The Place of “Social Justice” in the Field of Educational Administration: A Journals-Based Historical Overview of Emergent Area of Study

Abstract

The purpose of this chapter was to trace the place of “social justice” in the field’s discourse since early 1960s, the decade in which the first academic journals of the field appeared. More specifically, the chapter aims at (1) presenting the emergence of “social justice” as an area of study in the field’s journals from a historical perspective and (2) analyzing the major topics related to this area of study and its types of publication. Based on a qualitative content analysis of the major journals of educational administration and leadership, it was found that the history of “social justice” (including equality, race, and diversity) can be depicted by a line on a graph that begins on the bottom of the left side and rises slowly but steadily up and up to the right side in the top of the graph. Indeed, the interest in “social justice” (and related social topics) moved from a very minor aspect in the field’s discourse, expressed mainly by sociological writings concerning issues of equality, equity, and equal opportunities regardless to educational leadership, to many studies and essays debating and researching forms of leadership for social justice and promoting the discourses of race, diversity, and equality in the field. The chapter “charts” the development of “social justice” through four decades of journal writing and illustrates the much interest it receives in our era.