Education Commons^™

Catholic School Principals: Promoting Student Leadership, Shane D. Lavery, Gregory S C Hine

Shane D Lavery

Adolescents possess enormous leadership potential. They are tomorrow’s leaders in the workplace, the family, the community, and in government. Increasingly, schools have taken on the significant responsibility of nurturing leadership in young people. Schools are, as van Linden and Fertman (1998) note, “hotbeds of leadership development” (p. 224). This article explores the role and function of the secondary school principal in the development of student leadership. Specifically, eight principals of secondary schools in Perth, Western Australia were interviewed about their vision of student leadership and what they believed their role entailed in promoting student leadership at their schools. As a …