Management of adult education organisations in Africa

Abstract

This book is the sixth volume in the African perspectives on Adult Learning (APAL) series published by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning together with Pearson Education South Africa and dvv international. The authors Fredrick Muyia Nafukho, Nelson H. Wawire and Penina Mungania Lam blend adult learning with Human Resource Development (HRD). Chapters 1 (Management and diversity) and 2 (Leadership in adult education organisations) provide a platform for the other eight chapters in the book. Diversityrelated challenges faced by adult education organisations form the basis for the first chapter, stressing the varied and diverse nature of African adult education organisations. By grounding the discussion in the complex nature of adult education and diversity, the authors highlight the challenges of managing diverse adult education organisations. The authors state the repercussions of unsuccessful diversity management. They also review the delicate yet important interrelationship between management and leadership which forms a basis for Chapters 2 and 6. In the second chapter, Nafukho et al. discuss critical leadership in the context of adult education organisations. The authors examine the crucial impact of leadership on an organisation’s development. They present various aspects of leadership and give special emphasis to leadership in adult education organisations with a separate section on African organisations. Theory-based elaborate discussions complement the text. The discussion in the second chapter is extended further in the sixth chapter which reviews ubuntu, a leadership paradigm embedded in the essence of what it means to be human and the importance of oneness. According to the authors, this is a pivotal leadership notion popular amongst different African societies. By placing learning as a central theme, the chapter elaborates the tenets of ubuntu and how it relates to the management of adult education organisations in Africa. Finally, the