Troubling Unintended Harm of Heroic Discourses in Social Justice Leadership

Abstract

We aim to problematize the ways in which school leaders who seek social justice conflate heroic leadership discourses in their practices. Using qualitative data collected from an urban school principal, this study examines heroic metaphors utilized by the principal when describing social justice leadership and how heroic-centered approaches contradict with achieving social justice goals in school. The findings suggest that the principal’s idea of social justice leadership relies on discourse around “battles to win”, a savior complex, and seeing herself as the central model for driving change. Such heroic discourses reflect the principal’s sole reliance on herself as a savior for her staff and community, which ultimately contradicted the social justice ideals that she sought to accomplish. Our inquiry provides a window to problematize heroic discourse embedded in social justice leadership and address how school leaders must be cognizant to how their practices might conflate with social justice outcomes.

It has to be the fabric: practicing district-level equity-minded leadership in a predominantly white high school

“…There is often a difference between what district leaders personally believe about equity and what they enact in their communication and actions (Galloway et al, 2015;Kim & Mauldin, 2022;Kruse et. al, 2018).…”

“…not collaboratively with other adults, and then certainly not in collaboration with students. Heroic leaders may, in fact, see themselves as problemfixers and everyone else as problem-makers (Kim & Mauldin, 2022). This has troubling implications when applied to leaders and their perceptions of students.…”

“…working in schools is "working in the trenches"), or individualistic (i.e. "I am the only one able to do this work") (Kim et. al., 2022;MacDonald, 2019;Schweiger et.…”

“…In the absence of relationships, individuals run the risk of not having the psychological safety needed to learn (Manning, 2022). In the absence of relationships, power structures in school and school districts continue in the history of Eurocentric, top-down hierarchies (Kim & Mauldin, 2022). Common sense says that conditions of psychological stress and traditional power structure s do not lend themselves to the kind of intentional and deep reforms needed to assure equity and social justice initiatives take hold and last.…”