How district leaders create caring organizations

Abstract

Care and social-emotional supports are of concern for school district leaders who want to create a caring culture throughout their district. In their study of central office leaders, Kate Kennedy and Jeff Walls found that caring leadership is complex, that school district leaders practice care in collaboration with others, that partnerships with community organizations enable a constellation of care, and that diversity and equity initiatives are considered complementary but separate initiatives. They recommend that leaders work with stakeholders across their districts to define caring, plan for the provision of social-emotional well-being supports, promote collaborative structures, cultivate internal and external resources, draw on data to drive caring initiatives, and weave an equity orientation into caring leadership structures.