Abstract
In this chapter we discuss the education of school leaders in Kenya in relation to the learning needs in Kenyan schools. In the first section, we review contemporary conceptualisations of school leadership and learning and how these link into perspectives on leadership for learning. We highlight the recognition in current literature that educating school leaders is a necessary endeavour – leadership skills cannot be left to chance. That is, teaching qualifications and experience alone are not sufficient for school leadership – which requires additional sets of skills to those essential for classroom teachers. We also highlight the current views that consider learning as a socio-cultural endeavour that ought to involve more than mastering chunks of facts and sets of behaviours or skills as it has been previously perceived. We also discuss the recognition that educating school leaders ought to link both managerial skills and instructional skills (learning promotion roles), which in turn may enhance the achievement of the necessary goals of educating leaders for learning. The second section of the chapter looks at the context – paying attention to both policy and practice based on a study (Jwan 2009) which focussed on perceptions of democratic school leadership in Kenya. We highlight that, in Kenya, there is no specialised training for school leaders. They are selected based on experience in the field as teachers. We end the chapter by outlining what we feel needs to be reconceptualised with regards to leadership for learning in schools in Kenya.
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Jwan, J.O., Ong’ondo, C.O. (2011). Educating Leaders for Learning in Schools in Kenya: The Need for a Reconceptualisation. In: Townsend, T., MacBeath, J. (eds) International Handbook of Leadership for Learning. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 25. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1350-5_23
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