Togo, West Africa) in their fight against female
discrimination, stereotyping, and education for all females like Nwapa (1966), the first Nigerian female
writer insisted that females have the right to go school no matter what the world around thinks and does:
It is a good thing you are sending her to school. But it is a waste sending them to school you know …
boys should be given preference if it comes to that. If you had a little brother for instance and there is
just enough for the training of one, you wouldn’t train Nkoyeni and leave the boy. (p. 191)
Nwapa’s projection into the future echoed the heartbeat of this queen mother (Toulassi, 2015, pp. 188-9)
First of all, Enyᴐ be gbetᴐ ɖesiaɖe neyi suku ne wᴐanya naɖe [It is profitable that every human being
goes to school to learn something], for education enlightens a lot. Because I am educated, when I am
with Togbuis, I am not afraid. I am enlightened and may say no if they do or decide something wrong
or bad. The most interesting part of it is they know what I am capable of. The quality of interpersonal
relationships that I built and maintained with male leaders does not depend on a very well appreciated
social and marital life only, but education. This is the reason why women are not visible. Education
enlightens women leaders to be confident among fellow traditional leaders. Schooling took the fear away
. . . Education enabled me to refuse some of male decisions. I proved that where there is woman, things
go well. So, time has come for women to be political and say their words. We don’t want politicization
but women committed to leadership development, female education, in brief developing women who will
become members of official and important decisions making processes and frameworks, and to occupy
key positions. (Queen mother, Agbenowabu II, age 60)

The quotes are sounding trumpets that it is high time things changed, since “Every human life and
every articulated body of human thought has been shaped by the particular epoch in which it occurred
and shared the relativity of that epoch” (Hillman, 1975, p. 47). Only female leadership education would
crystalize education for all females (EFAF) especially that:
In terms of academic achievement, international education figures from 43 developed countries, showed
a consistent picture of women achieving better results than men at every level, particularly in literacy
assessments. (Craig, Harper, & Loat, 2004, p. 268)
Without education, women will continue to be handicapped, and their success will always be limited: “The girl-child is one of the most hard-hit demographic when it comes to lack of adequate and
affordable basic education facilities. Education plays a key role in helping increase women’s numbers
in the non-traditional job sector” (Adubra, 2005). Encouraging new ways of learning, teachers establish
direction, clarify final destination and identify performance markers. The encouragement to develop of
new ideas as a means of driving forward innovative practice using portfolio and reflective practice, with
contemporary nursing now focusing on theory-practice integration (Kouzes & Posner, 2007). This will
also help build trust and loyalty and ensure change is managed effectively.
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Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

EL change behavior, her, derives from Bass and Avolio’s (1995, 2005) transformational leadership
four constructs namely intellectual stimulation, individualized instruction, and motivation. Hashim et al.
(2015) underlined that in an organization such a school, “it requires many changes of policies and curriculum” (p. 567). This means that the educational leader needs intellectual adjustment and responsibilities
of a leader to be flexible, malleable and dynamic to the surroundings. Lambert (2000) explained that a
principal who goes about it alone or who dominates it will find that the school becomes overly dependent
on his or her leadership. So, today’s effective principal constructs a shared vision with members of the
school community, convenes the conversations, insists on a student learning focus, evokes and supports
leadership in others, models and participates in collaborative practices, helps pose the questions, and
facilitates dialogue that addresses the confounding issues of practice. It takes skills and new understanding since it is much easier to tell or to manage than it is to perform as a collaborative instructional leader
especially that Kohm (2002) recognized that the more adept he became at solving problems, “the weaker

the school became” (p. 32). Also, the visibility of educational leadership is its administration.

Educational Administration
Educational administrators are professionals who have a code of ethics and are licensed by state boards
of education. Thus, their behavior is guided by acceptable standards of practice (Lunenburg & Ornstein,
1996). It matured as a science, that is, it has developed a solid theoretical base – a body of organized
and tested knowledge. It may be more accurate to refer to educational administration as applied science.
As such, Griffiths (1988) argued that educational science is using theory “to explain and predict phenomena in educational organizations” (p. 27) even as he proposes “theoretical pluralism” that is linked
to problems of practice. Griffiths’ claim gave meaning to Lakomski’s (1996) “naturalistic coherentism”
which contends that knowledge generation should be assessed on the basis of its testability, simplicity,
consistency, comprehensiveness, fecundity, familiarity of principle, and explanatory power. Just like
the administration process of other organizations, this educational administration process might use
approaches like classic administration approach, behaviorism approach, human relations approach and
system approach, respectively (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 1996). This means that school administrators
should not expect practical prescriptions for administering their schools. To be practical, educational
administration should decentralize educational institutions through educational quota policy. This is built
higher education facilities according to geographical and population size; taking education to people
not people to the education. Educational renaissance is an antidote to rural and town exodus and the
compacting of students in classrooms:
There is an average of 40 pupils per teacher in sub-Saharan Africa, but the situation varies considerably
from country to country. In many countries, it is more than 60 to one. Africa loses an estimated 20,000
skilled personnel a year to developed countries.1
In Sub-Saharan Africa, only two-thirds of children who start primary school reach the final grade.
Chabasseur (2010) observed that there are 60% of students in urban areas whereas in rural areas about
100 students learn from only one teacher. This calls for the democratization of education, that is, making
education accessible and affordable. To get there, Apollo culture should be broken. Dorczak (2011) stated
that the Apollo culture is built on rules and regulations that describe every single step of all members of
the organization including Apollo. Roles and precisely defined and there is no space for creativity and
34


Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

autonomy” (p. 50). Meanwhile, Lambert (1998) suggests a shift of our thinking about who can learn
and who can lead: (1) Everyone has the right, responsibility, and ability to be a leader. (2) How we define leadership influences how people will participate. (3) Educators yearn to be more fully who they
are—purposeful, professional human beings. Deobold Van Dalen (1979) has suggested six functions of
theories, and we follow his categorization in this discussion: identifying relevant phenomena, classifying
phenomena, formulating constructs, predicting phenomena, summarizing phenomena, revealing needed
research. Administrators are to be familiar with scientific management, administrative management, and
the human relations approach.
While Taylor (1911) suggested four principles for scientific management, designed to maximize worker
productivity: Scientific job analysis, selection of personnel, management cooperation, and functional
supervising, Gulick and Urwick (1937) coined the acronym POSDCoRB meaning planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, budgeting which concerns all activities that accompany
budgeting, including fiscal planning, accounting, and control.
To that effect, Saito and Cappelle (2010) suggested the following variables:
•
•
•

School characteristics (type, location, size, resources, principal’s qualification, parental involvement, etc.).
Teacher characteristics (age, sex, qualifications, behavior, in-service training, classroom resources, etc.).
Students characteristics (age, sex, attendance, repetition, socioeconomic status, nutrition, home
help, etc.) (p. 18).

In addition, Saito and Cappelle suggested the following policy like the (1) consultation with staff,
community, and experts, (2) review of existing planning and policy procedures, (3) data collection for
planning purposes, (4) educational research, and investment in infrastructures and resources. It means
that teacher distribution should be improved, dropouts and repetition reduced, increase survival rate, and
increase supply of teacher (Saito & Cappelle, 1999, p. 20), improvement of teaching, learning methods,

encouraging creativity, self-study capability, and use of ICT, and assuring career oriented knowledge
rather than subject oriented knowledge (UNESCO, 2008b).

Avoiding the Privatization of Education
If privatization did not work for the USA, how much more will it fail in third world nations! In case one
is wondering whether privatization caused this destruction, “the answer is yes, it did” especially that
“In about twenty years the funding model has destroyed the U.S.’s educational advantage” (Newfield,
2011, p.8, 10). Newfield explained that the two-sentence version of the argument is that the private
investment process gives the least money to schools with the lowest graduation rates, which receive a
disproportionately high percentage of low-income and first-generation students. The decades-old failure
of the bottom three-quarters of the country’s students (measured by socio-economic status) to improve
their educational outcomes has undermined overall advances in attainment. Newfield (2010) proved
that the third effect of privatization is that it is wrecking the financial solvency of high-quality public
universities. The funding model doesn’t produce stability because the net private revenues never make
up for public funding lost to cuts. This structural shortfall will result from the British government’s
replacement of most of the teaching grant with a scheme of high fees and loans. It has been happening
35



Educational Administration and Leadership in Francophone Africa

for a long time in California, and based on that state’s experience “even a tripling of fees won’t make up
for the teaching grant” (p. 8). In that light, it is not advisable for a third world country to privatize education. Educational leaders should be given freedom to express their real feelings about the institutions
they have in charge. To get out this tunnel, poverty reduction must be tackled while Africans work at the
abrogation of ineffective official educational policies and for the fight against irresponsible budgetary
behaviors which contribute, year after year, to the detriment of adequate and relevant educational administration and leadership in Francophone Africa. The cultivation of a culture of ethics and excellence
should characterize the general policies of education.

FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS

Because every work has limitations (Shero, 2014; Miles & Huberman, 1994), to verify the validity
of the suggestions to ensure their applicability and sustainability, conducting quantitative research on
change knowledge and the needs of the African education and curriculum design and leadership is the
first goal to achieve. For, education should be designed to internalize African values but also opened to
internationalization. This highlights the type of curriculum relevant for African needs but also render
Africans globally competitive without losing their African identity and consciousness (Xulu, 2015, p.
237). A second research would be a qualitative one based on survey questionnaire regarding orality and
education. A third research would be a meta-analysis which would be to sort out what does the totality
of research say about the influence of politics on African educational administration and leadership and
also determine the average impact of a better leadership on education.

CONCLUSION
Institutional educational administration and leadership in Francophone Africa needs some heavy push
through the national consciousness-raising regarding the incongruence between our education and the
needs of its time is alarming and undertake transformational and strategic innovative education and
innovational education to spring from educational de-politicization, decolonization, digitalization, and
internationalization. With the premise that EAL is the offspring or victim of the national political leadership, the issue of emergency oi its development and promotion with a culture of excellence and morality.
Promoting local languages, under a tripartite partnership (Government, business leaders and educators,
the system may enrich itself through volunteership and citizen’s financial sponsorship to ensure better
educational policy and curriculum leadership toward the internationalization of education with qualitative school leaders and administrators who do not use their school as a theater for political conundrum
but rather a laboratory for developing citizens for life and the globalized village.

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KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Afrikology: A true philosophy of knowledge and wisdom based on African cosmogonies (Elly, 2013).
Change Knowledge: Is an understanding and insight about the process of change and the key drivers
that make for successful change in practice (Fullan, Cuttress, & Kilcher, 2005).
Educational Leader: The person who manages a school or an educational project) is brave and
resourceful, perceives changes as an opportunity and not as a threat and above all acts actively while
controlling his/her destiny rather than waiting for its verdicts (Mazurkiewicz, 2009a).
Ewes: A people group living in southern Benin, Ghana, and Togo.
Familism: Sociologically, describes a form of social organization in which all values are determined
by reference to the maintenance, continuity, and functioning of the family group (Kuada, 1994).

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