Cultural sustaining Leadership Model of the School with Emphasis on

Maleki, Bahram

doi:10.22098/ael.2025.16205.1497

Cultural sustaining Leadership Model of the School with Emphasis on "Culture of Care"

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Bahram Maleki

Department of Psychology and Counselling, Farhangian University, P.O. Box 14665-889, Tehran, Iran

10.22098/ael.2025.16205.1497

Abstract

Background and Objective: Students from diverse cultural backgrounds face numerous structural barriers and challenges in various aspects of their studies. These challenges sometimes lead to students' apathy and boredom from studying and eventually dropping out of school. The aim of this study was to investigate the role and reflection of a sustainable cultural pattern through a "culture of care".
research methodology: This research was applied in terms of its objective and qualitative in terms of its approach, implemented with grounded theory strategy of Charmaz. The research field was Kurdistan Province, and the potential participants included all primary and secondary school administrators in the city of Sanandaj, in the academic year of 2024-2025, from which 15 were purposefully (heterogeneously) selected and invited to participate by a semi-structured interview protocol to express their views on sustainable cultural leadership.
Findings: The results indicated that four key indicators, namely critical self-awareness, cultural humility, restorative justice, and family-school partnership, could be identified as aspects of sustainable cultural leadership in school management. Despite the diversity of opinions, decolonizing leadership, cultural interaction, self-reflection, artistic care, and cultural competence were other themes mentioned by the administrators under the aforementioned four indicators.
Conclusion: Despite the efforts of administrators to value the culture and language of students, the implementation of this leadership style is significantly dependent on structural changes in the attitudes of educational policymakers. These changes may manifest in various forms, including a belief in multicultural education, de-stereotyping, open-mindedness, self-criticism, and efforts to foster family and school participation.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Applied educational leadership

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