Abstract
There is an undisputable scarcity of empirical studies on female leadership in Eswatini. To this end woman are conspicuously absent in leadership. This silence is more pronounced in education despite this field being a largely feminised profession. This renders the educational leadership discourse incomplete. The complex threats for women in leadership call for the visibility of strong female leaders who would confront and dismantle the oppressive power dynamics that perpetuate stereotypes and harmful cultural norms. This drew attention to the scarcity of research about transformative educational leaders. Even though there are women who lead grassroots level NGO and display extraordinary skills in mobilising, advocating, educating and empowering other women, their efforts often go unacknowledged. The study intended therefore, to explore the servant leadership practises of female transformative educational trail blazers of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in Eswatini, and their role in advocating for social justice.
Six transformative educational leaders of NGOs responsible for educating and empowering women on rights, gender equality, HIV and minority groups and leadership were selected through purposeful sampling to be participants in this study. This qualitative-participatory action research generated data from six research sites located in the Hhohho, Manzini, and Lubombo regions of Eswatini, where these female leaders' NGOs are located. Data was collected from six female leaders of the NGOs through semi-structured interviews. Participants shared their experiences of empowering fellow women through non formal education programmes, to equip them to confront gender inequalities and share with them livelihood programmes. Further, data was collected from 29 NGOs workers who participated in a servant leadership workshop, organised as a social awareness initiative intended to conscientise, and support female leaders and fellow NGO workers in the six research sites. These 29 workshop attendees also participated in focus group interviews. Participants’ observation was carried out during the women empowerment workshops and campaigns organised by the six female transformative educational leaders of the selected NGOs. Thematic and critical discourse analysis was
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used to analyse the qualitative data. Results are presented in narrative and verbatim structures. Findings show that transformative educational leaders of NGOs are motivated by various factors to dedicate themselves to fighting for, and empowering other women. These factors include: the urge to fight injustice, responding to a “calling”, the need to teach, and the need to serve others. In their quest to successfully lead transformative change, they face various challenges. These include; discriminatory cultural norms, funding challenges and the struggle to juggle career and family commitments. Support from family and friends, and building alliances, help these leaders overcome these challenges, and emerge as resilient transformative educational leaders and women’s rights activists. The study also found that women in grass roots NGOs are keen to engage in transformative learning, offered through non-formal educational programmes. However, a once-off session is not enough to effectively empower these women. Furthermore, it emerged that servant leadership as an empowerment tool is relevant and applicable to women in NGOs, as it is aligned with transformative and feminist values upheld by these organisations, such as modelling feminist purpose, appreciating intersectionality, empowering and enabling others, and challenging oppressive patriarchal norms.
This study concludes that the presence of strong, autonomous, transformative educational leaders in the NGO sectors is pivotal to successfully bring about gender justice and empower women at grass root level.
KEYWORDS
Transformative educational leadership, Grassroots women NGOs, Non-formal education, Women empowerment, Servant leadership, African feminism, Critical feminist methodologies, Participatory action research