Wellbeing leadership: Perceptions of pre-service school leaders

Abstract

This study explored pre-service school leaders' self-perceived roles as future school leaders in terms of securing the provision of wellbeing. Sixteen pre-service school leaders (participants from MA Education Leadership programs) from 14 countries participated in semi-structured interviews. Data was analyzed using theme-based analysis. Findings suggest that pre-service school leaders: (a) exhibited a narrow understanding of the concept of wellbeing; (b) attributed the role of securing students' wellbeing mainly to school psychologists, counselors and teachers; (c) assumed a greater personal role, if any, towards securing students’ wellbeing, compared to that of teachers, despite showing more knowledge of how to address teacher wellbeing; and (e) did not receive any form of capacity building addressing wellbeing leadership, as part of their leadership preparatory programs.