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School Leaders’ Political Identity-Advocacy in Addressing Social Justice-isms

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Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education

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Abstract

School leaders, from teachers to heads of schools, from executive leaders of local education agencies or education ministries, exist in the fissures and crevasses of social justice issues. Even so, school leaders may struggle in reconciling their educational and professional identities with the fractious nature of their practice. Without sufficient preparation, insight, and strategies, school leaders may avoid, and, in doing so, exacerbate, any number of social justice -isms (meaning divisive biases) percolating in their classrooms, hallways, campuses, and communities. Leaders require principled leadership practices as well as an array of political strategies to confront, mediate, or even intensify the social justice issues floating in the atmosphere of schools, families, and communities. These social justice -isms play out in complex predictable, and simultaneously unpredictable, ways. Racism, sexism, ableism, the phobias associated with gender identity, ethnicity, religious doctrines, and a variety of power imbalances underlie the -isms and the processes of bullying and victimization. All of these -isms come to school creating high stress, risk, and obstacles to learning. Despite the prevalence of these -isms, school personnel can seem both oblivious and instigators. Communities expect better, not only of the school personnel but, especially, of the school leaders. Given essential dilemmas that persist in the face of educational goals, school leaders require a toolkit of savvy strategies, that is, political acumen, to navigate their dynamic social schooling environments. The thesis of this chapter is that educational leadership is not a decontextualized practice but, instead, requires principled insights into the simmering and bubbling social concerns surrounding teaching and learning. Still, insights alone are insufficient to ensure either safety or learning. School leaders need to harness and exercise their advocacy roles effectively. This chapter links essential dilemmas in education to practical principles surrounding teaching, learning, and social justice while explaining the array of strategies school leaders may practice in addressing their contextual -isms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clemson University, Clemson, SC, USA

    Jane Clark Lindle

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  1. Jane Clark Lindle
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Correspondence to Jane Clark Lindle .

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  1. Soka University of America, Aliso Viejo, CA, USA

    Rosemary Papa

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  1. Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA

    Fenwick W. English

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Lindle, J.C. (2020). School Leaders’ Political Identity-Advocacy in Addressing Social Justice-isms. In: Papa, R. (eds) Handbook on Promoting Social Justice in Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14625-2_70

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