Socially just principals in unjust times: Social justice leadership in disadvantaged Victorian primary schools

Abstract

This qualitative study investigates the social justice leadership practices of three primary principals working in some of the most disadvantaged areas in Victoria, Australia. Drawing on Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of practice I explore how the principals’ understandings of social justice are shaped by the intersection of their life and work histories. I examine how their understandings are structured by and structuring of a public education system heavily influenced by neoliberal ideologies. I investigate the disjunctions between the understandings of social justice expressed by these educational leaders and their leadership practices, and implications of this leadership scholarship, policy and practice.