Using Social Justice Scholarship to Enact the Professional Development of “Rida” Educators in Urban School Professional Learning Communities

• In Event: Using Social Justice Scholarship to Enact the Professional Development of “Rida” Educators in Urban School Professional Learning Communities

Abstract

The 2011 AERA Annual Meeting theme, “Non Satis Scire: To Know Is Not Enough,” was chosen in an “effort to pursue more fully (AERA’s) mission,” specifically the second half of that mission that is “to promote the use of research to improve education and serve the public good.” Thus, this year’s AERA Executive Committee is including in the program “innovative sessions…designed to engage AERA members and other participants in intense dialogue.” That, too, is the intent of this session, which seeks to align with that theme by engaging in intense dialogue about the disconnect between teaching for social justice and leading for social justice through weaving together empirically based best practices on teaching for social justice and leading for social justice within the current era of school reform and considering “next steps” in merging the two empirical bases into implications and recommendations for the educational leadership field.
Stressing the importance of finding effective instruction that meets the needs of students that have traditionally been underserved is not new to the AERA Leadership for Social Justice Special Interest Group research community (Scheurich & Skrla, 2003; Theoharis, 2009). Scheurich and Skrla (2003) make it clear that leaders must create belief systems and structures school-wide to support equity and excellence. Yet, they only set the parameters for the work of teaching. However, Theoharis (2009) states a key tenet of social justice leadership is to “improve the core learning context—both teaching and curriculum” (p. 46). Additionally, Theoharis emphasizes the importance of hiring with an “equity lens” and facilitating the growth of the school faculty and staff through providing continuous professional development focused on building equity. Thus, both Scheurich and Skrla (2003) and Theoharis (2009) provide foundational social justice leadership research we intend to further extend in this conversation/dialogue through considering how social justice leadership can engage with social justice educators in their work. Specifically, the proposed session considers closely the urban context and the ways in which school reform is enacted within those contexts to allow for social justice leadership and social justice educators to come together for the benefit of all students. That is, we are conceptualizing of not only a social justice leadership-initiated idea of school reform in urban contexts, but also a social justice teacher-initiated idea of school reform in urban contexts.

Author

• Kristin Shawn Huggins, Washington State University