In the Absence of the School Leader: How Administrative Visibility Shapes Student-Teacher Perceptions

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Saturday 7:45 am
  In Poster Session: Justice, Ethics, and Innovation in Teacher Education: Feedback Loops, Computational Thinking, and Comparative Perspectives

Abstract

This qualitative study explores how student-teachers perceive school leadership during field placements. Drawing on reflections, surveys, and interviews from over 150 candidates, five themes emerge: mentor centrality, administrative absence, leadership as performance, the equity cost of invisibility, and a narrowed leadership imagination. Findings suggest that leadership absence is formative—shaping identity, belonging, and perceptions of power in schools. The study calls for intentional engagement by school leaders and repositions field placements as critical spaces of organizational learning, socialization, and identity construction for emerging educators within real-world leadership ecologies.

Authors

• Angus Shiva Mungal, University of Mississippi

• Dennis A. Bunch, University of Mississippi