At the Intersections of Black and White: Defining Social Justice from Different Perspectives

Abstract

This chapter explores the manner in which individual narratives and lived experiences have shaped how two academics understand social justice and, subsequently, how they collaborate professionally to engage the ways in which social justice frames educational leadership preparation and practice. Jim is a white male raised in the North who came of age during the 60s as a first-generation college student from a steel town working-class family. Gretchen is an African American female who was raised in the South and was part of the first generation to benefit from the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s. As they came together to codirect the University Council of Educational Administration Center for Educational Leadership and Social Justice at Duquesne University, each recognized that, while different, their understandings of social justice has been shaped largely by their racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic experiences and by the modeling of those closest to them. As a result, Jim and Gretchen have worked together to bring the richness of their experiences to benefit the goals and missions of the center. Interviewed by and cowritten with Dr. Jill Perry, this chapter demonstrates the importance of perspective and framing, not only in an individual’s understandings of social justice but also in the role of each in teaching about social justice to future educational leaders.KeywordsSocial JusticeAfrican American StudentSchool LeaderAfrican American CommunityServant LeadershipThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.