Entrepreneurial Leadership in Early Childhood Education for Sustainable Development in South Africa

Year 2021, Volume: 9 Issue: 5, Special Issue on STEM Studies, Giftedness and Sustainability of Education, 27 - 37, 30.12.2021

Matshediso Rebecca Modise

https://doi.org/10.17478/jegys.1010680

Abstract

This paper examined empirical data from research conducted in South Africa about problems induced by the global outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic from 2019 to 2021 to Entrepreneurial Leadership in Early Childhood Education (ECE) for sustainable development of the sector. A desktop analysis method was employed in this paper to review the report by ‘Ilifa Labantwana’, and Entrepreneurial Leadership in Early Childhood Education for sustainable development in South Africa during COVID-19 lockdown restrictions. The researchers discovered that the lengthy COVID-19 lockdown restrictions exposed gaps in government, ECE school leaders, parents and the other stakeholders’ preparedness for survival, focus, continuity, and resilience in times of unexpected pandemics. The paper relied on data from the desk research, which may not have been collected from the desired setting or time. The researcher had no control over the data and may therefore only provide partial analysis in terms of precision due to lack of triangulation. The paper’s findings described the importance of change in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres and Entrepreneurial leaders to take risks associated with the change which requires support. The paper has theoretical implications in empowering the leaders’ survival strategies in ECD centres. It further recommends new leadership directions for other leaders. The paper is an attempt to develop survival strategies during turbulent times in ECD centres and improves the level of preparedness against natural disasters in developed and developing countries.

Keywords

Entrepreneurial skills, Early Childhood, Ilifa Labantwana, Leadership, Innovation, Sustainable development

