STUDENT-CENTRIC LEADERSHIP APPROACHES IN CONTEMPORARY EDUCATION: REFRAMING AUTHORITY, AGENCY, AND LEARNING CULTURE

Abstract

Student centric leadership is a new approach in educational leaderships that reposition students as active learners than passive receivers of institutional decision and makes them active co- constructors of learning, belonging and school improvement. This chapter conceptualise and synthesis a student centric leadership approach through the lens of distributed leadership, transformational leadership, servant leadership, culturally responsive leadership, and participatory governance. It debates that student-centric leadership is an integrative orientation rather than a single leadership style, anchored in relational trust, student voice, equity, and shared decision-making. This chapter also introduces a practical model with five dimensions namely voice, agency, belonging, responsiveness, and accountability. It also outlines the strategies to implement ethical considerations and research directions for future scholarship, and the chapter contributes a new conceptual frame for leaders at school and higher education to build learning environments where students are empowered partners in institutional change