Knowing Kids Makes a Huge Difference,Part II: Advancing a Conceptual Framework for Positive Principal-Student Relationships

Abstract

The majority of the scholarly work on school leadership over the past several decades has centered on issues of academic press, while matters involving the social development and support of students have received far less attention. We know that improving students' relationships with teachers has important, positive and long-lasting implications for building trust, increasing motivation and engagement, and improving both behavior and academic achievement, and we know that principals have the second most significant effect on students. So, what about principals' relationships with students? Given a lack of research specifically concerning the principal-student relationship (PSR), this article addresses that gap. The authors conducted a qualitative narrative inquiry of the PSR in order to describe more nuanced implications and deeper understandings of the influence and impact of the phenomenon. This work resulted in a two-part series. Part I, included in a prior issue, focused heavily on the literature review and detailed findings of the study. Part II, included in this issue, embeds the study results more firmly within theoretical underpinnings and extends them toward establishing a new conceptual framework for the PSR and a new dimension of scholarship on effective school leadership. This framework consists of 16 dimensions of the PSR grouped into four categories: Principal Characteristics, Building the PSR, Meaning and Purpose, and Challenges. A short discussion including implications, limitations, and directions for future research is also included.