Adaora I Onaga
Last week, I invited you to consider the responsibility of universities to cultivate ethical leaders, individuals who not only discern what is right but also desire to act on that good, regardless of the challenges they face. In the coming weeks, our focus will shift from the university as a system toward the individuals who truly make that system work. Today, I start with the lecturers, and I am careful not to say ethics lecturers, but all lecturers.
Who teaches ethical leadership? The answer is simple- every lecturer!
The lecturer of mathematics, theology, engineering circuits, data structures, drama, cultural analysis, or business ethics can equally form or deform students on their journey towards leadership. In every class interaction, students inadvertently learn how to use knowledge, wield power, prioritise resources, make responsible choices, respect one another, or reward unethical behaviour.
Last week, when we admitted that education in ethical leadership was beyond theory, we also acknowledged that information or content was insufficient for formation. Practice and habituation in behaviours like discipline, courage, fairness, prudence, humility, etc., can occur in every class, irrespective of the topic.
The hidden role of every lecturer, therefore, is not simply to explain concepts or even demonstrate them but to model dispositions and attitudes that ethical leaders must have as moral persons and moral managers. This is why the integration of the technical and the ethical is far more powerful than teaching ethics in isolation.
A lecturer who teaches finance without reference to the common good may transmit sophisticated greed. A lecturer who teaches engineering communication without addressing the value of honesty may produce efficient harm. A lecturer who teaches drama with a materialistic view of the human person will promote material abundance as the ultimate good. A lecturer who teaches ethics without competence will transmit abstract knowledge without transformational practice.
I cannot claim to have it all figured out, and I daresay that for all lecturers, this integration of the technical and the ethical remains a work in progress. If, through this series, I can convince even one lecturer that their weekly classes make them an architect of the ethical leadership narrative in Africa, and if that realization inspires them to broaden their vision toward this immense task, then my mission is accomplished.
Let me round up with the reminder about the well-known story of the three bricklayers. One is “laying stones,” the second is “building a wall,” and the third is “building a cathedral.” Each lecturer is a cathedral builder, developing ethical leaders, not just teaching statistics or English, as the case may be.
Reminding ourselves of this role before each class would make us better provocateurs of reason; we would encourage the students to ask difficult but relevant questions; we would warmly welcome students who respectfully challenge assumptions, even ours; we would promote peer learning and applied engagement above passive listening to our didactic lectures; and we would commit to the integral development of our students.
I look forward to your insights, and I am more than happy to have my assumptions challenged in the process.
The conversation continues, and the question remains- what else do you think it would take to form a generation of leaders capable of building institutions that serve the common good in Africa and beyond?