Knowledge, Leadership, and the Role of Spirituality: An Exploration of Principal as Spiritual Leader

• In Event: The Inner World of School Leaders: Caring, Morality, Ethics, and Spirituality

Abstract

In a larger study of successful school principals, three cases of successful elementary schools provided stakeholder allusions to spirituality. They offered aspects of spirituality as a key feature of principal leadership. The paper reports an analytic approach to uncovering definitional themes based on fieldwork, given the state of current scholarship about leadership and spirituality. In this process, a single school case was used for second-cycle coding through theoretical sampling. Stakeholders’ quotes revealed student success as more than test-based achievement, contributions to student success by families and community, and the expectations of love and respect modeled by the principal helped in connecting school leadership to spirituality. The paper provides explanatory definitions for three propositions about spirituality and school leadership.

Authors

• Amanda Bell Werts, Appalachian State University

• Emily R. Green, Clemson University

• Jane Clark Lindle, Clemson University

• Hans W. Klar, Clemson University

• Robert Charles Knoeppel, Clemson University

• Curtis Anthony Brewer, Clemson University