Nidal Al Haj SleimanI would like to contribute to BELMAS as a Trustee because the Society has shaped my intellectual life and continues to offer an important space for critical dialogue. I joined BELMAS in 2018 after Professor Victoria Showunmi spoke about her BELMAS experience during UCL’s Institute of Education (IOE) Doctoral School orientation week. Since then, BELMAS has become my intellectual home: a place of meaningful conversations, including difficult ones that have stretched my thinking. Building on this experience of belonging and growth, I would like to help BELMAS extend into new networks and conversations, particularly by encouraging further involvement of postgraduate students, early-career researchers and practitioners from diverse contexts.
My research focuses on the fundamental questions and purpose of critical educational leadership in contexts marked by inequality, class, religious and ethnic divisions, authoritarianism, colonialism and conflict. These questions are rooted in my own educational experience. I received my schooling in rural Lebanon during the civil war, within a fragmented society shaped by colonial violence, sectarianism and socio-economic disparities. Those experiences shaped my career and continue to underpin my conviction that education and educational leadership can make a difference, despite being shaped by structural, political and social contexts.
This commitment continues to guide my academic work. I currently work as a researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Middle East Centre, focusing on critical educational leadership and policy sociology in the Gulf Region. I completed my PhD at UCL’s IOE, Department of Leadership and Learning, where I taught alongside researching leadership in elite international schools in England and the Gulf. Later, I was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at Ulster University, where I researched school leadership, policy and social justice in post-conflict and divided societies. Additionally, I worked as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for Lebanese Studies, University of Cambridge, researching leadership and policy in Lebanon’s public schools.
Alongside my research, my professional experience has given me a practical understanding of educational leadership, governance and institutional decision-making. Before my research career, I worked as a teacher and international school principal. During my principalship, I served on the school’s governance board for almost a decade, where I learned to align priorities with resources, manage restrictions and opportunities, while maintaining the focus on the school’s direction and community needs. This experience has shaped my research perspective and informed my work on educational projects in the West Asia region as an advisor, consultant, and co-convener, especially those supporting teachers, school leaders, and, more recently, higher education.
I am also actively engaged in BELMAS as a member of the BELMAS Blog Editorial Team and a co-convener of the Social Theory in the Field of ELMA RIG: a space to think with theory across new contexts and challenges. My work bridges research, policy and practice across different settings and perspectives. Through this nomination, I hope to bring new questions, conversations and directions to BELMAS, contributing to educational leadership research and practice shaped by freedom, social justice and democracy.
I am a sociologist of leadership, policy, and international education. My work examines educational leadership and policy in contexts marked by inequality, elitism, authoritarianism, colonialism, conflict, and divided societies. My studies and research in West Asia, the Arabian Gulf, England and Northern Ireland focus on educational leadership through critical social theory, and mainly draw on Bourdieu, Foucault, Deleuze, Said, Gunter and Giddens. Throughout my research career, my work has centred the social, cultural, political and socio-historical questions that shape education, institutions and leadership.
This intellectual focus has developed through a sustained academic trajectory. I completed my PhD at UCL’s Institute of Education, Department of Leadership and Learning, where I taught alongside my research on leadership in elite international schools in England and the Gulf region. After my PhD, I was awarded a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship at Ulster University, Northern Ireland, where I spent three years researching school leadership, policy and social justice in post-conflict and divided societies. I then held a one-year Visiting Fellowship at the Centre for Lebanese Studies, University of Cambridge, where I researched school leadership and policy in Lebanon’s public schools. For the past two years, I have worked as a researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Middle East Centre, leading a critical study on educational leadership and policy in the Gulf.
Alongside this academic work, my professional experience has given me practical insights into educational leadership, governance and institutional decision-making. Prior to my research career, I worked as a teacher and middle leader in religious, private and public schools, and later served as the principal of an international school. During my principalship, I was part of the school’s governance board for almost a decade, where I learned to align priorities with resources, manage restrictions and opportunities, and maintain focus on the school’s direction and the needs of its community. These experiences have shaped my research perspective and practice. They have also informed my work with UNESCO Iraq, where I contributed to the national K–12 curriculum for social justice and critical peacebuilding and, later, to a framework for research knowledge and skills in higher education. In addition, I have contributed extensively to education development in Lebanon, particularly through advisory work supporting public school leaders.
I have also remained actively engaged in BELMAS as a member of the BELMAS Blog Editorial Team and a co-convener of the Social Theory in the Field of ELMA RIG. These roles reflect my commitment to creating spaces where researchers and practitioners can think together across theory, policy and practice. While I am based in the UK, my research, networks, and activities across West Asia bring perspectives from global contexts where critical educational leadership and research are crucial.
