Conference Agenda

In contemporary education systems shaped by intersecting poly-crises - widening social inequalities, teacher shortages, intensifying accountability pressures, and increasingly data-driven governance - education research is under growing pressure to inform leadership action. Yet the relationship between knowing and acting in education is neither linear nor assured. Research knowledge does not move seamlessly into policy or practice; rather, it is mediated through national policy priorities, institutional norms, professional cultures, and leadership sense-making processes.

This paper examines the knowing–acting relationship through a focused analysis of Irish education leadership policy and initiatives, using teacher diversity as an analytical lens. Research on teacher diversity has expanded considerably, particularly in relation to access to teacher education, experiences within initial teacher education (ITE), and early career trajectories of teachers from underrepresented groups. While this work has been essential in making inequities visible, it has largely foregrounded the perspectives of minoritised teachers. Far less attention has been paid to how school organisations, majority-group practices, and leadership responses shape these experiences, or to how leaders are supported to act on research-informed understandings of staff diversity.

A parallel gap can be identified within leadership and social justice theorising. While leadership for equity and inclusion is well established, it has tended to focus predominantly on student outcomes, positioning teachers primarily as agents of inclusion for learners. Consequently, leadership action for social justice in relation to teachers as diverse professionals—and the organisational conditions required to support diverse school teams—remains under-theorised. This paper argues that this constitutes both a research gap and a knowing–acting gap: while knowledge about teacher diversity exists, there is limited theorisation and policy guidance on how leaders and organisations should act upon it.

Recent interdisciplinary conceptual work (Author, 2025) strengthen the urgency of this inquiry by conceptualising teacher diversity as essential to equitable and inclusive learning environments, highlighting how teachers’ identities shape professional relationships, organisational climates, and collective practices. However, Irish education policy continues to frame diversity largely as a student-centred concern, illustrating selective uptake of research knowledge and reinforcing the marginalisation of teachers as knowledge-bearing professionals.

The paper is guided by four research questions:

1. How is teacher diversity framed within Irish education leadership policy and initiatives?
2. To what extent do leadership frameworks theorise acting for social justice in relation to staff diversity, rather than solely student inclusion?
3. How are organisational and majority-group dynamics addressed - or overlooked - within leadership policy discourse?
4. What forms of leadership support and research are required to strengthen leaders’ capacity to act on teacher diversity in socially just ways?

The theoretical framework integrates critical policy analysis with socially just and inclusive leadership theories. Drawing on policy enactment and sense-making perspectives (Ball et al., 2012; Spillane et al., 2002; Braun et al., 2011), leadership is conceptualised as an interpretive and relational practice rather than technical implementation. Empirical work on teacher diversity in Ireland (Author, 2018; 2023b) foregrounds the organisational and cultural contexts shaping teachers’ professional lives, while author et al. (2023a) provide a systemic framework highlighting the need for coherent pathways across recruitment, leadership development, workplace culture, and career progression. Evans’ (2011) work on teacher professionalism further illuminates how leadership practices shape teachers’ agency, identity, and vulnerability under conditions of performativity.

Although nationally situated, the Irish case is treated as analytically generative, reflecting broader European and international tensions between research knowledge, leadership policy, and action for social justice.

The call for culturally responsive schooling (CRS) for Indigenous youth has been growing for decades. CRS requires that language and culture, supporting Indigenous traditions, knowledge, and communities, be the foundation of education for Indigenous youth. In order to incorporate authentic Indigenous knowledge into mainstream educational environments, CRS calls for school leaders to recognize culturally relevant elements essential to Indigenous student success in classrooms. Being culturally responsive means being sensitive, aware, and capable of employing cultural learning patterns, perspectives, family structure, multiple world views, and tribal languages in the teaching, learning, and mental ecology of the classroom (Pewewardy 1998). Such cultural responsiveness requires school leaders to use their leadership as a tool for transforming schools into sites of empowerment and promise for Indigenous students and their communities (Faircloth and Tipperconnic 2013). This research examines how school administrators understand, conceptualize and enact culturally responsive leadership to engage indigenous education in the province of British Columbia (BC), Canada. The research also explores challenges and barriers school administrators face in their leadership approach in meeting the needs of Indigenous education in the context of the Truth and Reconciliation in Canada.

