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Credit: https://wce.wwu.edu/esj

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Per the Center of Economic and Social Justice (CESJ), the premise of social justice is, “The moral virtue or good habit exercised when a person acts with others in an organized way to perfect the social order or any part of it within their reach… By targeting institutions in society which are defective and unjust, social justice identifies the structural causes of economic and social problems, not just their symptoms.  Through democratic processes and by combining their individual strengths, concerned individuals can act in positive ways to bring about seemingly impossible changes in the social order.”

As the Assistant Principal of a Pre-k through Grade 5 in an urban area, I correlate the terms of social order, institutions, and democratic process to our academic setting.  As a leader, I am tasked with guiding educators to enhance the academic, social, and emotional well-being of our students.  The notion of social order extend itself to our school’s culture and ongoing Positive Behavior Supports and Interventions (PBIS) initiative in an effort to establish, educate, and hold students accountable for choices aligned with habits that help to build character and citizenship.  Concurrently, the term institution relates to our public school setting whereas we service, and partner with, the local community via taxpayer money.  With that, the democratic process lends itself to our administrative team striving to take on a legislative, participative, and transformational persona via strategic planning and decision-making.  “Socially just school leaders do not focus on cultivating vision, and then consider how issues of race, ethnicity, language, religion, socioeconomic status, disability, gender and sexual orientation fit into it  Rather, eliminating marginalization and promoting educational opportunities for all is central to the vision” (Scanlan, 2015).

Via the aforementioned role, it stands imperative for schools to be progressive, particularly in regard to reflection.  The principles of power and inequity comprise the most dominant detriments to social justice within a school system.  Concepts such as the prevalence of conscious/unconscious bias being revealed by disproportionate student disciplinary consequences and/or referrals, and inconsistent student representation aligned with enrollment demographics within the contexts of both special education and gifted/talented programs represent two areas to spark essential – and albeit at times, uncomfortable – conversation.  Ultimately, when the adults in the school understand and acknowledge these issues, they are then more inclined to properly address social justice concerns amongst their students.  Via such perspective, change can take on a positive tone, versus a fearful and/or adversarial one, because of Scanlan’s description of it being a holistic endeavor.

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Simon Sinek on What It Means to Be a Leader

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Our best leaders, particularly personalities within the education sector, are those who understand the importance of ‘we’ versus ‘me.’  The collective gain – for example, the benefit of the children of a school and the immediate community – must represent the foremost priority, versus the best interests of its leader.  Leaders publicly give credit to others when celebrating success; take ownership for mistakes and lessen the onus being placed on their employees; and strive to utilize praise within social recognition platforms to reward those who commit to a cause (which should be championed by social justice).

According to Peters (via Bass), “Leadership exists when leaders broaden and elevate the interests of their employees, when they generate awareness and acceptance of the purposes and mission of the group, and when they stir their employees to look beyond their own self-interest for the good of the group.”  Meanwhile, Dantley and Tillman noted within their five characteristics that can be applied to all definitions of social justice and educational leadership, “No. 3 - A commitment to the more genuine enactment of democratic principles in schools.”  Gardner concurred in writing, “Leadership is the process of persuasion or example by which an individual (or leadership team) induces a group to pursue objectives held by the leader or shared by the leader and his or her followers.”  Sergiovanni also shared similar underlying ideals noting the need to, “Build up the capacities of teachers and others, so that direct leadership will no longer be needed.  This is achieved through team building, leadership development, shared decision-making, and striving to establish the value of collegiality.”

Still none of these resonate with me as much as leadership consultant, Simon Sinek’s simplistic notion that, "Leadership is not about being in charge.  Leadership is about taking care of those in your charge."  In the realm of social justice, this directly pertains to taking care of the equitable needs of the entire community.  He reminds us that, “People don’t need our answers, they need our participation.”  These values that best define leadership.  In short, leadership is dictated by relationships.  In the selected video, Sinek hammers home the concept that, “To lead others, it means that you have a clear vision of a world that does not yet exist – a world that could exist.  And, by articulating that cause, that vision, that purpose, over and over and over again, it inspires people who believe what you believe, who want to see that world built, to join, to go with you, and to figure out ways.”  Imagine the potential when such a leadership mantra is intentionally applied to socially-just causes.

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Do schools kill creativity? | Sir Ken Robinson | TED

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While the profession has taken some lumps over the recent years, teaching remains a vital component of today’s society.  Every day in classrooms throughout the nation, our future is being determined.  While I am admittedly partial to the field of education, it should be recognized by the general public that it remains the most important profession in existence.  Consider this: Without teachers, no other career would exist, as we would be stuck in a state of independent learning and knowledge acquisition.  For this reason, students need to understand the true value of education and the possibilities that it yields.  Back in 2011, President Barack Obama recognized this during his State of the Union address, reaffirming the need for a quality education system when he aptly labeled teachers “Nation Builders.”  However, leadership must remain cognizant that student potential stand vastly limited without social justice initiatives embedded into a school’s power structure, access to opportunities, and holistic curriculum.  Endless studies show increased enthusiasm and smaller achievement gaps when projects, unit studies, writing tasks, PBL’s, research, etc. are personalized, and thus tied to individualized ethnicity, religion, (dis)ability, hobbies, etc.

