My research focuses on leadership for academic excellence and social justice. I recognize the importance of contributing to a body of theoretical knowledge, but I believe that equally important tenets of my research program are its potential to improve leadership practice and to inform educational poIicy. I have taken pains to develop a program of research that is both empirically and theoretically rigorous in order to better understand how school leaders in demanding, diverse, and multicultural contexts create teaching and learning environments that are inclusive, just, and have the potential to enhance (or inhibit) the educational success of students (in terms of academic and nonacademic outcomes). The projects in which I am engaged emphasize different structures, instructional programs, and cross-cultural issues. They each address, in a slightly different way, the role of teachers and leaders in democratic education. My research activities support and augment the courses I teach, all of which deal with the improvement of schools and educational organizations.

            Over the past four years, I have been intensively engaged in the following research projects:

·         A study of the educational outcomes of South Asian students in the lower mainland, BC.

·         A longitudinal, empirical study of cultural diversity and its relationship to school success (primarily conducted in Utah on the Navajo reservation).

·         A study conducted in several countries of educators’ understandings of equity and social justice and how they relate to academic achievement.

·         A longitudinal study conducted in North America of schools that have adopted a “year-round” or “balanced” school calendar. The first phase of this study was quite general; the second and third (ongoing) focused more specifically on the potential of a modified calendar to enhance equitable student outcomes, broadly conceived.

·         A pan-Canadian, longitudinal study (with a focus on schools in Surrey, BC) on educators conceptions of “at-riskness” and the impact of different attitudes on programs and students.

·         Studies of leadership and leadership contexts in several countries that have led to better understandings of the terms cross-cultural leaders and the concept of a community of difference.

·      A pan-Canadian, longitudinal study of “student engagement in learning and school life” with a focus on two BC schools in Vancouver.