Courageous Leadership in Early Childhood Education

In this inspiring collection, 13 early childhood leaders take action to challenge and change inequitable educational practices in preschools and elementary schools. For them, educating for social justice is not an empty platitude. Steadfast and resolute, they turn rhetoric into reality as they guide early childhood teachers to teach for social justice innovatively and strategically. Through the voices of families, teachers, and the administrators themselves, each chapter shares ways that these leaders use the power entrusted in them to question and disrupt discriminatory and marginalizing practices that deny opportunities for some students while privileging others. The book includes insights, strategies, and resources that administrators can use to build confidence, knowledge, and skills as they invest in more equitable and just preschools and schools.

Book Features:

• Highlights the actions of administrators as they take a stand to transcend standardized approaches to teaching and learning, creating more equitable educational environments.
• Portrays strategies and resources used to engage teachers in critical examination of self and the institutions in which they work.
• Describes principles and practices that guide administrators as they support the development of culturally relevant practices and policies.
• Offers powerful ways early childhood administrators can approach inequitable mandates.

Highlights the voices of families as they participate in and are impacted by the work of administrators.

Susi Long is professor of early childhood education and language and literacy at the University of South Carolina. Mariana Souto-Manning is associate professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Vivian Maria Vasquez is professor of education at American University. Vasquez won the 2019 NCTE Outstanding Elementary Educator in the English Language Arts Award.

"Courageous Leadership is a handbook for school leaders who want to engage in social justice education. It offers practical strategies, resources, and insights that an help encourage and give ideas to administrators at school and district levels who want to make social justice and equity an everyday part of their academic communities." —Teachers College Record

"Susi Long, Mariana Souto-Manning, and Vivian Vasquez, scholars with stellar reputations in the fields of early childhood education, critical literacy, and social justice education, have combined their considerable talents to edit a book that will serve as a beacon of hope for administrators, policymakers, and educators at all levels of learning and teaching. "
—From the foreword by Sonia Nieto, professor emerita, University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Bestselling author of Why We Teach Now, The Light in Their Eyes, 10th Anniversary Edition, Why We Teach, and What Keeps Teachers Going?