Perceptions of educational leadership in medieval Islamic thought: a contribution to multicultural contexts

The Humanist Roots of Islamic Administration and Leadership for Education: Philosophical Foundations for Intercultural and Transcultural Teaching

“…The classical Islamic tradition has been explored for its role in schools connected to the leadership of the governing powers and their administrators including the role of humanist texts and the style of education used such as the 'work-study course' practice (Hassi 2012;Kashif et al 2015;Makdisi 1990). Arar and Haj-Yehia (2018) have investigated conceptions of Islamic medieval educational leadership and its potential value to contemporary multiculturalism. While the goals in Islamic education are not only for this life, but for the Day of Judgment, there are other values and concerns that are consistent with values one finds in a humanism that can be more broadly shared: ethical education, the influence on personality, supporting tolerance and diversity aimed at the social good, and moral behavior.…”

“…In general, leaders in the tradition of Muslim communities should be oriented towards improving society and bringing cohesion to communities, including educational organisations, as well as practicing a form of praxisin part derived from Aristotle in the classical Islamic tradition. Arar and Haj-Yehia (2018) have identified how in education, as in other spheres of life,), how Muslim leaders should be governed by a set of values and characteristics: practice collaboration, and encourage cooperation and collective responsibility; operate in accordance with Islamic values and Shari'ah law, including equality and justice; serve responsibly (derived from faith) and as a role model for the educational community; exhibit compassion, honesty, integrity and modesty, avoid deceit and discrimination, and other harmful practices; use hope and support to motivate teachers; and carry out administrative duties such as setting goals and putting into motion implementation through appropriate means, while using the principle of appointing the suitable person to the appropriate position. The character and disposition embedded in the conception of leader in the Islamic tradition has very high and multiple standards consisting of courage, durability, reliability, determination, stability, a scholarly orientation and have patience and inner peace with a well-developed ability in rhetoric.…”

“…For a number of decades, humanism has been a minor but persistent approach in the Western field of administrative and leadership studies, and only recently has broadened to include other international humanist traditions (Dierksmeier et al 2011). However, the development in education, particularly in non-Western contexts (e.g., Arar and Haj-Yehia 2018) is not as developed as humanism in business management, which has produced a number of books that provide a comprehensive approach (e.g., Spitzeck et al 2009;Von Kimakowitz et al 2011) including management and leadership education (Amannet et al 2011). There are humanist texts in educational studies relevant to administration and leadership such as early theoretical foundations (Greenfield and Ribbins 1993;Samier 2005), humanisation as a necessary precondition for peace education often associated with critical perspectives like that of Friere (Gill and Niens 2014), in McLaren and Jamillo's (2007) promotion of a critical humanistic approach to the effects of global capitalism on education, and recently in the critique of neoliberal managerial administration of education that undermines humanistic foundations (Plum 2012).…”

“…The focus in this chapter is on the Islamic humanist tradition as it relates to the teaching of educational administration and leadership in a Muslim context, with implications for intercultural and transcultural use. As a number of scholars are beginning to point out, educational administration and leadership is not solely an Anglo-American topic as it has tended to be framed for the last few decades, but has many historical and international antecedents (Arar and Haj-Yehia 2018). The second purpose of the chapter is to show the correspondences that exist between the Islamic and Western humanist traditions in terms of human values, knowledge and educational ideal, which in this chapter are argued to be close in many ways to the Western Idealist tradition and the German Bildung conception of education, despite significant differences that may provide avenues of understanding in multicultural environments.…”

Develop a Model of Educational leadership Based on the Teachings of Islam

“…Each of these main themes of the pattern organizer consists of more detailed sub-elements and elementary themes that can help in building the system. Among the foreign researches related to the research topic, Arar & Haj-Yehia (2018), in a study, examined the ideas of educational leadership in medieval Islamic thought and their role in multicultural fields, and showed that in Islam even in the past centuries; training for educational leaders has been provided, including justice, fairness, honesty and courage. Brooks & Mutohar (2018), in a study examining the leadership of Islamic schools and showed that the values of the Islamic leader are outside the model and within this model, including the ideas and beliefs of principals and leaders who have a new insight into Muslim leaders' perception of work.…”