Developing entrepreneurial attributes in school leaders to promote education sustainability: The weak links

Abstract

In South Africa, diverse policy measures are continuously being taken by stakeholders to transform the education system into one with a greater focus on entrepreneurship. Despite these efforts, it was unclear what factors prevent the anticipated results from being attained. Thus, this study examined issues revolving around entrepreneurial leadership in South Africa's basic education sector. It followed a PRISMA protocol, through a systematic literature review, the authors meticulously identified and filtered 94 pertinent studies within the Web of Science (WoS) database, ultimately refining their focus to 42 articles that directly contribute to the central theme of the study. Based on the study's findings, several identified weak links need to be remedied for entrepreneurial leadership to become ingrained as a core ideology for the enhancement of education sustainability. The study illuminates how incorrect assumptions about entrepreneurial leadership may impede innovative and creative practices in schools. Additionally, the results of this review provide the authors with an opportunity to make a vital contribution to the ongoing discourse regarding the incisiveness of definitions and perspectives relating to entrepreneurial leadership in the school setting. Furthermore, the authors contend that the quality of schooling and education sustainability can be improved through the coordinated efforts of stakeholders to enhance school leaders' entrepreneurial skills, therefore, collaboration between rural and urban school principals is proposed to harness mutual benefits and cross-institutional learning. Moreover, the study elucidates leadership-driven innovative thoughts and actions within the framework of entrepreneurship-focused educational institutions.