Mobilizing, Advocating, and Organizing for Care in the School District Central Office

This paper presents a case study of a caring school district located in a farmworker community composed largely of Latinx families. I examine how central office leaders create or maintain care supports under crisis conditions. Findings suggest that district-level care was multidimensional and distributed, involving mobilization of community leadership, improvisational structures, and novel leadership routines. District care was enacted through a collective vision of care, rooted in a love of place and focused on healing. This study offers an account of distributed leadership that centers families, community members, and community partners. Ultimately, I argue that caring is a form of institutional work. Types of work include creation, maintenance, expansion, and disruptive work. This study contributes to the empirical research base on organizational care and contributes theoretically through the application of a positive institutional work lens to the study of care in education.