Critical Change for the Greater Good

Abstract

Background: Educational leadership for social justice and equity is the primary leadership response to inclusive and equitable education. This inquiry builds on multicultural education and educational leadership to explore an alternative approach to mainstream leadership practice. Purpose: To examine ways in which educational leaders of color in K-12 schools and higher education settings, tap into positive attributes of their identities to address issues germane to social justice and educational equity. Data Collection and Analysis: Qualitative data were examined to determine connections among participants with regard to literature reviewed and research questions. Analyses checked for evidence of culturally responsive leadership practice and the use of critical race theory. Findings: Nine common leadership characteristics were identified. Any leader can choose to use a critical race theory lens when practicing leadership for social justice and equity in diverse settings. Conclusions: These findings suggest the need for alternative models of leadership as a response to diversity in schools and universities, and value in exploring connections between multicultural education and educational leadership.

Te Ara Hou—A new pathway for leading Māori success as Māori

“…Throughout the analysis of data collected during CCRC's collaborative partnership as action researchers, clear theory-to-practice connections were made between MACS leadership actions and kaupapa Māori, critical race theory, Ka Hikitia and applied critical leadership-the methodological and theoretical frameworks underpinning this work (See Table 1). 2013-2017(Ministry of Education, 2013. As stated earlier, current MACS' mahi is focused on changing hearts and minds through shifting school cultures to create learning environments wherein Māori can succeed as Māori.…”

“…Grounded in transformative leadership, critical pedagogy, and critical race theory, ACL research explores the ways educational leaders from historically marginalised cultural, racial, ethnic, or linguistic backgrounds are able to use positive aspects of their identity to guide their leadership practice through their ability to identify with, represent the voices of, and act for disenfranchised student populations (Ladson-Billings, 1999;May & Sleeter, 2010;McLaren, 2003;L. J. Santamaría, 2013; L. J.…”

New Lands, New Languages: Navigating Intersectionality in School Leadership

“…Their exclusion constitutes "institutional silencing" (Gitlin, 1994, p. 4 cited in Bloom andErlandson, 2003, p. 345) (also Witherspoon and Taylor, 2010). More recently, a small but important literature is developing a discourse about the links between women and the communities they serve in the United States (Bloom and Erlandson, 2003;Witherspoon and Taylor, 2010;Arnold and Brooks, 2013;Santamaría, 2014;DeMatthews, 2016), South Africa (Lumby and Heystek, 2012;Moorosi, 2014;Lumby, 2015), Canada (Armstrong and Mitchell, 2017), Australia, Canada, New Zealand (Fitzgerald, 2006), and England (Coleman and Campbell-Stephens, 2010;Lumby and Heystek, 2012;Curtis, 2017). Each reveals the ubiquity of racial and gendered oppressions women principals experienced with respect to individual identity, institutional and wider social practice (Holvino, 2010).…”

“…Institutionally, women of BGM heritages were subject to oppressions regardless of their status as school leaders. They were underrepresented despite demographic shifts in the school population (Bloom and Erlandson, 2003;Fitzgerald, 2006;Coleman and Campbell-Stephens, 2010;Lumby and Heystek, 2012;Santamaría, 2014;Fuller, 2017a;Johnson, 2017). They struggled against the dominant discourse of school leadership as white and male (Bloom and Erlandson, 2003) with appointment panels preferring the latter candidates (Fitzgerald, 2006;Coleman and Campbell-Stephens, 2010;Lumby and Heystek, 2012;Lumby, 2015).…”

“…Indeed, some school leaders associated working with minoritized students with a fast track to promotion (Coleman and Campbell-Stephens, 2010). Santamaría (2014) has argued some leaders of color practice applied critical leadership as a consequence of experiencing simultaneous oppressions regarding race, gender and class. However, there were no guarantees that educators and leaders from BGM heritages exercised culturally responsive pedagogy and leadership (Fuller, 2013;DeMatthews, 2016).…”