Has the international community devoted too little attention to the role of higher education in promoting developmental outcomes? Can higher education make a significant contribution to the emergence of developmental leadership in all sectors of society, both public and private? If so, how? And what is the evidence for this?
An earlier DLP paper (see below) showed that despite evidence for a clear and positive correlation between higher education and good governance, this is an area that has been largely neglected by the international community in favour of an emphasis on basic or primary education.
This new paper by Laura Brannelly, Laura Lewis and Susy Ndaruhutse, entitled “Learning and Leadership: Exploring the linkages between higher education and developmental leadership”, is part of an on-going stream of DLP research which is exploring these issues. The paper surveys the evidence from a wide literature with respect to which aspects of the provision and delivery of higher education can promote the emergence of developmental leadership. It focuses especially on the influence of subjects studied and competencies developed; the approaches to both teaching and learning; the way higher education institutes are governed; the kind of values and understandings transmitted in the course of tertiary study; and the opportunities that higher education provides for the formation of relationships, networks and subsequent informal and formal developmental coalitions within societies.
These papers form the background for more detailed case-studies on the relationship between the provision, structure and delivery of higher education and developmental leadership in selected countries which will commence in early 2012 and will culminate in an international conference on this and related work.
Download the summary below or see the full paper.
