Enacting School Mindfulness: Prioritizing Collective Trust and Enabling Structures in Rural Secondary Schools

• In Event: Rural Education Research in the Service of Rural Communities

Abstract

This qualitative study explored the perceptions of rural secondary principals on leadership practices that enact school mindfulness. This investigation is based on Hoy, Gage, and Tarter’s (2004) theoretical construct of organizational mindfulness applied to schools: focus on failure, reluctance to simplify, sensitivity to teaching and learning, commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise. Principals in the six rural secondary schools (three high-performing and three low performing) in Tennessee participated in a semistructured interview and the following themes emerged from analysis of the interview transcripts: collective trust, social-emotional learning, enabling formalization and centralization. Results from this investigation suggest avenues for future research and presents implications for rural principals and principal training programs.

Author

• Jesse Wood, Lee University