School leadership between the cross and the crescent: spiritual capital and religious capital in the southern Philippines

This study investigated the ways that principal leadership practice is shaped by religion and spirituality, both in terms of how beliefs inform their work and in relation to how religion and spirituality are manifest in school and community. Data were collected over a 6-month period from public school principals working in mixed Catholic-Muslim communities in the Philippines. The authors developed a conceptual framework that integrated research on principals with multidisciplinary work on spiritual capital and religious capital. Findings suggested that religion and spirituality are very important to principals as individuals and that spirituality and religion form two closely related (but distinct) symbolic systems in which principals must participate to effectively lead in school and community. The study also raised interesting methodological issues related to translation and to cultural relevance for the Australian-based researchers.