Seeking election: Evaluating a campaign for public school board trusteeship

Abstract

Canadian public school board trustees are generally chosen by way of public ballot in civic elections. A comparison of board governance literature to a local narrative account of public school board elections exposes several gaps between espoused democratic ideals and the realities of public engagement in trustee selection. I investigate the nature and extent of this misalignment in order to establish a baseline for future inquiry into public perceptions of school board governance, engagement in school board elections, democratic representation in public school systems, and links between effective governance and educational outcomes.

Key words : governance, school board, elections, trustee, democracy and education