What is Trauma Informed Leadership

This chapter explores, through a self-study study approach, one principal's experiences with the implementation and enactment of trauma informed leadership in her Indigenous rural community school. Findings identify the principal's practices of trauma informed leadership and how her approach supports Indigenous cultural revitalization and cultivates relationships between and amongst herself and her school constituents (e.g., students, teachers, staff, parents, other community members). These relationships have enabled her to foster a compassionate, caring, and safe school culture. The conclusions highlight how the practices she employs have resulted in supporting students academically, socially, and emotionally affected by intergenerational trauma and building more capacity in the larger school community. A description of the successes and challenges of her use of the approach, and the approach's transferability to other organizations, is also included in the chapter.