Leading for Equity, Inclusion, and Human Rights

• In Event: Critical Leadership Perspectives May Enable New, More Equitable Educational Futures

Abstract

Part A. Countering Attacks on DEI.
Currently, educators across the world, are experiencing unprecedented opposition to their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and policies. In the United States, President Trump’s administration is rapidly dismantling many federal agencies, cutting off aid to international health and welfare programs, raising tariffs on goods coming into the U.S., disrupting long-standing strategic alliances, and causing major apprehension across the globe. This chapter focuses on President Trump’s stated agenda to eradicate progressivism, which echoes many other international ultraconservative and far-right movements, who applaud his authoritarian regime. While DEI processes and policies in organizations in the United States, UK, Australia, Canada, and elsewhere have been critiqued and found inadequate (see, for example, Adamson et al. 2021; Blackmore 2023; Holcombe et al. 2025; Khalil and Brown 2020; Lewis et al. 2023; Patton et al. 2019, Tyler 2019), there is no doubt that the umbrella term, DEI, or some version of the acronym, has come to represent concerted efforts in both K-12 and higher education to dismantle the white, male, middle-class, and heteronormative domination of our social and political institutions. We need to revisit the DEI principles. I argue that we need more complex, nuanced understanding of how we must practice them. To counter this offensive, we must come together across all identity groups in a full celebration of our shared humanity.
Part B. A Framework for Inclusion
Using the conceptual framework of ethics of care (Noddings, 2012), the Multiple Ethical Paradigms (Shapiro & Gross, 2013), and Davis et al’s (2020) human rights approach, we consider ethical decision-making in educational leadership in addition to aspects of leadership for social justice including the value of listening and dialogue. An ethics of care framework has been used to explore teachers’ role in nurturing positive classroom spaces but has not been significantly applied to the role of the school principal (Smylie et al., 2016). Building on the work of Robert Starratt (2012), Shapiro and Gross’s (2013) framework of four distinct yet interrelated paradigms (ethic of justice, ethic of critique, ethic of care, and ethic of profession) provides a thorough examination of the ethical challenges faced by educational leaders in complex and often turbulent contexts. Based on Smylie et al.’s (2016) identification of three main elements of caring school leadership – leader caring, caring communities, and developing caring beyond the school – we explore the role and influence of school leaders in ensuring that all students are fully and authentically included in neighbourhood schools, especially those with disabilities and special educational needs. In that sense, we reinforce Davis et al.’s (2020) argument that inclusive education is not only a pedagogical approach but also a fundamental human right.

Authors

• Margaret Grogan, Chapman University

• Steve Sider, Wilfrid Laurier University

• Jhonel Morvan, CSCNO - Conseil scolaire catholique du Nouvel-Ontario