A Socio-Spatial Analysis of Black School Leadership in the Canadian Prairies

Bibliographic Data

ID22045922
AuthorsDonna H Swapp (University of Regina, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume16
Issue7
Pages1071
Publication date2026-07-04
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEducation Sciences (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2227-7102 • E-ISSN: 2227-7102
PublisherMDPI AG (PUBLISHER • IT)
DOI10.3390/educsci16071071
OpenAlexW7167459804
LanguageEN
References cited32

This article situates school leadership in the Canadian Prairies within a socio-spatial context and ongoing impact of coloniality. It draws on Black geographies to position Black school leaders as occupying diasporic spaces in white settler contexts of the Prairies, exploring how spatial relations are constituted in contemporary social arrangements characterized by longstanding institutional oppression. This spatial gaze exposed four themes for deeper analysis, namely Black school leadership as spatially situated power; the production of “visible difference” in leadership space; navigating whiteness as spatial norm; and loneliness, spatial isolation, and the cost of being “the only one”. The article demonstrates how Black school leadership in the Canadian Prairies cannot be relegated to simply an individual experience nor made reducible to interpersonal discrimination but rather is constituted through historically produced spatial arrangements that regulate belonging, authority, and legitimacy

Educational leadership · Gaze · Interpersonal communication · Interpersonal relationship · Leadership studies · Shared leadership · Situated · Critical Race Theory in Education · Indigenous and Place-Based Education · Indigenous Health, Education, and Rights

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