Ethical Praxis in the Narratives of Race-Conscious Caring Leaders

• In Event: Engaging an Ethics of Care in Crises and Classrooms

Abstract

In this paper, we explore the ethical praxis of race-conscious caring leadership through the moral narratives of two school leaders who participated in an interview study on equity leadership. We first explain the meaning and value of moral narratives in deeper detail and explain the value of narrative ethics as a way to explain ethical praxis as not a theoretical exercise but a practice embodied in particular leaders, a practice that may look unique based on school leaders with distinct histories and in different contexts. We then delve more deeply into the stories from the two respondents, who participated in multiple interviews and talked at length about their educational histories, philosophies of education, moral leadership, and practices for equity leadership. We draw conclusions and implications about the value of engaging in moral narrative (reading them and creating one’s own) for expanding capacity for race-conscious caring among educators and leaders.

Authors

• Michael G Gunzenhauser, University of Pittsburgh

• Osly Flores, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign