How Social Justice Leadership Complements Instructional Leadership

Instructional leadership (IL) needs other frameworks to complement it. This qualitative study examined how social justice leadership (SJL), which involves understanding school inequities and taking action to eliminate them, might complement IL. The participants were 36 Israeli elementary school principals. Data collection included semi-structured interviews and focus groups, and data analysis included sorting, coding, and categorizing. The findings revealed that principals perceived SJL as providing answers to three main questions about IL: for whom (whose achievements should be improved), how (in what way should student achievements be improved), and with whom (who should the partners be for improving student achievements).