Amour de soi and the leadership of stewardship: reclaiming Enlightenment for educational leadership

Abstract

This paper intervenes in philosophical debates on educational subjectivity and leadership by reframing the Enlightenment concept of amour de soi; self-love as an ethical orientation for educational leadership. Drawing on Rousseau and Goethe, we critique the neoliberal valorization of amour-propre: a socially derived self-esteem and propose an alternative model of stewardship rooted in moral inwardness, ecological attunement, and aesthetic formation. Our contribution lies in bridging Enlightenment moral psychology with posthuman critiques of technocratic governance, offering a philosophical account of educational leadership as relational, affective, and planetary. Building on recent work that critiques the commodification of education and the managerialist reduction of leadership, we propose a regenerative model of leadership that nourishes learners’ intrinsic ethical and emotional selves. Rousseau’s vision of education as a means of cultivating natural self-love and compassionate autonomy is reframed here as a regenerative pedagogical imperative. Goethe’s aesthetic humanism further supports a multisensory, emotional, and ecological approach to educational formation. This paper offers a conceptual and practical framework for leadership as stewardship; resisting neoliberal performativity and guiding learners toward planetary responsibility, and joy.