Spirituality in Educational Leadership: Engaging with the Research

Abstract

This article reviews eight research studies from literature that focus on spirituality in educational leadership. The discussion will be of interest to educational leaders across a range of sectors who intentionally value spirituality within their professional practice and institutional cultures. Spirituality is understood in the literature as a complex and contested phenomenon, the meanings of which may be shaped and reshaped by diverse perspectives and experiences. Spirituality includes personal, social-cultural and transcendent connectedness, meaning making about life and living, and a desire for greater authenticity, resulting in consistency between people’s beliefs, moral-values, attitudes and their actions. Readers are invited to reflect on their personal meanings and practice of spirituality in their leadership in the light of the research findings.