DEVELOPING SCHOOL RESOURCE LEADERSHIP INDICATORS FOR MALAYSIAN ISLAMIC SCHOOLS USING A MODIFIED FUZZY DELPHI APPROACH

Abstract

The principal’s strategic resource leadership plays a central role in sustaining effective teaching and learning in Malaysia’s culturally embedded Islamic education system. The effectiveness of leadership depends on how financial, human, and physical resources are planned, allocated, and aligned with the school’s religious and cultural mission. Although the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013–2025 emphasises student-centred learning, strategic resource management, and lifelong learning, existing leadership models give limited attention to the distinctive religious, cultural, and spiritual realities of Islamic schooling. Most available frameworks remain administratively oriented and insufficiently responsive to the cultural expectations of faith-based institutions. This study, therefore, aims to develop a School Resource Leadership Framework grounded in Islamic educational values and suited to the Malaysian Islamic school context, while remaining aligned with national education goals. The new framework comprises three culturally contextualised domains: (1) leading human resources to maximise student learning, (2) leading resources systematically (ICT, data, and finance), and (3) leading funds and information to develop teacher competency. Using the Modified Fuzzy Delphi Method (MFDM), expert consensus was gathered through three rounds involving specialists in Islamic education, school leadership, and educational management. In Round 1, qualitative interviews with six experts generated 72 preliminary indicators. Round 2 validated and refined these indicators based on expert feedback. In Round 3, a panel of 23 experts evaluated all items using fuzzy computations, with threshold values (d ≤ 0.2) and a ≥75% agreement as acceptance criteria. The final model includes 72 empirically supported, contextually relevant indicators that address the gaps between conventional leadership theories and the needs of Islamic school settings. This study contributes to comparative education by offering a culturally grounded resource leadership model that supports educational equity, local values, and policy reform in diverse schooling systems across Southeast Asia.