This book explores our understanding of school leaders’ actions as they work to enact a socially just school culture. Including unique case studies from around the globe, the editors and contributors examine whether this work is enhanced or diminished by the context in which the school is placed. While the onus of emphasising social justice is placed on the school leader, they must enact this within the micro/meso/macro context of the school setting. Rich in both the unique stories of these schools and their successes and challenges in the enactment of social justice, these global case studies act as a lens for social justice leadership in a variety of regions and at international levels. The global scale combined with detailed analysis of this book will appeal to scholars of education and social justice as well as school leaders and policy makers.

"Eight testimonios of Latina/o/x school and district leaders reveal how community cultural wealth, which is derived from critical race theory, informed professional motivations, leadership experiences, and advocacy actions. The concept of "engraving" asks readers to consider how these leadership characteristics can be endured"--

The global economic meltdown has highlighted the interconnectedness of nations. This book seeks to provide an overview of topics, issues, and best practices related to defining social justice leadership given our increasingly global world. Refugees and immigrants from around the globe now inhabit schools and institutions of higher education across the nation and US students, teachers, and leaders are traversing international boarders both physically and virtually through international collaboration, technology, and exchange programs. Although there have been increased efforts and scholarship in support of diversity and multicultural awareness, these efforts have largely focused on the US. We acknowledge that many leadership theories are “domestic” in that they typically incorporate US perspectives or a single-culture description of effective leadership. This book provides a deeper understanding of diverse and multicultural perspectives as they relate to a world that is becoming increasingly interconnected economically, socially, and culturally. Particular attention is paid to providing specific strategies for social justice leaders working in PK-12 and/or higher education, and leadership preparation programs to promote effective leadership that reflects multicultural understanding of the diversity both within and outside the US. Within the context of leadership practice, internationalization offers new insights and ideas about leadership aims, processes, and competencies as a means for addressing equity concerns throughout PK-20 education.

This book shares the thoughts of mostly North American scholars on many interrelated topics that have not previously been linked in academic research. The focus of the book is the belief that the Ed.D. can prepare highly competent justice-oriented scholars who will be engaged with communities. Among these future leaders, the contributors envision educators who not only lead public schools, but also private foundations, not-for-profit organizations, and community centers. An outstanding feature of this volume is that each chapter highlights existing and emerging issues such as, but not limited to, candidate recruitment and admission policies; program funding, fees, and student expenses; academic support services; faculty recruitment, compensation, evaluation, and promotion models; on-site/on-line instruction, internship policy, opportunities for graduate student employment, publishing, and conference engagement; student supervision protocols; and dissertation and capstone project parameters. In addition, the book explores cultural and socio-political contexts, public/private sector relationships, and the kinds of legislation that frame Ed.D. theory, policy, and practice from a social justice perspective. “At its best, higher education is an indispensable space for spotlighting, challenging, and addressing injustice. This important volume offers us the conceptual, methodological, empirical, and pedagogical tools necessary for understanding the relationship between doctoral education and social justice work. Antonio Ellis has assembled an impressive array of scholars who help us understand the promise and possibility of Ed.D. programs.” – Marc Lamont Hill, Host for the Black Entertainment Network, Contributor for CNN, and Distinguished Professor of African American Studies at Morehouse College “This volume helps to clarify what is meant by social justice in school leadership settings and provides both philosophical and theoretical perspectives as well as strategies and curricular content that can assist in developing a common sense understanding of social justice. The development of a mental frame of reference is critical to being able to transfer that understanding and curricular content into beliefs and practices. As a professor of educational leadership and a college administrator I am most pleased to find a volume that provides perspectives and strategies which can be employed by academicians teaching in leadership programs and practitioners as they lead and prepare others to become leaders.” – Zollie Stevenson, Jr., Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor, Philander Smith College

Within education there have been some notable attempts to frame social justice in ways that can help to explain and understand the practices of those working in schools, especially school leaders. The research contained in this book seeks to enhance our understanding of school leaders’ actions as they work to promote socially just practices and/or outcomes in a range of different national contexts. The unique nature of this research is that studies took place in numerous schools across the globe in a variety of contexts yet utilized the same research protocols. This has allowed the researchers to draw conclusions at an international level about social justice decision making, the supports and barriers brought on school leaders by national policy and mandates, and the essential nature of context in the work of social justice leadership. The audience will include scholars on a global scale, given that cases in the book include authors and principals from around the world. The book can also serve as a text for leadership preparation courses as well as courses in social justice, research design, and qualitative research methodologies. Courses in human relations and communication can use the content as examples of the negotiations and challenges of teamwork in international settings. A primary audience for the book is system/school level leaders in contexts and communities throughout the world for understanding comparative leadership and social justice decision making. Current principals will find the cases useful as reflexive tools for their own work. Educational leaders, educational reformers, and policy makers will benefit from this book as they seek to understand the impact of their work and its influence on promoting equity in schools across the globe.

