Spiritual Leadership Practices Among Primary School Headmasters: Insights from Selected School Leaders in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia

This study aims to explore the spiritual leadership approach practiced by primary school headmasters in Negeri Sembilan. This approach is gaining traction in the world of education because it emphasizes development in leaders such as values, ethics, and higher purpose in leadership. This study uses a qualitative method with a phenomenological approach, with data collected through in-depth interviews involving eleven experienced Headmasters from various types of primary schools in urban and rural areas. The study highlights elements of spiritual leadership such as faith and hope, knowledge and wisdom, vision and al-falah, as well as altruistic rahmah and love. This approach plays an important role in shaping a positive school culture, strengthening interpersonal relationships through effective communication, and fostering motivation and commitment among teachers, school staff, and the local community. In addition, the values of ihsan in spiritual leadership that school leaders need are, which involve traits such as sincerity, truthfulness, fairness, self-preservation, manners of communication, trust, and integrity, play a major role in this leadership practice. This study provides a deeper understanding of the role of spiritual leadership in the context of education in schools and provides guidance for school leaders to apply this approach in an effort to improve the quality of leadership. The spiritual element proved to be an important necessity that could help Headteachers strengthen leadership practices in schools. The implications of this study show that a spiritual leadership approach can be used as a basis for developing more holistic leadership training programmes and policies in the education sector in Malaysia and has a great opportunity to be emphasized. This approach aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and offers quality of education in primary school.