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My Definition of Social Justice Leadership

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My Definition of Social Justice Leadership

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Social justice leaders work towards providing access, resources, and opportunities for all people in an approach that is inclusive, equitable, and intersectional (e.g., race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, language, etc.). Simply having access to resource and opportunities is not enough if there are systematic and oppressive barriers in place for certain populations. By acknowledging the existence of an uneven playing field, social justice leaders remain critical of privileged stances while supporting marginalized communities.

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Leadership takes "many forms with many styles and diverse qualities" (Gardner, year, p. 7). Leadership styles can also change form based on circumstance and environment, and "[w]e should give young people a sense of the many kinds of leaders and styles of leadership, and encourage them to move toward those model that are right for them” (Gardner, year, p. 7).

For example, Amanda Nguyen used her personal experience as a platform to change a broken policy in place. She fought to change the law not only for herself, but for those who may not have the opportunity to use their voices or access to a political level of work.

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Amanda Nguyen, Civil Rights Activist and Nobel Peace Prize Nominee | MAKERS

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Leadership refers to the ability to motivate and empower other people to work toward a common cause. Social justice leaders implement intentional changes through action to "enhance equity, social justice, and the quality of life; to expand access and opportunity; to encourage respect for difference and diversity; to strengthen democracy, civic life, and civic responsibility; and to promote cultural enrichment, creative expression,  intellectual honesty, the advancement of knowledge, and personal freedom coupled with responsibility” (Shields, 2010, p. 571).

Furthermore, social justice leaders
keep themselves accountable while mentoring leadership abilities in others. For example, in Shield's article, principal Catherine Lake encouraged "her teachers to experiment but told them that if something did not work, they could blame her. Furthermore, she insisted that she was willing to take the heat from the board and district officials if anyone complained," which created opportunities for creative approaches and transparent dialogue (Shields, 2010, p. 578).

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Social justice leadership must stem from a moral and ethical place. Despite systematic barriers and challenges, the genuine care for all people drive social justice leaders. "The leadership that counts, in the end, is the kind that touches people differently. It taps their emotions, appeals to their values, and responds to their connection with other people. It is a morally based leadership - a form of stewardship" (Sergiovanni, 2000, p. 270).

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Having social justice leaders (or representation in general) who we can identify with is important in fostering and mentoring future social justice leaders. "'Having a diverse staff means we can come together to respond to student needs from a variety of different perspectives'" (Capper et al., 2010, p. 185).

This article refers to the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Educators Summit which took place earlier this year. It provided a safe space for AANHPI educators to gather and share the common challenges (e.g., myth of model minority) they faced on a daily basis while brainstorming ideas and resources for AANHPI students. As an Asian woman, I appreciated this opportunity to network and connect with other AAHNPI educators for solidarity and community.

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Lessons learned from the first annual AANHPI Educators Summit in SoCal - Asian Journal News

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"We never know how our small activities will affect others through the invisible fabric of our connectedness. In this exquisitely connected world, it's never a question of 'critical mass.' It's always about critical connections." - Grace Lee Boggs  "Four decades after Dr. King's death, we are a very different nation.

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"[B]efore there is achievement, there needs to be engagement" (Cooper, 2010, p. 17). Oftentimes, parents of color majority from low-income backgrounds are not included nor valued when it comes to their involvement in children's education. However, families should be equal, active participants in determining what would benefit the children. "The principal, teachers, and parents work together for a common good, which promotes social justice and is inclusive of diverse family units who bond together to celebrate language and cultural diversity” (Kelsey et al., 2015, p. 91).

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To serve people from marginalized communities, we must be aware and critical of our own privileges. For example, I constantly check the privileges that I have as a U.S. citizen, especially when working with students who identify as undocumented or Dreamers as well as families of color. Social justice leaders should be aware of their own privileges and utilize them to help others without the same privileges.

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There is power and privilege to language, and part of social justice leadership is to support students who identify as English learners and families who speak a language other than English. Language (or its barrier) is often used to segregate non-English speaking children into other classes and exclude parental involvement or feedback (Kelsey et al., 2015, p. 86). There is lower expectations for these families "nor are they equally equipped with the understanding, status, and ability to navigate the public education system to adequately support their children" (Cooper, 2010, p. 178).

By fostering an inclusive culture within the community, families, and school, this will create positive impact on the children who will grow to become future leaders.

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In Acacia WoodsChan's ethnic studies class at Castlemont High School in Oakland, California, students chat with each other in Spanish, Arabic and Mam, a Mayan language from Guatemala. The students have only been in the US for a few weeks or months. Some are from Yemen, and many are from countries in Central America - Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.

Last year, WoodsChan became concerned when she started hearing the Spanish-speaking students laugh when their classmates spoke Mam or Arabic or make fun of how those languages sounded.

"You could literally look at the faces of the students who spoke those languages - Mam or Arabic - and just see the level of disappointment," she said.

WoodsChan came up with an idea. She asked her students to take turns teaching a little bit of their home language each day. Students taught their peers how to count from one to 10, how to introduce themselves and how to say basic phrases or words like, "Cool." Then, they recorded themselves saying those phrases in short video clips.
Listen to them each saying the word "cool": And explaining how to introduce themselves:
WoodsChan says it made a huge difference.

