School leaders’ perceptions of religion and spirituality in Bangladesh: leadership in English Medium Schools

Abstract

Concerns with how religion is placed in education has garnered considerable attention in the past fifteen years, due in large part to heightened politics and social agendas to strengthen community cohesion. This paper addresses the need to better understand how school leaders are internalising such discourses on religion and spirituality. A qualitative case study of school leaders situated in English Medium Schools in Bangladesh, involved observations across five schools and semi-structured interviews with 54 participants. Theoretically informed thematic analysis revealed that while some school leaders consider religion and spirituality to be connected and integral to their leadership practice, others were equally firm in their perceptions that religion is an entirely personal practice separate from professional work. These contradictory perceptions are discussed in relation to local and global tensions on religion and secularity. The paper makes an empirical contribution to considerations of religion and spirituality within school leadership.

Keywords:

• Educational leadership
• critical spirituality
• globalisation
• English medium schools
• Bangladesh
• case study

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Nicola Sum

Nicola Sum is a lecturer within the Faculty of Education at Monash University. Her work in the faculty draws on over twenty years of school experience, having worked in the Victorian, UK and International school systems. Nicola is a school principal, who returned to Melbourne to complete her doctoral work on the inter-connected nature of globalisation and educational leadership practice. She teaches in the areas of principal preparation and post graduate studies in educational leadership.