In conjunction with social justice, the concept can be unpacked by educators via the function of creativity.   In the video clip, Sir Ken Robinson hypothesizes that, “Education goes deep with people.  It is education that is meant to take us into this future that we can’t grasp…  My contention is that all kids have tremendous talents, and we squander them.”  With this in mind, we must design instructional engagement activities that proffer student choice and afford prospects for 21st Century skills to be exuded – all while ensuring that open-ended questions are presented that do not limit student participation within the confines of predetermined pathways.  Far too often, educators dictate topics and structures to students.  As a result, their unique experiences and backgrounds are neglected.  By virtue of this, they are less likely to be passionate about learning and we are limiting the possibilities presented by diversity.  As Robinson says, “If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.  We stigmatize mistakes.  The result is we are educating people out of their educational capacities.”  Through outdated planning and mapping, educators are actually modeling improper practice to students due to convenience, ignorance, and/or prejudice.  And while this prospect remains quite disheartening, imagine the ramifications when we steer the direction of young minds due to the predisposed attitudes and beliefs of adults that are actually linked to various forms of injustice, and the perception of malfunction or injustice!

Equitable education should not be a differentiated element that varies district-to-district, or region-to-region.  There should be universal demands for public education across the country (not in the form of learning standards), but essential elements serving to enhance the understanding of social justice.  Often, it viewed as a political belief; when yet, it is truly an ethical and moral baseline/requirement.  All students deserve a learning context whereas the needs of the whole child are revered, irrelevant of race, income, or zip code.  All environments must be culturally-responsive, reflect high expectations, and respect diversity without an expectation of assimilation.

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The consciousness gap in education - an equity imperative: Dorinda Carter Andrews at TEDxLansingED

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In this talk, Dorinda Carter Andrews challenges us to consider how gaps in critical consciousness and mindsets for adults and students in schools prevent us from providing equitable schooling experiences for all students.

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As a leader, you are the driving force behind the constant evolution of a school.  Per the two principals in Shields’ study, the key values of social justice are liberation, emancipation, democracy, and equity.  “Each has focused not simply on improving test scores (although that did happen) but on instituting changes in the educational environment of their schools – structures, culture, pedagogical practices – that resulted in more inclusive and more just experiences for all students.  Each has adopted processes that go well beyond transactional approaches and beyond the goals of organizational effectiveness fundamental to transformational leadership.”  This reality refers back to my initial perspective on leadership, where the collective good must be prioritized, with decisions based on what’s best for all students.

In the video, Ms. Dorinda Carter Andrews denotes the vital ideal of power.  “The reality is that our society has socialized us not to raise critical questions about these topics.  And in reality, they exacerbate the racial and socioeconomic  inequities that we have in society, that then perpetuate themselves in our educational system.  Schools never have, nor do they currently, prepare adults and young people to learn how to respect each other across cultural differences.”  The reality is that race and culture have remained topics of passionate dissent in the past; and now, they have been streamlined to the characterization of being taboo.  Rather than risk offending someone, or maybe divulging a predisposition, we avoid the subject.  However, our students are the population suffering the most, because this focus reveals access and opportunity gaps, as well as issues of power (as evident by racial and cultural divide).  The indisputable aspect to this argument it that, “Cultural bias undermines the academic performance of students of color and students of low socioeconomic status.”  In essence, it allows the haves and have nots to continue to pervade educational settings in 2019 – a dynamic in which the mission aims to remain pure under the façade that every child is born with an equal shot at prosperity.

If law and media simultaneously sell the belief that everyone has an equal chance at attaining life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, then it must start with receiving a proper education.  Public education must provide a fair and equitable playing field for every young mind, regardless of their description, classification, designation, etc.  So, if the first step to solving a problem remains admitting that one exists, as leaders, we must drive social justice conversations with our colleagues and staff members.  If not, our leadership – not just society’s antiquated value system associated with power – represents the root cause for a lack of social justice in our educational system.  With this in mind, I added the graphic to this section in an effort to serve as a framework for stimulating change (i.e.: “The Art of Change and the Act of Social Justice”).  Like most other pedagogical or management theories, change must be a constant process – an investment of effort, time and resources.  In doing so, eventually, social justice will be represented in every strategic plan as a standalone facet of education, versus a complementary sub-sect.

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Dantley, M, E. & Tillman, L, C. (2010). Social justice and moral transformative leadership. In C. Marshall & M. Oliva (Eds.), Leadership for Social Justice: Making Revolution in Education (2nd ed.) (pp. 19-34). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

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

Peters, A.L. (2010). Rethinking transformational leadership in schools: The influence of people, place, and process on leadership practice. In S.D. Horsford (Ed.), New Perspective in Educational Leadership: Exploring Social, Political, and Community Contexts and Meaning (pp. 29-46). New York, NY: Peter Lang.  (chapter 2 in required text)

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.

Social Justice, Not Utopia. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.cesj.org/social-justice-not-utopia/