From Oversight to Advocacy: An Examination of School Board Leadership

• In Event: 16.062 - Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: 16.062-1 - School Leadership and Principals' Management Practices

Abstract

This study examines how school trustees (i.e. elected school board members) conceive their own leadership role and work with other levels of leadership within school boards. In this mixed-method study, a total of 121 school trustees were surveyed and 12 were interviewed across Ontario. Findings include that trustees see themselves as serving two distinct leadership roles: 1) providing local input into provincial government decision making; 2) keeping the school board accountable and advocating on behalf of the constituents they represent. Furthermore, even though all school boards operate under the same policy and legislative framework across the province, trustees reported two very different models of working with school board management.

Author

• Sachin Maharaj, University of Toronto