Justice for leadership: (Re)versing the lyrics of ‘leadership for’ in education

Leadership for justice, leadership for change, leadership for learning, leadership for institutions, and leadership for success. The leadership lyrics continue to resound, ‘leadership for’. What if leadership lyrics were reversed and re-versed? The world amply rewards leadership, not just leaders, to the extent where leadership may not only need some ontological reorientation, but more importantly, and as the focus of this commentary, some repositioning down the popular policy, research and practice charts. Justice for leadership starts with what is leadership and whether leadership has been unjustly promoted beyond where it should be? For leadership to become more oriented to wider issues of social justice in education, the issue of leadership popularism has to be addressed first through a possible (re)versing of meaning and application.

What do participants learn at Group Relations conferences? A report on a conference series on the theme of authority, power, and justice

This article reports findings from evaluation research conducted from three conferences in the Authority, Power, and Justice: Leadership for Change series, convened annually from 2014 to 2016 at Boston College. The conferences have had similar structures and themes, with some slight variations. The highly diversified staff and membership has highlighted the themes of social identity, power, and justice in the conferences. Findings were consistent with prior research that participants do indeed learn at conferences. For both experienced and inexperienced conference members, the process of learning and meaning making is complex, relational, and evolves over time beyond the conference boundaries, and is idiosyncratic and variable. Learning can also occur at a steep cost. Recommendations are offered for enhancing learning and mitigating some of the factors that may interfere with learning. Suggestions involve re-thinking our notions of conference boundaries and the consulting stance, better integration of conference themes into conference structure, and integration of evaluation processes into conferences.

What do participants learn at Group Relations conferences? A report on a conference series on the theme of authority, power, and justice

This article reports findings from evaluation research conducted from three conferences in the Authority, Power, and Justice: Leadership for Change series, convened annually from 2014 to 2016 at Boston College. The conferences have had similar structures and themes, with some slight variations. The highly diversified staff and membership has highlighted the themes of social identity, power, and justice in the conferences. Findings were consistent with prior research that participants do indeed learn at conferences. For both experienced and inexperienced conference members, the process of learning and meaning making is complex, relational, and evolves over time beyond the conference boundaries, and is idiosyncratic and variable. Learning can also occur at a steep cost. Recommendations are offered for enhancing learning and mitigating some of the factors that may interfere with learning. Suggestions involve re-thinking our notions of conference boundaries and the consulting stance, better integration of conference themes into conference structure, and integration of evaluation processes into conferences.

City Leadership for Health, Equity, and Sustainable Development

City leaders have the power and the means to make a significant difference in the health and well-being of their people. This chapter explores and discusses the context, the potential, and the critical preconditions for city leadership for health in the twenty-first century. Leadership encompasses a variety of qualities, skills, and styles and can be addressed from many perspectives. The focus here in this chapter is mainly on four aspects of city leadership: political leadership, leadership for change and innovation, value-based leadership, and capacity for effective leadership and governance for health.