Educational Leadership and the Global Majority

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Global Majority Decolonising Narratives

   • Rosemary M. Campbell-Stephens

   Pages 1-21

3. Process of Racialisation, Creation of a Single Narrative and Restoration of Memory

   • Rosemary M. Campbell-Stephens

   Pages 23-47

4. Disrupting Narratives: Language Power and Self-determination

   • Rosemary M. Campbell-Stephens

   Pages 49-63

5. Seven Women, Seven Steps: Consciousness and Collective Action

   • Rosemary M. Campbell-Stephens

   Pages 65-82

6. Culturally Competent Leadership

   • Rosemary M. Campbell-Stephens

   Pages 83-109

7. Conclusion: Global Majority Back to the Future, a Possibility to Live Into

   • Rosemary M. Campbell-Stephens

   Pages 111-119

8. Back Matter

   Pages 121-121

   PDF

This book introduces a term for our times, ‘Global Majority,’ as conceptualised within the context of school leadership. It examines the processes and impact over time of racially-minoritising up to eighty-five percent of the world’s population. The chapters illustrate how a decolonised cognitive reset from a minority to majority orientation moves practice from a place of subordination to one of agency and efficacy. By reconnecting the people of the Global Majority with their narratives and the social and historical linkages that they have always had, the book potentially contributes to a different globality; where interdependence is not driven by the economic greed of the minority, but the social and very human needs of the majority.

• global majority
• educational leadership
• urban schools
• marginalized populations
• systemic racism

“This book will definitely add to ongoing discussions of global responsibility and the role of leadership in these times of a global reckoning on race, anti-Black racism, and White supremacist logics."

—George J. Sefa Dei, Professor of Social Justice Education and Director of Centre for Integrative Anti-Racism Studies, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto, Canada

“This powerful book has arrived at a critical time. The world was jaggedly reminded of how deep and all-pervasive institutional racism is by the murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matters movement that arose in its wake. In England, education leadership remains stubbornly dominated by white professionals and is increasingly out-of-step with the Global Majority communities whom they serve. For aspiring Global Majority leaders, the narrative is all about assimilation, not rocking the boat, and hoping to break into the highest levels of leadership. Government policy propagates a vanilla meritocracy which is wilfully colour-blind and in denial of the struggles of Global Majority professionals at every level. Rosemary Campbell-Stephens’ book launches into this territory with authenticity, clarity of analysis based on her experience, and intellectual rigour. Having first coined the term Global Majority almost twenty years ago, she argues why its usage is much deeper than mere symbolism: it represents a shift from tolerating ‘a minority’ to understanding that white hegemony is a post-colonial manifestation that must be challenged in the same way that the history of those who made their fortunes in the slave trade is now being deconstructed. The danger with BLM was that it represented another push towards equality which would run out of steam and be neutralised by official enquiries like the Sewell Report, designed to assuage but not dig deeper. This is exactly why we need a strong decolonising narrative to underpin our work to ensure that colleagues from  the Global Majority are able to become leaders in much greater numbers.”

—Colin Diamond, Professor of Educational Leadership, University of Birmingham, UK

• Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education, University College London, London, UK

  Rosemary M. Campbell-Stephens

Rosemary M. Campbell-Stephens is Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Education, University College London, UK, and Associate in the Centre for Educational Leadership and Decoloniality at Leeds Beckett University, UK.