Basic School Leaders’ Continuous Professional Development for the 4IR: A Systematic Literature Review across Africa

The role of continuous professional development (CPD) in advancing basic school leaders in the context of the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) cannot be overemphasised in the actualisation of positive change in the school system. The 4IR transformed the nature of work across human endeavours, requiring school leaders to be trained and retrained. The study endeavoured to understand CPD approaches available in Africa for school leaders in 4IR. This study adopted a systematic review of the literature. Several bibliographic databases identified two thousand three hundred and fifty-three academic articles using the PRISMA protocol. Hence, the eleven studies on basic school leadership CPD in Africa were used. As a result of the review, CPD activities should focus on enhancing school leaders' abilities to manage, build teams, be professional, communicate effectively in interpersonal situations, and teach and assess. Furthermore, in-service training, cohort meetings, group learning/collegial learning, learning by exposure, formal leadership training for new principals, compulsory leadership courses through the leadership training centre, regular training, networking, and coaching, among others, could be used as CPD to prepare school leaders for the 4IR.