Muslim Women Mobilising Emotionality

Abstract

In this empirical study, I describe how Muslim women leading American Islamic schools demonstrate emotionality by managing their own emotions and the emotions of others as core components of leadership practices. Using the lens of critical feminist studies, this research makes private emotional expressions a site for critical analysis of social, cultural and political influences that reflect patriarchal power imbalances and rising anti-Muslim sentiment. Through a national analysis of 13 interviews of Muslim women school leaders, centering their everyday leadership experiences as qualitative data, I found that these women skillfully managed emotions as both a demonstration of their faith and a professional effort to advance their school communities. The following themes emerged from the data as evidence of emotionality within American Islamic schools: (a) emotions as nurturing; (b) emotions as burdens; (c) emotional fluency and (d) emotions as resistance. This study expands the scholarship of critical feminist studies that examine the intersections of emotionality and leadership, by adding the voices of Muslim women school leaders who expertly manage emotions across cultural boundaries, through a difficult political environment, and as an embodiment of prophetic principles.

Citation

DeCuir, A. (2019), "Muslim Women Mobilising Emotionality", Oplatka, I. and Arar, K. (Ed.) Emotion Management and Feelings in Teaching and Educational Leadership (Studies in Educational Administration), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 131-148. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-010-920191006