The Study of Transformational Leadership Emergence in a Faith-based School

Abstract

Transformational Leadership (TL) – often termed as ‘Moral Leadership’ or ‘Authentic Leadership’ – has emerged as an innovative, novel and captivating concept surrounding the various theories dominating Leadership Styles today. It alludes to a leadership style where the interaction between the leaders and followers raises both sides, not only to higher levels of motivation and morality, but also the concern for the achievement, self-actualization and well-being of the other, of the organization and of society in general. Studies suggest that the field of training and educating adult leaders for TL as being not very successful and, in practice, a tedious task. With the current state of de-motivated, unfocused youth on the one hand and a materialistic, individualistic, competitive society, on the other, the responsibility of schools and educators to map transformational leadership programmes in school curriculum is now more critical and decisive than was ever before. Extant literature on transformational leadership reveals a close connection between TL, spirituality, faith and care reasoning. Quite unfortunately, however, Muslim institutions today are the centre of controversy and debate, misconceptions and stereotyping for many reasons, one being, religion is, today, quite unfairly, accepted as the reason for social instability, chaos and disunity, and the other, more importantly, being the inability of the product of these institutions to contribute to mainstream society. The moot question, especially in the context of the Muslim world, is whether the current faith-school systems, potentially equipped by way of their higher order thinking curriculum and pedagogy, are able to create an environment that will achieve the authentic vision of Islamic education: nurturing transformational leadership. This study is a small step in a colossal task. It focuses mainly on identifying the emergence traits of TL in adolescents in the given faith-based environment, an IGCSE school in the Indian city of Bangalore. The pedagogy proposed is antithetical to the current Muslim educational pedagogy and, yet, paradoxically, in line with Islamic prophetic pedagogy, alluding to Stakes’ explanation of a case-study model having a complex broader implication than what is apparent. The hypothetical assumptions of the study, if validated by qualitative research, are poised to provide significant performance indicators for analyzing efficacy of Muslim institutions and laying the ground for further quantitative research to derive, evaluate and triangulate educational, pedagogical, policies and standards for the deeper underlying critical issues facing the Muslim educational world.

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