References

• Brown, S. L., Brown, S. I., Brown, S. L., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (1998): Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos. Harvard Business Press.
• Chen, F. F. (2007): Sensitivity of goodness of fit indexes to lack of measurement invariance. Structural Equation Modelling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 14(3), 464-504.
• Damayanti, R. W., Hartono, B., & Wijaya, A. R. (2021). Leadership competency for megaproject‘s complexity management: a conceptual study. International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology, 12(4).
• Fernald, L. W., Solomon, G. T. & Tarabishy, A. (2005): A New Paradigm: Entrepreneurial Leadership. Southern Business Review, 30(2), 1-10.
• Kruse, K. (2013). What is leadership. Forbes magazine, 3.
• Guberina, T., & Wang, A. M. (2021, March). Entrepreneurial Leadership and Fear of COVID-19 Pandemic Impact on Job Security and Psychological Well-being: A Conceptual Model. In 2021 7th International Conference on Information Management (ICIM) (pp. 144-148). IEEE.
• Haider, S. H., Asad, M., & Fatima, M. (2017). Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance of Manufacturing Sector Small and Medium Scale Enterprises of Punjab Pakistan. European Business & Management, 3(2), 21–28.
• Hisrich & Peter, (2002). Entrepreneurship. Boston: Irwin McGraw-Hill.
• Hujala, E., & Eskelinen, M. (2013): Leadership tasks in early childhood education. Researching leadership in early childhood education. University of Tampere. http://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:uta-201311131585 (Accessed 20 February 2021).
• IIifa Labantwana, (2020): Report: Urgent need to support ECD operators during Covid-19. https://ilifalabantwana.co.za/report-urgent-need-to-support-ecd-operators-during-covid-19/ (Accessed 16 February 2021).
• Kasim, N. M., & Zakaria, M. N. (2019): The Significance of Entrepreneurial Leadership and Sustainability Leadership (Leadership 4.0) towards Malaysian School Performance. International Journal of Entrepreneurship, 2(8), 27-47.
• Kaminski, J. (2011): Theory Applied to Informatics-Lewin’s Change Theory. Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics, 6(1), 1-4.
• Khairuddin, 2015. Strategic Management. Singapore: Thompson Learning.
• Kuratko, D. F. (2007): Entrepreneurial Leadership in the 21st Century: Guest Editor's Perspective. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 13(4), 1-11.
• Leitch, C. M., McMullan, C. & Harrison, R. T. (2013): The Development of Entrepreneurial Leadership: The Role of Human, Social and Institutional Capital. British Journal of Management, 24(3), 347-366.
• Maclnnis, D.J. (2011): A Framework for Conceptual Contributions in Marketing. Journal of Marketing, 754(4), 136-154.
• Mishra, P., & Misra, R. K. (2017): Entrepreneurial Leadership and Organizational Effectiveness: A Comparative Study of Executives and Non-Executives. Procedia Computer Science, 122, 71-78.
• Magnuson, K. (2013): Reducing the Effects of Poverty through Early Childhood Interventions. Fast Focus. No. 17-2013. Institute for Research on Poverty.
• McLeod, J. (2013): An Introduction to Counselling. Bershire: McGraw-Hill Education.
• National Planning Commission (2011): National Development Plan: Vision for 2030. Pretoria: National Planning Commission.
• Pihie, Z. A. L., Asuimiran, S., & Bagheri, A. (2014): Entrepreneurial Leadership Practices and School Innovativeness. South African Journal of Education, 34(1), 75-89.
• Raza, M. (2019): Lewin’s 3 Stage Model of Change Explained. https://www.bmc.com/blogs/lewin-three-stage-model-change/ (Accessed 16 January 2021).
• Renko, M., El Tarabishy, A., Carsrud, A. L., & Brännback, M. (2015): Understanding and Measuring Entrepreneurial Leadership Style. Journal of Small Business Management, 53(1), 54-74.
• Sheppard, G. (2015). What is Counselling? A Search for Definition. Retrieved September.
• Scott, S., & Webber, C. F. (2013): Entrepreneurialism for Canadian Principals: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Journal of Research on Leadership Education, 8(1), 113-136.
• Scottpoulos, E. (2012): Reframing Early Childhood Leadership. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37(2), 42-48.
• Shepherd, D. A., & Wiklund, J. (2020). Simple rules, templates, and heuristics! An attempt to deconstruct the craft of writing an entrepreneurship Paper. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 44(3), 371–390.
• Slimane, M. (2012): Role and Relationship between Leadership and Sustainable Development to Release Social, Human, and Cultural Dimension. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 41, 92-99.
• Stoddard E. (2020): Junked: Fitch and Moody’s downgrade South Africa’s Credit Ratings further. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-11-22-junked-fitch-and-moodys-downgrade-south-africas-credit-ratings-further/ (Accessed November 2020).
• Soane, Butler & Stanton (2015): Followers’ Personality, Transformational Leadership and Performance. Sport, Business and Management: An international Journal 5(1):65-78.
• Soudien, C., Reddy, V., & Harvey, J. (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on a fragile education system: The case of South Africa. In Primary and Secondary Education During Covid-19 (pp. 303-325). Springer, Cham.
• Sverzellati, N., Milanese, G., Milone, F., Balbi, M., Ledda, R. E., & Silva, M. (2020). Integrated radiologic algorithm for COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of thoracic imaging.
• Teece, D. J. (2010): Business Models, Business Strategy, and Innovation. Long Range Planning, 43(2-3), 172-194.
• Teffo, L. A., & Tabit, F. T. (2020): An assessment of the food safety knowledge and attitudes of food handlers in hospitals. BMC Public Health, 20(1), 1-12.
• Volery, T., Mueller, S. & von Siemens, B. (2015): Entrepreneur Ambidexterity: A Study of Entrepreneur Behaviours and Competencies in Growth-Oriented Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises. International Small Business Journal, 33(2), 109-129.
• Yemini, M., Addi-Raccah, A. & Katarivas, K. (2014): I Have a Dream: School Principals as Entrepreneurs. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 43(4), 526-540.