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                                              Socially Just Schooling      

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                                              Socially Just Schooling      

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These two tenets of my philosophy may seem so different: one is rooted in science and perception, while the other rooted more in ethics and policy.  However, they can coexist and I see them as critically linked.  In Scanlan and Theoharis's article we come to understand that effective leaders are proponents of equity.  "Socially just schooling is evident when educational opportunities abound for all students, when ambitious academic goals are held and met for all students, when all students and families are made to feel welcome in school communities, when students are proportionately distributed across all groupings in the school... (Scanlan and Theoharis)." All students can achieve goals. We must believe they can with a growth mindset and allow them the opportunity to achieve said goal with equitable opportunities.

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I strongly believe two essential elements must be present in true social justice leadership within education: 1) That leaders maintain a growth mindset present throughout the learning community and  2) Allowing students and their families equity: access to all educational and developmental opportunities.

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I strongly believe two essential elements must be present in true social justice leadership within education: 1) That leaders maintain a growth mindset present throughout the learning community and  2) Allowing students and their families equity: access to all educational and developmental opportunities.

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Transformative Leadership Requires a Growth Mindset

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Transformative Leadership Requires a Growth Mindset

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In her article, "Transformative Leadership: Working for Equity in Diverse Contexts," Shields never comes right out and talks about growth mindset as a scientific concept as it relates to transformative leadership, but I drew the parallel instantly and fully.

The two leaders mentioned in the article, Amy and Catherine, are distinctively transformative in that they are driven toward positive outcomes considered too idealistic for their given populations or circumstances.  The two leaders encouraged their teachers to think outside the box and focus on how they wanted their students and subsequently the entire culture of their respective buildings to perform.

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The other firm belief of my social justice philosophy is that opportunities and experiences, particularly with education, are equitable.  We often make the assertion that "education is the great equalizer" but then do nothing to actually create the equalizing opportunities to exist.

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"...they recognized that too many of these common practices arise from deficit thinking—a belief that children need to be cured rather than a belief that teachers using multiple pedagogical strategies can help all children to attain high standards (Shields)."

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                                                        References 

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                                                        References 

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Scanlan, M. & Theoharis, G. (2015)Intersectionality in educational leadership. In G. Theoharis & M. Scanlan (Eds.), Leadership for increasingly diverse Schools (pp.1-10). New York, NY: Routledge.

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

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

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As a special education teacher, I am a huge proponent of having a growth mindset in teaching my students and in working with my colleagues. A growth mindset, rather than a fixed mindset, is the concept introduced by Carol Dweck, in that students should be praised not for how innately "good," or "smart" they are, but rather that they are praised for the process of learning.  An indicator like an IQ test is a fixed measurement that communicates to people that their talents or abilities will eventually hit a ceiling and be tapped out. We need to convey an idea to our students that abilities and minds are muscles that need to be worked. They might not be able to solve a particular problem or play an instrument well now, but with practice, discipline, focus, and perseverance, all students can be held to high standards.

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          Failure is an Opportunity to Grow 

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          Failure is an Opportunity to Grow 

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Social justice sees learning with a growth mindset as a challenge and pushes all members of the learning community to reject the idea of failure as static. As aspiring transformative leaders, we should instead be viewing the idea of failure as something to kickstart our next attempt rather than giving up.

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Allocating the same budget to all schools throughout Illinois would be a practice in equality, but this would not fair, just, nor equitable.  Allowing an honors student and a student with an IEP and significant learning disability or processing disorder the same amount of time to complete a similar assessment would likewise be a practice in equality: all kids here are receiving the same parameters.  However, in both examples, it's obvious to see that practices are not going to yield the same results nor ethical.  My social justice philosophy on equity is that we cannot treat all people equal; rather, we must meet people where they are and cultivate opportunities for the oppressed and disadvantages a better starting point.

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In order to make equity a true and real practice, leaders must take on a stewardship approach to leadership, discussed in Sergiovanni's article.  Effective social justice leadership is better utilized when leaders understand leadership as a service and as a virtue, rather than self-interest.  It is about trusting that perhaps if a leader is not a member of a more marginalized group, to trust and seek the input of the marginalized and use that feedback to drive leadership and decision-making.

"It is best to let those who will be served define their own needs in their own way" (Sergiovanni).

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We must remind all students, regardless of their backgrounds, abilities, or circumstances, that we have high expectations and hold them accountable to their learning.

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Sergiovanni's article also provides explanation of how leadership by purposing, empowerment, and outrage all allocate responsibilities to other members of the school community. By adopting this stewardship model as a school community and not just as an individual. We need a sense of purpose, empowerment, and outrage to fully realize equity in educational communities. By implementing a community-wide onus of responsibility, an educational leader creates a paradigm shift within their community to be more accountable to their students.