School Leaders’ Emotional Intelligence and School Culture: A Scoping Review Mapping Current Research

School culture is widely recognised as a key element of educational organisations, shaping relationships, behaviours, and shared norms within schools. Emotional intelligence (EI) has been identified as a leadership capability that may contribute to the development of positive school cultures; however, the nature of this relationship remains fragmented across the literature. This scoping review synthesised evidence from 31 studies examining the relationship between school leaders’ EI and school culture and considers implications for Irish post-primary education. The review included empirical, theoretical, conceptual, and review-based literature from a range of international contexts. Findings revealed considerable variation in the conceptualisation and measurement of both EI and school culture. Across the literature, emotionally intelligent leadership is commonly associated with positive school culture outcomes. These findings highlight the potential importance of EI in shaping school culture while underscoring the need for greater conceptual clarity and methodological rigour in future research. The review provides an evidence-informed foundation for future research on emotionally intelligent leadership and school culture, including context-specific work within Irish post-primary education.