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Ontario is the most ethnically diverse province in Canada. School educators cannot disregard the reality of diversity in all its senses. The question that directs the focus of this paper is: to what extent are leaders in Ontario formally prepared to lead schools that support the students of today? The paper aims to discuss this issue.

This paper results from a document analysis of publicly available documents to investigate the current context in Ontario, Canada regarding the educational and social situation of new immigrants, immigration, refugees, and ethno-culturally diverse students. It includes an exploration of the training and information available for principals and vice principals in Ontario to support them in leading schools which serve increasingly diverse student bodies. This paper is also informed by interviews with 59 educational leaders from Ontario and the USA. Interviews centred around their experiences engaging in practices to support their diverse student populations.

Results of the data analysis regarding the supports and training available to assist educational leaders in supporting the learning needs of diverse student populations demonstrate a serious lack of support. Very few actual resources exist for leaders, and most of those that do exist are connected to agencies outside of the education system, such as Settlement services.

Recent research investigating the relationship between identities and educational experience and teaching points to the importance of in-depth and targeted approaches to teacher preparation, and leadership preparation to help provide teachers and leaders with the knowledge, dispositions, and skills required to support all students in their academic and social development (Cochran Smith et al., 2009). This study confirms such findings. Given the current situation in Ontario and much of North America, there is a great need for leadership preparation programming, and school-level resources that provide educational leaders with the knowledge and skills to support all students in their academic and social development, but also in helping educational leaders to understand and address the systemic nature and forms of discrimination which their students face daily.

With very few school boards requiring leaders to have a Masters’ degree in Education, and none having stipulations regarding course content. This leaves educational leaders unprepared to deal with the reality of their situations, leading to the perpetuation of inequities in Ontario schools.

Although sparse, previous research into the state of support and preparation for administrators and educators with regard to diverse student populations in Ontario revealed that little to no preparation or support exists (see e.g. Price, 2002). This study helps to fill that gap in existing research.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a study that explores the discreet activist strategies of educational leaders who promote social justice.

Part of a larger project, this study employed qualitative methods. In particular, researchers interviewed 26 leaders – principals, vice principals, department heads, and central office officials who presided over both homogeneous and diverse schools, departments, and districts in and around a large Canadian city. Data were analyzed during and after data collection, and themes were identified, explored, and described.

Given the resistance they faced in their efforts to promote social justice, leaders found that they had to be strategic in their efforts. In particular, they had to position themselves in ways that reduced their visibility and increased their credibility. When they took action, they tended to adopt subtle rather than obvious strategies.

The harsh reality for activist educational leaders who promote social justice is that they will likely have to be strategic in the way they go about their work. Given the nature of their relationships with the organizations in which they work and the power differentials within which they operate, educational leaders may have to adopt low key or discreet strategies if they are to successfully promote their social justice agendas.

The purpose of this paper is to explore theoretical connections between educational leadership for social justice and support for immigration. The authors seek to identify strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for further study and improved practice.

This is a theoretical research paper that introduces, evaluates and expands two frameworks for understanding leadership and immigration.

Findings suggested that there is a need for educational leadership scholars to more purposefully investigate issues related to social justice and immigration.

This study offers a novel theoretical perspective on leadership, social justice and immigration.

This chapter uses findings derived from interviews with 13 Ontario (Canada) secondary school principals to identify conditions that contribute to emotional labor, experienced in their work. Five workplace conditions that heighten participating principals' emotional labor emerged from the interviews, including advocating for students, work intensification, navigating their local policy context, managing workplace conflict and crises or tragedies in the school community. The findings suggest a need to clarify legislated expectations and responsibilities placed on principals to accurately reflect their work and counter the impact of work intensification. Principals could benefit from additional supports to deal with the impact(s) of work intensification, shepherding the school through crises or navigating shifting policy contexts and conflicts in the workplace. Rather than treating the symptoms that result from emotional labor, concrete efforts are needed to change the culture of the principalship in order to maximize the impact of leadership on student achievement.