The Quest for Women’s Empowerment Through Collaboration and a Humanising Pedagogy: A Perspective from the Global South

Abstract

Traditionally leadership implies a relationship of power—the power to guide others. Recently the emphasis on power has fallen into disfavour with a shift from power to empowerment and where leaders place power in their followers through collaboration. Empowerment can be defined as a multi-dimensional social process that helps people gain control over their own lives. There has been an increased focus on women’s empowerment as it focuses on gaining equal access to resources for women and ensuring that it increases their control over their own lives and to make a difference in their communities. Emerging models of leadership have shifted from authoritarian to more collaborative leadership styles. This shift in leadership styles has coincided with more women taking up senior leadership and management positions in institutions, including universities. Women who take up senior leadership positions not only have to cope with and compete in patriarchal systems but also have the responsibility to change patriarchal hegemony and shift the management discourse and culture of an institution to a collaborative leadership culture that will support transformation.

In this chapter the authors (the Dean and five Heads of Departments), who all hold leadership positions in the Faculty of Education at Nelson Mandela University reflect on how collaboration assists them to empower each other as well as their respective teams. This research resides in an interpretivist paradigm and a humanising pedagogy is used to frame the study. This allows the authors to draw on their lived experiences and to engage in dialogue to make sense of the process of empowerment. In this qualitative study the authors engage in collaborative self-study and use narrative free writing to gather data. The data is reduced through a process of poetic inquiry that will assist to identify common themes. This research aims to influence the thoughts and practices regarding women empowerment.