Reflections About Educational Leadership: Leadership Lessons Learned From School Building Leaders at the End of a Career in Public Education

Abstract

Purpose: Isolate the voice of recently retired educational leaders to better understand the essential elements of educational leadership from individuals who spent a career supporting schools and leading people. Research Methods: This qualitative study used snowball sampling to identify 10 recently retired educational leaders who were willing to complete a survey and eight who participated in qualitative interviews. The data were analyzed using open and axial coding approaches. Five interconnected themes related to effectively leading school systems emerged from the data. Findings: We used a conceptual framework of the Earth’s crust, mantle, and core as analogous to educational leadership’s focus on performance, people, and purpose to illustrate the interplay between the five themes: 1) Role and responsibilities of educational leaders; 2) Collaboration; 3) Relationships and love; 4) Building capacity in others; and 5) Self-care. Implications: When compared to existing principal standards, we noted an important omission. Current principal standards make no mention of self-care. In addition, too much of principal preparation and principal professional development occurs in silos, or in isolation from other aspects of leadership, and the findings from this study suggest an integrated approach might better prepare and support educational leaders in their efforts to effectively lead school systems.