Educational Management in the Light of Islamic Standards

The purpose of this study was threefold: (1) Investigate educational management and its characteristics in terms of the Islamic concept of management in this era of globalisation; (2) Identify attributes of leadership of the principals and their compatibility with Islamic standards derived from the Holy Quran, the Sunnah and the Prophet's Traditions; and (3) Establish the impacts of globalisation on Islamic management. A descriptive-analytic approach was used to achieve these three aims based on a comprehensive description of the phenomenon in question and an analysis of the facts, information and data covered by the research. From this perspective, we first present the theoretical framework and previous studies as a point of reference for the search path and conducts a field study using a questionnaire consisting of 17 items, while ensuring its validity. We then applied the questionnaire to a sample of basic education school teachers in Saudi Arabia to establish the extent to which the leadership attributes of the teachers in the schools are compatible with Islamic standards derived from the Holy Quran, the Prophet's traditions and the Biographies of the Companions. The findings of the field studies revealed a mismatch between the school principals’ leadership attributes with almost all Islamic standards, indicating that the educational system in Saudi Arabia lacks educational management role models from an Islamic perspective compared to the effect of globalisation of management. This suggests that the hiring process of principals should be revised to ensure they work in accordance with Islamic standards and compete with others in the light of the globalisation of management. The study concludes with a number of recommendations that include developing a new, well-defined and integrated educational philosophy; holding an educational conference to discuss reports related to education and management in the light of the globalisation of management; adopting universal Islamic standards and values in the face of the standards and values of globalised education, and achieving quality education that benefits from the scientific and technological revolutions in this era of knowledge.