Abstract
Many reams have been published on the issue of social justice, especially in education, yet little has been written about social justice in the global context and the way in which pedagogy of social justice could be implemented in practice in different education systems by educational leaders. There is also limited research that might inform those who wish to prepare leaders for social justice work in schools, in different international contexts (Jean-Marie and Normore, 2010). The collected articles of this book form a broad, rich and profound picture of social justice as it is seen by different scholars of educational leadership. These scholars indicate the need to construct a theoretical body of knowledge for implementation in the education field that would encourage a discourse of social justice and deepen understanding of the role of educational leadership informed by the principles of social justice, equality, equity and fairness.
The authors see social justice-focused research as an empowering force and describe current international scholarship and research in this field, offering suggestions, and indicating implications for the field of educational leadership at both national and international levels. Leadership for social justice implies the moral use of power. This goes beyond the assumption that underpins democratic schooling, and entails the leadership of education for a just and humane society (Brooks, 2008). Although there appears to be a logical connection between social justice and educational leadership, it is often unclear how this connection might be realized in practice.
The book begins with an introduction concerning the promotion of leadership discourse on social justice in the modern era, and indicates the need for a theoretical and empirical foundation to prepare, train and develop educational leadership that can imbibe education with the principles of social justice and distributional justice to serve diverse populations globally. The book is composed of four main parts and relates to the promotion of social justice at both the macro level (education policy) and the micro level (pedagogic class processes).
Part 1 is composed of three chapters. Chapter 1 describes education policy in Kenya, while Chapter 2 relates to the need to listen to student voices when constructing theory and practice in the school. The third chapter presents various insights concerning the training of educational leaders and suggesting ways in which they can be prepared for educational leadership in the spirit of social justice.
In Part 2, Chapters 4–6 provide examples of the development of social justice pedagogy in schools, showing what is required from the principal to implement social renewal, ending with an analysis of existing principals’ training programmes. Different viewpoints are presented on the principals’ training programmes and the extent to which they reflect the need for social justice, and the three different authors writing for this section suggest several ways to meet this goal.
Part 3 describes the development of social justice pedagogy and its application in the schools. Chapter 7 relates to formative leadership employed to establish an educational pedagogy based on inclusion of diverse students. Chapter 8 discusses several insights concerning teacher training, including suggestions for the construction of a pedagogy of social justice within the teacher training course, preparing leaders for social justice and equity-oriented work in schools. Chapter 10, which for me was among the most interesting, tells the story of an intervention by two researchers and teachers applying social justice in their school. This story presents a clear picture of the way in which theory and praxis can be combined successfully in implementing social justice in daily school practices both in teaching and school administration.
Part 4 concludes the book with two chapters offering a futuristic vision concerning leadership training for social justice and implications for the inclusion and consideration of the individual needs of diverse students, including students with different disabilities. The chapters also relate to the need to train educational leaders to express concern, inclusion, and fairness and to guide others to use social justice.
The book blends different professional experiences, intellectual engagements, and moral commitments of the editors and contributing authors, providing a multitude of lenses to understand the intricate web of connections between leadership and social justice. The theme recurring throughout the book is that although the educational faculty has trained thousands of educational leaders there is still a lack of focus on the issue of social justice, although diversity has become far more prevalent in the classroom. The contribution of the book is to bring this issue to the forefront and to offer practical suggestions to ensure the implementation of social justice in education.
Reading this book I was informed about the historical development of the concept of social justice in publicly funded schools and learnt about the impact of social justice in different contexts. I was informed by different viewpoints concerning the ways in which to practise the principles of social justice in school and the ways in which policies for leadership training can be shaped to help future educational leaders form a climate of social justice and equity in their classrooms, through greater awareness and care concerning the content of learning programmes.
Christa Boske and Sara Diem clearly mark out the path to a pedagogy of concern, equality and fairness that can be propagated in schools to produce greater sensitivity to the ‘other’. A clear message is delivered that diversity does not detract from educational quality; rather, it enriches and enlarges human achievements. The book is obviously valuable to all those involved in the training of educational leaders, since it offers various consciousness-altering perspectives, showing how it is possible to follow principles of social justice in various international contexts. It provides invaluable advice for those involved in educational policy-making and the supervision and mentoring of school principals, and those aspiring to develop a pedagogy based on principles of inclusion, care and concern in school.