Thirteenth International Conference on Interdisciplinary Social Sciences

Abstract

Sustaining and fostering well-being has garnered attention in numerous organizational contexts with surprisingly minimal focus in educational settings. Our examination of flourishing in Canadian schools highlighted the need for deliberate focus on the role of school principals’ positive leadership and its effect on thriving and well-being of others in schools. This research utilized appreciative case studies where we engaged with seven principals in focus group conversations designed to examine what it means to them to flourish in their work. Data were gathered through these open-ended, appreciative, focus-group conversations and researcher observations in the participants’ schools. Collected data were analyzed using an iterative process of coding, categorizing, and abstracting data. Several findings emerged from the analysis: a) school principal are instrumental in creating conditions where teachers experience a sense of thriving; b) despite this important role, principals do not necessarily have the time and opportunity to focus on teacher wellbeing in impactful ways; and c) principals’ sense of wellbeing and flourishing were related to wellbeing of teachers and students, indicating a relational imperative of wellbeing in education. Results of our study: a) establish a positive perspective on research of leadership in school organizations; yielding new knowledge about organizational climates and cultures for flourishing in learning communities; b) provide new insights and applications of flourishing intelligences that have been developed in partnership with participants; c) provide an empirical framework for the development of new tools aimed at fostering, assessing and sustaining flourishing leadership in schools.