Published Online:March 2026
Product Name:The IUP Journal of Effective Executive
Product Type:Article
Product Code:IJEE030326
DOI:10.71329/EffectiveExecutive/2026.29.1.45-71
Author Name:Fatima Williams, Sindiswa Mondi and Kurt April
Availability:YES
Subject/Domain:Management
Download Format:PDF
Pages:45-71
Higher education is a pathway to professional opportunity and leadership preparation, yet for many learners, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds, this pathway is fraught. This paper examines how adversity shaped learner aspirations through resilience processes, particularly identity, relationality, and leadership development. The analysis, based on two qualitative South African studies, explored learners’ experience, interpretation, and mobilization of adversity. Findings showed that adversity, fundamentally shaped learners. Their resilience was enacted through complex internal processes and support from others. Leadership was understood as nonpositional and influence-based, enacted in nuanced ways rather than formal authority. The study’s contribution is through demonstrating how navigating adversity fosters academic, personal and relational capacities that prepare learners for leadership roles across professional fields.
Higher education has been widely positioned as a pathway to social mobility, personal fulfillment, professional opportunity, and leadership preparation across a range of fields. Yet for many South African learners, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds, the university journey is marked not only by aspiration but also by profound adversity. Financial precarity,