Theoretical Concepulization

Culturally responsive leadership is multifaceted, and often intersects with the literature on social justice leadership (Cumins Mansfield & Lambrinou, 2024). Culturally responsive school leadership has been understood as “…an approach to school leadership that addresses inclusivity and affirmation of the home culture of diverse students, prioritises social justice aims, and fosters parent, family, and community engagement” (Phillips & Genao, 2023, p. 305). The culturally responsive leader has been defined as someone who embodies the work personally, interpersonally, and institutionally (Rice-Boothe, 2022, as cited in Gandossi, 2023). The culturally responsive leader is cognisant of the impact of institutionalized racism within organizations such as schools, in their personal lives and in the lives of their students, promotes an inclusive and welcoming learning environment for their minoritized and culturally diverse students, and is cognisant of their role as leaders in resisting, dismantling, mitigating, and disrupting systemic oppression (Da’as, 2024; Rice-Boothe, 2022, as cited in Gandossi, 2023; Washington & Johnson, 2023). Culturally responsive schooling asserts that all students learn better and achieve more in schools when school curricula, teaching, and learning is connected to students’ cultural identities (Castagno et al., 2022). Gandossi (2023) has described culturally responsive school leadership as an ongoing process that is complex as well as necessary, requiring school leaders to continuously be adapting, shifting, and reflecting on their leadership practices and thoughts. Recent definitions and conceptualizations of culturally responsive leadership have often referenced the work of Khalifa (2018, as cited in Niesche, 2024) and Khalifa et al. (2016, as cited in Da’as, 2024), but as Niesche (2024) noted, this conceptualization comes from a USA perspective. Definitions and conceptualizations of what culturally responsive school leadership is may be as numerous as the many school contexts that exist worldwide. This study aims to gain insights into culturally responsive leadership from a Canadian context.

Inclusive leadership plays a pivotal role in enhancing education at various levels, including local, regional, national, and international. Successful leaders in the school and education systems take the time to talk and listen to all parties involved, including stakeholders, parents, teachers, and students. Together with creating successful management teams, these leaders also provide the tools necessary to implement a common transformation vision. Inclusive leaders are committed to equity and ensuring every child has access to top-notch educational opportunities. Traditionally, inclusive education has focused on special education to provide the necessary supports for children with disabilities while integrating them into regular classroom settings. However, in recent years, the definition of inclusive education has broadened to encompass a broader commitment to “addressing all forms of exclusion and marginalization, disparities and inequalities in access, participation, and learning outcomes (UNESCO, 2020).

Education and its subsequent policies and practices cannot be comprehended without recognizing their strong influence from an increasingly interconnected global economy (Apple, 2017). Consequently, any discussion on inclusive education must be situated within the global context in which it operates. Hoorens et al. (2013) projected global societal trends until 2030. Their report identified several challenges, with the most alarming being the escalating rate of inequality. Inclusive education, which ensures equal access for all, has a crucial role to play in fostering a more equitable future. However, this is not always realized in educational institutions.

Inclusive Education (IE) in Philippine basic education is largely governed by Department of Education Order No. 72, s. 2009, an outdated directive that lacks a clear and definite process for including children with special needs (CSN) in the general education setting. While there’s a move to implement high-quality inclusion in schools, the Special Education Act (Philippine Senate Bill 3002), which aims to establish inclusion practices in general education schools, is still under review in the Philippine Senate. The ongoing delay in passing this bill and the unresolved issues related to its implementation, such as the standards to be met, hinder progress. In Davao City, Zerrudo (2022) reported that early learners with special educational needs are being mainstreamed in regular kindergarten classes. Some are diagnosed with disabilities, while others are identified based on teachers’ assessments.

