Practices for Promoting Socially Just Leadership in Rural Schools

• In Event: Rural Education Research for Social Justice: Antiracism in Research and Practice

Abstract

Studies have investigated the practices urban and suburban school principals use to ensure equitable educational opportunities for marginalized students, but few studies have been completed with rural principals serving as the main unit of analysis. The purpose of this qualitative study is to investigate the practices rural principals employ to ensure equitable educational opportunities for marginalized students, and the variation of equity practices among rural principals with differential student outcomes.The qualitative data was examined through the lens of Theoharis’s (2009) conceptual framework on effective social justice leadership to address research question three. Using Theoharis’s (2009) social justice framework revealed that the most effective principals based on student outcomes were also the most socially just.

Author

• Alex Nathan Oldham, Knox County Public Schools