Decolonizing Leadership in Saskatchewan Inner-City Schools

Abstract

Eurocentric notions of school leadership remain pervasive even in highly Indigenous school settings. This chapter reports on a study that identified the need for school-based leaders in Saskatchewan’s inner-city schools to decolonize their leadership and directly understand and adapt to their school and community context. The research question for the study was: How can school leaders in inner-city schools in Saskatchewan decolonize their leadership practices to support the improvement of educational outcomes of Indigenous children living in communities affected by complex racialized poverty? The study utilized a qualitative methodology that adhered to Indigenous research principles and was guided by Indigenous cultural advisors. A key finding of the study was that leading an inner-city school requires a specific set of leadership attributes and actions suited for the unique inner-city context. A leadership contextualization created specifically for the Saskatchewan inner-city context is presented and discussed. Participant reactions to the leadership conceptualization affirmed that the leadership actions were better suited for leadership in Saskatchewan inner-city schools than decontextualized Eurocentric leadership frameworks. The chapter makes key contributions to leadership literature by reinforcing the importance of enacting leadership in context and identifying specific leadership actions to decolonize.