Educational Leadership for Ethics and Social Justice

A volume in Educational Leadership for Social JusticeSeries Editor Jeffrey S. Brooks University of Idaho Denise E. Armstrong Brock University;Ira Bogotch Florida Atlantic University; Sandra Harris Lamar University;Whitney H. Sherman Virginia Commonwealth University; George Theoharis Syracuse UniversityThe purpose of this book is to examine and learn lessons from the way leadership for social justice isconceptualized in several disciplines and to consider how these lessons might improve the preparation andpractice of school leaders. In particular we examine philosophy anthropology sociology economicspolitical science public policy and psychology. Our contention is that the field of educational leadershipmight consider taking a step backward in order to take several forward. That is educational leadershipresearchers might re-examine social justice both in terms of social and individual dynamics and as disciplinary-specific multidisciplinary andinterdisciplinary phenomenon. By adopting this approach we can connect and extend long-established lines of conceptual and empirical inquiry andthereby gain insights that may otherwise be overlooked or assumed. This holds great promise for generating refining and testing theories of socialjustice in educational leadership and will help strengthen already vibrant lines of inquiry. That is rather than citing a single or a few works out of theirdisciplinary context it might be more fruitful to situate educational leadership for social justice research in their respective traditions. This could becarried out by extending extant lines of inquiry in educational leadership research and then incorporating lessons gleaned from this work intoinnovative practice. For example why not more clearly establish lines of educational leadership and justice research into the Philosophy of SocialJustice Economics of Social Justice Political Studies of Social Justice Sociology of Social Justice Anthropology of Social Justice and the PublicPolicy of Social Justice as focused and discrete areas of inquiry?Once this new orientation toward the knowledge base of social justice and educational leadership islaid we might then seek to explore some of the natural connections between traditions beforeultimately investigating justice in educational leadership through a free association of ideas as theworlds of practice and research co-construct a new language they can use to discuss educationalleadership. Such an endeavor may demand reconceptualization of both the processes and products ofcollaborative research and the communication of findings but it will demand a breaking-down ofmethodological and epistemological biases and a more meaningful level and type of engagementbetween primary and applied knowledge bases.