Critical Spirituality in Leadership

Podcast Transcript

Critical Spirituality in Leadership

“What do I stand for?” (Helfand & Zimbardo, 2021)

What if leaders reflected deeply on this question in connection to and with all our relations? In this episode we consider the possibilities that emerge from merging critical and spiritual approaches to leadership. Firstly, we begin by sharing our understandings of critical and spiritual.

The Critical: 

The critique and disruption of existing power asymmetries in structures, ideas, practices, and relations that perpetuate the oppression of historically marginalized groups. 

The Spiritual:

We see spirituality as concerned with, and aware of, the spirit, interconnectedness, the unseen, the mysterious, the sacred, and the unknowable (Dei, 2019). Spirituality moves beyond secular, colonial, individual conceptions that position religion as “bad” and spirituality as “good” (Shahjahan, 2010), and instead encourages attention to, and respect for different faith traditions (Butler, 2000). Furthermore, “religious identity is also complex, nuanced, fluid and resistant to essentialization” (Shipley, 2012, para. 20). “Neutral” or “secular” views often privilege agnostic or atheist traditions and worldviews (Ontario Human Rights Commission [OHRC], n.d.) and are “residually and normatively Christian” (Seljak et al, 2008). This leads to systemic faithism,  which the OHRC (n.d.) describes as the ways that cultural and societal norms, systems, structures and institutions directly or indirectly, consciously or unwittingly, promote, sustain or entrench differential (dis)advantage for individuals and groups based on their faith (understood broadly to include religious and non-religious belief systems). Systemic faithism can adversely affect both religious and non-religious persons, depending on the context. For example, examining the concept of dualism (good vs. evil) present within dominant understandings of Christianity offers insights into how we can embrace the nuances, connections, complexities, and contradictions of differing spiritual and religious systems (Helfand & Zimbardo, 2021).

We consider Seljak et al.’s (2008) analysis of the close connections between religion, ethnicity and race in the Ontario context and caution that Christian privilege can result in anti-religious sentiment, ethno-religious alienation, polarization, and alienation, rooted in the belief that religious practices and identities are incompatible with Canadian identity and citizenship (OHRC, n.d.). This encourages the creation of religious “ghettoes” that may lead to religious radicalization and disengagement from Canadian public life (OHRC, n.d.). We heed Butler’s (2000) warning that spirituality may be commodified in modern schooling, reducing it to individual approaches instead of situating it in larger contexts of social struggle.

Critical Spirituality

The merging of critical and spiritual approaches to leadership invites transformation at multiple levels, such as Anzaldúa’s notion of spiritual activism that merges the inseparable practice of the inner work of spirituality and the outer work of activism (Keating, 2005) or Shahjahan’s (2010) understanding of critical spirituality as “ a movement from inward to outward action in the social world” (p. 478). Knowledge systems that prioritize our inherent interconnectedness, interdependence, and oneness, also figure prominently here. The notion of Ubuntu in African spirituality means "I am because we are"or “a person is a person through other persons'' (Hailey, 2008; Ngunjiri, 2010). Similarly, All My Relations speaks to the interconnectedness between the living and nonliving, past and present, that is known to most Native people in North America (King, 1992). In Lak’Ech is a Mayan philosophy of interconnectedness, which suggests that in harming others, we are harming ourselves, and in loving others, we are loving ourselves (Fernández, 2019). The Buddhist concept of interbeing, or Anatta in the Pali language, means non-self or the substance-less of all animate and inanimate objects, in which living things do not have a separate self and can only inter-be in relation to everything else (Nhat Hanh, 2020).

