A. William Place, Julia Ballenger, Teresa A. Wasonga, Joyce Piveral and Carole Edmonds
The purpose of this paper is to focus on social justice issues identified by American principals. A research question that guided this qualitative study was: do educational…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to focus on social justice issues identified by American principals. A research question that guided this qualitative study was: do educational leaders relate to the concept of leadership for social justice?
Design/methodology/approach
The standardized protocol for focus group discussions was based on Krueger and Casey's work on how to conduct effective focus group interviews. Each focus group carefully followed the protocol, which was designed to give voice to the informants and not to be led by the moderator in preconceived directions. This procedure provided a framework to maintain consistency in eliciting and collecting information but not leading participants to discuss social justice issues just to please the researchers.
Findings
This paper both confirmed that principals are concerned with social justice and identified that some principals do not explicitly discuss issues that relate to social justice. Principals who raised social justice issues felt that leaders should be courageous enough to make decisions that are best for children, even though they may not be popular.
Research limitations/implications
Qualitative research such as this adds to the breadth and depth of human understanding, but findings cannot be generalized to any larger population.
Originality/value
The term social justice has become pervasive in US academic discussions, yet there has been little dialogue with practitioners and even less data examined concerning if the term has any relevance to practitioners. This paper explores the voices of practitioners in relation to a pervasive term in US academic discourse.
Details
Keywords
This study leads the reader on a learning journey with the heroic metaphors derived from heroic myths of today’s pop culture to the views shared by aspiring administrators…
Abstract
This study leads the reader on a learning journey with the heroic metaphors derived from heroic myths of today’s pop culture to the views shared by aspiring administrators. Viewing the students’ leadership vision of self as hero provided insight to guiding students in their personal leadership journey. By naming and describing self as hero, future administrators examined and then revised their own mental models for leadership by translating pop culture characters from Spiderman to McGyver to their own heroic metaphor and vision of school leaders.
Andrew J. Hobson, Linda J. Searby, Lorraine Harrison and Pam Firth
This short essay aims to reflect on the global experiences women in education have had in becoming leaders as noted in the articles in this special issue on women's leadership.
Abstract
Purpose
This short essay aims to reflect on the global experiences women in education have had in becoming leaders as noted in the articles in this special issue on women's leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
The essay draws upon relevant historical and contemporary literature about women in the professions and in the workforce.
Findings
The case is made for women educational leaders from kindergarten through higher education to reshape leadership rather than lead as men have done in the past.
Originality/value
The essay highlights this moment in history is seen as particularly promising for women leaders who are no longer anomalies, but who have not yet redefined leadership.