The Self Amongst Others: A Critical Analysis of the Interplay Between Ubuntu and Self-Leadership in Nursing Education

This article critically explores the interplay between ubuntu and self-leadership as frameworks for understanding the moral, professional, and pedagogical development of nurse educators. While ubuntu is rooted in African communal ethics that emphasise interconnectedness, dignity, and relational being, self-leadership foregrounds the individual's capacity for self-direction, motivation, and personal mastery. At face value, these constructs may appear to rest at opposing ends of the philosophical spectrum with one prioritising collective identity; the other, personal autonomy. Using a transcultural philosophical lens, however, this study argues that ubuntu and self-leadership are not inherently contradictory, but can coexist and enrich each other in the context of transformative nursing education. Drawing from the life of Albertina Sisulu, a nurse, activist, and moral exemplar, the article illustrates how self-leadership practices such as resilience, self-regulation, goal-setting, and intrinsic motivation were exercised within an ubuntu worldview of care, service, and solidarity. This exploration emphasises the potential for a harmonised model of educator development that is grounded in both reflective autonomy and communal responsibility. The analysis is framed within contemporary debates on decolonising nursing education, calling for pedagogies that recognise African epistemologies while developing learners' self-determined capacities. The article engages critical perspectives on moral development, integrating ethical theories that span both individualistic and relational paradigms. In doing so, it reveals the limitations of binary thinking and the value of hybrid philosophical approaches in nursing education. The implications for curriculum transformation, educator development, and student formation are examined, highlighting the need for self-reflective, socially accountable nurse educators who can navigate tensions between in- and interdependence. Ultimately, the nurse educator is not a completed subject, but a figure in continuous becoming, shaped by the ethical urgencies of care, the ruptures of history, and the emergent demands of a pluralistic educational landscape.