Leadership for Social Justice: Promoting Equity and Excellence through Inquiry and Reflective Practice

Citation

Kensler, L.A.W. (2009), "Leadership for Social Justice: Promoting Equity and Excellence through Inquiry and Reflective Practice", Journal of Educational Administration, Vol. 47 No. 4, pp. 532-535. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578230910967527

Leadership for Social Justice: Promoting Equity and Excellence through Inquiry and Reflective Practice is the first book in a new book series, Educational Leadership for Social Justice, published by Information Age Publishing. Normore, as the editor of this first book, has brought together leading scholars in the field of social justice to present a collection of their peer reviewed works that (p. x) “reiterate the importance of bridging theory and practice while simultaneously producing significant research and scholarship in the field”. The authors courageously explore the sometimes (p. viii) “fuzzy space” between research and activism, carefully delineating an ethical path toward improved educational opportunities and experiences for all students. With a primarily American perspective, the authors report on their research into diverse topics spanning local K‐12 public schools, community partnerships, and national policies and movements. Readers of this book will have the unique opportunity to see leadership for social justice in action at the individual and collective levels.

Normore artfully organized the book's 14 chapters as a nested system, beginning first with four chapters related to social justice and school leaders titled “Commitment to social justice, equity, and tolerance.” The three chapters of Part II, titled “Promoting social justice pedagogy,” explore social justice pedagogy in action at the classroom levels. In “Collaborative partnerships for social justice: communities, youth, and school‐linked services,” Part III, the three chapters reach beyond the school walls into the critical space of school and community partnerships. In the final section of the book, Part IV, “Ethical leadership and principles of social justice,” the four chapters expand into the realm of identifying common principles of social justice and their relevance to a growing movement, the New Democratic Ethical Educational Leadership (DEEL).

In the first chapter of the book – “A repository of hope for social justice: black women leaders at historically black colleges and universities,” (p. 3) Jean‐Marie and Normore, “document and catalogue how four Black female leaders at HBCUs committed to social justice and racial uplift, connect their professional work with social and political activism in the quest for access, equality, and social justice for all”. The women's stories of triumph over personal struggles with racism and sexism are inspiring and present the reader with concrete examples of how individuals are capable of transforming institutional practices and structures through (p. 27) “critical awareness, reflective inquiry, and discourse”. Lightfoot, in chapter two, takes on the commonly held wisdom that “Separate is Inherently Unequal.” Through a historical review and assessment of black educational opportunity and literal critique of Brown v. Board of Education, he lays the groundwork for the reader to more deeply understand the critical need to address racism that results in segregation, rather than holding onto the hope that integration alone will solve the problems. Tooms and Alston present the findings from their study into the attitudes of aspiring administrators towards the gay community in chapter three, “(Out)siders at the gates.” The opening vignette illustrates the complexity of preparing school leaders to lead inclusive school communities and the results of the Attitudes Towards Lesbians and Gay Men Scale provided further evidence of the need for educational leader preparation strategies that better develop the capacity for empathy towards the queer community. Their Heterosexual Privilege Checklist is a valuable and insightful contribution toward this end. In the final chapter of section I, Lopez and Vazquez present the findings of a case study that illustrate the challenges caused by administrator's deeply racialized logic related to language, culture and good parenting. They build a strong case for school leaders to more actively interrogate their good intentions around increasing Latino parent involvement and see more clearly the negative influence of assimilationist ideology.

Brooks and Miles open Part II of the book with the fifth chapter, “From scientific management to social justice … and back again?” They present an historical overview of pedagogical trends in educational leadership sweeping broadly from the early 1900s to the present and highlighting the present challenge to reconcile a resurgence of (p. 109) “Taylor‐inspired traditions” and social justice. They engage the reader in the (p. 110) “difficult and controversial work” of “exploring this tension” – work that is most definitely (p. 110) “extremely relevant and necessary in a maturing high‐accountability policy environment”. In chapter six, Sernak follows with an analysis of two school reform programs, Success for All and Professional Development Schools, and their implementation in one New Jersey elementary school. Using “Freire's notion of conscientization as a framework”, Sernak suggests that any reform model (p. 129) “is only as good as its leader and those who choose to follow him/her.” Progress toward more socially just learning environments depend more on the leader's willingness to engage in a process that is often (p. 145) “messy and contentious” than simply on the program parameters. O'Hair and Reitzug, in chapter seven, address “A neglected dimension of social justice,” teacher quality and student success in the rural schools of Oklahoma. They describe the K20 SCIENCE model that engages rural science teachers in authentic research, lesson study, and professional learning communities. These authors assert that (p. 162) “K20 SCIENCE advances social justice in rural schools through new conceptions of teacher professional development that enhances learning and prepares citizens for democratic participation”.