Our current theories and models of leadership leave much to be desired in the acknowledgment of spiritual ways of knowing. Drawing from critical theory as well as prophetic African American spirituality, Dantley (2003) describes how critical spirituality supports courageous confrontation of inequitable systems and sustains hope in planning for a more just future. He also suggests that critical spirituality “not only deconstructs asymmetrical relations of power that dominate the educational system but can also be instrumental in prescribing acts of reflective resistance purposed to bring about a radical reconstruction of schools” (Dantley, 2003, p. 3). We urge that a deeper understanding of the “intersections of multiple structures of oppression and domination on the self-perceptions and experiences of Religiously Minoritized People of Colour (RMPOC)” (Rashad & Stewart, 2021, p. 148) would offer further insights into collectively working towards a more equitable world. For example, we cannot understand systems of white supremacy outside of understandings of Christian hegemony and settler/colonialism, intersections that gave rise to what we now know as “Canada”.

Like Gardner (2011), we question whether spirituality can transform the world. Spiritual connection may offer leaders a sense of purpose, belonging, strength, fortitude, hope for justice yet realized, and responsibility to communities past, present and future. It connects multiple “critical and interconnected approaches to schooling that center and disrupt power asymmetries and invite inner knowledge and healing” (Shah, 2022, p. 60). As such, we turn to Thich Nhat Hanh’s notion of Socially Engaged Buddhism, which promotes embodied, inner knowing and social action through self-observation, compassionate inquiry, grassroots empowerment, and nonjudgement (Shah, 2019). This is similar to bell hooks’ (1994) notion of engaged pedagogy, which suggests that teachers can attend to the souls of their students by facilitating their intellectual and spiritual development.

Critical spirituality in leadership honours the role of spirituality and ancestral knowledges (Dantley, 2010; Frick, Parsons & Frick, 2019; Khalifa, Khalil, Marsh & Halloran, 2019). It also honours the importance of self-awareness by inviting us to explore how our conceptions of self in relation to others, connection to something greater than ourselves, experiences with the mysterious and the unknown, as well as our fantasies, conscious and unconscious traumas, fears, insecurities, hidden desires, and longings influence how and why we lead, and how we and why we engage in activism. This awareness encourages us to see the connections between our fragmented and whole selves, making space for us to examine our contradictions, our complexities, and our complicities. We might contemplate: “How might my ego mind perpetuate the very violence, inequity, and oppression that I seek to dismantle in the world?” (Shah, 2019, p. 51). We might release illusions of certainty, control, comfort, and security, and we might see ourselves as “harmed and harming, more or less honest, more or less able to be conscious when triggered, more or less manipulative, more or less willing to take responsibility for our own change, more or less caught in patterns” (Hemphill, 2019, para. 6).  As such, critical spirituality prioritizes healing through embodied and contemplative practices that free us from sources of separation and fragmentation. In this way, a commitment to self-awareness, inner knowing, and healing internalized and intergenerational trauma, oppression, and domination might be viewed as a leadership competency.

While spirituality and faith are central to leadership practices, they are rarely acknowledged and examined. A spiritual practice in leadership is important to managing stress and remaining grounded in times of crisis, as well as leading in integrity with our highest values in systems that often ask us to lead in ways that distance us from ourselves (Shah et al., 2002). Through an exploration of various silenced expressions of faith and spirituality, we hope to bring light to subjugated knowledge systems and wisdom traditions and philosophies of leadership, as well as explore common characteristics of spiritual leadership across faiths. Finally, we seek to open a space for the celebration of our full humanity and belonging to each other.

Reflection Questions:

1. What are the ways in which we continuously examine how we are showing up as educational leaders with the critical awareness of ourselves in relation to others and our environment?
2. Within our current educational settings, what do secularism and pluralism offer and foreclose?
3. How might acknowledging spiritual and faith-based leadership practices disrupt taken-for granted assumptions of neutrality that mask Christian hegemony, settler colonialism and white supremacy?
4. What do we need and who do we need to be to lead as critically spiritual beings?
5. How might we apply this understanding to the work we do in communities, schools, and academies?

References

Dantley, M.E. (2003). Critical spirituality: enhancing transformative leadership through critical theory and African American prophetic spirituality. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 6(1), 3-17.

