The Early Years of Leadership: The Journey Begins is distinctive for many reasons, chief among which is a strong commitment to honoring practitioners' stories and empirical research. The chapters in this volume also represent the work of scholars and school practitioners from the global north and south. The fusion of diverse international perspectives allows for greater identification of local and global commonalities and trends that would provide aspiring and novice school principals with practical information and strategies for their development. These include strategies for helping them to find their internal motivation and a roadmap to develop leadership philosophies and negotiate common leadership pitfalls within and outside of the school community. This book is intended for use by aspiring and incumbent school administrators and students enrolled in educational leadership and administration courses. Each chapter offers an overview of the specific area of focus and concludes with reflective activities and questions for discussion. It can therefore be used as a companion reader for administrators, as well as a teaching tool by universities and other professional development programs.

This book is motivated by our work with students and their families in urban communities, and the urgent imperative to address the endemic educational and societal inequities that pervade the lives of urban students, particularly those who live in poverty, are of minority and immigrant backgrounds, and are otherwise marginalized within current educational discourses and practices. In spite of the fact that over the last three decades policy makers, educators and communities across the globe have called for in-depth structural adjustments to urban education, these changes are rarely evidenced in the academic and practitioner spheres. On the contrary, guided by normative assumptions that ignore the realties of students' lives, narrow outsider notions of what ought to be continue to focus on deviance and constrain urban students within restrictive boundaries. These underlying discourses, in the form of deficit beliefs, thoughts, and actions, shape urban research, theory, and practice and blind prospective change agents to students' strengths, and delimit the transformative potential of social justice praxis within urban environments. This volume brings together a range of scholars from Canada and the United States that present a variety of different lenses on issues of diversity, equity and social justice in urban schools. Their analyses highlight the richness and complexity of urban education, and illustrate how multiple theoretical and practical configurations of difference impact students, their families and communities, and facilitate or hinder the creation of inclusionary learning environments.

This edited collection of chapters from invited scholars, explores issues of social justice and micropolitics in educational institutions. More specifically, it examines the ways in which social justice workers navigate, or can navigate, (micro) political systems in their quest to promote social justice. Issues of social justice and micropolitics are particularly important in this day and age as standardizing regimes and polarizing forces continue to erode the already perilous condition of the traditionally disadvantaged. While social justice workers make it a point to acknowledge the plight of the less fortunate, their well-meaning attempts to take action are not always successful. This requires that they acknowledge the realities of the micropolitical environments in which they work, and to take action in these arenas if they are to achieve their socialjustice goals. The title of the book, Working (With/out) the System, draws attention to the ways in which social justice workers/leaders (teachers, administrators, students, community members) navigate educational institutions and the wider social systems that are not always hospitable to changes that promote social justice. This volume describes the prospects, possibilities and actual practice of working with, working without, and working outside of educational organizations to promote social justice. Among other topics, the chapters probe: the manner in which social justice-minded leaders navigate micropolitical environments the ways in which social justice minded leaders promote and sustain social justice action within systemic contexts the difficulties and successes that they experience.

While critical race theory is a framework employed by activists and scholars within and outside the confines of education, there are limited resources for leadership practitioners that provide insight into critical race theory and the possibilities of implementing a critical race praxis approach to leadership. With a continued top-down approach to educational policy and practice, it is imperative that educational leaders understand how critical race theory and praxis can assist them in utilizing their agency and roles as leaders to identify and challenge institutional and systemic racism and other forms/manifestations of oppression (Stovall, 2004). In the tradition of critical race theory, we are charged with the task of operationalizing theory into practice in the struggle for, and commitment to, social justice. Though educational leaders and leadership programs have been all but absent in this process, given their influence and power, educational leaders need to be engaged in this endeavor. The objective of this edited volume is to draw upon critical race counter-stories and praxis for the purpose of providing leaders in training and practicing K-12 leaders with tangible narratives that demonstrate how racism and its intersectionality with other forms of oppression manifest within K-12 schooling. An additional aim of this book is to provide leaders with a working knowledge of the central tenets of critical race theory and the tools that are required in recognizing how they might be complicit in the reproduction of institutional and systemic racism and other forms of oppression. More precisely, this edited volume intends to draw upon and center the lived experiences and voices of contributors that have experienced racism in K-12 schooling. Through the use of critical race methodology and counter-storytelling (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002), contributors will share and interrogate their experiences while offering current and future educational leaders insight in recognizing how racism functions within institutions and how they can address it. The intended goal of this edited volume is to translate critical race theory into practice while emphasizing the need for educational leaders to develop a critical race praxis and anti-racist approach to leadership.

