Nyhed
School leadership in practice: How school leaders address well-being in primary school
Lagt online: 14.05.2025
Nyhed
School leadership in practice: How school leaders address well-being in primary school
Lagt online: 14.05.2025
Forside
School leadership in practice: How school leaders address well-being in primary school
Text: Nelly Sander, AAU Communication and Public Affairs.
Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Photo: Colourbox
Principals in primary and lower secondary schools work strategically and in a data-driven way on student well-being. This is the assessment of Ronni Laursen, Assistant Professor, AAU after conducting a case study in a number of Danish primary and lower secondary schools.
In his case study, Ronni Laursen focuses on how the school leadership works to create the conditions for well-being in primary school. Not as a vague ambition, but as a strategic and data-driven part of their work.
"Research shows that students who thrive are more engaged and motivated, and this creates a positive learning environment. However, most of the existing research in the area consists of theoretical descriptions of how school leaders should act, while my study shows how school leaders act in concrete terms – both to identify challenges and to address them," he explains.
Systems that identify problems
To ensure that no students fall through the system, school principals are actively working to set up systems that can identify and support students with learning difficulties or poor well-being.
One example is class reviews where teachers, professional staff and management teams meet and systematically – often based on data – discuss both the students'
academic performance and their well-being. For example, this can be based on absenteeism statistics. The leader’s task is to facilitate the meetings and distribute responsibility to the relevant groups.
The close collaboration serves to create a network of care and attention that can help students overcome challenges and reach their full potential
Collaboration in day-to-day life
The school leadership plays an important role in supporting the teachers' daily work. When teachers discover signs of poor well-being, this can serve as a rationale for the principal to intervene. This can be done, among other things, by linking relevant professionals to the class.
If a student is not thriving academically, the principal can, for example, ensure that the reading counsellor follows the teaching and collaborates with the Danish teacher to adapt the teaching activities to the student's needs. Similarly, if there are well-being challenges, the school leadership can ensure support by, for example, involving the school's AKT counsellor (Behaviour, Contact, Well-being) to provide feedback to the teacher.
"The close collaboration serves to create a network of care and attention that can help students overcome challenges and reach their full potential," Ronni Laursen explains.
More Knowledge
The article is based on an exploratory qualitative case study conducted at three primary and middle schools in Denmark.
The purpose of the case study is to empirically illustrate how school principals address student well-being.
The study’s data consists of 18 interviews with principals, vice principals and key teachers. The data analysis is inspired by grounded theory.
Grounded theory is a method for investigating processes and structures with the aim of developing a theory rooted in the practice being studied.
Ronni Laursen examined the interview material systematically over several rounds, and the iterative analysis led to a focused interpretation centred around three recurring themes:
- Understanding well-being in school: focus on student learning and community
- Prioritizing well-being: the role of the school principal in creating well-functioning schools
- Learning as the dominant norm: well-being and academic performance in school.
Contact
- Ronni Laursen, Assistant Professor, Department of Culture and Learning, Aalborg University
Phone: +45 99 40 21 96, Email: ronnil@ikl.aau.dk - Nelly Sander, Project Manager, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Phone: +45 99 40 20 18, Email: nsa@adm.aau.dk