Social mobility leadership: the principal’s role in leading students’ mobility within a minority group

Studies have addressed the role of a school principal as an agent of social change. However, they have focused primarily on schools with cultural diversity, and not on schools with students from homogenic national-ethnic minority groups. The current study has aimed to address the role of school principals with respect to promoting their students’ social mobility, in the context of a minority group in the broader society. This qualitative case study involved the middle and high sections of a school with students from the Arab minority in Israel. Data were collected through interviews with various school community members and observations. Thematic analysis revealed four themes: promoting social mobility adapted to student heterogeneity, emphasising standardisation and uniformity in school for social mobility, fostering academic achievements as a means of social mobility, and developing twenty-first century skills: digital leadership for social mobility. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.