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Today, as the understanding of diversity is further expanded, the meaning of social justice becomes even more complicated, if not confusing. The purpose of this paper is to explore how school principals with social justice commitment understand and perceive social justice in their leadership practices.

A qualitative research design is used for this study. In total, 22 school principals in Ontario were interviewed. The interviews glean data on principals’ work context, their perceptions of social justice, and anecdotes, stories, and examples concerning social justice in their practices.

The research findings draw attention to the central importance of awareness of the social injustices in schools – in structure, policy, and practices – and open space for debate on what can be considered as leadership for social justice. They also provide a useful starting point in exploring how leadership roles and practices can be improved to reverse injustices associated with the diversity of students based on race, socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, and ability.

What principals perceive may have a significant impact on the actions and practices for social justice. Therefore, it is important to gain insight into principals’ persecutions and perspectives on social justice as they may become norms and criteria that guide their actions.

The purpose of this study is to explore the leadership experiences of four female secondary principals (two Black, two White) in one south‐western state to create significant discourse for understanding school leadership nested in complex social, political and cultural contexts. These women confronted education challenges of social justice, democracy, and equity in their schools.

The philosophical tradition of phenomenology was chosen as the qualitative methodology for this study “which is understood to be a concern for human meaning and ultimately for interpreting those meanings so that they inform our practice and our science”. As a secondary analysis of a specific finding (i.e. female leaders who exemplified a values‐orientation around issues of social justice in their leadership practices) from the original study the lived experiences of four female secondary school leaders were further explored.

All four women engaged in leadership praxis by: transforming school practices to promote equity and access for all students and embracing diversity of their student populations; connecting the world of research and practice; adopting democratic and participative leadership styles that relate to female values developed through socialization processes including building relationships, consensus building, power as influence, and working together for a common purpose.

While the focus is secondary school female leaders and educational leadership in a North American context, the implications have a broader transnational focus, exploring themes and issues that may span national boundaries and cultures.

For purposes of this article, the original data were revisited to conduct secondary analyses of the experiences of four women. Research contends that this approach can be used to generate new knowledge, new hypotheses, or support for existing theories; and that it allows wider use of data from rare or inaccessible respondents.

Authors’ experiences encourage teachers and learners to consider the impact of integrating an intersensory transformative curriculum that explores how the senses interact with each other in different combinations and hierarchies (see Howes, 2003). Such efforts may require a deeper and more comprehensive analysis of the senses in understanding self with a focus on increasing consciousness, meaning-making, and embodied experiences (Boske, 2011b; Burns, 1978; Eisner, 1994; Noddings, 1984). All human experiences are essential to interpretation of the senses. Attending to the sensorium, which embeds the senses throughout learning, may encourage connectedness among self and others; and ultimately, provide spaces to promote equity in schools. Teachers and learners, in developing this socioecological perspective by designing curricula to include readings and activities centered on deepening personal knowings, can work to collectively engage in making connections among self, social justice and equity, and addressing larger societal issues (Furman, 2012; Jean-Marie et al., 2009).

The purpose of editorial to this special issue is this to introduce “We Decide”, a grassroots e‐democracy learnscape. This timely collaborative initiative was conceptualized to promote the deployment of internet communication technologies (ICTs) for advancing social justice and equity in an increasingly digitized era. The special issue presents six individually selected papers delivered at the IADIS International Conference e‐democracy, Equity and Social Justice held in Rome, Italy, 20‐22 July 2011. These papers provide examples of unique innovations that highlight new possibilities and directions for e‐democracy that are grounded in an ethos of greater equity and social justice.

The authors outline the mission and approach of “We Decide” and how it can be understood in the evolution of e‐democracy.

The authors discuss how the six papers in this special issue suggest ways to transform e‐democracy towards equity and social justice.

These papers help researchers and practitioners extend the concept of e‐democracy from a variety of perspectives, and show the importance of thinking about e‐democracy as access to resources for all citizens.

Given the increasing policy demands for effective e‐democracy and active citizenship online through new and emerging social networking technologies, the knowledge produced by “We Decide” brings together researchers, practitioners and activists from across the world. It provides a robust platform to share innovations that challenge us to rethink and re‐research the core concepts and approaches necessary to transform e‐democracy to realize equity and social justice.

The purpose of this article is to report on a six‐year self‐study of a doctoral training program intended to promote social justice leadership via an “ethic of care” framework.

The primary data set utilized was an open‐ended survey completed by doctoral students after finishing core course requirements. Data analysis included a thematic analysis of 110 respondents which examined variation in students' understanding and application of issues associated with equity, justice, and diversity, as well as the ethic of care. As a collaborative self‐study the data analysis involved procedures of open, independent, and collaborative coding, as well as peer debriefing.

