Parent and community engagement describes parents, schools, teachers, and the community working together in partnership to improve learning and wellbeing outcomes for students (Department of Education & Training [DET], 2018). Effective parent-school-community engagement creates relationships which each partner values and considers valuable. The role of the Principal is critical for engaging parents and the community in schools. The complex, multifaceted, and often difficult nature of this role however, has challenged researchers when signalling which leadership qualities and strategies are most effective for engagement. Hence, this area of research remains contested and debated.

To understand more about parent and community engagement, multi-phase research funded by the Education Horizon Reseach grant scheme (2016-2019) (see DET, 2016, 2017) in Queensland, Australia, is investigating the links between parent-school-community engagement, student learning, and the role of Principals in influencing positive school culture through their leadership style, practices, communication, attitudes, and expectations. Previous research (e.g., Povey et al., 2016) that used Principal and Parents and Citizens (P&C) President data revealed that, contrary to what otherwise might be expected, some educationally-disadvantaged schools performed highly in the area of parent-school-community engagement. This phenomenon prompted the research question: What gives some Principals in educationally-disadvantaged schools the edge on parent-school-community engagement?

This presentation responds to the question by focusing on Principal leadership in four Queensland State primary schools which were identified as research sites based on their high performance in parent-school-community engagement and below Australian average (1000) Index of Community Social-Educational Advantage (ICSEA) value (see ICSEA, 2014). Throughout 2016-2017, exemplary Principal leadership qualities and strategies for engagement were identified and documented in these schools. Design-based research (Bell, 2004) using a mixed-methods approach that collected quantitative and qualitative data (Brown, 1992) (e.g., parent and teacher surveys, Principal and P&C President interviews, and parent, teacher, and student focus groups) was employed. Drawing on the work of Pushor (2013), Schwab’s (1973) framework which comprises four interconnected dimensions considered equally-important: students, teachers, curriculum, and milieus (where milieus included knowledge of schools, classrooms, parents, communities, and technology), was used to analyse and conceptualise the findings.

The presentation uses each dimension as a lens to provide a detailed summary of the key findings. Illustrative examples using the community lens to examine Principal leadership qualities and strategies in each school are a particular discussion focus. The challenges and complexities of Principal leadership for engagement in disadvantaged schools are also examined. The presentation highlights what and how Principal leadership qualities and strategies enhanced student learning, teacher professionalism, and the capacity of the community for participating in and contributing to student learning and wellbeing and school improvement. The presentation explores how the findings offer a contemporary framework of Principal leadership for parent-school-community engagement for use internationally by schools, educators, public policy-makers, and researchers.