From Qur’anic worldview to teacher creativity

A conceptual framework of internalised leadership, psychological empowerment, and psychological safety

Abstract

Teacher creativity is increasingly recognized as important for educational innovation, problem solving, and improved learning outcomes. While existing research has examined teacher creativity through organizational, leadership, and psychological perspectives, comparatively limited attention has been given to how a Qur’anic worldview may shape the internal orientation of educational leaders and influence the conditions that support teacher creativity. This article develops a conceptual framework that explains how Qur’anic leadership principles may operate through leaders’ internal orientations and leadership practices to create organizational and psychological conditions conducive to teacher creativity. The framework is developed through a conceptual synthesis of Qur’anic evidence, Islamic leadership scholarship, and established theories of psychological empowerment, self-determination, intrinsic motivation, and creativity. The resulting model proposes a pathway from Qur’anic worldview and leadership principles to internal leadership orientation, leadership practices, teachers’ psychological empowerment and motivation, and ultimately teacher creativity and educational outcomes. The framework contributes theoretically by positioning Qur’anic leadership not simply as the application of selected Qur’anic values to administrative behavior, but as a process in which Qur’anic principles concerning authority, responsibility, justice, consultation, trust, and human development inform the leader’s internal orientation and subsequent organizational practices. The framework further proposes that such practices may create conditions associated with autonomy, meaningful participation, competence, trust, and motivation, which contemporary psychological research identifies as relevant to creative behavior. The article therefore provides a theoretically grounded bridge between Qur’anic worldview, leadership psychology, organizational conditions, and teacher creativity. Its practical implication is that educational leadership informed by a Qur’anic worldview may offer an alternative normative foundation for cultivating environments supportive of teacher creativity. However, the upstream relationships between Qur’anic worldview and leaders’ internal orientations are conceptual propositions rather than empirically validated relationships, and the proposed framework therefore requires empirical testing.