Chapter eight opens Part III with a fascinating case study entitled, “A collaboration of community educators follows crisis in Cincinnati.” Brown, Larsen, Britt, Ruiz, and Star examine the root causes that resulted in riots in 1967 and then again in 2001 – (p. 175) “root causes [that] have remained distressingly similar, although decades of social upheaval and striving for equality separate the two”. They further describe an innovative education/museum partnership that serves to facilitate deepening dialogue among multiple perspectives and progress toward improved race relations in Cincinnati. Mitra, in chapter nine, “Student voice or empowerment,” examines the work of 13 youth‐adult partnership initiatives to better understand the role of youth in promoting social justice in schools. She details specific examples of youth empowered work at the individual, organizational, and systemic levels. The cases illustrate the powerful effects of including student voices at the leadership for social justice table. In chapter ten, Normore and Blanco continue the conversation about partnerships by exploring the moral imperative for school leaders to engage in multiple community partnerships that specifically address the needs of the urban poor, moving beyond the concept of school (p. 232) “as a stand‐alone institution”. They highlight the importance of taking on the work of developing partnerships within the unique school community, noting that (p. 233) “helping each student succeed is a shared school‐community responsibility”.

In the final part of the book, Leonard (chapter 11) presented a narrative inquiry entitled, “Ethics, values, and social justice leadership,” that engages the reader in a thoughtful exploration of her personal journey toward authenticity. As a professor in educational leadership in northern Louisiana, she used events surrounding Katrina to make her continuing journey transparent, acknowledging that (p. 252) “Being authentic is not easy … what it means for me is that I must find ways to align my professional responsibilities with my personal and professional values as a teacher, as a researcher and scholar, and as servant to the community”. Gross, in chapter 12, “(Re‐) constructing a movement for social justice in our profession,” moves the conversation about guiding principles from the deeply personal to a new national movement, the New DEEL and (p. 257) “the role it is attempting to play in confronting the excesses of the current accountability movement”. He provocatively challenges educational leaders to leave behind any vestige of traditional corporate leadership and to fully embrace the partnership of democracy, social justice, and school improvement – (p. 264) “The New DEEL vision promotes democratic life growing from the heart of the community toward the wide world”. In chapter 13, “A new DEEL for an old problem”, Storey and Beeman present contrasting views of (p. 269) “the rhetoric of social justice and the reality of its implementation in schools today” along with a practical model for the New DEEL in practice. Their model promotes expanding (p. 282) “the notion of pedagogy from the four walls of the classroom to become a personalized, school‐wide learning strategy” with the aim to “reassign democratic values to their rightful place, the heart of education”. Shapiro's chapter, “Ethics and social justice within the new DEEL,” closes the book with an exploration of the paradox between accountability or control and democracy. She emphasizes the place of social justice as at (p. 297) “the very center of this paradox” and thus, the critical importance of making the best interests of the child at the heart of ethical decision making.

Leadership for Social Justice: Promoting Equity and Excellence through Inquiry and Reflective Practice provides a rich beginning to Information Age Publishing's new series, Educational Leadership for Social Justice. The diverse array of peer‐reviewed works provides theoretical, empirical, conceptual, and personal evidence of leadership for social justice in action. Practitioners will value the explicit and concrete illustrations of individuals and organizations striving to improve and deepen practice consistent with the high ideals of social justice. Innovative and practical ideas for bridging theory to practice abound. Graduate students in education will benefit from the cutting edge of research that continues to push toward new questions and modes of inquiry. Professors in educational leadership will find this volume a rich resource for their own personal reflection, research, and teaching. Congratulations to the editor and all authors on an outstanding beginning to a new and critically important series of books focused on social justice in educational leadership!