Resilient Leadership in Time of Crisis in Distance Education Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

AbstractAs leaders of distance education in sub-Saharan Africa were dealing with myriad challenges of high numbers of young people seeking access to higher education, lack of technologies, and inadequate expertise for online teaching, Covid-19 pandemic emerged, and, almost overnight, quick decisions had to be made to pivot to online spaces to ensure that learning occurred even in the midst of the crisis. Leaders who were flexible and adaptive to changing environment were able to respond effectively to this crisis. Hence the focus of the study is on the character of a distance education leader who is exhibiting personality traits that will enable him or her to move a distance education institution forward.The futures triangle was used to contextualize and historicize the character of a leader who has the ability to be innovative and willing to take risks in the face of crisis. The aim of this chapter is to illustrate how some historical factors have not only influenced the leadership practices in distance education, but they have molded the characters of distance education leaders. The futures triangle mapping process revealed that the legacy of colonialism, the lack of managerial skills, the slow adoption of using technologies, the growing number of people who cannot be accommodated in higher education, and, most recently, the Covid-19 pandemic were drivers of change that illustrated how leaders responded in time of crisis. Moving distance education forward requires resilient leaders who are agile and adaptable to lead in an open and technology-rich distance education environment.