While critical race theory is a framework employed by activists and scholars within and outside the confines of education, there are limited resources for leadership practitioners that provide insight into critical race theory and the possibilities of implementing a critical race praxis approach to leadership. With a continued top-down approach to educational policy and practice, it is imperative that higher education leaders understand how critical race theory and praxis can assist them in utilizing their agency and roles as leaders to identify and challenge institutional and systemic racism and other forms/manifestations of oppression (Stovall, 2004). In the tradition of critical race theory, we are charged with the task of operationalizing theory into practice in the struggle for, and commitment to, social justice. Though higher education leaders and leadership programs are often absent in this process, given their influence and power, higher education leaders need to be engaged in this endeavor. The objective of this edited volume is to draw upon critical race counter-stories and praxis for the purpose of providing higher education leaders-in-training and practicing higher education leaders with tangible narratives that demonstrate how racism and its intersectionality with other forms of oppression manifest within higher education. An additional aim of this book is to provide leaders with a working knowledge of the central tenets of critical race theory and the tools that are required in recognizing how they might be complicit in the reproduction of institutional and systemic racism and other forms of oppression. More precisely, this edited volume intends to draw upon and center the lived experiences and voices of contributors that have experienced racism in higher education. Through the use of critical race methodology and counter-storytelling (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002), contributors will share and interrogate their experiences while offering current and future higher education leaders insight in recognizing how racism functions within their respective institutions, and how they can address it. The intended goal of this edited volume is to translate critical race theory into practice while emphasizing the need for higher education leaders to develop a critical race praxis and anti-racist approach to leadership.

The Early Years of Leadership: The Journey Begins is distinctive for many reasons, chief among which is a strong commitment to honoring practitioners' stories and empirical research. The chapters in this volume also represent the work of scholars and school practitioners from the global north and south. The fusion of diverse international perspectives allows for greater identification of local and global commonalities and trends that would provide aspiring and novice school principals with practical information and strategies for their development. These include strategies for helping them to find their internal motivation and a roadmap to develop leadership philosophies and negotiate common leadership pitfalls within and outside of the school community. This book is intended for use by aspiring and incumbent school administrators and students enrolled in educational leadership and administration courses. Each chapter offers an overview of the specific area of focus and concludes with reflective activities and questions for discussion. It can therefore be used as a companion reader for administrators, as well as a teaching tool by universities and other professional development programs.

While critical race theory is a framework employed by activists and scholars within and outside the confines of education, there are limited resources for leadership practitioners that provide insight into critical race theory and the possibilities of implementing a critical race praxis approach to leadership. With a continued top-down approach to educational policy and practice, it is imperative that educational leaders understand how critical race theory and praxis can assist them in utilizing their agency and roles as leaders to identify and challenge institutional and systemic racism and other forms/manifestations of oppression (Stovall, 2004). In the tradition of critical race theory, we are charged with the task of operationalizing theory into practice in the struggle for, and commitment to, social justice. Though educational leaders and leadership programs have been all but absent in this process, given their influence and power, educational leaders need to be engaged in this endeavor. The objective of this edited volume is to draw upon critical race counter-stories and praxis for the purpose of providing leaders in training and practicing K-12 leaders with tangible narratives that demonstrate how racism and its intersectionality with other forms of oppression manifest within K-12 schooling. An additional aim of this book is to provide leaders with a working knowledge of the central tenets of critical race theory and the tools that are required in recognizing how they might be complicit in the reproduction of institutional and systemic racism and other forms of oppression. More precisely, this edited volume intends to draw upon and center the lived experiences and voices of contributors that have experienced racism in K-12 schooling. Through the use of critical race methodology and counter-storytelling (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002), contributors will share and interrogate their experiences while offering current and future educational leaders insight in recognizing how racism functions within institutions and how they can address it. The intended goal of this edited volume is to translate critical race theory into practice while emphasizing the need for educational leaders to develop a critical race praxis and anti-racist approach to leadership.

