A review of empirical research on equitable school leadership practices for students from low socioeconomic status backgrounds

Abstract

<p>The present study identifies a framework of equitable school leadership practices enacted to support the learning of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. It synthesised seven equitable school leadership frameworks and systematically reviewed 97 related empirical studies to develop an original evidence-based equitable school leadership framework comprising seven dimensions and 31 practices. The wide scope of these practices underscores that school leaders need to work with different stakeholders. The study is significant in that some of these practices (e.g. demonstrating personal commitment and self-growth, pursuing equity in all school aspects, collaborating with external stakeholders, and influencing the socio-political context) are not found in the mainstream school leadership literature that does not differentiate between school SES contexts, thereby challenging the assumption that there is a uniform set of school leadership practices for improving student learning regardless of their school SES.<br></p>