Educational Theory: The Specific Case of Social Justice as an Educational Leadership Construct

A number of operating principles are discussed in this chapter: 1. Social justice is both necessary and contingent with respect to education, that is, social justice can never be guaranteed or sustained without continuous efforts, including work within difficult – undemocratic– circumstances. 2. Social justice, as a deliberate intervention, is different from good teaching and moral leadership. 3. Educational researchers come to know social justice through consequences experienced by participants, not by: (a) A priori theoretical concepts (b) Well-intentioned dispositions of researchers (c) Researcher awareness or diagnosis of inequities 4. As such, social justice is defined by material changes in participants’ lives and only then is it validated by educational researchers post hoc. 5. Social justice as an educational leadership construct has to do with the PLACE of education in societies in terms of re-centering and engaging educational leadership within dominant social, political, economic, and transcendent discourses.