The Emerald Handbook of Wellbeing in School Leadership

Initiatives, Practices, and Structures to Support Flourishing in Schools

Keith D. Walker|Benjamin Kutsyuruba|Julia Mahfouz|Sabre Cherkowski

Emerald

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9781806866328

30 November 2026

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Available to order on 31 October 2026

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30 November 2026

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30 November 2026

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The Emerald Handbook of Wellbeing in School Leadership is a comprehensive examination of how wellbeing can be understood, cultivated, and sustained across educational settings. Bringing together an international group of scholars and practitioners, chapters explore how school leaders, teachers, and systems can foster environments in which individuals and communities not only cope with challenge but also flourish.

Foreword; Haim Shaked

Chapter 1. Introduction: Promoting Leader and Organizational Wellbeing in Schools; Julia Mahfouz, Sabre Cherkowski, Benjamin Kutsyuruba, and Keith D. Walker
Section One. School Leader Wellbeing
Chapter 2. Wellbeing and Resilience of School Leaders in Solomon Islands; Kabini Sanga and Martyn Reynolds
Chapter 3. Enhancing the Wellbeing of Novice and Mid-Career School Principals through ONSIDE Mentoring: Unidirectional and Bidirectional Approaches; Andrew J. Hobson and Linda J. Searby
Chapter 4. A Framework for School Leader Wellbeing: Understanding the Interaction between Self and Environment; Ashlyen Singh
Chapter 5. Enhancing the Wellbeing and Resilience of Aspiring and New School Principals through Intentional Self-Care Practices; Marie-Christine Rivest, Roula Hadchiti, and Andréanne Gélinas-Proulx
Chapter 6. Flourishing as School Leaders in England: Challenge Partners’ Growing the Top Program Experiences; Benjamin Kutsyuruba, Nadia Arghash, Deborah Outhwaite, Megan Crawford, and Shelly Gelman
Chapter 7. Educator Wellbeing and Resilience within a Continuum of School Leadership Preparation; Tyrone Bynoe and David Ersig
Chapter 8. Wellbeing Languishing, Retirement and Hindsight: A Five-Year Retrospective Comparison of Ontario School Leaders; Sharlene McHolm
Chapter 9. The Resilience and Wellbeing of Black School Leaders: Interrogating Coloniality in Canada, Grenada, and Jamaica; Donna H. Swapp, Annette R. Walker, Fei Wang, and Katina Pollock
Section Two. Leadership Wellbeing for Impact
Chapter 10. Relationality at the Core of Wellbeing: Perspectives from Early Childhood Education Teacher Leaders in Nepal; Sanam Maskey and Buddi Kumar Shrestha
Chapter 11. The Intentional Leader: What Teachers Say Works for Fostering Professional Wellbeing; Sherri Humphrys and Kate Syson
Chapter 12. Effects of a Cohort Model on Student Wellbeing: Experiences of Educational Leaders in a Ph.D. Program; Marissa Cisneros-Perez, Joseph Hernandez, Jennifer Lomas, Maricela Passmore, and Mariela A. Rodríguez
Chapter 13. Towards Flourishing School Leadership in Saskatchewan: An Analysis of Job Resources during and beyond COVID-19; Pamela Osmond-Johnson and Donna H. Swapp
Chapter 14. Leading Under Pressure: Expressive Writing as a Pathway to Resilience in School Leaders; Lisa Devall-Martin
Chapter 15. Educational Leading and Ethical Fortitude: A Perspective on Being and Wellbeing in Morals, Ethics and Transformative Leadership; Sheila McWatters
Chapter 16. Principal’s Understanding of Instructional Leadership: Perspectives of School Leaders from Community High Schools in the Solomon Islands; Eric Irosaki and Billy Fito’o
Chapter 17. Cultivating Trauma Informed Spaces in Education to Support Educator Wellbeing; Nicole Johnson
Chapter 18. So, the Principal is Away, Now What? Five Best Wellbeing Practices for Effective Emergency Leadership Transition; Kimberlee Johnston
Section Three. Organization and System-Level Wellbeing
Chapter 19. Structures and Processes of a Flourishing School; Angela C. Adair, Ellen H. Reames, and Shannon McCurdy
Chapter 20. Storytelling as a Tool for Appreciative Leaders: Cultivating Wellbeing and Inclusion in Polarized School and Community Contexts; Ayodeji Osiname and Jacqueline Kirk
Chapter 21. Reimagining School Improvement: A Strength-Based Process to Cultivate Wellbeing and Resilience in Learning Organizations; Daryl FG Morrison
Chapter 22. Wellbeing and Resilience in a School Organization; Kristen Lee
Chapter 23. The Collaborative Wellness Framework: A Culturally Responsive Approach to School-Based Mindfulness Implementation; Susan J. Davis
Chapter 24. Growing Gardens in the Trenches: A Hope-Resilient Approach for School Health Promotion; Danielle Denichaud
Chapter 25. The Growth Framework: A Catalyst for Educator Wellbeing and Resilience; Sonia Di Maulo
Chapter 26. Mental Health in Schools: A Provincial Overview and a School Case Study; Sharon Friesen, Stephen MacGregor, Gina Cherkowski, Jennifer Turner, and Dennis Sumara
Chapter 27. Mobilizing HEARTcare Planning: A Multiple Case Research Study; Astrid H. Kendrick, Lisa M. Everitt, Shelly Russell-Mayhew, Carlyn Volume-Smith, and Trent Waterhouse
Chapter 28. Conclusion: Rethinking Educational Leadership through the Lens of Wellbeing; Keith D. Walker, Benjamin Kutsyuruba, Sabre Cherkowski, and Julia Mahfouz

