Growing for Justice: Leaders’ Reflections on Building Capacity and Transforming Perspectives for Advocacy

• In Event: Social Justice Beliefs and Actions

Abstract

This paper foregrounds educational leaders’ reflections on growing for justice, and the internal capacities needed to more effectively—and expansively—center advocacy, equity, and antiracism in their work. Drawing from in-depth qualitative interviews and developmental assessments with fifty diverse leaders from across the United States, our research posits a layered continuum of justice-centering leadership practices, and details the shifts in perspective and meaning making that participants named as most crucial to their ongoing learning as advocates and change agents. As such, this paper maps a developmental trajectory of social justice leadership—and provides actionable implications for leadership preparation and in-service professional learning.

Authors

• Eleanor E. Drago-Severson, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Jessica Blum-DeStefano, Bank Street College of Education

• Deborah Brooks Lawrence, Bank Street College of Education