ADAPTIVE ECOSYSTEMIC LEADERSHIP MODEL: A FRAMEWORK FOR SCHOOL CULTURE EVOLUTION IN THE FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
| Authors | Contact |
|---|---|
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Ayodeji Michael Adeoye Department of Education Leadership and Management, Faculty of Education, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa |
dejismalls@gmail.com |
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Prof Kathija Yassim Department of Education Leadership and Management, Faculty of Education, University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa |
kyassim@uj.ac.za |
Abstract
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is reshaping educational systems worldwide, yet the dominant discourse remains tethered to technological determinism and to leadership models forged in well-resourced settings. What is missing is a theory of how principals lead the cultural work of moving a school from a teaching culture to a learning culture under conditions of material scarcity. Drawing on a qualitative phenomenological study of ten principals from low-quintile (1–3) primary schools in Limpopo, South Africa, who participated in the Sandbox intervention project, this paper develops the Adaptive Ecosystemic Leadership (AEL) model. Data were generated through a focus group discussion with embedded metaphor drawings and one-on-one semi-structured interviews conducted twelve months later and were analysed inductively using Braun and Clarke's six-phase thematic framework. The analysis yielded five themes and a three-layer model comprising a relational-ethical core ("School as Home"), four strategic action domains (contextual intelligence, digital governance, peer-project collaboration, and mentorship-based ICT integration), and an encircling perpetual learning engine. Read through cultural evolution theory and complexity leadership theory, the findings reveal principals acting not as passive selectors of cultural variants but as cultural architects who deliberately engineer transmission regimes, manage variation–selection–retention dynamics, and build systemic resilience. The AEL model contributes a context-sensitive, theoretically grounded framework that extends cultural evolution theory to organisational settings, refines complexity leadership theory, and challenges deficit framings of leadership in under-resourced schools.
Keywords
School culture evolution; Educational leadership; Fourth Industrial Revolution; Cultural evolution theory; Complexity leadership; Low-quintile schools.
