Leading With Hope: Exploring A Grounded Theory Of Trauma Informed Leadership For School Principals

Leading with Hope: Exploring a Grounded Theory of Trauma Informed Leadership for School Principals is a grounded theory research study designed to help school principals understand ways to support students that have experienced traumatic circumstances, Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs), and stress. This study involved 15 school principals that were recruited from social media groups and self-identified as trauma informed. The interviews that were conducted were analyzed using grounded theory methods to generate a theory about how school principals enact trauma informed strategies within their leadership. Key concepts of this theory are leading with hope and being trauma informed. Hope theory and leadership theories were also examined to help make meaning from the interviews of the participants. The impact of this theory of trauma informed leadership may help in the revision of how school principals are evaluated, professional development for school principals, and the academic preparation for school administration candidates.