School leaders play a critical role in securing a better environment within challenging school settings (Martinez, Rivera & Marquez, 2018). Although there are differences in coping with the challenges in different cultures, in traditional societies school principals' demographic characteristics, such as their gender (Long & King, 2015) can be the cause for additional challenges. The male hegemony in educational administration (Blackmore, 2016) consequently challenges the work of female school principals in ‘masculine societies’ (Oplatka& Arar, 2016). To address such marginal and diverse situations, Social Justice Leadership (SJL) is considered as remedial (Angelle & Torrance, 2019; Arar, Örücü & Waite &, 2020; Bogotch & Shields, 2014). Most frequently, female principals in traditional societies find themselves in double marginality (Arar, Örücü & Küçükçayır, 2018), where they have to fight to cultivate socially just practices not only for their school community but also for themselves in a male-dominant profession (Blackmore, 2016). Therefore, in this presentation We seek to compare the meaning of social (in)justice as perceived by three female principals in three Middle Eastern countries (Palestine, Turkey, and Lebanon), by posing the following research questions: (1) Do these women have common personal characteristics and educational values? (2) How do they lead to ensure social justice in their schools? (3) Do they employ different or similar strategies and practices to ensure social justice (SJ)? A qualitative study was employed through in-depth semi-structured interviews to collect the narratives of the three female school principals. Comparative holistic analysis was used to capture their perceptions and their daily practices to ensure social justice as well as their struggles in their schools and community. The principals reported different sociocultural, national and personal trajectories shaping their perceptions of SJ, and described their daily work to promote SJ in their policies and processes. We saw that these 3 women were motivated by their belief systems, moral compass and backgrounds to right social wrongs, promoting equity and justice and empowering others to succeed.

Angelle, P. S., & Torrance, D. (Eds.). (2019). Cultures of social justice leadership. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan. Arar, K., Ӧrücü, D., & Waite, D. (2020) Understanding leadership for refugee education: introduction to the special issue. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 23(1), 1-6. Blackmore, J. (2016). Educational Leadership and Nancy Fraser. London: Routledge. Bogotch, I., & Shields, C.M. (2014). Introduction: Do promises for social justice trump paradigms of educational leadership and social (in)justice. In: Bogotch, I., & Shields, C.M. (eds.). International handbook of educational leadership and social (in)justice (pp.1-12). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. Martinez, M., Rivera, M., & Marquez, J. (2018). Learning From the Experiences and Development of Latina School Leaders. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43, 1 –27. Hallinger, P. (2018). Surfacing a hidden literature: A systematic review of research on educational leadership and management in Africa. Educational Management Administration & Leadershio, 46(3), 362-384. Klein, S., Richardson, B., Grayson, D., Fox, L., Kramarae, C., Pollard, D., . . . (Eds.). (2014). Handbook for achieving gender equity through education. Routledge. West, J., Jacquet, J., King, M., Correl, S., & Bergstrom, C. (2013). The Role of Gender in Scholarly Authorship. PLos One, 8(7). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066212