Leadership for Social Justice: Social Justice Pedagogies

The relationship between educational leadership and practices of social justice is now entering its second decade with respect to empirical research studies. There have been three distinct research agendas: the first involves attempts to define the meaning(s) of educational leadership for social justice; the second is the descriptive documentation of school leadership behaviors which address social injustices and inequities within schools; and, the third focuses on the development of leadership preparation programs that include social justice as a curricular foundation. This paper is delimited to a review of literature documenting the relationship between social justice and leadership preparation programs, highlighting specific pedagogies, and building towards a curriculum. We take a chronological perspective moving from early theoretical conceptions of social justice to early studies on preparation programs and then focus on second generation empirical research centered on social justice pedagogies and curriculum development.