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The purpose of this paper is to examine the initial outcomes of a mentoring program designed to increase the advancement prospects of racialized teachers to vice principal positions within a Canadian school district.

This program assessment documents evidence that challenges current school leadership paradigms rooted in western dominance and suggests new approaches to leadership informed by research on diversity, equity, and identity.

Survey data from 32 participants (13 mentors and 19 mentees) from Canada’s second largest school district were analyzed thematically and showed that racialized mentees generally rated their satisfaction with the program lower than did mentors (both racialized and non-racialized), particularly as it relates to feelings of inclusion and in the program’s potential to influence the recruitment and advancement of racialized employees in the district.

The findings are limited to a single mentoring program for aspiring racialized leaders within a single, large school district but reinforce similar findings from research conducted in another large Canadian urban center, the USA and UK, and are of interest in other educational contexts where leaders from diverse backgrounds are underrepresented.

The paper reinforces findings from the small number of studies on targeted leadership mentoring for specific populations. While the findings support the practice of mentoring for leaders, the authors challenge the culture-free leadership paradigm that permeates Western education literature and question its role as an underlying barrier for aspiring racialized leaders in schools.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce readers to the special issue on “middle space” education leaders (those individuals who are second-in-command in schools). The special issue contains papers pertaining to mentoring those preparing for and aspiring to the assistant school leader role, as well as papers on programs that support new assistant principals/vice-principals through mentoring and coaching. The authors provide background on middle space leadership and mentoring from existing research literature, introduce the international papers selected for the issue, and identify unifying themes across the papers.

The authors provide highlights of relevant research literature on the importance of mentoring for school leaders in general, but also specifically address the need for mentoring for middle space leaders from the scant literature that exists on the topic. After reviewing the relevant literature, the authors provide an overview of the seven papers that were chosen for the issue through a rigorous peer-review process.

The co-editors of this special issue identify common themes that emerged from the papers chosen for the issue. In general, authors note that middle space leaders have unique mentoring and coaching needs, and there are few formal programs that address their needs. However, there is a growing awareness of the need to support assistant principals through structured mentoring programs, as well as preparing and mentoring those who aspire to the position.

The seven papers chosen for the special issue represent a variety of research methodologies. A limitation is that the majority of the studies are qualitative, with small sample populations. However, even with small sample sizes, commonalities can be seen across the studies and across international contexts.

This review summarizes the issues facing middle space leaders in education and how they can be effectively addressed. The global audience that can benefit from engaging with the papers in this special issue includes educational leadership faculty, educational governing bodies, policymakers, school district central office personnel, senior principals, and assistant principals themselves.

This paper and the seven that follow extend the scant research literature in the realm of middle space leaders in education. They provide unique insights – from different international contexts including the USA, Canada, Hong Kong, and New Zealand – into the need for and potential benefits of mentoring and coaching aspiring and new middle space leaders.