Based on the points raised above, there is a need to explore other issues and challenges that are confronting school leadership in inclusive education. This study addressed a gap in the role of school administrators in fostering academic success through the lens of inclusive education. The findings of this study illuminate the requisite actions for school administrators to support educators within inclusive classroom environments. This research holds paramount significance as it addresses the formidable task encountered by school administrators in furnishing instructional leadership to educators within the context of inclusive classroom settings. Therefore, this research aimed to explore the school leadership’s vision and commitment impact the contextualization of academic success in inclusive education, the extent does collaborative decision-making among educational administrators contribute to the successful implementation of inclusive education, the role does professional development for inclusive practices play in enhancing the school leadership's effectiveness in inclusive education, the policy framework can be developed based on the results of the study.

Teachers working in primary schools that serve high proportions of marginalized students face distinctive and extensive job demands. These demands include high workloads, substantial emotional labor, and the need to respond to considerable cultural diversity and socio-economic disadvantage among students (Glock et al., 2019). Such conditions place sustained pressure on teachers’ work engagement and organizational commitment. This is worrying as lower engagement is associated with burnout and reduced motivation, while lower commitment weakens teachers’ attachment to their school and increases the likelihood of turnover (Collie, 2023; Klusmann et al., 2008). In the context of persistent teacher shortages across many European education systems, particularly in disadvantaged school contexts, this represents a pressing challenge for educational quality and equity.

Insights from the Job Demands–Resources (JD–R) model (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007) suggest that job resources can counterbalance high demands and support teachers’ motivation, engagement, and long-term commitment. In education, relevant resources might include pay, autonomy, professional development, flexibility, school climate, and leadership (Collie, 2023; Dicke et al., 2018; Hakanen et al., 2006). Not all these resources are determined on the individual school level, and they vary across national contexts. However, school leadership and school climate constitute resources that can be shaped locally and daily, making them particularly salient levers for schools operating under demanding conditions (Tummers & Bakker, 2021).

Educational leadership research has extensively examined the relationship between leadership and teacher outcomes, primarily through models such as transformational, instructional, and distributed leadership (Gumus et al., 2018). However, these approaches largely treat leadership as context-neutral and pay limited attention to the socio-economic and cultural conditions in which schools operate. Schools serving a high proportion of marginalized students face pronounced diversity, inequality, and representation challenges, which call for leadership practices that explicitly address inclusion and diversity rather than generic effectiveness.

In addition, national and international policy initiatives increasingly aim to diversify the teaching workforce, as greater staff diversity is associated with positive outcomes through mechanisms of representative bureaucracy (Grissom et al., 2015). In organizational contexts where diversity and inclusion are salient, inclusive leadership has been shown to enhance employee engagement and commitment (Choi et al., 2015). This study adopts inclusive leadership as an appropriate framework to examine whether these relationships also apply to teachers working in schools with a high proportion of marginalized students.

To do this, we use inclusive leadership as conceptualized by HRM and organizational research. In this it is defined as leader behavior that seeks to support employees’ needs for both belongingness and uniqueness while encouraging the exchange and integration of diverse perspectives (Ashikali et al., 2021; Ashikali & van Luttervelt, 2025; Randel et al., 2018). It differs from traditional inclusive leadership studies in the educational field, as it is aimed at employee rather than student outcomes.

Next to school leadership, school climate is likely to be an important piece of the puzzle as it is often stated as the link between school leadership and teacher-outcomes (Collie et al., 2012; Sanchez et al., 2022). Because of this we include it as an explanatory variable.

This leads to the research question of this study: To what extent is inclusive leadership related to teacher engagement and commitment in schools serving high proportions of marginalized students, and to what extent are these relationships explained through the experienced school climate?

The objective of this contribution is to advance the understanding of educational leadership in complex school environments by integrating inclusive leadership theory with research on teacher engagement, commitment, and school climate. By doing so, the study aims to contribute to debates on sustainable leadership practices that support teacher well-being in schools serving marginalized communities.