Navigating the Path of Critical Leadership: Tensions and Possibilities of the Leadership Journey

Abstract

This chapter examines our leadership journey as Black female social justice leaders and culturally responsive leaders from the Caribbean Diaspora in Canada. Borrowing from Mullen, Fenwick, and Kealy (2014) and Campbell’s (2008) notion of leadership as a journey, we critically examine what it means to navigate educational leadership contexts. Through our lived experiences as racialized leaders, border crossing spaces and cultures, and with a deep sense and agency to resolve social inequities and injustice we critically gaze at our leadership contexts. This chapter examines ways we, as critical leaders, challenge inequities, issues of power and marginalization, and find transformative actions and purpose by critically reflecting on our leadership journey. This work will add to the educational leadership discourse by positing ways that leaders can develop agency and engage in leadership that is transformative – bringing theory into action.

Citation

Lopez, A.E. and Solomon-Henry, G. (2016), "Navigating the Path of Critical Leadership: Tensions and Possibilities of the Leadership Journey", Racially and Ethnically Diverse Women Leading Education: A Worldview (Advances in Educational Administration, Vol. 25), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 185-202. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-366020160000025011