Leadership Practices for Social Justice, Democratic Community, and Learning: School Principals’ Perspectives

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover leadership practices that integrate social justice and democratic community for student learning. Data were gathered through focus group discussions with school principals. The responses were transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed for emerging themes. Leadership practices that were identified as themes in this study included shared decision making, advocacy, dispositions and relationships, and social control with purpose. Participants perceived public participation in decision making and "doing what is best for kids" as shared values. However, they were concerned that such participation was not always an honored ideal.

Making Sense of Social Justice Leadership: A Case Study of a Principal’s Experiences to Create a More Inclusive School

“…Further research has shown that principals committed to social justice engage in advocacy work (Jean-Marie, 2008). Advocacy includes grooming teacher leaders with social justice orientations, engaging in democratic decision-making processes, using data (qualitative and quantitative) to raise concerns, mediating conflicts and misconceptions, addressing deficit perspectives or toxic school cultures, and championing social justice-oriented principles (Theoharis, 2007;Theoharis & O'Toole, 2011;Wasonga, 2009). For principals working in high-poverty urban schools seeking to create more inclusive schools, advocacy work might include the development of an interdisciplinary teacher team that will advocate for inclusion and generate new strategies to support inclusive education.…”

“…Principals seeking to establish more socially just schools must address special education and the disproportionate representation of African Americans in segregated, special-education placements (DeMatthews & Mawhinney, 2014), but each school has different situations, individuals, cases, and contexts that make it difficult to define or describe prior to the principal engaging in leadership practices (Bogotch, 2002;McKenzie et al, 2008). Generally, social justice leadership involves: (a) interrogating school policies, cultures, and community expectations; (b) identifying oppressive and unjust practices; (c) employing democratic processes to engage marginalized communities (Wasonga, 2009); and (d) substituting unjust practices with equitable and culturally appropriate ones (Dantley & Tillman, 2006;Furman, 2012;Theoharis, 2007;Theoharis & O'Toole, 2011). In the process, leadership must be inclusive:…”

Social Justice Leadership in Educational Market Contexts

“…Similarly, justice-oriented forms of leadership may also have origins in the American Civil Rights movement (Lewis 2016). During (and before) the Civil Rights movement, Black educational leaders acknowledged that traditional forms of schooling and school leadership were reproducing injustices for Black students and their communities (Wasonga 2009). To promote justice, Black educational leaders reenvisioned purposes of school leadership as "fighting to overcome the social barriers of poverty and class, slavery, and institutionalized racism's inequities within a democratic society" (Murtadha and Watts 2005, p. 592).…”

“…Other forms of justice-oriented leadership are conceptualized more in terms of processes rather than specific groups, although all emancipatory leadership forms keep traditionally-marginalized students at their center. Democratic leadership focuses on including all school and community stakeholders in decision-making, and envisioning the school as crucial to promoting critical citizens' participation in a democracy (Anderson and Cohen 2018;Furman 2012;Wasonga 2009). Similarly, transformative leadership is focused on democratic decision-making and working with school stakeholders to transform school communities toward a more sociallyjust state of being (Quantz et al 1991;Shields 2004).…”

Social Justice Leadership: Principals’ Perspectives in Trinidad and Tobago

“…interrogate school and community expectations, policies and practices, and utilize democratic processes to change the status quo in targeted schools (Wasonga, 2009).…”