Building Leadership Capacity in Diverse Contexts Through Social Justice Education: Tension and Possibilities

• In Event: Roundtable Session 56
  In Roundtable Session: Leading for Inclusivity and Diversity

Abstract

As schools become more diverse the need for educational leaders to address issues of difference has taken on greater significance. The presentation examines ways that educational leaders faced with increasing diversity in schools build capacity to respond undergirded by a framework of social justice education. The paper highlights voices of four Black female educational leaders in the Greater Toronto Area, seeking to better understand what it means to be socially just and inherent tensions. The following themes emerged as important in social justice leadership to support diverse students a) perceptions and actions of socially just leaders; b) tensions of social justice leadership; c) importance of support for social justice leaders. It has implications for principal preparation programs and teacher leaders.

Author

• Ann E. Lopez, OISE/University of Toronto