How district leaders create caring organizations

For almost two years, educators and parents have grappled with a host of challenging questions: Is it safe to send my child to school? How can we meet the needs of our students when they are learning virtually or are quarantined at home? What can we do to ease the anxiety teachers and students are experiencing? Given the circumstances, it’s no wonder that mental health crises are on the rise among students and staff across the country. In our recent conversations with educators, however, we’ve also heard many declarations of hope, optimism, and resilience.

Our research suggests that a school system’s central office can play a key role in supporting educators, students, and families by providing what we call caring district leadership. Yet, until recently, research has failed to provide clear guidance as to how superintendents and other central office leaders can promote a culture of care. To date, most research on caring leadership has emphasized relationships at the school level (Louis, Murphy, & Smylie, 2016) — for instance, school-level findings suggest that principals should attend carefully to organizational dynamics (Walls et al., 2019); adopt racially and culturally affirming practices (Bass & Alston, 2018); and foster a sense of hopefulness among members of the school community (Rivera-McCutchen, 2020).

We know that superintendents and central office leaders play important roles in district policy making and that the actions and beliefs of district leaders affect program implementation and educator buy-in (Coburn, 2016; Donaldson et al., 2021; Rigby & Woulfin, 2016; Wong, Coburn, & Kamel, 2020). So, as researchers who study care and social-emotional supports, we believe it is well past time to closely examine what caring district leadership entails and what it means for school leaders, staff, and students.