Female School Leaders and the Fourth Industrial Revolution in South Africa

Abstract: The study explored the leadership skills required to adequately prepare female leaders in South African schools for the fourth industrial revolution. It was conducted with female education specialists, principals, deputy principals and heads of department at primary and secondary schools in South Africa. Both private and public schools were selected. A generic qualitative approach was used with individual and focus group interviews to collect data. Data analysis was conducted using a thematic inductive approach. Themes were generated from clusters of information relating to the research objectives and interview questions. The findings include the skills required for females to effectively lead schools for the 4IR era and the support required for female leaders to become better 4IR-aligned leaders in South African schools. The study revealed that female leaders recognize the need to adjust their leadership skills to the rapidly changing technological environment in schools. The study further revealed that support for development is lacking in public schools while private schools offer more mentoring and coaching of leaders to become 4IR-aligned. It is thus clear that leadership support or development, especially in public schools, requires effective administration and communication to ensure that schools receive the level of support that is drafted and structured at national government level