Social Justice Educational Leaders and Resistance: Toward a Theory of Social Justice Leadership

George Theoharis

doi:10.1177/0013161x06293717

Abstract

Purpose : A subgroup of principals—leaders for social justice—guide their schools to transform the culture, curriculum, pedagogical practices, atmosphere, and schoolwide priorities to benefit marginalized students. The purpose of the article is to develop a theory of this social justice educational leadership. Research Design : This empirical study examined the following questions: (a) In what ways are principals enacting social justice in public schools? (b) What resistance do social justice—driven principals face in their justice work? (c) What strategies do principals develop to sustain their ability to enact social justice in light of the resistance they face in public schools? Data Collection and Analysis : A critical, qualitative, positioned-subject approach combined with principles of autoethnography guided the research methods. Seven public school leaders who came to the principalship with a social justice orientation, who make issues of race, class, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and other historically marginalizing factors central to their advocacy, leadership practice, and vision, and who have demonstrated success in making their schools more just, were studied through interviews. Findings: A description of (a) how the principals enacted social justice, (b) the resistance they faced as well as the toll the resistance had on them, and (c) the strategies they developed to sustain their social justice work is provided in detail. Implications for administrator preparation are made at the close of this article.

Highlights

An increasing amount of research on school leadership has been conducted in recent years, because school principals play an important role in the educational achievements of their institutions, the learning outcomes and the organisation of the education centres
According to a survey carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2009) on the educational systems of 22 countries, a successful school needs effective leadership, administration and management. These results are supported by multiple international-level studies that have demonstrated the relevance of the role of school principals in the good performance of schools, as well as the fact that, when the leadership of the principals is effective, the improvements in student learning become evident (Guzmán, Pérez & Hernández, 2016; López, Slater & García, 2010)
The main objective of this research is to study the leadership skills of 31 primary school principals in the state of Tabasco in Mexico, and detect any correlations between these skills and the levels of achievement obtained by their schools, in order to identify common skills shared by the principals whose schools have obtained high educational results

Summary

Introduction

An increasing amount of research on school leadership has been conducted in recent years, because school principals play an important role in the educational achievements of their institutions, the learning outcomes and the organisation of the education centres. According to a survey carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2009) on the educational systems of 22 countries, a successful school needs effective leadership, administration and management. These results are supported by multiple international-level studies that have demonstrated the relevance of the role of school principals in the good performance of schools, as well as the fact that, when the leadership of the principals is effective, the improvements in student learning become evident (Guzmán, Pérez & Hernández, 2016; López, Slater & García, 2010). It has been found that, in the day-to-day running of schools in practice, when effectively encouraged by the principal, a good teacher or team of teachers in a poorly equipped school in a very marginal community can achieve learning outcomes equivalent to those of the best-equipped schools in the most privileged contexts

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion