Session Information
26 SES 13 A JS, Emerging Paradigms and Practice in Leadership for Social Justice:Advocacy, Activism and Indigenous Culturally Responsive Leadership
Joint Symposium NW 07 and NW 26
Contribution
The International Study of Leadership Development Network (ISLDN) is sponsored by the British Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration Society (BELMAS) and the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA). The ISLDN has presented results from a number of studies of social justice leadership of principals in schools around the world (see, e.g., Morrison, McNae, & Branson, 2015; Norberg, Arlestig, & Angelle, 2014; Richardson, & Sauers, 2014; Sperandio, & Wilson-Gagoe, 2015). Attention to social justice has arisen largely out of concerns for neglected students and those who have been punished by a system of haves and have-nots. Slater (in press) recently summarized the philosophical stance of ISLDN researchers who grounded their work in heart-felt beliefs about social justice. They believed in equal opportunity as the foundation of democratic societies. Research Design. The purpose of this research was to examine leadership for advocacy as expressed in the beliefs of teacher leaders about social justice in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Spain. The research questions are: 1) How do teacher leaders make sense of social justice? 2) What do social justice leaders do? 3) What factors help and hinder the work of social justice leaders? 4) How did teacher leaders learn to become social justice advocates? We contacted those who had participated in our previous research on social justice leadership of principals to identify teachers at each site. Teachers were interviewed for 90 minutes. The interviews were recorded, transcribed, translated, and analyzed for common themes (Merriam, 2009). Results and Discussion. We used Cribb and Gewirtz’s (2003) framework to examine the perspectives of teachers. The Costa Rican teachers emphasized economic justice and felt that their school was special because it admitted students by examination. More capable students, no matter what income level, were able to master the curriculum. The Mexican teacher emphasized cultural justice. He advocated for every student to attend school no matter what the level of skill. He was critical of schools that were not dedicated to teaching all students. The Spanish teacher worked in a school with immigrants from many countries. He stressed associational justice and wanted to integrate students into the language and culture of the country. In this paper the heroic efforts of these teachers are acknowledged even as ethical questions are raised about the advocacy for social justice in each school.
References
Cribb, A. and Gewirtz, S. (2003) Towards a sociology of just practices: An analysis of plural conceptions of justice. In C. Vincent (Ed.), Social justice education and identity (pp. 15–29). London: RoutledgeFalmer. Merriam, S. B. (2009). Qualitative research: A guide to design and implementation (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Morrison, M., McNae, R., & Branson, C.M. (2015). Multiple hues: New Zealand school leaders’ perceptions of social justice. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Practice, 30(1), 4-16. Norberg, K., Arlestig, H., & Angelle, P. S. (2014). Global conversations about social justice The Swedish− US example. Management in Education, 28(3), 101-105. Richardson, J. W., & Sauers, N. J. (2014). Social justice in India: Perspectives from school leaders in diverse contexts. Management in Education, 28(3), 106-109. Slater, C.L. (in press). Social justice beliefs and the positionality of researchers. In P.S. Angelle (Ed.), A global perspective of social justice leadership for school principals. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Sperandio, J., & Wilson-Gagoe, J. (2015). Leading for social justice in Ghanaian secondary schools. Journal of Educational Leadership, Policy, and Practice, 30(1), 65-78.
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