Principal leadership for Indigenous student success in Canada: Student, parent and community relationships

In this paper, we explain how principals across Saskatchewan, Prince Edward Island, and Nunavut (Canada) promoted educational success for Indigenous students. Herein, success incorporates academic, physical, emotional and spiritual wellness. For this qualitative, multi-case study, the data were 29 individual interviews conducted with 17 principals. This study showed that building and nurturing relationships with Indigenous students, parents1 and the community supported Indigenous student success. Building principal-student relationships included principals informally talking with students and leading extracurricular activities for students. Building principal-parent relationships meant spending face-to-face time with parents, viewing parents as the experts of their child and not judging parents. Principal-community relationships formed when principals educated themselves about the culture of Indigenous communities, were present within the school community and were friends with Indigenous peoples. An implication of the study is that thick forms of social capital between principals and the members of Indigenous school communities are integral aspects of decolonizing education