Negotiating and constructing an educationally relevant leadership programme

Giles, David; Smith, Richard

doi:10.1108/09578231211210567

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…Giles and Smith (2012) contended that current approaches to leadership development are dominated by the neoliberal ideology that gives priority to skill development and rationalist argument at the expense of critical and experiential approaches resulting in a decontextualisation of curriculum. They further argued that leadership programmes must have “an interpretive and critical priority towards emancipatory ends” (p. 233).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It appears to be a worldwide phenomenon that has led many scholars (e.g. Donn and Manthri, 2010; Giles and Smith, 2012) to call for different models and programmes of leadership that focus on moral values and ethical behaviour. For example, Nonaka and Takeuchi (2011) argued that the gap between ethics in theory and practice shows that there is something wrong with the way business schools and companies are developing leaders.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Leadership curricula in UAE business and education management programmes

ElKaleh

2019

IJEM

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate leadership curricula in UAE business and education management programmes and examine the extent to which they are derived from and linked to students’ cultural and Islamic values using Habermas’ critical theory. Design/methodology/approach The study employs a mixed methods approach that takes classical pragmatism as its philosophical foundation and critical theory as a theoretical lens. Data are collected in four sequential phases using critical discourse analysis of course materials, class observations, student survey and faculty interviews. Results are integrated at the interpretative level and abductive reasoning is used as the logic of justification. Findings Results show that despite the increasing efforts to incorporate cultural and Islamic values into the curriculum, it is still mainly dominated by Western theories and models of leadership, especially in the leadership courses offered by business schools, mainly because of accreditation requirements and the lack of English resources and theories on UAE and Islamic models of leadership. Research limitations/implications The study is limited to leadership curricula in the UAE. Researchers may extend and broaden the scope of the study by investigating leadership curricula in the Gulf and/or the Middle East. Future studies may also look at other theoretical frameworks recommended by other management scholars such as Mezirow’s transformational learning and the socio-constructivist approach (Hotho and Dowling, 2010). This study aims to open an ongoing debate and further investigation on the topic. Practical implications The results of the current study may inspire faculty members and programme coordinators to develop critical and culturally relevant curricula that are informed by Habermas’ critical theory and best teaching practices. Originality/value The study adds to the current knowledge base through its research design and approach that address an under-investigated topic. None of the current studies empirically investigated leadership curricula in the UAE. The theoretical framework and research findings can be used to develop culturally relevant and value-oriented leadership curricula that reflect indigenous and Western perspectives of leadership.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Leadership curricula in UAE business and education management programmes

ElKaleh

2019

IJEM

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Educational leadership is different in the country; What support does the rural school principal need?

Hardwick-Franco

2018

International Journal of Leadership in Education

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Teaching leadership in UAE business and education programmes: a habermasian analysis within an islamic context

ElKaleh

2015

Conference on Education 2015. Partners in Excellence

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The study uses Habermas’ account of critical theory to investigate leadership curriculum in selected UAE business and education programmes and examine the extent to which the curriculum is derived from and linked to students’ cultural and Islamic values. The study is conducted in response to scholars’ call for developing leadership models and practices that integrate both traditional and international knowledge to mitigate the dominance of Western theories and values over the curriculum, which threatens the Islamic and cultural identity. It aims to start a dialogue between different sources of knowledge and to select the practices that work best in a certain society given its unique cultural and religious values. This research employs a mixed methods approach that takes classical pragmatism as its philosophical foundation. The purpose for mixing methods is complementarity, development and triangulation (Greene, 2007). Research methods include critical discourse analysis of course materials, class observations, student survey, and faculty interviews. The results were integrated at the interpretative level and abductive reasoning was used as the logic of justification. Results show that there are increasing efforts in the three institutions to incorporate cultural and Islamic values into the curriculum. However, the curriculum is still mainly dominated by Western theories and models of leadership, especially in the leadership courses offered by business schools, mainly because of the lack of English resources and theories on UAE and Islamic models of leadership. There was a significant difference between business and education leadership courses. Education leadership courses tended to include more materials on UAE and Islamic leadership than business courses did. Thus, education students viewed the curriculum relevant to their cultural and Islamic values more than business students did. It was also found that faculty played a significant role in adapting the curriculum to students’ cultural and Islamic values. Faculty who were either Muslim or came from a multicultural environment (e.g. Australia, Canada, New Zealand) where they taught Muslim students tended to include more materials on Islamic and UAE leadership models than those who were not exposed to similar experiences or possessed the same knowledge about Islam. Faculty attributed the limited use of Islamic and cultural materials to the lack of published work on Islamic leadership and UAE, on one hand, and to the academic standards that they have to meet to achieve international accreditation, on the other hand. Based on these findings, the study offers a model that is derived from Habermas’ theories of knowledge and human interests and communicative action to develop culturally relevant approaches to leadership teaching. This model assumes that a good leadership curriculum would contain sophisticated scientific knowledge, moral and cultural values, and opportunities for self-reflection, self-discovery, and communicative actions. It suggests that the curriculum should give participants space to contribute their own cases, articles, histories, perspectives experiences…etc. Such a curriculum will provide a balanced learning experience leading to social evolution, as indicated by Habermas.

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Negotiating and constructing an educationally relevant leadership programme

Cited by 3 publications

References 34 publications

Leadership curricula in UAE business and education management programmes

Leadership curricula in UAE business and education management programmes

Educational leadership is different in the country; What support does the rural school principal need?

Teaching leadership in UAE business and education programmes: a habermasian analysis within an islamic context

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