Abstract

In keeping with the premise that “if we understand the world narratively … then it makes sense to study the world narratively” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. 17), this chapter takes the form of narrative inquiry. The focus of our inquiry is holistic leadership, particularly in terms of examining holistic approaches to the moral development of educational leaders. Through narrative inquiry, we engage in reflexivity—the process of reflecting critically on our experiences as both inquirers of and respondents to those experiences (Lincoln, Lynham, & Guba, 2011). To that end, we first provide a brief review of the scholarly literature pertaining to holistic leadership. Second, through storytelling, we each share our “lived experience” (Chase, 2011, p. 422) with a variety of educational leadership projects to provide a backdrop for examining and understanding holistic leadership. We also explain why narrative inquiry is an appropriate approach for examining this topic. Third, we identify and present five themes that emerged through the comparative analysis of our stories.