Successful school leadership for social justice in Spain

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to present the results obtained from the investigations that have been carried out within the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP) project in the Spanish for social justice.Design/methodology/approachTwelve case studies have been carried out within the three lines of research proposed by ISSPP: successful principals, underperforming principals and principal leadership identity. All but one school were in challenging contexts. The methodological approach followed is based on multiple perspective case studies using a mixture of qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups and observations).FindingsResults show that successful principals not only believe in social justice through simple empathy with the concept of social justice, but also use strategies that combine transformational and instructional leadership processes and manage to reverse the bad situation of their disadvantaged schools, seeking excellence from equity. The leadership identity of successful principals is characterized to look to the future with hope, adopting a realistic utopian attitude to interpret their surrounding reality.Originality/valueFrom the case studies carried out, valuable information is obtained, which helps to understand the possibilities of implementing the ISSPP successful school leadership model in heterogeneous and disadvantaged context for equity and social justice.

Implementing Social Justice Practices Online: Lessons Learned from Teaching and Advising Dissertations in Practice During the COVID-19 Pandemic

This essay documents the lessons learned from the transition to teaching research methods courses and advising EdD doctoral students online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This discussion is set against the backdrop of developing a new fully online EdD Program in educational leadership for social justice at the institution, wherein the online transition due to COVID-19 offered an opportunity to assess effective pedagogy, student community and engagement, and workload expectations. In our analysis of the transition to teaching online, we applied Hammond’s (2020) framework, which highlights design elements that promote agency for independent learning. We overlay the realities of teaching and advising adult students who are working full-time and managing home-life responsibilities in addition to pursuing their EdD degree. Unresolved questions and future directions for the culturally responsive and socially just online Education Doctorate are explored.

Pandemic Pivots: The Impact of a Global Health Crisis on the Dissertation in Practice

Five scholarly practitioners in an educational leadership for social justice doctoral program share their intentional, community-minded pivots during a global pandemic that disrupted their Dissertations in Practice (DiP). Embodying their Ed.D. program’s CPED framework (Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate, 2019), the authors, at varying stages in the dissertation process, sought inventive solutions to COVID-19-related challenges that included the development of a new topic and research questions, adjusting study settings and participant pools, and embracing new methodologies to account for virtual-only approaches. Although uncertain how the global health crises would impact their DiP, by fostering a shared sense of community, the authors became critical friends, supporting each other in their personal, professional, and academic lives. Each narrative highlights the potential of oppositional praxis of threading identities of practice, reflection, and research–to respond creatively to the needs of their diverse research communities with compassion, vision, and agility.

Angolan Higher Education, Policy, and Leadership

Since the end of the armed conflict in 2002, Angola has witnessed rapid socio-economic development characterized by the stabilization of macro-economic indicators. In this context, the government has been implementing important structural and economic reforms, including in the area of education. The purpose of this chapter is to reflect on these developments and the implication they might have on development of sustainable higher education, access, quality education, equity, leadership, and education policy. The chapter provides a brief comparative analysis of tertiary education funding among the countries of Southern Development Community (SADC) and other African countries in order to draw the attention of the decision makers about the relevance to invest more on education and protect the investments that the state has been making in education. In addition, the chapter calls for transformative leadership for social justice and change in organizational culture as an alternative avenue for enforcing current policies.

Social Responsibility Through the Lens of an Agenda for Cultural Literacy Learning: Analyses of National Education Policy Documentation

The contemporary world is marked by numerous new challenges: growth of inequality, migration, development of new technologies, climate change. All of them create tensions among nations, social groups or cultures. In the face of growing multiculturalism and need for dialogue, social responsibility as a concept in the educational field has received due attention. For instance, Berman (Educational Leadership, November:75–80, 1990; Children’s social consciousness and the development of social responsibility, University of New York Press, New York,1997; Leadership for social justice and democracy in our schools, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 123–144, 2011) emphasized the importance of education for social responsibility in school and classroom and defined it as personal investment in the well-being of others. Vallaeys (GUNI Report of Higher Education in the World 5:88–96, 2014) discussed social responsibility as a matter of university mission and function. Berman (Leadership for social justice and democracy in our schools, Corwin Press, Thousand Oaks, CA, pp. 123–144, 2011) related the concept of social responsibility to the development of social consciousness that meant balancing on personal self-realization and personal achievement with equal focus on social self-realization and collective achievement. In particular, a person becomes conscious that personal development (i.e. How will I lead my life?) is interrelated with the development of others (i.e. What does the way I lead my life mean for the life of others?). In this case, social responsibility embraces cultural values and creates empowerment, cooperation, compassion, and respect.