Dreaming New Possibilities: Humanizing Leadership and the Path to Liberation in K–12 Schools

• In Event: Leadership From the Margins: Pushing the Contextual Boundaries of Social Justice Scholarship, Policy, and Practice

Abstract

This paper outlines a framework for equity and social justice-oriented K-12 school leadership called Humanizing Leadership. Drawing from the theories of Culturally Responsive School Leadership, Indigenous, Decolonial School Leadership, and Black Feminist Caring, this framework seeks to interrupt the static nature of leadership training by introducing a framework that is inherently dynamic. The Humanizing Leadership framework outlines the knowledge, disposition, and action required to interrupt racism in K-12 schools. Specifically, this framework insists that only when a leader understands the historical and present-day context of racism in the United States which has shaped formalized schooling, serves their community with love, and commits to actions of resistance and risk will a leader create the conditions for liberation in their school community.

Author

• Ashlee D. Gutierrez, San Francisco State University