Expanding Leadership Capacity toward Social Justice

Abstract

Educational administrators are consistently challenged to find the right mix of leaders and to identify potentials that can be harnessed to expand the cadre. In both the academic and research communities, there has been much dialogue surrounding the way in which leadership is developed in organisations. These discourses continue to provide avenues for researchers to identify and recommend best practices for leadership development. Varied types of leadership could be explored as a means of expanding leadership capacity and sustaining a cadre of leaders suited to meet the growing needs in educational communities and other spheres. This study investigated perceptions of staff concerning distributed leadership as a possible strategy for enhancing succession planning, expanding leadership capacities, and ensuring that social justice is practiced within their organisation. Two main questions were explored in this study to uncover participants’ perceptions of current leadership practices and distributed leadership; and to have them suggest how distributed leadership could be used within their academic unit to expand leadership capacity and to practise social justice. This research provides valuable information regarding how distributed leadership can be used to augment leadership capacities, enhance succession planning, and expand leadership capacity to ensure social justice is practised within the specified context.

Keywords

• Social justice,Distributed leadership

References

1. Bolden, R. (2011). Distributed leadership in organizations: A review of theory and research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 13, 251–269. Furman, G. (2012). Social justice leadership as praxis: Developing capacities through preparation program, Educational Administration Quarterly, 48 (2), 191-229. Greenfield, D., Braithwaite, J., Pawsey, M., Johnson, B., & Robinson, M. (2009). Distributed leadership to mobilise capacity for accreditation research. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 23 (2), 255-67. Hargreaves, A. & Fink, D. (2004). The seven principles of sustainable leadership, Educational Leadership 61(7), 8–13. Harris, A. (2008). Distributed leadership: according to the evidence. Journal of Educational Administration, 46 (2), 172-188. Harris, A. (2009). Distributed leadership: What we know. In: A. Harris (Ed) Distributed Leadership. Studies in Educational Leadership, (pp. 11-21). Dordrecht, the Netherlands: Springer. Harris, A. (2011). Distributed leadership: Implications for the role of the principal, Journal of Management Development, 31 (1), 7-17. Hill-Berry, N. P. (2015). Infusing distributed leadership for capacity building and organisational effectiveness: Is this the journey for a select Jamaican college? The Bridge: Journal of Educational Research-Informed Practice, 2 (2), 6-27. Hirsh, S. (2010). Foreword. In H. Mizell (Ed.), Why professional development matters (pp. 1-2). Oxford: OH: Learning Forward. Huggins, K. (2017). Developing leadership capacity in others: An examination of high school principals' personal capacities for fostering leadership. International Journal of Education Policy and Leadership, 12 (1). doi:10.22230/ijepl.2017v12n1a670 Miller, P. (2013). School Leadership in the Caribbean: Approaches and development. In P. Miller (Ed.), School Leadership in the Caribbean: Perceptions, Practices, Paradigms (pp.13-27). London, United Kingdom: Symposium Books. Miller, P. (2015). Leading remotely: Exploring the experiences of principals in rural and remote school communities in Jamaica. International Journal of Whole Schooling, 11 (1), 35-53. Miller, P. (2016). Exploring school leadership in England and the Caribbean: New insights from a comparative approach. London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury. Miller, P., Hill-Berry, N. P., Hylton-Fraser, K., & Powell, S. (2019). Social justice work as activism: The work of education professionals in England and Jamaica. International Studies in Educational Administration (ISEA), 47(1), 3 -19. Mizell, H. (2010). Why professional development matters. Oxford, OH: Learning Forward. Potter, C., & Brough, R. (2004). Systemic capacity building: A hierarchy of needs, Health Policy and Planning, 19 (5), 336–345. doi:10.1093/heapol/czh038 Public Impact for the Chicago Public Education Fund. (June 2008). School turnaround leaders: Competencies for success. Part of the school turnaround collection from Public Impact, pp.1-33. Rothwell, W. J. (2010). Effective succession planning: Ensuring leadership continuity and building talent from within (4th ed.). New York, NY: AMACOM. Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline. New York, NY: Doubleday. Silva, P., Slater, C. L., Lopez Gorosave, G., Cerdas, V., Torres, N., Antunez, S. & Briceno, F. (2017). Educational leadership for social justice in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Spain. Journal of Educational Administration, 55 (3), 316-333. doi:10.1108/JEA-03-2016-0033 Smith, L. (2013). Together we can: Sharing the burden of leadership. In P. Miller (Ed.), School leadership in the Caribbean: Perceptions, practices, paradigms (pp.157-180). London, United Kingdom: Symposium Books. Southworth, G. (2009). Distributed Leadership. Kent: Aspiring Senior Leaders’ Programme [Power Point Slides]. Notes for presentation on Distributed Leadership. Spillane, J. P., Halverson, R. & Diamond, J. B. (2004). Towards a theory of leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 36 (1), 3-34. Szeto, E. & Cheng, A. Y. N. (2018). How do principals practise leadership for social justice in diverse school settings? A Hong Kong case study. Journal of Educational Administration, 56 (1), 50-68. doi.10.1108/JEA-08-2016-0087 Vogel, L. R. (2011). Enacting social justice: Perceptions of educational leaders, Administrative Issues Journal: Education, Practice, and Research, 1 (2), 69–82.