Educational leadership, management and administration in Africa: an analysis of contemporary literature.

Over the past two decades, there have been calls by scholars for a more concerted effort to develop empirically grounded research studies on educational leadership management and administration in an indigenous context rather than hegemonic western contexts. This paper presents a review of contemporary literature on educational leadership from Africa in three internationally prestigious journals for the period 2008–2014. A descriptive and analytical perspective is used to understand the methodological approaches used by researchers studying educational leadership from and in Africa. The study identified a preference for qualitative research methods, an underdeveloped engagement with theory and causal claims. The volume of work published was relatively low, with a small number of countries being the focus of studies. We conclude that scholarship from Africa remains in its infancy and calls for greater attention to advance scholarship that is based on empirical evidence that is grounded in perspectives from different regions and societies in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]