Complexities in K-12 Education and the Barriers Leaders Must Overcome

Abstract

Being a leader in Alberta schools provides many challenges to fulfill the mandates of the Leadership Quality Standards (Alberta Education, 2020). Issues including meeting the growing demands of classroom complexities created through inclusive education (Alberta Education, 2022), meeting the Calls to Action (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015), issues with technology and the ethics involved in their use, and parental demands which place ongoing burdens on leaders who are responsible for meeting all the needs and ensuring that all students in Alberta receive a quality education. Through a literature review, issues and policies created to address these demands will be explored. This will be examined through the framework on parental involvement developed by Koutsouveli and Geraki (2022). Their study focused on how school management and climate could enhance parental involvement. They discovered the principal’s role in shaping the climate of the school either opens and welcomes parents in, or causes them to walk away from the building and involvement altogether. This framework analyzed four key elements, starting from the principal’s role at the center, and then flowing outward toward parental involvement, and how it affects school climates. Through a final exploration of leadership styles that best support leaders in implementing change, this paper will recommend actions leaders can take to overcome the barriers to education