Studies which examine how educational leadership in faith-based schools is understood and practised are few and far between in the research literature. This is surprising given the important role faith-based schools play within the Australian school system and the controversy that has often surrounded them. Taking into consideration the gap in the research and the debates surrounding these types of schools it seemed timely to examine faith-based school leaders' perspectives on educational leadership. This article describes an interpretive study which sought to uncover how members of faith-based schools' management teams understood and practised leadership. Three different faith-based schools were selected for the study; a Catholic, Islamic and Greek Orthodox school. Four different qualitative data collection methods were used, comprising semi-structured interviews, concept mapping, document analysis and non-participant observation. Using a grounded theory approach for the data analysis it was found that the ways in which these faith-based school leaders understand educational leadership are underpinned by values which often had a faith dimension. In addition, it was found that the school leaders used this framework of faith-based values to guide their practice. It is further argued that the ways in which the school leaders' values and spirituality influenced their perspectives demonstrate the influence of context on leadership perspectives.