(Re)constituting Educational Leadership Knowledge(s) to Action(s): Educating Toward an Eco-tistical Leadership

• In Event: 18.053 - Challenging the Status Quo: Invoking Social Justice Leadership in Ed.D. Programs

Abstract

Purpose/Objective:
The purpose of this research is to present how 21st century challenges that emerge from the complex intersections of social justice and sustainability as they are addressed through critical leadership in Ed.D. program development, supportive program structures, course content, and the connected public scholarship influencing and being enacted in teacher education and K-12 school leadership. Specifically, the objective of this paper is to share conceptual research toward introducing an ecocritical framework from, and through, which leadership is understood and to present examples and analysis of the implementation of EcoJustice Education (Martusewicz et al., 2015; Turner, 2015) and an ecocritical framework (Author, 2015, 2016) in teacher education and educational leadership. This research encourages what the authors are calling an eco-tistical leadership that focuses on partnerships in communities. Additionally, the author shares how faculty researchers are working with educational leaders to address how they can, as educators and leaders, work to directly address social justice and sustainability as important 21st century challenges.

Theoretical Perspectives and Relevant Literature:
Grounding this research in key influences in “leadership mindsets” from Kaser & Halbert (2009) and “From Ego-System to Eco-System Economies” (Scharmer & Kaufer, 2013; Senge, Scharmer, Jorski, & Flowers, 2008) in connection with Darder’s (2016) “Critical Leadership for Social Justice and Community Engagement,” this paper introduces how an ecocritical theoretical framework—drawing from ecofeminism (Code, 2007; Merchant, 1983; Plumwood, 1993, 2002; Shiva, 2005; Warren, 2000), ecopedagogy (Fassbinder, Nocella, & Kahn, 2012; Kahn, 2010), critical ecoliteracy (Turner, 2011), and EcoJustice (Bowers, 2001, 2006, 2010, 2013, Martusewicz et al., 2015)—contributes to engaging educators and educational leaders in (re)conceptualizing knowledge(s) and action(s) supportive of diversity and inclusive of equity and opportunity for all members of the communities in which we live and work.

Significance:
The significance of the scholarship highlighted in this presentation stems from the conceptual and qualitative research experiences of the researcher to assert that educational researchers focusing on Ed.D. programs ought to strive to be public intellectuals and activists-scholar educators committed to both recognizing and examining the ways in which a cultural logic of domination (Warren, 2000) undergirds the unjust and destructive social and economic ideologies and policies that constitute schooling and thus how we frame and engage in leadership preparation in educational partnerships. This research closely considers how often programmatic courses and assignment work to limit leadership education as a transformative practice. This paper shares specific case examples from programs working with teachers and administrators through the development of an ecocritical approach that identifies social justice and sustainability as inextricable from the problems of practice in 21st Century classrooms, schools, and communities. Additionally, the paper concludes with how an ecocritical framework proposes an eco-tisitcal leadership mindset and how such a construct might inform and/or influence EdD program curriculum in connection with Carnegie Project for Educational Doctorate’s (CPED) Working Principles and Design Concepts.

Author

• John Joseph Lupinacci, Washington State University - Pullman