While critical race theory is a framework employed by activists and scholars within and outside the confines of education, there are limited resources for leadership practitioners that provide insight into critical race theory and the possibilities of implementing a critical race praxis approach to leadership. With a continued top-down approach to educational policy and practice, it is imperative that higher education leaders understand how critical race theory and praxis can assist them in utilizing their agency and roles as leaders to identify and challenge institutional and systemic racism and other forms/manifestations of oppression (Stovall, 2004). In the tradition of critical race theory, we are charged with the task of operationalizing theory into practice in the struggle for, and commitment to, social justice. Though higher education leaders and leadership programs are often absent in this process, given their influence and power, higher education leaders need to be engaged in this endeavor. The objective of this edited volume is to draw upon critical race counter-stories and praxis for the purpose of providing higher education leaders-in-training and practicing higher education leaders with tangible narratives that demonstrate how racism and its intersectionality with other forms of oppression manifest within higher education. An additional aim of this book is to provide leaders with a working knowledge of the central tenets of critical race theory and the tools that are required in recognizing how they might be complicit in the reproduction of institutional and systemic racism and other forms of oppression. More precisely, this edited volume intends to draw upon and center the lived experiences and voices of contributors that have experienced racism in higher education. Through the use of critical race methodology and counter-storytelling (Solorzano & Yosso, 2002), contributors will share and interrogate their experiences while offering current and future higher education leaders insight in recognizing how racism functions within their respective institutions, and how they can address it. The intended goal of this edited volume is to translate critical race theory into practice while emphasizing the need for higher education leaders to develop a critical race praxis and anti-racist approach to leadership.

This edited collection of chapters from invited scholars, explores issues of social justice and micropolitics in educational institutions. More specifically, it examines the ways in which social justice workers navigate, or can navigate, (micro) political systems in their quest to promote social justice. Issues of social justice and micropolitics are particularly important in this day and age as standardizing regimes and polarizing forces continue to erode the already perilous condition of the traditionally disadvantaged. While social justice workers make it a point to acknowledge the plight of the less fortunate, their well-meaning attempts to take action are not always successful. This requires that they acknowledge the realities of the micropolitical environments in which they work, and to take action in these arenas if they are to achieve their socialjustice goals. The title of the book, Working (With/out) the System, draws attention to the ways in which social justice workers/leaders (teachers, administrators, students, community members) navigate educational institutions and the wider social systems that are not always hospitable to changes that promote social justice. This volume describes the prospects, possibilities and actual practice of working with, working without, and working outside of educational organizations to promote social justice. Among other topics, the chapters probe: the manner in which social justice-minded leaders navigate micropolitical environments the ways in which social justice minded leaders promote and sustain social justice action within systemic contexts the difficulties and successes that they experience.

This book is motivated by our work with students and their families in urban communities, and the urgent imperative to address the endemic educational and societal inequities that pervade the lives of urban students, particularly those who live in poverty, are of minority and immigrant backgrounds, and are otherwise marginalized within current educational discourses and practices. In spite of the fact that over the last three decades policy makers, educators and communities across the globe have called for in-depth structural adjustments to urban education, these changes are rarely evidenced in the academic and practitioner spheres. On the contrary, guided by normative assumptions that ignore the realties of students' lives, narrow outsider notions of what ought to be continue to focus on deviance and constrain urban students within restrictive boundaries. These underlying discourses, in the form of deficit beliefs, thoughts, and actions, shape urban research, theory, and practice and blind prospective change agents to students' strengths, and delimit the transformative potential of social justice praxis within urban environments. This volume brings together a range of scholars from Canada and the United States that present a variety of different lenses on issues of diversity, equity and social justice in urban schools. Their analyses highlight the richness and complexity of urban education, and illustrate how multiple theoretical and practical configurations of difference impact students, their families and communities, and facilitate or hinder the creation of inclusionary learning environments.