Faith leadership : An approach for educational leadership contexts

For many years public expressions of faith and faith leadership were not something that secular Australia was considered to be comfortable with. However tragic events throughout the world as well as Australia have resulted in expressions of faith and faith leadership in the public domain. In the public domain faith has emerged as a real option for discernment and growth throughout the secular as well as religious dimensions of society. In fact the daily practice of a diverse range of organisations have been influenced by leaders who are more and more willing to exercise faith leadership as a dimension of their leadership repertoire. Drawing on Brinkerhoff's (2000) blueprint for faith leadership in organisational settings this paper aims to contribute to the discussion by outlining how it might be applied to educational settings. It is vital that future generations of students should have an opportunity to encounter faith as a real option to consider in their own lives. To enable students to do this requires school leaders who are able to exercise faith leadership as a significant dimension of their own leadership practice. Students in all schooling systems should be entitled to experience secular and or religious expressions of faith and be able to reflect on faith as a life option. The aim of this paper is consider ways in which Brinkerhoff's blueprint for faith leadership in organisational settings might be applied to school settings such as, but not exclusive to, Catholic schools. This paper considers a religious context for faith and then proceeds to consider faith leadership in a school context acknowledging that faith is expressed in secular as well as religious domains. It then proceeds to apply Brinkerhoff's (2000) representation to Catholic schools settings while keeping in mind that it is not exclusive to such schools.