Despite increasing attention to the importance of caring in education, most research on caring in schools focuses on narrow dyadic relationships between individuals. The present study explores the processes used by school leaders as they strive to generate a culture of caring in schools. We find that leaders influence caring through the way in…

Purpose: Existing conceptualizations of organizational learning focus on processes and structures while also acknowledging a social element, usually framed as bringing people together through formal structures. While much scholarship notes that school culture mediates organizational learning, culture is often relegated to the realm of context.…

Care and social-emotional supports are of concern for school district leaders who want to create a caring culture throughout their district. In their study of central office leaders, Kate Kennedy and Jeff Walls found that caring leadership is complex, that school district leaders practice care in collaboration with others, that partnerships with…

Misalignments in caring between home and school can often be a source of alienation for minoritized students. This study explores how African immigrant middle school students at an urban K-8 charter school experience congruencies and disconnections in caring practice between home and school. The school is academically successful and shares some…

Schools are expected to be sites of caring, but there is evidence that both students and adults often experience them as uncaring places. One reason is that a sustained and heavy policy emphasis on accountability and demonstrations of effectiveness has placed pressure on educators to perform in certain ways, and to care about things other than…

Policy makers are increasingly attentive to the importance of supportive school climates, even as many students report that schools seem to be uncaring places. Using recent scholarship that foregrounds the organizational and contextual dimensions of educational caring and student engagement, we use qualitative case study interview data to examine…

In the current American context where culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students frequently experience schools as uncaring spaces, exploring school leadership that values student identity is vital for providing an affirming environment for meaningful learning. Towards such ends, we echo the recent call for culturally sustaining…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how context shapes leaders' caring approach in ways that influence organizational learning and the cultivation of professional capital. Design/methodology/approach: This exploratory study draws on case study data from two schools. Within each school, the authors draw primarily on semi-structured…

School-based research and practice in international education has emphasized academic outcomes, to the exclusion of other important aspects of education, such as caring in schools. In this case study, we consider the role of caring in a successful Tanzanian primary school. The practice of caring promoted by the school's leadership, rooted in…

Educators' efforts at fostering social and emotional learning are grounded in, and closely related to caring: a belief that developing social and emotional skills will help students to flourish both personally and academically. Yet, research has shown that many middle grades students do not feel cared for in school and find educators' efforts at…