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Introduction: The Redeeming Power of Connections

Living the Work: Promoting Social Justice and Equity Work in Schools around the World

ISBN: 978-1-78441-128-2, eISBN: 978-1-78441-127-5

Publication date: 5 October 2015

Abstract

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).

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Acknowledgements

Acknowledgments

As the editors, we want to thank all of the children, families, community members, practitioners, and scholars who made this book possible. We continue to be inspired by those who carry forward the deep commitment to address these complex and challenging issues facing schools. We want to thank the contributors for affording me the opportunity to collaborate with people who share the commitment, ability, and willingness to authentically respond to building bridges between vulnerable populations and those with power in order to make schools better places for all children. Special thanks to Fenwick English, who is a highly respected and authentic educational reformer diligently working to demonstrate a commitment to social justice and transformational leadership. We also want to thank Ira Bogotch for writing the epilogue and believing in the power of new voices. Thank you to Christa’s 11-year-old daughter Angely, who inspires Christa to be her very best and her wife Wendy who believes in the power of this work in schools. We would also like to thank all the students who have inspired us to do the work that we do. We are humbled and motivated by each of you every single day. And last, but not least, we cannot stress enough that building bridges would not be possible without the support of those who demonstrate what it means to live this work.

Citation

Boske, C. and Osanloo, A.F. (2015), "Introduction: The Redeeming Power of Connections", Living the Work: Promoting Social Justice and Equity Work in Schools around the World (Advances in Educational Administration, Vol. 23), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/S1479-366020140000023031

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited