From Deep Diving to Climbing High: Accelerating School Leadership for Quality Education
By Benjamini Masebo
Research Manager, ESSA
For many years, countries around the world have been working to improve the quality of education. A key question remains: What does it take to ensure every child receives quality education? The answer goes beyond access to schools. It includes strong teaching, effective leadership, and supportive education systems.
Global commitments, such as Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), call for inclusive and equitable quality education and the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all. It is more than just an aspiration; it serves as a benchmark for measuring progress and holding countries accountable in their pursuit of better education systems.
On the African continent, the African Union and Africa Federation of Teaching Regulatory Authority ( AFTRA) have established a Continental Framework of Standards and Competences for the Teaching Profession(2019). The Continental Teacher Qualification Framework and Continental Guidelines for the Teaching Profession follows a similar path. All these efforts aim to professionalise teaching and raise standards across the continent. However, governments cannot achieve this alone. Partnerships with non-governmental organizations, research institutions, and development partners are essential.
One initiative playing a critical role in this space is the African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL). ACSL works with governments and governmental agencies in the education sector to strengthen school leadership to improve teaching and, in turn, learning outcomes. The Centre brings together regional expertise to ensure the delivery of high-quality professional development (PD) services, research, and policy advice. It operates as a consortium comprising Education Sub Saharan Africa (ESSA), Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), VVOB – Education for Development, and the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE).
ESSA, a member of the African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL) consortium, leads the research focus area. As part of this role, ESSA has mapped research and researchers working on school leadership at both national and continental levels to inform policy and practice.
Recently, ACSL convened a three-day continental validation workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and development partners from across Africa. The purpose of the workshop was to review, refine, and validate findings from a comprehensive school leadership mapping report. The goal was simple: ensure the research reflects the real experiences and needs of African education systems.
The mapping report reviewed more than 1,700 publications from 2010 to the present, mapping research outputs in the field of school leadership. The report highlighted significant gender disparities among authors, with male researchers dominating the field. Findings show that a large majority of first authors were male, while female representation remained much lower.
An uneven distribution of publications also emerged, with most coming from Southern and West Africa, while North and Central Africa contribute less. Much research focuses on school leadership roles, structures, models, and styles, with relatively little attention to teaching and classroom practices, or to policy and system-level contexts.
Beyond these findings, participants emphasised the critical role of school leaders and teachers in improving learning outcomes.
Tracy Osuo of the Mastercard Foundation noted, “Teachers have a great impact on learning outcomes. Everyone has passed through the hands of teachers.”
Similarly, Prof. Michael Boakye-Yiadom, Director General of IEPA, University of Cape Coast, stressed the urgency of school leadership development: “We can’t just run; we must run very fast.”
Considering these challenges and findings, participants prioritized a research agenda for school leadership in Africa. Eight key areas were formulated and ranked from highest to lowest priority:
- Inclusive Leadership: Connecting theory to practice
- Adaptive School Leadership in fragile or crisis contexts
- School Leadership Models within Africa
- Distributed Leadership for empowering school leaders
- Lived experiences of school leaders in selected public and private schools
- Mental health and psychosocial support for school leaders in vulnerable contexts
- Succession planning in school leadership
- School Leadership and Early Childhood Development
These priorities signal a new beginning in approaching school leadership research, policy, and practice in Africa. A renewed sense of momentum for school leadership at the continental level has emerged. Participants have formed a community of practice to ensure this momentum is sustained and to foster collaboration across countries, institutions, and research networks. The momentum was captured by one speaker in his closing remarks:
“We have deep-dived; now it is time to climb high. Our continent speaks in hundreds of voices. As we grow, our materials, research, and tools need to reflect this diversity, especially linguistic diversity to mobilise more people and strengthen this movement.” Tom Vandenbosch, VVOB Education for Development
The metaphor of “deep diving” and “climbing high” captures the moment perfectly. Africa has examined its evidence base and now stands at a turning point, moving from mapping what exists to shaping what must come next. This momentum has the potential to transform how school leadership research informs policy, strengthens professional development, and drives practical improvements in teaching and learning across the continent. By combining evidence, collaboration, and contextually relevant leadership approaches, Africa can ensure that school leadership becomes a powerful lever for quality education for all.
Acknowledgement
This blog draws on insights from the African Centre for School Leadership (ACSL) validation convening held in Nairobi in February 2026. ACSL is a partnership coordinated by the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA) and implemented with Education Sub-Saharan Africa (ESSA), the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE), and VVOB – education for development. We acknowledge the contributions of researchers, policymakers, and practitioners from across Africa who participated in the consultations.