In the lived work of school leaders, these arenas of practice are often intertwined, but our model does not presume that they are. A school leader may be particularly attentive to interpersonal caring with students but not to developing the school as a caring community—or vice versa. A leader may be strong in working outside the school with civic leaders and community organizations on behalf of students and their families but weak in interpersonal caring of students and developing caring within the school. Our model allows for the possibility of one arena of caring school leadership practice compensating for another.
We would expect principals to act in caring ways and provide caring support to students with whom they are able to form trusting interpersonal relationships. At the same time, to ensure that every student receives caring support, principals can promote teacher and staff caring so that each student experiences caring relationships with a number of adults in the school. By doing this and in fostering caring in families and communities, principals need not take on all the work themselves. Principals will be much more effective if they develop the capacity of others, work in partnership with others, and guide and support others to step up and be better at caring.
The right side of the model shows the student outcomes that we expect from caring school leadership. The model identifies several types of outcomes important to students that we discussed earlier, including positive psychological states, social integration and responsibility, capacity for achieving goals, engagement, academic success, and capacity for caring. The model indicates that the stronger the practices of caring school leadership, the more likely caring’s benefits to students will accrue. We recall that students benefit most when the totality of caring they experience is strong and positive.
The major parts of the model are laid out in linear order, indicating with one-way arrows that the foundational elements of caring shape caring leadership practice and, in turn, promote student outcomes. The model indicates with feedback arrows that student outcomes can shape the nature of caring leadership practice and the three foundational elements of caring. For example, students’ responses to positive experiences of caring may motivate leaders to continue those practices. When students ignore or resist particular actions or interactions intended as caring, attentive leaders may seek more information, reflect, and perhaps alter what they are doing. While it does not depict them, our model recognizes the importance of dynamic and interrelated interpersonal, organizational, and extraorganizational contexts. These contexts and the importance of developing and managing them are emphasized by our framing of the three arenas of caring leadership practice. While the arrows in the model suggest a sequential order of elements, the reality of leadership generally and caring school leadership in particular is more nonlinear and dynamic.
Finally, we recognize that there may be crucial differences between our model’s application to a caring leader’s relationship with an individual student and its application to a leader’s relationship with a whole student body, with adults in a school, or with families and community. We also recognize there may be differences between the caring of an individual school leader and the caring that emanates from a schoolwide community. The latter may hold additional meaning and exert greater influence than the sum of individual interpersonal caring therein.
Considerations for Practice
As we move to the collections of stories that illustrate how caring school leadership can be practiced, we take a moment to explore several important considerations (see Figure 0.5). The first is that the practice of caring school leadership is framed and guided by the profession of school leadership. While not inseparable, there is a distinction between personal caring as part of being human and caring as part of one’s professional role and responsibility. The profession of school leadership defines the purpose, foci, and scope of caring school leadership work and pairs it with professional knowledge, orientations, and skills. The profession also defines critical boundaries that distinguish personal from professional caring and that distinguish caring school leadership from caring work in other human service professions.
Figure 0.5 Surrounded by Care. Nicholas Fogg, Grade 12
School leadership focuses primarily on organizational leadership and management of schools to promote the learning, development, and well-being of students. According to the National Policy Board for Educational Administration Professional Standards for Educational Leaders 2015 (PSEL), school leadership in all its forms and functions is to be guided by professional norms of integrity, fairness, transparency, trust, collaboration, perseverance, learning, and continuous improvement. School leaders are to place children at the center of education and accept responsibility for each student’s academic success and well-being. School leaders are to safeguard and promote the values of democracy, individual freedom and responsibility, equity, social justice, community, and diversity. They are to lead with interpersonal and communication skill, social-emotional intelligence and insight, and understanding of all students’ and staff members’ background and cultures. In addition, school leaders are to provide moral direction for the school and promote ethical and professional behavior among faculty and staff.
A second consideration concerns the subjects of caring—that is, for whom and for what school leaders should be caring. The PSEL make clear that in all areas of their work, school leaders should care for and be caring of students, their academic success, and their overall well-being. Caring school leadership should have concurrent concern for individual and groups of students as well as teachers and professional staff. This concern centers on the school as an organization and how it supports a caring community for students, teachers, and staff. Caring school leadership also concerns others outside of school who affect students’ lives in school and in general. Most immediately, this includes families and helping families be caring of students. It involves enacting caring work in communities, being an advocate on behalf of children and families, promoting conditions that support children, and improving conditions that impede their learning and development. Caring school leadership applies to caring for the institution of schooling and for education in democratic society. Finally, caring school leadership encompasses caring for the profession and its ability to serve children, families, and communities well.
A third consideration is viewing the enactment of caring school leadership as principled practice. By this we mean that the practice of caring school leadership is propelled by principles of purpose, positive virtues and mindsets, and norms that orient the nature of one’s relationships with others—particularly meeting the needs and concerns of others, promoting the betterment of others, and helping others fulfill their human potential. The practice of caring school leadership is also principled as a moral and ethical endeavor that resides within the norms, expectations, and boundaries of the profession. The practice of caring school leadership evokes orientations toward others as human beings and how we see ourselves in professional roles working on behalf of fellow human beings, living and working in community, and being responsible for one another.
The practice of caring school leadership can also be viewed as principled in recognition of the situational and dynamic nature of leadership. Situational perspectives emphasize that effective leadership requires fashioning specific actions and interactions to fit particular objectives, tasks, situations, persons, and contexts. Inasmuch as these considerations are also continually changing, leadership practice