This multisite case study explores how rural principals in high poverty schools in a Southern state that had identified themselves as social justice leaders perceived student diversity, specifically LGBTQ students, and how they sustained a socially-just school climate for all students. Using a qualitative approach lent itself to understanding the principals' descriptions of themselves as social justice leaders in their respective school and community contexts through their conversations (Creswell, 2007;Marshall & Rossman, 2016). The investigators drew from Theoharis ' (2007, 2009) and Bishop's (2012) studies to serve as the theoretical framework guiding this study. The results indicated that the principals in this case study struggled with recognizingLGBTQ students' needs and well-being. The findings in this study contain implications for preservice preparation and in-service professional development programs to draw upon social justice leadership theory and research to inform leadership practices when addressing external and internal resistance. Moreover, this study recognizes the need for leadership preparation programs to integrate critical self-consciousness (Freire, 2000) with purposeful reflection (Webster-Smith, 2011) as essential to the development of the social justice leader.

In an effort to define a principal education equity mindset, we initially identified six essential attributes of the construct and attempted empirically to confirm our definition by gathering a combination of quantitative and qualitative data from 128 principals. We found variations in the expression of the mindset attributes and commitment by principals to create conditions that support success for all students. In addition, we exposed two unanticipated attributes and variations on attribute commitment. The principals’ personal, professional, and school variables were associated with significant differences in the mindset attributes. We provide a discussion of our findings, implications for practice, and directions for future research.

This chapter explores the challenges that a college of education in a South-Central university faced with online learning. Nationally, there has been an exponential growth in the demand and subsequent delivery of online courses. The college experienced a similar growth trend and has had its share of successes and disillusionments in its journey. The college’s technology committee explored faculty perceptions of online learning. This case study details the findings of the action research and presents the initial steps for implementing changes to improve practices and perceptions with online learning. However, the initial efforts of the technology committee have just begun to scratch the surface of systemic change. The chapter concludes with the committee’s goals, objectives, and action plans to continue to lead the college through a change process to improve the practices and perceptions of online learning.