"You could see a huge shift in the way that not only the Mam-speaking students regarded the importance of learning Mam and having it visible, but also in the way that the other students received it," WoodsChan said.

WoodsChan's classroom is just one of many across the country with an increasing number of immigrant students. In the last five years, Oakland Unified School District experienced a spike in the number of immigrant students from Central America. More than 200,000 children and youth under 18 were detained after crossing the border alone since 2014.

When a minor without a guardian turns themselves in at the border or is stopped by immigration authorities, they are turned over to the Office of Refugee Resettlement. They are later released to live with relatives or friends, while they wait for immigration hearings to see if they can stay in this country. These students face formidable obstacles to get through high school. But they also bring powerful assets with them, one of which is their fluency in their home languages.

Research has shown that immigrants who retain their home language while learning English are likelier to graduate from high school, go on to college and enter higher-paying careers than those who learn English but lose their home language.

WoodsChan saw the difference in her students. She said they grew more confident after seeing their own languages on the whiteboard and hearing it in the video clips. They started making friends with each other - across cultural lines. Other students who were not in that class would come in and see something written in Mam on the board and exclaim, "Hey, that's Mam! I speak Mam!"

Researchers at the Graduate Center of City University of New York say when students see their home languages displayed in the classroom or around the school, they feel more comfortable at school, and it helps students feel like experts if they are asked to share their knowledge of their home language with their peers.

Expertise in other languages can help WoodsChan's students beyond the classroom, too. Indigenous languages like Mam are becoming more and more common in the United States. Several thousand Mam speakers are estimated to now live in Oakland, adding to a larger Mayan community in the Bay Area. Some Oakland graduates have gone on to become Mam-English interpreters to help fill a lack of Indigenous-language interpreters in all kinds of settings, from school to hospitals to courts.

Fifteen-year-old Wilfido, from Guatemala, says WoodsChan's video project made him happy because "everyone wanted to learn Mam." He was also happy to learn some Arabic, though he only remembers how to say hala hala, which is a greeting like "hi."

He says now he's inspired to learn more languages, and he wants to be an interpreter.

The project also helped students who didn't speak Mam or Arabic understand their peers better. Orlando, a 17-year-old student from El Salvador, said he never knew Arabic or Mam even existed before he came to the US and heard his classmates talk. Now, he thinks it would be good for all students in his school to learn a little of their peers' home languages.

"When students first get here," he said in Spanish, "they think, 'No one talks like me. I'm the only one,' and they feel alone. This way, they won't feel so bad."

The students' last names are not being disclosed because they are minors, and their immigration cases are still pending.

For WoodsChan, cultivating pride in her students for their own and others' identities is personal - she's African American and Chinese American. Her mother, who was born in the US, but spoke Cantonese at home as a child, told her that when she was in kindergarten and still learning English, she had a stomach ache, but she didn't know how to say that word.

"So, she raised her hand and said, 'Teacher, I have a stomach!' and she's like, doubled over in pain, her face is wrinkled and wrenched and just looking wretched," said WoodsChan. "And the teacher was like, 'Yes, of course you have a stomach.'"

That interaction was scarring for her mom, and WoodsChan keeps it close to her heart. She wants to be the opposite kind of teacher as the one who couldn't or wouldn't understand her mother.

"When I see my students, I think of my grandma, and I think of my mom," WoodsChan said. "They're fighting when they're here every day. They're fighting for their education."

WoodsChan hopes her school will use her class videos as part of an orientation at the beginning of the year, to help build a sense of respect and mutual understanding among all students, both newcomers and those born in the US.

"I think a lot of the pitfall that we see here on our campus and in our society, especially at this time, is when you don't have an in, when you don't have a connection, you go to the default messaging, which unfortunately, is very negative, particularly right now towards immigrants and towards the 'other,'" she said.
Editor's note: This story was produced with the support of the Education Writers Association Reporting Fellowship, and in collaboration with EdSource. To hear the Spanish-language version, go to Radio Bilingüe.

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In this California classroom, students teach each other their home languages - and learn acceptance

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One ethnic studies teacher in Oakland, California, noticed that her students, who come from all over the world, had some trouble relating to each other. So, she created a video dictionary so that the students can teach each other words and phrases from their home country.

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Capper, C.A., Rodriguez, M.A., & McKinney, S.A. (2010). Leading beyond disability: Integrated, socially just schools and districts. In C. Marshall & M. Oliva (Eds.), Leadership for social justice: Making revolutions in education, 175-193. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Cooper, C.W. (2010). Educational leaders as cultural workers: Engaging families and school communities through transformative leadership. In S.D. Horsford (Ed.), New Perspective in Educational Leadership: Exploring Social, Political, and Community Contexts and Meaning, 173-195. New York, NY: Peter Lang.

Gardner, J. W. (2000). The nature of leadership. In M. Fullan (Ed.), The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership, 3-12. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Kelsey, I., Campuzano, C., & Lopez, F. (2015). Inclusive leadership and English learners. In G. Theoharis & M. Scanlan (Eds.), Leadership for increasingly diverse Schools, 59-81. New York, NY: Routledge.

Sergiovanni, T. J. (2000). Leadership as stewardship. In M. Fullan (Ed.), In The Jossey-Bass reader on educational leadership, 269-286. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Shields, C.M. (2010). Transformative leadership: Working for equity in diverse contexts. Educational Administration Quarterly, (46) 558-589.