Ethics in the Gaps: Philosophical Grounding for Leadership Responsibility to Address Opportunity Gaps

• In Event: Park Central Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Leadership and Meaning-Making: Ethics, Emotion, and Global-mindedness

Abstract

This paper explores the ethical theories that inform the leadership practices of 22 school leaders (all who ascribe to the important of educational equity) participating in an interview study. Analysis reveals marked differences in the ethical frames, with distinctions between how leaders frame "responsibility," with interesting variations noted in how relationships are described, whether the approach is personal or institutional, and the place of personal history. Traditional, feminist, and emergent ethical theories grounded in African-American experience are used as lenses to explore the variation in approaches among leaders. We also make sense of the seeming lack of ethical language evident in some leaders' descriptions of their commitments to equity.

Authors

• Michael G. Gunzenhauser, University of Pittsburgh

• Osly J. Flores, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Michael William Quigley, University of Pittsburgh