SCHOOL LEADER’S ROLE IDENTITY FORMATION: NARRATIVE PERSPECTIVES ON THEIR MOTIVATED ACTIONS REGARDING CHRONIC ABSENTEEISM

Abstract

What does it mean to be a school leader trying to improve chronic absenteeism at the high school level? Intervening with chronically absent high school students entails adapting existing practices designed for students in attendance, finding alternate ways to motivate students who simply are not there, and affording educational opportunity equitably to students whose voices and stories have largely been silenced, all against a landscape of increasingly rigorous and conflicting accountability pressure associated with chronic absenteeism, graduation rate, suspension rate and student achievement. While scholarship and dialogue pertaining to leadership responses to chronic absenteeism at the high school level generally support an emphasis on outreach and engagement with families, building relationships with students, affording students opportunities to recover credit, and connecting them to experiences that relate to the world of work after high school, scarce research focuses on the complex, dynamic role identities of the school leaders who innovate and implement these ad hoc responses, often without guidance from policy, and in turn, influence the experiences, outcomes and possibilities for chronically absent students. This current study investigated the ways that role identity components influenced the motivated actions of school and district leaders towards chronic absenteeism at the high school level. The study’s guiding questions were: (a) how do school leaders’ role identity components (i.e.., ontological and epistemological beliefs; purpose and goals; perceived action possibilities; self-perceptions and definitions) emerge and interact with each other to inform their actions regarding chronically absent high school students? (b) to what extent do the beliefs and perceptions of school leaders about supporting chronically absent students compare and contrast to the lived experiences of adults who were chronically absent students in high school? (c) to what extent do the beliefs and perceptions of school leaders about supporting chronically absent students compare and contrast to the lived experiences of parents and guardians of adults who were chronically absent students in high school? The guiding theoretical frame for this study is the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI; Kaplan & Garner, 2017). The DSMRI conceptualizes motivated action to be influenced by an actor’s dynamic and contextualized interpretation of his or her social cultural role, or role identity. According to the model, four multi-elemental components comprise an actor’s role identity: ontological and epistemological beliefs, purpose and goals, perceived action possibilities, and self-perceptions and definitions. These components are interdependent, irreducible, and reciprocally influencing each other, the behaviors and their meanings to the actor, and the future iterations of the actor’s role identity system. The study employed a narrative approach to investigate the school and district leaders’ motivated actions and the meanings they made of high school student absenteeism. Using Seidman’s (2013) protocol, I interviewed nine school leaders, five former students, and three parents who operated at a small, urban public school district in the Tri-State area about their past and present social-cultural roles concerning the meaning of they made of chronic absenteeism at the high school level. Additionally, I observed the nine school leaders and they provided artifacts and documents relating to chronic absenteeism. Transcribed interviews and the student focus group, as well as observations, documents and artifacts, were analyzed utilizing Saldana’s (2013) pragmatic eclecticism approach and Kaplan and Garner’s (2016) DSMRI Codebook and Analysis Guide. The results demonstrate how each school leader’s meaning of working with chronically absent students at the high school level, amidst an array of accountability pressures, has been incorporated into their dynamic role identity system within the sociocultural context, guiding their experiences, perceptions and actions. Despite their nuanced role identity systems - the participants come very different backgrounds with varied lived experiences and expertise in the domain, and reference different prior role identities and future role identities - the findings also highlighted common processes and content across Participant Roles (e.g., school leader, parent or student). This manifested distinctly in the themes reflecting school leaders’ actions changed in response to the system’s control parameter of accountability pressure, the ways school leaders communicated to parents and students about absenteeism, and the very different cultural meanings that students and parents gave to absenteeism and attendance than the cultural meanings and characteristics that school leaders largely experienced. These findings illuminate a complex, turbulent landscape comprised of school and district leaders, with myriad accountability systems to which they are beholden and their chronically absent students and families, all operating with multiple role identities that integrate with one another. The insights from this study can inform the work of educational leaders, educators and researchers who endeavor to intervene with the elusive problem of chronic absenteeism at the high school level. It may further guide educational leaders and policymakers who made decisions about the utility value of social-emotional learning that emphasizes exploration of identity for students, teachers, and leaders alike, as well as how outreach efforts are regarded and measured in school system outputs such as educator evaluation systems and professional development offerings. Importantly, this research aims to provide leaders with a tool for reflection on the importance of role identity as a lens to view their own professional practices and responses to challenging, complex problems in the domain such as chronic absenteeism. Moreover, when school systems were pressed to shut physically and adapt school services and instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the existing, multidimensional consideration of attending school manifested in new meanings and barriers for students, parents and school leaders grappling with the issue of chronic absenteeism in a changing context. Finally, this research aims to contribute, in a small way, to improve educational opportunity for all students, including those experiencing complex barriers to attending school.