Session Information
26 SES 13 A, Reframing Leadership and Leading in Education: Diverse Responses from Scholars Across the Field (Part 2)
Symposium continued from 26 SES 12 A
Contribution
This is the second part of the symposium titled Reframing Leadership and Leading in Education: Diverse Responses from Scholars Across the Field. All the papers presented in this symposium are from the upcoming Elgar Handbook of Leadership in Education, edited by Professor Philip A. Woods, Dr Amanda Roberts, Dr Meng Tian and Dr Howard Youngs (2023).
In this symposium, we include three chapters from the Handbook Part 2 Social justice and leadership in education and the final chapter on Disrupted Leadership in Education written by the editors.
Social justice is a much-used term, with multifaceted meanings. At its most basic, we are using it here to signify three aspects of fairness in education: relational (i.e., how individuals are treated decently in their relationships with others), procedural (i.e., how education systems are built to ensure equitable procedures) and substantive (e.g., how education content and leadership practices are designed to accommodate diverse needs). We would argue that social justice should be one of the ultimate goals guiding future leadership development and one of the fundamental values guiding leaders' daily practice. Social justice leaders endeavour to recognise discrimination and prejudice, empower marginalised groups and lead activism against inequalities and unfairness (Angelle & Torrance, 2019; Wang, 2018).
The presentations in Part 2 of the symposium offer various viewpoints on such fairness, on what social justice might look like, on what might support it and what might impede it.
The first paper challenges the colonial constructions of leadership in New Zealand. The author discusses how the diverse early childhood education sector in Aotearoa promotes Māori language and curriculum despite the lack of government provision and colonial history.
The second paper shows that in Spain, transformative leadership is used to promote social justice and inclusion in schools. The attainment gap is exacerbated by poverty in many local communities. Leaders of Spanish public schools who serve precarious families in disadvantaged areas bear more responsibility to transform local communities on the meso level and schools on the micro level. In response to this goal, the authors of chapter 25 propose a framework of Six Steps and Four Conditions for Social Justice in Schools.
The third paper consists of editors' narratives of how disruptions affect educational leadership and bring opportunities to challenge fossilised leadership concepts and patterns. More distributed leadership and disruptive leadership are needed in front of unprecedented and everyday disruptions. Leaders in education are expected to become wayfinders who work with and for people in the education sector.
The last paper discusses that leaders of schools in crises and traumatic situations face particular testing challenges. However, there is no formula to determine the capacity or qualities that leaders in such contexts require. What can be said, as the author argues, is that leading in crises and traumatic situations benefits from, amongst other things, the capacity to be critically self-reflective, to promote inclusive and anti-oppressive school contexts, to engage local communities and to exercise a moral capacity for social justice.
We hope that the audience will appreciate these diverse viewpoints on social justice and leadership in education put forward in this symposium. We join the presenters in inviting you to engage actively with the issues raised. In this way, we can continue to build a discourse around social justice leadership which impacts positively on educational practice.
This symposium adopts the presentations, discussion and Q&A format. Authors will first present their works. This is followed by a panel discussion hosted by the Chair. In the last part of the symposium, the audience will have the opportunity to engage in the conversation and ask questions to the presenters.
References
Angelle, P. S., & Torrance, D. (2019). Cultures of Social Justice Leadership: An Intercultural Context of Schools. Springer. Auerbach, S. (2007). From Moral Supporters to Struggling Advocates: Reconceptualizing Parent Roles in Education Through the Experience of Working-Class Families of Color. Urban Education, 42(3), 250–283. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085907300433 Cherng, H.-Y. S., & Halpin, P. F. (2016). The Importance of Minority Teachers: Student Perceptions of Minority Versus White Teachers. Educational Researcher, 45(7), 407–420. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X16671718 Dee, T. S. (2005). A Teacher like Me: Does Race, Ethnicity, or Gender Matter? The American Economic Review, 95(2), 158–165. Gottfried, M., Kirksey, J. J., & Fletcher, T. L. (2022). Do High School Students With a Same-Race Teacher Attend Class More Often? Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 44(1), 149–169. https://doi.org/10.3102/01623737211032241 Shields, C. M., & Mohan, E. J. (2008). High‐quality education for all students: Putting social justice at its heart. Teacher Development, 12(4), 289–300. https://doi.org/10.1080/13664530802579843 Wang, F. (2018). Social Justice Leadership—Theory and Practice: A Case of Ontario. Educational Administration Quarterly, 54(3), 470–498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X18761341
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