Holistic Leadership in Education

Abstract

"Education in traditional Africa was, by and large, adapted to local needs. ‘The older generation passed on to the young the knowledge, the skills, the mode of behaviour and the beliefs they should have for playing their social roles in adult life.’1 In that sense education in traditional Africa was both preservative and conservative. This traditional conception of education, however, was supplanted with the introduction of formal education, particularly the introduction of the Western type of education in Africa by the early Christian missionaries. ‘Whereas continuity and survival of the community and its culture were the primary motivations lying behind and goals of Africa traditional education, Western missionary education sought to inculcate European ideals and values that were considered superior.’2 Western education, in that sense, was negatively transformative. It led to the alienation of the schooled from their people and culture. Western education was by and large used as a tool to replace the ‘backward’ African culture. This assumption is reflected in the colonial education policies which were largely unsympathetic to the African culture and its values [...].", p. 97 (Introduction)