Leadership and Social Change in Education

Giovanna P, LAM Lipova, Romania

To live a “happy” and fulfilled life is what all of us aspire to. During the past century, we saw the unprecedented development of science and technology with the expectation that humankind would find an ideal and a long-lasting happiness. While material progress has been made, environmental destruction and exhaustion of natural resources have also risen. Further, an unequal distribution of wealth and opportunity has expanded within and among countries, and the material power among nations has often led to gaining control over the military, politics, and economics.

Leadership: Theoretical Perspectives

In the scholarly literature, the traditional paradigm of leadership, likewise, has been one that includes hierarchical and pyramid-type structures, a personalistic focus on the leader, and a utilitarian and materialistic ethical perspective. However, with the realization that this traditional paradigm cannot solve many of the problems we confront today, a number of leadership scholars and writers have begun to emphasize the importance of values such as collaboration, the common good, and global concern as important components of leadership for the twenty-first century.

The Role of Spirituality in Social Change

It should be noted that spirituality is an elusive term, and there is no universal operational definition. For example, as Seaward (1995) argues, spirituality can be described in a variety of ways, such as “higher consciousness, transcendence, selfreliance, love, faith, enlightenment, community, self-actualization, compassion, forgiveness, mysticism, a higher power, grace and a multitude of other qualities”.

However, if we were to analyze the spiritual experience and its behavioral manifestations among individuals, it becomes evident that there are some commonalities in the essence of spirituality that affect outward behavior. With this said, in what follows, I state why I believe it is important to examine the role of spirituality in leadership for social change.