This book foregrounds postcolonial theory as a lens through which to explore the concept of ‘global heritage’ and argues that the meso-level spaces of institutional ethos and cultural pedagogy must take an active role in the pursuit of cultural equality. Through interviews and accounts of observational, empirical data, chapters draw attention to how the cultural capital of Global Majority students is institutionally positioned as a racialised and inferior cultural capital that is constantly required to ‘prove itself’ in the Western school. Ultimately, the book contributes to international discussion on decolonising education and the spaces within in order to enact change, further the field, and more precisely to recognise the importance of global heritage as vital to a transformative understanding of the West’s cultural identity within a globalised world. This book will appeal to scholars, researchers and post-graduate researchers in the fields of multicultural education, school leadership, management and administration, and education policy and politics more broadly. Those interested in social justice, ideas of cultural and racial equality, and the sociology of education more broadly will also benefit from the volume.

To commemorate the 10-year anniversary of the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN), this book is a compilation of the work conducted by network scholars. This volume is the first comprehensive overview of the studies conducted by ISLDN members engaged in examining how social justice leaders and leaders of high-needs schools address the social conditions, learning experiences, and performance of their students. Other international school leadership research consortia have emerged in the 21st century; however, the ISLDN is the second longest operating project, after the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP). Since its creation in 2010, ISLDN scholars have delivered papers at a variety of international conferences and shared findings in research publications, including books and special issues of journals. Until now, ISLDN research findings have been disseminated separately for the project’s two strands: (a) social justice leadership and (b) leadership in underperforming high-needs schools. Therefore, the purpose of the book is to document the history and evolution of the ISLDN and to provide descriptions and reflections of the project’s research findings, methodologies, and collaborative processes across the two strands. This volume captures studies of school leaders from 19 countries representing six continents - Africa, Asia, Australia and Oceania, Europe, North America, and South America. The authors examine important external and internal contextual factors influencing schools in different cultural settings and provide insights about the values and practices of social justice leaders working in high-needs school settings. Numerous practical strategies are provided for school leaders working in schools with similar conditions. The concluding chapter by the co-editors synthesizes the structural factors, personal beliefs and values, and contextualized change management strategies that shape school leaders’ actions aimed at ensuring the best learning outcomes for their students. Besides capturing the range of findings emerging from various ISLDN studies conducted over the past decade, several chapters critically examine the project’s current contributions to the field. Authors suggest broadening the dissemination of our findings to increase the visibility of the project, expanding the research methods beyond qualitative interviews, incorporating studies from non-Anglophone countries, and augmenting the scope of our analyses and research focus. These researchers’ journeys also reveal the obstacles to and benefits of engaging in these types of international collaborative research ventures.

Shaping Social Justice Leadership: Insights of Women Educators Worldwide contains evocative portraits of twenty-three women educators and leaders from around the world whose actions are shaping social justice leadership. The portraits are framed with relevant scholarship and grouped thematically. Each carefully crafted portrait highlights an aspect of a chapter theme, followed by practical insights. The chapters develop a range of cultural comparisons, illustrate imperatives for social justice leadership, and examine values, skills, resilience, leadership pathways and actions. The authors invite all educators--both women and men--to shape social justice leadership through collective efforts around the globe that create new possibilities for a more just world.

Inclusive Practices and Social Justice Leadership for Special Populations in Urban Settings: A Moral Imperative is comprised of a collection of chapters written by educators who refuse to let the voices of dissent remain marginalized in our discussion of education in the 21st century education. Drawing from the authors’ extensive experience in educational research and practice, coupled with their commitment to inclusion of special populations and social justice they urge readers to examine how educational policies are produced for the least advantaged in our schools. Effective inclusionary practices most certainly benefit all students, including English language learners, those who face gender discrimination, those who are in the foster care system, and those who are Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgendered. This collection presents a broader theoretical inclusive framework rooted in social justice: which we assert, offers the best practices for a greater number of students who are at risk of minimal academic success. This broader conceptualization of inclusive schools adds to extant discourses about students with exceptional needs and provides effective strategies school leaders operating from a social justice framework can implement to create more inclusive school environments for all students, especially those in urban centers. It is hoped that lessons learned will improve the preparation and practice of school leaders, thus improve educational outcomes for students from special populations.

This book explores how to be fully cross-cultural and intercultural with research and theory building in educational leadership. It adopts an integrated approach to the examination of common issues across and between cultures and contexts. Each chapter examines an issue or a set of issues that builds on evidence from a minimum of three countries across at least two continents. The data collection methods are consistent for all countries and therefore allow meaningful conclusions to be drawn across the field. All six continents are represented in the book, including both developing and developed countries, to ensure an open dialogue and an innovative approach to lay the foundations for future research.