Abstract

Concerns with how religion is placed in education has garnered considerable attention in the past fifteen years, due in large part to heightened politics and social agendas to strengthen community cohesion. This paper addresses the need to better understand how school leaders are internalising such discourses on religion and spirituality. A qualitative case study of school leaders situated in English Medium Schools in Bangladesh, involved observations across five schools and semi-structured interviews with 54 participants. Theoretically informed thematic analysis revealed that while some school leaders consider religion and spirituality to be connected and integral to their leadership practice, others were equally firm in their perceptions that religion is an entirely personal practice separate from professional work. These contradictory perceptions are discussed in relation to local and global tensions on religion and secularity. The paper makes an empirical contribution to considerations of religion and spirituality within school leadership.

摘要

在过去的 15 年里，对宗教如何被置于教育中的关注引起了相当大的关注，这在很大程度上是由于加强了加强社区凝聚力的政治和社会议程。本文解决了更好地理解学校领导如何将这些关于宗教和灵性的话语内化的需要。对位于孟加拉国英语中学的学校领导进行的定性案例研究涉及对五所学校的观察和对 54 名参与者的半结构化访谈。理论上有依据的主题分析表明，虽然一些学校领导认为宗教和灵性与他们的领导实践相关联和不可或缺，但其他人同样坚定地认为，宗教是一种完全与专业工作分开的个人实践。这些相互矛盾的看法与地方和全球宗教和世俗的紧张局势有关。本文对学校领导中的宗教和灵性考虑做出了实证贡献。