Suggests that the doctoral program has been effective at creating a caring environment and changing students' understanding of diversity and equity issues. Two programmatic weaknesses were uncovered; a lack of curricular integration and student perceptions of social justice and diversity as discrete concepts. Students reported that diversity discussions and readings were centered in one class, suggesting that this lack of integration may marginalize these issues. These weaknesses are explored using the concepts of “caring” and “colorblind” curriculums.

Reports on a self‐study of one unique program; the findings may not be generalizable to other programs. Additionally, it suggests that leadership preparation programs should attend to how the issue of colorblindness may permeate curricula, structure the classroom environment, and shape interactions with students.

This paper is among the first to evaluate the potential for colorblindness in the “ethic of care” as related to supporting social justice leadership in a doctoral preparation program.

This chapter provides discursive space for story-telling to provide narrative reflection on the experiences associated with struggles and advantages attributed to advancing non-traditional perspectives into practice. I utilize an auto-ethnography (L. Anderson (2006). Analytical autoethnography. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 35(4), 373–395; C. Ellis & A. P. Bochner (2000). Auto-ethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity: Researcher as subject. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 733–768). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage; L. Richardson (2000). Writing. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed., pp. 923–948). London: Sage) to detail my lived experiences as a scholar who has encountered the outsider-within status in academe (Collins, P. H. (2002). Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge.). I detail my dual role as a social agent and as an African-American female scholar and the complexities of teaching social justice while promoting the need for activism of social justice and equity in our U.S. schools. Therefore, this study amplifies silenced voices regarding challenges for African-American female scholars engaged in transformative pedagogy in academe. I will utilize a Critical Race Theory lens to examine the racialized experiences that persist for African-American faculty seeking to advance transformational perspectives in academe, and thus through teaching, helping students to realize inequities in K-12 classroom settings (Grant, C. (2012). Advancing our legacy: A Black feminist perspective on the significance of mentoring for African-American women in educational leadership. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 25(1), 101–117.).

This chapter argues that equipping teachers for the essential task of serving as social justice advocates in their classroom and school communities must become the central task of English teacher preparation programs. This argument is positioned against the backdrop of a U.S. sociopolitical climate that has seen increased injustice and violence against youth, teachers, and schools in spite of official policies promising otherwise. The authors describe current efforts to achieve a social justice focus in two spaces that are particularly influential for practicing and aspiring English teachers: pre-service teacher preparation coursework and the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE), our primary professional organization. The chapter examines the trajectory of research and practice that has arisen in response to the 2012 NCTE standard on social justice in English teacher preparation and offers suggestions to the next generation of educational researchers about increasing the visibility and efficacy of this important work.

This book provides a deeper understanding of what it means to promote social justice and equity work in schools and communities around the world. Throughout this book, narratives describe how authors continue to reshape the agenda for educational reform. They remind us of the significance meaningful relationships play in promoting and sustaining reform efforts that address the injustices vulnerable populations face in school communities. Their voices represent the need for engaging with obstacles and barriers and a resistant world through a web of relationships, an intersubjective reality (see Ayers, 1996). As authors engaged in thinking about addressing injustices, they describe how their thoughts transformed into actions moving beyond, breaking through institutional structures, attempting to rebuild and make sense of their own situations (see Dewey, 1938).

The objective of this study is to establish the current state of library and information science (LIS) scholarship pertaining to anti-racism, equity, inclusion and social justice initiatives.

Using comprehensive search strategies, three LIS databases were searched for relevant literature published in the last 10 years and results were exported and de-duplicated using Endnote. Citations were screened by two blinded, independent reviewers based on pre-defined eligibility criteria. Citations in the final data set were then hand coded by three reviewers using deductive coding. Subject terms for all citations were categorized and consolidated to identify major themes across the corpus of included publications. Results were analyzed using bibliometrics and thematic analysis.

A total of 691 unique citations were included in this analysis based on inclusion criteria. Publication productivity has generally increased from 2011 to 2020; findings show publications from 170 source titles and 944 authors representing 33 countries. Prevalent themes included access to information, multiculturalism and social justice. Various populations groups, areas of LIS practice, library types and social justice topics have been addressed in the literature. Over 15% of citations focused on anti-racism efforts in LIS.

This study applied both bibliometric and thematic approaches to analyzing LIS literature at macro and micro levels regarding anti-racism, equity, inclusion and social justice.

In this chapter, we used a research-based case study titled “The Desirable Prince Meeting” to explore how interdisciplinary theoretical perspectives on the child can be used to prompt critical reflection on socially just equity praxis in early childhood education. We argue that using multiple theoretical perspectives to analyze teaching and learning can generate and drive critical reflection on equity praxis more effectively than using a single perspective that presents a single truth about teaching and learning moments.