What does it mean to be a school leader trying to improve chronic absenteeism at the high school level? Intervening with chronically absent high school students entails adapting existing practices designed for students in attendance, finding alternate ways to motivate students who simply are not there, and affording educational opportunity equitably to students whose voices and stories have largely been silenced, all against a landscape of increasingly rigorous and conflicting accountability pressure associated with chronic absenteeism, graduation rate, suspension rate and student achievement. While scholarship and dialogue pertaining to leadership responses to chronic absenteeism at the high school level generally support an emphasis on outreach and engagement with families, building relationships with students, affording students opportunities to recover credit, and connecting them to experiences that relate to the world of work after high school, scarce research focuses on the complex, dynamic role identities of the school leaders who innovate and implement these ad hoc responses, often without guidance from policy, and in turn, influence the experiences, outcomes and possibilities for chronically absent students. This current study investigated the ways that role identity components influenced the motivated actions of school and district leaders towards chronic absenteeism at the high school level. The study’s guiding questions were: (a) how do school leaders’ role identity components (i.e.., ontological and epistemological beliefs; purpose and goals; perceived action possibilities; self-perceptions and definitions) emerge and interact with each other to inform their actions regarding chronically absent high school students? (b) to what extent do the beliefs and perceptions of school leaders about supporting chronically absent students compare and contrast to the lived experiences of adults who were chronically absent students in high school? (c) to what extent do the beliefs and perceptions of school leaders about supporting chronically absent students compare and contrast to the lived experiences of parents and guardians of adults who were chronically absent students in high school? The guiding theoretical frame for this study is the Dynamic Systems Model of Role Identity (DSMRI; Kaplan & Garner, 2017). The DSMRI conceptualizes motivated action to be influenced by an actor’s dynamic and contextualized interpretation of his or her social cultural role, or role identity. According to the model, four multi-elemental components comprise an actor’s role identity: ontological and epistemological beliefs, purpose and goals, perceived action possibilities, and self-perceptions and definitions. These components are interdependent, irreducible, and reciprocally influencing each other, the behaviors and their meanings to the actor, and the future iterations of the actor’s role identity system. The study employed a narrative approach to investigate the school and district leaders’ motivated actions and the meanings they made of high school student absenteeism. Using Seidman’s (2013) protocol, I interviewed nine school leaders, five former students, and three parents who operated at a small, urban public school district in the Tri-State area about their past and present social-cultural roles concerning the meaning of they made of chronic absenteeism at the high school level. Additionally, I observed the nine school leaders and they provided artifacts and documents relating to chronic absenteeism. Transcribed interviews and the student focus group, as well as observations, documents and artifacts, were analyzed utilizing Saldana’s (2013) pragmatic eclecticism approach and Kaplan and Garner’s (2016) DSMRI Codebook and Analysis Guide. The results demonstrate how each school leader’s meaning of working with chronically absent students at the high school level, amidst an array of accountability pressures, has been incorporated into their dynamic role identity system within the sociocultural context, guiding their experiences, perceptions and actions. Despite their nuanced role identity systems - the participants come very different backgrounds with varied lived experiences and expertise in the domain, and reference different prior role identities and future role identities - the findings also highlighted common processes and content across Participant Roles (e.g., school leader, parent or student). This manifested distinctly in the themes reflecting school leaders’ actions changed in response to the system’s control parameter of accountability pressure, the ways school leaders communicated to parents and students about absenteeism, and the very different cultural meanings that students and parents gave to absenteeism and attendance than the cultural meanings and characteristics that school leaders largely experienced. These findings illuminate a complex, turbulent landscape comprised of school and district leaders, with myriad accountability systems to which they are beholden and their chronically absent students and families, all operating with multiple role identities that integrate with one another. The insights from this study can inform the work of educational leaders, educators and researchers who endeavor to intervene with the elusive problem of chronic absenteeism at the high school level. It may further guide educational leaders and policymakers who made decisions about the utility value of social-emotional learning that emphasizes exploration of identity for students, teachers, and leaders alike, as well as how outreach efforts are regarded and measured in school system outputs such as educator evaluation systems and professional development offerings. Importantly, this research aims to provide leaders with a tool for reflection on the importance of role identity as a lens to view their own professional practices and responses to challenging, complex problems in the domain such as chronic absenteeism. Moreover, when school systems were pressed to shut physically and adapt school services and instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the existing, multidimensional consideration of attending school manifested in new meanings and barriers for students, parents and school leaders grappling with the issue of chronic absenteeism in a changing context. Finally, this research aims to contribute, in a small way, to improve educational opportunity for all students, including those experiencing complex barriers to attending school. / Educational Administration

