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“If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time, but if you have come because your liberation is bound with mine, then come, let's work together”. These words of Lill Watson, an indigenous activist, frame the context for this article. The purpose of this research was to examine the historical evolution of “grassroots movement leadership” model and its incarnation in the present time. A corollary purpose focused on how this model can transform urban schools by focusing on “movement” efforts of one large urban school district that espouses the values of this form of leadership. As part of a larger reform effort, the district engaged students, parents, teachers, school leaders and communities in becoming equal partners in urban school reform in an effort to co‐create schools and communities that might lead all of us toward liberation and learning.

Theory and practice come together through the lens of three researchers who operate from a similar philosophical stance for educational transformation, best described in the words of grassroots leader Ella Baker, who said, “We are the people we have been waiting for”. Qualitative research procedures (i.e. interviews, field notes and observations) were used to generate data on a “movement model” for grassroots leadership. This model is best demonstrated in various youth‐oriented initiatives (i.e. Student Exhibits, Action‐Research Projects, Algebra Project) within a local urban school district. This model, influenced by Civil Rights legend Robert Moses, has implications for educational leadership and urban school reform and simultaneously grounds our scholarship and research in liberation epistemology.

It is argued that children are often the victims of ideas, structures, and actions that come to be seen by the majority of people as wholly natural, preordained, and working for their own good, when in fact they are constructed and transmitted by powerful minority interests to protect the status quo that serves those interest. The words of Ella Baker epitomize the authors' struggles to steer away from models of hierarchal leadership in education and stay connected to the practice of excavating community wisdom through the “Movement Model”.

This study bears a substantive argument for community leadership efforts that focus on “grassroots leadership”. It further fosters new insights and propositions for future research in the form of a “Movement Leadership Model”.

The purpose of this paper is to explore theoretical connections between educational leadership for social justice and support for immigration. The authors seek to identify strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for further study and improved practice.

This is a theoretical research paper that introduces, evaluates and expands two frameworks for understanding leadership and immigration.

Findings suggested that there is a need for educational leadership scholars to more purposefully investigate issues related to social justice and immigration.

This study offers a novel theoretical perspective on leadership, social justice and immigration.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to discuss methodological challenges facing US scholars when conducting international research; and to present personal reflections as educational leadership faculty in the USA conducting and publishing on research undertaken in Haiti and Thailand.

This study drew from educational leadership literature and personal experiences to identify methodological challenges to conducting and publishing international research in the field of educational leadership.

The methodological challenges facing international research – language, data, publication, and career incentives – should not be reasons to hinder scholars from conducting research in international contexts. Allowing methodological deterrents to impede international research limits US scholar engagement in global conversations and places the field of educational leadership in the USA at risk of a parochial and myopic future.

This paper explores the methodological reasons as to why US scholars are not engaging in international research and provides two vignettes of faculty research in international contexts. This discussion is valuable for faculty interested in or presently conducting research beyond US borders.

The purpose of this paper is to highlight issues relayed to appropriate design and conduct of qualitative studies in educational leadership.

The paper is a conceptual/logical argument that centers around the notion that while scholars in the field have at times paid attention to such dynamics, it is important that issues special to the field are considered by all.

The major findings indicate that researchers/analysts need to determine not only the existence and accessibility of the qualitative research design and its various data collection strategies for leadership studies but also its authenticity and usefulness, taking into account the original purpose, the context in which it is produced and the intended audience.

Certain aspects of the paper relate to general issues of sound and generally accepted standards of research practice, but the authors also consider several issues that make educational leadership scholarship unique. The originality of the paper draws attention to certain dynamics that scholars should consider when designing and conducting qualitative research on educational leadership. In doing so, the authors not only draw on the literature but also on their own experience designing, conducting and publishing qualitative research on educational leadership.

The purpose of the paper is to reflect on and respond to the papers contained in this Special Issue of Journal of Educational Administration.

A commentary is provided for each of the nine articles in the Special Issue.

The papers in the Special Issue constitute a substantial and important contribution toward incorporating international perspectives into an existing research discourse on educational leadership for social justice. One of the immediate challenges that will need to be addressed is how to systematically work against the hegemony of Western thought and colonialism that infiltrates all our discourses, even those that generate scholarship such as that found in this Special Issue.

The paper reflects on the current Special Issue, and provides directions for future research.

The purpose of this research is to explore the use of media as the basis for a social issues approach to promoting moral literacy and effective teaching in educational leadership programs.

Through a review of relevant literature, mass media sources, and observations, the authors use Starratt's framework of moral responsibility to identify ethical practice in response to dilemmas brought on by local, regional, national and international crises and conflicts. Regional, national and international crises and conflicts are regularly reported on the Internet, as well as in the local, regional, national and international media (e.g., Time, Macleans, Michigan Citizen, The Washington Post, Education Week, The Boston Globe, National Geographic).

The use of mass media venues, when compounded with moral grounding better equips educational leaders to act with ethical orientations. Professional organizations should encourage and support leaders who engage in public citizenship activities – answering critical questions, brokering views, encouraging discussion, and serving as resources.

Issues concerning the ethical usage of mass media are complex, often unique, and ought to be an integral component of teaching in formal educational leadership experience. Consequently, the authors advocate the use of the media in university teaching as the basis for a social issues approach to promote morally literate graduates in university educational leadership programs. Actual examples of reactions about the use of media from a class of graduate students enrolled in an ethics class and educational leadership are included.

The purpose of this paper is to review the extant literature on the ways women lead in organizations with a focus on the fields of business and education. A secondary purpose is to identify implications of the literature for leadership and gender issues in the worlds of business and education.

A review of the extant literature was conducted to collect data through professional and academic journals of business and education, pertinent web sites, and textbooks. Once these data were collected, they were placed in categories according to common themes and patterns that emerged from the literature on the leadership styles of women in business and education.

Research findings show that women adopt democratic and participative leadership styles in the corporate world and in education. Transformational leadership is the preferred leadership style used by women. The characteristics of transformational leadership relate to female values developed through socialization processes that include building relationships, communication, consensus building, power as influence, and working together for a common purpose.

This paper provides a theoretical perspective on women's leadership behaviours as an approach to equity in organizations by capitalizing on female contributions to organizations and the importance of those contributions in an increasingly diverse workforce world‐wide. Women leadership styles are presented as alternatives to traditional leadership models.