Unlocking elementary students’ perspectives of leadership

This study examines whether and how principals take their lead from students, and use student voice, to create more responsive schools, and more responsible models of leadership. I consider issues of student agency and voice within four very different elementary school settings. Further, I consider the challenges students face, and the ways principals are preparing to address these challenges. In this study I address roadblocks to responsive leadership in urban, suburban, and rural schools using a cogenerative qualitative approach that principals and students can use to create new dialogue and shared theories that are focused on improving both administrative function and the instructional programs of their schools.This approach has revealed a new shared theory which includes students in models of school leadership. Central to this theory is a call for principals to use more student-driven approaches, so that young students can be empowered as learners and leaders in their own right.