Justice-Centered School Leadership

My research examines “justice-centered school leadership,” a term I use to capture a merging of justice-centered approaches. Scholars have advanced several leadership approaches that center issues of justice, such as social justice (Theoharis, 2010; Wang, 2018; Wasonga, 2009), transformative (Shields, 2018), anti-racist (Irby, 2021; Santamaria and Santamaria, 2015), inclusive (DeMatthews and Mahwinney, 2014; Riehl, 2000), culturally-responsive (Khalifa, 2020; Khalifa et al., 2016), community/activist (Berkovich, 2014; Green, 2018; Khalifa, 2012), and indigenous, decolonizing (Khalifa et al., 2019) leadership. Each approach centers specific injustices (e.g., racism) and/or leadership modalities (e.g., activism), yet they also share commonalities and are not separated by distinct boundaries (Furman, 2012). Capper and Young (2014) argue that justice work is intersectional and complex, necessitating that school leaders work holistically across areas of difference rather than centering one aim. Similarly, McKenzie and colleagues (2008) argue that social justice takes on different meanings in different situations, demanding a nonessentialized conceptualization of leadership for justice. In line with these arguments, I conceptualize justice-centered leadership as encompassing the aforementioned leadership approaches and their respective practices, using a variety of modalities to contest numerous, intersectional forms of oppression.

I define justice-centered leadership as a form of leadership that acknowledges and rejects the status quo, in which schools reproduce social inequities and recognize that traditional education models threaten socially-just outcomes for students. To address this, justice-centered leaders seek to disrupt and rectify all forms of oppressive and marginalizing structures, policies, and practices within the school building. Additionally, these leaders contest oppressive structures outside of the school building because they understand that schools are not isolated from their community contexts. Crucially, these leaders are next-generation-oriented in that they seek to prepare students to actively engage as critical members of society.

I have three key streams of work related to justice-centered leadership, each of which I describe more deeply in the linked pages listed below. Additionally, I have authored several publications across these streams of work, all of which can be found on my CV. Please contact me to request copies of any pieces listed.

The Practice of Justice-Centered Leadership

The Intersections of Justice-Centered Leadership and Policy

The Preparation of Justice-Centered Leaders

The image below illustrates how I see these three streams of work coalescing to support my overarching research goal—to promote the prevalence of justice-centered leadership within schools and, through this, to promote justice and equity for students and the broader community. Justice-centered leadership practice is my key strand of work and I have spent the majority of my career examining leadership practice. Additionally, I believe that understanding how contexts and policy impact leadership informs our understanding of leadership practice, and that understanding both leadership practice and the impacts of context is necessary to engaging in justice-centered leadership preparation.