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Within this book Global Leadership for Social Justice: Taking it from the Field to Practice, editors Christa Boske and Sarah Diem, along with an array of contributors provide a variety of rich perspectives to the social justice phenomenon from the lens of empirical, and theoretical work in the area of educational leadership. Of equal importance, these scholars reiterate the importance of bridging theory and practice while simultaneously producing significant research and scholarship in the field as their work deepens understandings of what leading for social justice and equity-oriented work looks like within diverse schools. Collectively, the authors seek to give voice to empowering, social justice-focused research – an area that continues to garner much interest in the areas of educational leadership research, teaching, and learning. In conjunction with the theme of this book, the contributors offer research from an international perspective and offer suggestions, and implications for the field of educational leadership on both a national and international level.

Today's educational leaders are faced with a myriad of challenges. They must navigate through and meet the demands of a complex and ever-changing educational landscape, amidst the constant scrutiny placed on them by multiple interest groups internal and external to the school context. Further, while the concern for creating more equitable and just schools is given lip service in policy circles, the extent to which social justice and equity are placed in the forefront of existing educational leadership preparation programs remains problematic as those who prepare school leaders continue to grapple with what social justice means, as well as ways to embed such practices throughout their programs of study.

The continued move toward high-stakes accountability has significant consequences for public schools located within communities occupied by historically marginalized populations, as the majority of chronically low-performing (CLP) schools are housed within metropolitan areas where students of color are the primary population (Noguera & Wells, 2011). Consequently, over the course of the last decade, college- and university-based educational leadership preparation programs have been placed on the defensive (Cibulka, 2009; Goldring & Schuermann, 2009), as school leaders and those who prepare them are being increasingly held accountable for the significant escalation in the number of CLP schools. With such issues as the contextual backdrop, the purpose of this chapter is to further examine two issues critical to the field of educational leadership preparation: the need for leadership preparation programs to develop and provide curricula and pedagogical offerings that better prepare leaders to serve within diverse communities, and the potentiality of using Q-methodology as an evaluative instrument in the reformation efforts of educational leadership preparation programs attempting to better equip school leaders for diverse contexts.

As school leaders across the world wrestle with ways to think about, respond to, and act upon social justice, this chapter provides a way for school leaders to think about what it means to lead for social justice in schools. The chapter offers a template to ground school leaders in socially just practices. The authors contend those interested in leading schools do not need to wait for external agencies to take actions that align with their beliefs and vision to serve school communities in socially just ways. School leaders have the capacity to demonstrate their convictions and commitment to foster meaningful change. The authors suggest such changes promote opportunities to frame a new common discourse in educational leadership: pursuing a new vision for leading for social justice in schools.

Carl Kalani Beyer is the dean of the College and the Founding Dean of the School of Education at Pacific Oaks College in Pasadena, California. Prior to his arrival in May 2011, he was the dean of the School of Education at National University with the rank of professor and full time faculty and chair of the Teacher Education Department at Concordia University (Chicago). He came to higher education after a 34-year career in public education. Multicultural education, Native American education, manual labor and manual training curriculum, education for Hawaiians, and higher education issues are his research interests. Since he became a professor in 2002, his scholarship consists of publishing 18 articles, a chapter in a book, a forward to a book, and 4 book reviews, and presenting over 50 papers at peer-reviewed conferences. He is currently awaiting publication of two additional articles, a chapter in a book, and the manuscript of his reworked dissertation. Dr. Beyer is a high school graduate of Kamehameha School for Boys. He received a BA in mathematics from Beloit College and earned a MA in US history from Northern Illinois University, MA in education and MS in management and organizational behavior from Benedictine University, and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago in curriculum design.