Dei, G. J.S. (2002). Spiritual knowing and transformative learning. NALL working paper #59. https://nall.oise.utoronto.ca/res/59GeorgeDei.pdf

hooks, b. (1994). Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom. Routledge.

Frick, W.C., Parsons, J. & Frick, J.E. (2019). Disarming privilege to achieve equitable school communities: A spiritually attuned school Leadership response to our storied lives. Interchange, 50,549–568. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10780-019-09375-z

Gardner, F. (2011). Critical spirituality: A holistic approach to contemporary practice. Routledge.

Helfand, J. T. & Zimbardo, Z. (Host). (2021, September 3). Episode 2: Understanding and dismantling Christian hegemony with Paul Kivel [Audio podcast episode]. In White Noise Collective Podcast.  https://www.conspireforchange.org/Podcast-episodes/episode-2-understanding-and-dismantling-christian-hegemony-with-paul-kivel-2/

Hemphill. P. (2019, July 5). Letting go of innocence. Prentis Hemphill. https://prentishemphill.com/blog/2019/7/5/letting-go-of-innocence

Keating A. (2005) Shifting perspectives: Spiritual activism, social transformation, and the politics of spirit. In A. Keating A. (Ed.) EntreMundos/AmongWorlds (pp. 241-254). Palgrave Macmillan.

Khalifa M.A., Khalil D., Marsh T.E.J., & Halloran C. (2019). Toward an Indigenous, decolonizing school leadership: A literature review. Educational Administration Quarterly, 55(4), 571-614.

Nhat Hanh, T. (2020). Interbeing: The 14 mindfulness trainings of Engaged Buddhism. (4th edition). Parallax Press.

Ontario Human Rights Commission. (n.d.). Systemic faithism. http://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/iii-background-and-context/4-systemic-faithism

Seljak, D., Schmidt, A., Stewart, A., & Bramadat, P. (2008). Secularization and the separation of church and state in Canada. Canadian Diversity, 6(1), 6-24.

Shah, V. (2022). Critical, interconnected approaches to professional engagements. The Journal of Educational Foundations, 35 (1), 52-79. https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1358850

Shah, V. (2019). Calling in the self: Centering Socially Engaged Buddhism in critical pedagogy through personal narrative. International Journal of Critical Pedagogy, 10(2), 45-67.

Shah, V., Aoudeh, N., Cuglievan-Mindreau, G., & Flessa, J. (2022). Subverting whiteness and amplifying anti-racisms: Mid-level district leadership for racial justice. Journal of School Leadership. https://doi.org/10.1177/10526846221095752

Shahjahan, R. A. (2010). Toward a spiritual praxis:  The role of spirituality among faculty of color teaching for social justice. The Review of Higher Education, 33(4), 473-512.

Shipley, H. (2012). Human rights, sexuality, and religion: Between policy and identity. Creed, freedom of religion and human rights. Ontario Human Rights Commission. https://www.ohrc.on.ca/en/creed-freedom-religion-and-human-rights-special-issue-diversity-magazine-volume-93-summer-2012/human-rights-sexuality-and-religion-between-policy-and-identity

Wane, N., Manyimo, E. & Ritskes, E.J. (Eds.). (2011). Spirituality, education & society: An integrated approach. Rotterdam: Sense Publication.

Additional Recommended Resources:

Capper, C. A., Hafner, M. M., & Keyes, M. W. (2002). The role of community in spiritually centered leadership for justice. School as community: From promise to practice, 77-94. Rashad, K. & Stewart, D. (2021) Racializing Faith: The intersections of racism and (White) Christian hegemony. In C. Wijeyesinghe (Ed.), The complexities of race: Identity, power, and justice in an evolving America (pp. 148-171). New York, USA: New York University Press.

Shenvi, N. (2021). Subverting Christian hegemony: A semi-review of Joshi’s White Christian privilege. Neil Shenvi-Apologetics. https://shenviapologetics.com/subverting-christian-hegemony-a-semi-review-of-joshis-white-christian-privilege/

Panelists

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