Learning to Lead for Malay Women in Higher Education

Abstract

This study examined how Malay women learn to lead using the informal learning framework. Six women deans from public universities in Malaysia were interviewed to gain an understanding of how they learn to lead within a Malaysian socio-cultural context. The findings demonstrate the paradoxical contexts that these women faced, and how they learned to navigate the multiple tensions and contradictions they faced in assuming leadership positions. Central to the processes by which these women learn to lead was their commitment to learning to learn. They learn to lead by living through and learning about paradoxes that characterize their roles as leaders within the particular social context - described by the participants as largely patriarchal and quite hierarchical. This emphasis on learning to learn contributed to their ability to navigate the complex social roles in which they found themselves as leaders in a male-dominated and hierarchical society. While much research and theory regarding informal learning has been focused on explicit structures and functional processes, this study supports greater attention to the more tacit and paradoxical qualities of everyday experiences, and the importance they play in our learning from and through these experiences.

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