The Ethical Transformative Leadership of Mid-level District Leaders in Ontario Working to Advance Educational Equity

Today, the advancement of equity dominates the reform and policy agenda of educational jurisdictions around the world. School districts are thus charged with advancing educational equity. In the United States, as in some Canadian provinces, school district staff report to a chief executive officer who is referred to as the “superintendent.” However, in publicly-funded districts in the province of Ontario, with the exception of small districts, groups of “superintendents” report to the director of education who occupies the role of chief executive officer in their district. In Ontario, the term “superintendents” therefore refers to mid-level district leaders. The extant American and Canadian literature and current Ontario professional standards, provincial education policy and leadership frameworks, and professional associations offer little guidance to mid-level district leaders on how to advance equity. In recognizing how educational leaders are struggling to advance equity, Dr. Carolyn Shields (2003, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2017) positioned her theory of ethical transformative leadership as being more conducive to the advancement of equity than transformational leadership theory which has dominated the field of educational leadership and educational reform efforts since the 1990s. Shields has conducted two studies of ethical transformative American superintendents working to advance equity, but no research has been conducted to explore the utility of her theory in relation to mid-level district leaders or how they work to advance equity. In response to these gaps in the literature, the purpose of this qualitative project was to study how eleven ethical transformative Ontario superintendents, identified by reputation and drawn across seven districts, work to advance equity by exploring their adherence to Shields’ theory and their praxis. Qualitative interview data suggested that participants adhered to ethical principles and lenses and transformative leadership principles inherent in Shields’ theory. Findings also identified that participants enacted praxis to advance equity in their districts which can be categorized into six areas of practice. This study forms the beginning of a knowledge base on ethical transformative Ontario superintendents and how they work to advance educational equity. It concludes with a discussion of implications and recommendations related to professional standards, policy, practice, theory and research.Ed.D