School Leadership, Curriculum Diversity, Social Justice and Critical Perspectives in Education

Abstract

In the face of changing demographics, reduced funding and more stringent accountability and performance measures, school leaders are required to make schools fairer for all students, and to equip them with critical skills for autonomous living in society. Simultaneously, financial and material resources from government to schools have been reduced, thus producing a mismatch between expectations and reality. This qualitative study of 12 principals in England, Jamaica and Spain interrogates international discourses on school leadership and curriculum diversity to identify and evaluate social justice practices of school leaders in small rural/remote schools. There was a shared understanding of social justice among principals, who saw the school curriculum as a social justice tool, and school context as providing both challenges and opportunities to doing social justice work, and who suggested a shared responsibility among stakeholders for a social justice curriculum.