Educational leadership: an Islamic perspective

Abstract

Ethnocentric concepts, theories and practices in education, predominantly embedded in western philosophy and values, tend to ignore the growing multicultural nature of educational institutions. This article draws attention to the knowledge gap in mainstream literature regarding diverse perspectives of educational leadership—an issue which is foreseen as gaining higher significance with the fast‐changing societal structures in Britain. Having worked as a Muslim woman educational leader/manager in higher education in an Islamic state for more than two decades, and now working at a British university, positioned as a non‐White woman Muslim, the author endorses the need to move beyond ethnocentrisms and to work towards developing complex theoretical constructs to reconceptualise educational leadership, drawing from perspectives held by diverse ethnic groups—students and communities. How learners from diverse philosophical and ethnic backgrounds conceive and perceive educational leadership, and how they receive it, is bound to interact with their learning experience and performance. This article briefly introduces leadership as a concept formulated in context. It presents philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of these conceptualisations from an Islamic perspective, and highlights the interplay between knowledge and leadership. The article deliberates how these discourses interact to formulate ‘educational leadership’ in Muslim societies, and explores the implications of these constructions with a focus on the British context, where Muslims are in a minority, pointing to the significance of understanding philosophical diversity for embracing population diversity.

Acknowledgements

Thank you to colleagues for their very useful comments, and support in developing this paper.

Notes

1. Giddens (1993) defines ethnocentrism as ‘judging other cultures by comparison to one's own’, arguing that ‘a culture has to be studied in terms of its own meanings and values … Since human cultures vary so widely, it is not surprising that people coming from one culture frequently find it difficult to sympathise with ideas or behaviour of those from a different culture’ (p. 39).

2. Ummah is the overarching concept used for wider Muslim community, operative beyond geopolitical bounds. The root word of Ummah is umm, which means ‘mother’ in Arabic (L. Ahmed, 1992). In the first chapter of Ummah or Nation, Al‐Ahsan (1992) discusses the Quranic concept of Ummah, referring to the 64 occurrences of the term in the Quran. Commonly, this term is used among Muslims to convey the fact that all Muslims the world over constitute one Ummah or community (see also Geaves, 1996, chapters II and III; Iqbal, 1996).

3. Some discussions in Al‐Ghazâlî (1963), Al‐Kindî (1950) and Ibn Rushd (in Al‐Arin, 1993) can help to understand these debates.

4. This concept of education for all forms the basis of Islamic philosophy of education, while in many early societies access to education has been limited. For example, in early western church schools, education was limited to clergymen and landlords (Murphy, 1971), while in pre‐Islamic India education was the privilege of the Brahmins, and only restricted learning (three Rs) was permitted to Kshatriyas and Vaisyas, completely excluding the Sudras (Huq, 1954; Miller, 1968).

5. The two‐point agenda of ‘education for all’ and ‘lifelong learning’ which is increasingly gaining credibility in the developed world.

6. One of the five pillars of Islam, and a highly contested concept, which essentially stands for struggle in Islam. The two major terms associated with it are: Jihad bil‐Ilm, which means effort through knowledge; and Jihad bil‐Saif, which signifies the ‘defence of Islam’, where saif literally means sword. Jihad in all its forms symbolises a struggle for the ‘right’, more valuable than one's own life, and carries promises of highest reward. See also Christie, 1991; Nielsen, 1992).

7. There are examples of Mohammed's (the prophet in Islam) insistence for Muslims to pursue knowledge wherever they find it ‘even to the borders of China’ (Ashraf, 1995).

8. The Prophet (peace be upon him) said: ‘Whomsoever Allah intends to do good, He gives right understanding of religion, and knowledge is maintained only through teaching’ (Hadith Bukhari in A Manual of Hadith by Maulana Muhammad Ali).

9. Sijda (bowing the head) in the Islamic context is the ultimate mark of respect and obedience, and except this one reference in the Quran, due only to God.

10. The interrogative expression is often used in the Quran for emphasis.

11. Some prophets named in the Quran as having been given knowledge are Noah, David, Solomon, Moses (28:24), Joseph (12:22) and Jacob (12:68).

12. For details see Hussain and Ashraf (1997): ‘The Teacher and the Taught’, and Iqbal, 1996, pp. 61–111.

13. Later, the situation underwent changes as Islam spread into further areas, and interacted with different religions and socio‐economic backgrounds. Al‐Azhar was the first formal seat of learning established in Egypt in the fourth century, and was followed by Al‐Nizamiyyah in Baghdad, where state‐paid teachers were appointed (Tibawi, 1972, p. 30).

14. Ulema have traditionally commanded high respect and status in Muslim societies due to their knowledge, but there has been an increasing dissatisfaction with their knowledge claims in the present times.

15. Religious knowledge, broadly speaking, includes knowledge of the sacred texts, and knowledge about the pillars of the religion, the articles of faith, and the Shari'ah.

16. Believing and obeying the Quranic teachings is a part of faith for Muslims.

17. Schools run by ‘Nahlatul Ulama’ (Educational Management News, Issue 22, January 2004, p. 13).

18. Cheng (2002) lists five dimensions of leadership—human, structural, political, cultural and educational—developed from Boleman and Deal's (1997) four leadership functions, and Sergiovanni's (1984) model of five leadership forces—technical, human, educational, symbolic,and cultural leadership, which point to the scope and depth of leadership concepts.

19. Davies and Davies define wisdom as ‘the capacity to take the right action at the right time’ (2004, p. 35)—a simple definition which can absorb multiple interpretations.

20. In Islamic philosophy, God is ‘the Knowing’, ‘the Wise’ (4:11; 4:24; 4:92; 4:111; 4:170; 6:83; 6:139; 8:71; 9:15; 12:100; 15:25; 22:52; 33:1 and many others). Human leadership is justified in the Quran on the basis of human beings partaking of these godly attributes of ‘the Knowing’ and ‘the Wise’.

21. A highly diverse community, extending beyond the variables like race, ‘ethnicity’, colour, language, dress and others.