Preparing School Leaders for Legislative Advocacy and Community Action

• In Event: Preparing School Leaders to Engage in School Reform by Understanding Issues of Equity and Social Justice

Abstract

This paper argues that university-based leadership preparation programs need to prepare educators and administrators for legislative advocacy and community action, enabling them to act as teachers and citizens promoting democracy and social justice for all students, especially the oppressed. Educators in American schools operate in a context of structural inequities, legislative injustice, and judicial failure (Kozol, 2005; Nitta, 2008; Hursh, 2007; Hignett, 2005). However, the education of all students, which includes specifically addressing the ways in which certain groups of students are oppressed, is foundational for American democracy (Dewey, 1916). If social justice educators are to work for structural change while actively teaching, they need multiple methods and models at their disposal and a framework to apply those tools. Educators occupy a privileged position in schools, representing the interests of their students and the community to those outside educational institutions. This representative voice offers a powerful opportunity for legislative advocacy (Congressional Management Foundation, 2005). School leaders must acknowledge and embrace this representative role, but must do so in solidarity with the communities where they teach in order to avoid reinforcing an oppressive status quo. Educators must work inside and outside schools and must be taught to cross traditional school boundaries in order to advocate for social justice in the public sphere (Giroux, 2001; hooks, 1994).

Author

• Andrew Rome, Kent State University