Defining Educational Leadership in Canada's Yukon Territory: "Hmmm, That's a Good Question ..." (Report‪)‬

Abstract Studies examining educational leadership in northern Canada appear rare. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present findings from a 2010 study of educational leadership in Canada's Yukon Territory. The study adopts a critical ethnographic approach to unpack educational leadership as construed and enacted by two male and two female non-Indigenous principals living and working in Indigenous Yukon contexts. Extensive interviews, observations, and document reviews in four Yukon schools were conducted to shed light upon the research questions. This research reveals how school principals, individuals often referred to as "educational leaders," define educational leadership despite the inability on the part of universities, the extant body of literature, or educational systems to articulate what this term even means (Allix&Gronn, 2005). The study identifies that these Yukon principals define educational leadership in managerial and administrative ways, referring to themselves as principals who have a "function" and a "job" as they juggle the continuous ambiguity they face while wearing the multiple "hats" of teacher, principal, and community leader.