Leadership Characteristics for Muslim School Leaders in a Multicultural Context in Thailand

Abstract

This mixed method study examines the leadership characteristics of Muslim school leaders in a multicultural context and studied the confirmatory factor analysis of leadership characteristics among Muslim school leaders. Using sequential explanatory approach, this research is divided in two phases. The first phase was a qualitative research and gathered data from semi-structured in-depth interviews and group discussions with 15 key informants, including administrators, teachers and parent representatives from a model Muslim school in a multicultural context in Thailand. The combined-level triangulation technique method was used to validate the data and the qualitative data was analyzed through content analysis. The second phase was a quantitative research that conducted secondary confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) through a questionnaire created the results from phase one. One hundred and sixty questionnaires were retrieved from school administrators, teachers and parents at four Muslim schools in a multicultural context in Thailand. The results of this study found that there were five leadership characteristics for Muslim school leaders in a multicultural context, including gentleness, justice, flexibility, tolerance, and interpersonal relationships. The five characteristics of Muslim school leaders in a multicultural context were in harmony with the empirical data with factor loading scores between .83-.96 and a factor loading matrix between .68-.86. The results demonstrated that the item corresponded with the empirical data and the five factors of leadership characteristics can be utilized for training school leaders in a multicultural context in Thailand.