This handbook makes a timely and important intervention in educational leadership scholarship by demonstrating how leadership is implicated in the production of wellbeing across complex systems, rather than merely responding to its absence. By foregrounding interdependence across individual, organisational, and systemic levels, the handbook provides both conceptual clarity and empirical insight. It is a serious and welcome contribution to ongoing debates about the purposes and practices of educational leadership that will resonate across research, policy, and professional audiences.
- Steven Courtney, DFBelmas, Professor of Sociology of Education Leadership, Manchester Institute of Education, University of Manchester

This handbook provides a transformative and timely examination of educational leadership, repositioning wellbeing from a peripheral concern to the very core of school success.

Drawing on rich, contextually grounded research offering a diverse international perspective, this handbook is a call to action for educators to move toward a systems-thinking approach, transforming the underlying conditions that produce stress into environments where purpose, belonging, and growth can thrive. For any researcher, policymaker, or practitioner committed to the sustainability of the teaching profession, this handbook is an essential guide for building healthy, flourishing, and thriving communities.
- Christopher Bezzina, PhD, Professor of Educational Leadership, Department of Leadership for Learning & Innovation, Faculty of Education, University of Malta

The editors of The Emerald Handbook of Wellbeing in School Leadership have given us a marvelous book that provides a comprehensive view of the manner in which school leaders around the world are dealing with their personal wellbeing and ability to flourish. It is insightful and powerful! It should be read by everyone who prepares school leaders, those who supervise them, and school leaders who want to foster their own wellbeing. It’s a wonderful contribution to the literature!
- Frances Kochan, PhD, Wayne T. Smith Distinguished Professor, Emerita, Auburn University

This theoretically compelling yet practical volume offers a comprehensive and responsive exploration of educator and school leader wellbeing, resilience, and flourishing across diverse contexts. Grounded in empirical research and innovative frameworks, it lays an evidence-based foundation for fostering sustainable leadership and thriving learning communities, with notably drawn from trauma-informed practice, collaborative mindfulness, intentional self-care, and strength-based school improvement. This book is an essential resource for those committed to nurturing healthy, resilient schools where leaders, teachers, and students can flourish together.
- Amy Burns, PhD, Dean and Professor, Faculty of Education, Queen’s University

The Emerald Handbook of Wellbeing in School Leadership arrives at a critical moment in educational leadership scholarship, offering a richly diverse, international collection that reconceptualizes wellbeing not as a peripheral concern but as the very foundation of effective, sustainable school leadership. The handbook covers individual, relational, organizational, and systemic dimensions of flourishing and draws on a wide range of theoretical frameworks—from self-determination theory, resilience research, positive leadership, and systems thinking—then ties them to real-world practices that school leaders can immediately recognize and apply. Editors Walker, Kutsyuruba, Mahfouz, and Cherkowski have assembled a landmark volume that will be indispensable reading for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners committed to cultivating thriving school communities.
- Jeffrey Glanz, Professor, Director of MS Degree Program in Educational Administration at Michlalah-Jerusalem College

Keith D. Walker is Professor in the Department of Educational Administration at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.

Benjamin Kutsyuruba is Professor in Educational Policy, Leadership, and School Law in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University, Canada.

Julia Mahfouz is Associate Professor in the Leadership for Educational Organizations program, School of Education and Human Development at the University of Colorado Denver, USA.

Sabre Cherkowski is Professor in the Okanagan School of Education at the University of British Columbia, Canada.