Has anyone seen the kid? Looking for the principal-student relationship within the historical conceptions of the principalship

The school principal is often viewed as a distant authority figure, especially in students' eyes. However, this ignores the role's complexity and potential to impact students. Emerging research on the principal-student relationship reveals that these direct interactions play an important role in improving student and school outcomes and are an essential component of effective school leadership. However, the phenomenon remains vastly underexplored in the literature. This prompts us to explore the phenomenon more deeply and from different angles in order to establish its theoretical and conceptual foundations. As history can better illuminate current understandings and directions for the future, this paper looks for the place of the student in the histories of the American principalship and begins to provide a deeper understanding of why the phenomenon has been largely absent from our conceptions of school leadership. Fortunately, recent shifts in some of these conceptions provide promise for the phenomenon's future.