Abstract
<p style="text-align:justify">This article contributes to the evidence base on the significance of context in enacting social justice leadership. It draws on data from the International School Leadership Development Network of 20+ countries who adopted a common qualitative approach involving interviews with principals identified as being social justice leaders. The article focuses on four case studies of Irish principals in varying primary elementary school contexts. Findings reveal local contextual features significantly impacted principals' perceptions, actions, and self-efficacy as social justice leaders. While the actions and motivation of the principals is similar, two of the principals, working in school contexts where the values and norms are not consonant with broader society, appear to lack confidence in their practice of social justice leadership. This article extends the existing evidence base by arguing for enhanced critical consciousness of all stakeholders related to the personal, institutional and community contexts in schools. It recommends a more flexible and iterative process of policy development to facilitate a more nuanced understanding of the cultural and ideological struggles in schools. Finally, it calls for governments and policy makers to take responsibility for and support disadvantaged communities as education alone cannot solve the issue of inequity.</p>
Highlights
Social justice issues in education and the role of school leaders to counter inequitable practices and policies is increasingly receiving attention from educational researchers (Berkovich, 2014; Bogotch, 2013; Brown, 2006; Poekert et al, 2020; Shields, 2010; Torrance et al, 2021)
While each school context is nested within the broader state context, the local contextual features appear to have a significant impact on principals' perceptions, actions, and sense of self-efficacy in their role as social justice leaders
The data shows on the one hand how two of the principals felt competent in their social justice leadership where they were able to create and continue existing school cultures
Summary
Social justice issues in education and the role of school leaders to counter inequitable practices and policies is increasingly receiving attention from educational researchers (Berkovich, 2014; Bogotch, 2013; Brown, 2006; Poekert et al, 2020; Shields, 2010; Torrance et al, 2021). With due regard to the influence of globalisation, it is the case that national governments have considerable power to develop policies to reflect their educational priorities for individuals and the state For this reason, it is necessary to understand how different national socio-cultural and political traditions contribute to or reinforce educational inequity (King et al, 2019) to understand the challenges that social justice leaders face within a given country. Social justice issues need to be considered through the interactions of multiple levels and systems of interaction to gain a socio-ecological perspective on how school contexts are culturally and socially positioned (Berkovich, 2014; Furman & Gruenewald, 2004; Hallinger, 2018; King & Travers, 2017; Miller, 2021). To understand the lens through which social justice issues are perceived and categorised, one must turn to the deep structure of historical, cultural, political, ideological and value
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