nurturing servant leaders in religious education - Scholarly ...

uilding was now located in a different place. Maybe my aunty had said another L
name street and I was wandering around for nothing. But find it I did, and walked
inside. I was immediately hit with a strong feeling of love. Knowing that it was the
same programme I had been moving through in the United States, I was not surprised,
as I had felt the same feeling in other institute buildings across the world. Yet this
building was different for me because it was in a place in which my personal
understanding had deep and definite ties. I sorely wanted to feel “something extra”
here. My mother had graduated from the same institute building twenty-five years
before, and I tried to picture her walking through the same doors, what her
worldviews and experiences might have been, what she felt here. I was so grateful for
that first welcoming feeling I had, and for the feeling I continued to have walking into
the institute building. I sacrificed to be there, and did whatever I could to experience
the same reassuring and uplifting feeling as often as possible. It was for me a haven in
the city, and I found, as I continued to attend classes and meet with the teachers and
students, that my feelings of connection, not just to my Church, but also to the land of
my birth, and many other areas of my life increased as well.
I wanted to be in institute, at the institute building because of what I felt. I loved
associating with the teachers, administrators and students and hearing of their love
and passion for their beliefs, my beliefs. I was touched at how deeply their experience
of context was reflected in what they conveyed to me, at how much it was all
connected, and sublimely how I was connected to it. I laughed often and cried
sometimes with the people at institute, and in a very little time counted them my very
good friends. I therefore write this thesis in an effort to engage more deeply with the
voices of those who made such a difference in my understanding of self, to celebrate
their voices, and to more fully explore their experience as servant leaders, for such
they are to me.
Servant leadership
My introduction to the concept of servant leadership came through a paper written for
the coursework for the Master’s degree. Essentially, servant leadership is moral
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