Abstract

This presentation provides an overview of a long-term programme in developing a humanities-based and humanistic approach to educational administration and leadership. This ranges from unconscious (what Kets de Vries calls the ‘inner theatre’) and existential levels of experience, through the interpersonal and organisational dimensions in which passive evil, toxic leadership and covert administration take place, to larger scale studies of international and comparative education. This includes the most recent work in Islamic ethics for administration, alongside societal and cultural security issues that arise from globalised higher education.

Dr. Eugenie A. Samier is Associate Professor of Educational Administration and Leadership at the British University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She is editor of and contributor to a number of books with Routledge on Ethics, Aesthetics, Politics, Emotions, and Trust and Betrayal, and is author of the recently released Secrecy and Tradecraft in Educational Administration: The Covert Side of Educational Life (Routledge). She has also contributed to a number of handbooks in the field and a number of journals internationally, and has been guest lecturer at universities in Canada, Germany, Russia, Estonia, Finland, Lithuania, Norway, and the United Arab Emirates.