NTU Academics Showcase Research on Educational Governance in Africa at Kenya Educational Management Institute (KEMI) 1st International Conference
Two colleagues from Nottingham Institute of Education, Professor Phil Wood and Dr Abdishakur Tarah, were among dozens of presenters at Kenya Educational Management Institute (KEMI)’s 1st Annual International Conference which took place during 13-17 April 2026.
Published on 4 May 2026
Overview
The conference brought together academics, practitioners, and policymakers from across Africa. The conference provided a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange, research dissemination, and dialogue on innovation, leadership, and development, marking a significant milestone in KEMI’s commitment to regional and global academic collaboration.
The Event
Professor Wood and Dr Tarah presented their paper, which will be published in the Journal of Educational Leadership and Management. This paper, which was also co-authored with another NTU colleague, Dr Andrew Clapham, focuses on Culturally Responsive Governance (CRG) for Mature Strategic Leadership: Investigating Governing and Government, in the Ethiopian and Somali Education Systems.
The paper draws on over a decade of research exploring education governance, significant empirical experience of ‘doing’ governance and of wider education systems in African countries, along with documentary analysis of publicly available secondary data, including government policy documents. We argue that ‘culturally responsive governance’ (CRG) can support governors-leaders, and those being governed-followers to adapt communication, trust-building and decision-making in relation to wider cultural expectations around governing, governance and government.
The feedback from conference participants was very positive and KEMI would continue to work with NTU colleague in this area of research.
Read more about Dr Abdishakur Tarah's project work in Eastern Africa on the EAC news page