Spiritual Leadership in Higher Education: A Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract Book of the  9th International Conference on Future of Teaching and Education and Humanities

Year: 2025

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Spiritual Leadership in Higher Education: A Scoping Review and Bibliometric Analysis

Marian Ramos-Eclevia

ABSTRACT:

While there have been several literature reviews on spiritual leadership in organizations, there is a lack of studies systematically exploring and analyzing the published literature on spiritual leadership within educational institutions. To address this gap, this study attempts to answer these questions using scoping literature and bibliometric analysis: 1) What major themes and emerging trends characterize the discourse on spiritual leadership in educational contexts and how do they intersect with recent educational challenges and opportunities?; 2) What epistemological frameworks and methodological approaches are dominant in the existing literature on spiritual leadership in education, and what are the potential limitations and biases associated with these studies?; and 3) What are the critical gaps in the spiritual leadership research and how might these inform future studies and practical applications? In identifying the core literature, this study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses steps and metadata of published scholarly articles, books, theses, and dissertations over the last ten years were extracted from Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, ERIC, and ProQuest. VOSViewer was used to visualize research trends as well as intellectual and social structures of papers. This study ascertains critical gaps in spiritual leadership research in the context of education by addressing key trends, themes, epistemological frameworks, and methodological approaches. The findings will inform future studies, guiding scholars, graduate students, and practitioners in developing more effective frameworks and strategies for spiritual leadership in educational settings.

keywords: bibliometric analysis, educational leadership, higher education, scoping review, spiritual leadership