Thèse de doctorat présenté en vue de l'obtention du doctorat en psychologie - recherche intervention, option psychologie du travail et des organisations (Ph.D) / Les gestionnaires d’aujourd’hui sont constamment exposés à des discours sur le leadership qui leur demandent d’être des leaders. Mais qu’est-ce que signifie être un leader ? Plus que jamais, la notion même du leader est ambiguë. La complexité grandissante des environnements organisationnels fait en sorte qu’elle est sujette à de multiples interprétations. En réponse à cette ambiguïté, un nombre croissant d’études tente de se rapprocher de l’expérience vécue des gestionnaires pour mieux comprendre comment ils s’y prennent pour répondre à la question : Qui suis-je en tant que leader ? Dans leur ensemble, ces études suggèrent qu’un travail identitaire en continu soit nécessaire pour développer et maintenir une identité de leader. Cela dit, à ce jour, les études se sont principalement intéressées aux contextes de transition. Par conséquent, nous en savons peu sur le travail identitaire que font les gestionnaires dans leur contexte usuel de travail. La présente thèse explore donc la question suivante : Comment les gestionnaires en position de leadership s’engagent-ils dans un travail identitaire face à la notion de leader ? La thèse a pour objectif d’explorer et d’approfondir cette question en s’intéressant au travail identitaire de 12 gestionnaires issus de différents types de milieux organisationnels. Un devis qualitatif a été utilisé pour explorer leur expérience subjective. Une méthode d’analyse abductive basée sur l’analyse thématique réflexive proposée par Braun et Clarke a été utilisée. Cinq grands résultats ressortent de cette thèse. L’analyse a mis en lumière que les leaders peuvent ressentir trois types de tensions identitaires : 1) une incompatibilité entre deux de leurs idéaux identitaires de leader, 2) une divergence entre leur identité de rôle de leader et les attentes organisationnelles y étant rattachées et 3) une incompatibilité entre leur identité de leader et une autre de leur identité. L’analyse des idéaux identitaires a notamment mis en lumière que les leaders se retrouvent à cheval entre deux paradigmes de leadership. Cela en aspirant à des idéaux du paradigme post-héroïque qui conçoit le leadership comme un processus d’influence partagé et bidirectionnel ; tout en aspirant à des idéaux du paradigme héroïque qui conçoit le leader comme la principale source d’influence. Les identités et aspirations identitaires conflictuelles amènent les leaders à faire appel à diverses stratégies pour tenter de gérer les tensions ressenties. Afin d’en rendre compte avec parcimonie, une typologie schématisée de 16 stratégies de travail identitaire a été créée en s’appuyant sur la littérature. La mise en relation des différentes tensions et stratégies a permis de faire ressortir cinq dynamiques intégratrices qui synthétisent le travail identitaire que font les leaders de l’étude. Ce travail intégrateur a également permis de formuler des propositions théoriques quant au lien entre l’interprétation des tensions comme des menaces ou opportunités et le type de dynamiques identitaires dans lesquelles les leaders s’engagent. Ces résultats offrent des contributions théoriques à la littérature générale sur le travail identitaire ainsi qu’à la littérature sur le travail identitaire des leaders, plus spécifiquement la théorie de la construction de l’identité de leader, la théorie de l’identité narrative, la théorie critique et la théorie de l’identité de rôle. Finalement, la thèse offre des contributions pratiques quant aux formules pédagogiques entourant le développement des leaders. / Managers today are constantly exposed to leadership discourses that ask them to be leaders. But what does it mean to be a leader? More than ever, the very notion of a leader is ambiguous. As the complexity of organizational environments grows, so too does the multiple interpretations of the concept of leader. In response to this ambiguity, a growing number of studies are trying to get closer to the lived experience of managers to better understand how they go about answering the question: Who am I as a leader? Taken together, these studies suggest that ongoing identity work is necessary to develop and maintain a leadership identity. That said, to date, studies have mainly focused on transitional contexts. Consequently, we know little about the identity work that managers do in their usual work context. This thesis therefore explores the following question: How do managers in a leadership position engage in identity work in the face of the notion of leader? It aims to deepen this question by focusing on the identity work of 12 managers from different types of organizational backgrounds. A qualitative design was used to explore their subjective experience. An abductive analysis method based on the reflexive thematic analysis proposed by Braun and Clarke was used. Five main results emerge from this thesis. The analysis highlighted that leaders can experience three types of identity tensions: 1) an incompatibility between two of their leader identity ideals, 2) a divergence between their leader role identity and the organizational expectations attached to it, and 3) an incompatibility between their leader identity and another of their identities. The analysis of identity ideals has highlighted that leaders find themselves straddling two paradigms of leadership. This by aspiring to ideals of the post-heroic paradigm which sees leadership as a shared, two-way process of influence; while aspiring to ideals of the heroic paradigm which sees the leader as the main source of influence. Conflicting identities and identity aspirations lead leaders to use various strategies to try to resolve the tensions they feel. Building on existing literature and the result of this study, a schematic typology of sixteen identity work strategies was created. The linking of the different tensions and strategies has helped identify five integrative dynamics that synthesize the identity work in which the leaders engaged. This integrative work has also allowed to formulate theoretical proposals regarding the link between the interpretation of tensions as threats or opportunities and the type of identity dynamics in which the leaders engage. These results offer theoretical contributions to the general literature on identity work as well as to the literature on leader identity work, more specifically on leadership identity construction theory, narrative identity theory, critical theory and role identity theory. Finally, the thesis offers practical contributions regarding the pedagogical formulas surrounding the development of leaders.