Year: 2025
Type: dissertation
Abstract: In September 2020, the Ontario Ministry of Education opened virtual-only public schools to slow the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Principals were tasked with leading these new institutions while navigating a global health crisis and a rapidly changing policy environment. During this time, public discourse on equity in virtual schooling centred largely on students’ access to the resources needed to participate: a reliable computer, high-speed internet, and a safe space for learning. In contrast, little attention was given to how equity was supported for students participating in the virtual system. Such was the impetus for this study: to understand how equity was understood and promoted for students within the new virtual public schools. The investigation focused on the perspectives of school principals, as they held a unique vantage point between the socio-political context shaping the system and their own lived experiences as leaders within it. Therefore, this study examined how Ontario principals understood and promoted equity within virtual public schools. Using a critical constructivist theoretical framework and qualitative methodology, this investigation centred on the experiences of 14 Ontario principals, with data collected in early 2022. The findings demonstrated that principals engaged in a dynamic leadership process across three interconnected realms: the structural realm of policies and logistics, the community realm of relationships and belonging, and the individual realm of digital and social justice leadership. Principals moved between understanding and promoting equity as access, achievement, engagement, and social justice; however, their ability to enact these understandings was constrained by the virtual schooling structure, which was oriented around a narrow interpretation of equity as access. This study contributes to the field of educational leadership by conceptualizing principals’ leadership as a process of navigating the boundaries of structure, community, and individual practice. It contributes to practice by identifying strategies principals used to promote equity in virtual contexts, and to policy by providing insight into the policy gaps that exist in the context of leading for equity in virtual schooling. Ultimately, readers will take away a deeper understanding of how principals’ leadership can support a more equitable post-pandemic virtual schooling system, and where the limits of their leadership call for reform at the structural level.
Author: Nielsen, Ruth
Institution: Western University
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7205149765