Snack gaps, doubling up, and revolving doors: educational leadership practices in a changing suburb

Abstract

ABSTRACT Alongside rising poverty, student homelessness and school mobility are increasingly impacting U.S. suburbs – yet, there is little research on how leadership is evolving. Informed by distributed leadership and drawing from over 50 artifacts and 42 interviews with school and community leaders, this study explores how poverty, homelessness, and mobility are shaping leadership practice in a fast-growing, U.S. suburb. Both individually and concomitantly, poverty, homelessness, and mobility drew different actors, tools, and routines into the educational arena – fundamentally shifting the who and how of practice. Overall, leadership practice was rarely distributed outside of the suburb. Leadership around family poverty was, however, a community-wide endeavor – extending beyond, but centering on the schools. Yet, local government viewed homelessness as a ‘school issue’ and little outreach occurred regarding mobility. In addressing poverty, homelessness, and mobility, principals in traditional schools tended to rely on school social workers. Implications for distributed leadership, leadership preparation and practice, and future research are discussed.