Abstract:
Culturally Nourishing Schooling requires a qualitatively different approach to school leadership practices than those currently promoted and affirmed in key leadership policy documents (AITSL). Leading a culturally nourishing school involves recognition of the historical educational practices and policies which operate to frame the relationship between schools and Aboriginal communities. Principalship in these contexts requires more than lip service to ‘relational’ leadership styles or community engagement. Instead, it requires leadership practices that create genuine possibilities for the sharing of power with the community and a delicate negotiation between policies, systems, and community. This paper uses data from reflective conversations and collaborative focus group discussions with Principals of schools engaged with the CNS project to explore how personal praxis and structural conditions intersect to enable and constrain these culturally nourishing leadership practices variously. Evidence from these principals speaks to the significance of sharing school leadership with Aboriginal Cultural Mentors and providing Aboriginal families and community members with a genuine voice in shaping key school policies and decisions as pivotal to sustaining culturally nourishing schooling in the long term.