The School Leaders Our Children Deserve

This is the updated edition of the bestselling seminal book on school leadership, equity, and social justice. Drawing on the experiences and words of successful public school principals, Theoharis shows why social justice leadership is needed and how it can be effective in creating more equitable schools. Although they faced tremendous barriers, the principals featured in this book made important strides toward closing the outcome and opportunity gaps in their schools by using inclusive, equitable practices. Featuring a mix of theory and practical strategies, this edition has been updated with new examples and frameworks relevant to today’s leaders. Responding to the current context of national resistance to issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, this timely book portrays how real school leaders seek, create, and sustain equitable schools, especially for marginalized students.

The School Leaders Our Children Deserve identifies seven keys that are crucial for social justice leadership:

Key 1: Acquire Broad, Reconceptualized Consciousness/Knowledge/Skill Base

Key 2: Possess Core Leadership Traits

Key 3: Advance Inclusion, Access, and Opportunity for All

Key 4: Improve the Core Learning Context—Both the Teaching and the Curriculum

Key 5: Create a Climate of Belonging

Key 6: Increase Student Learning

Key 7: Sustain Oneself Professionally and Personally

Book Features:

• Grounds the lofty ideals of equity and social justice in the daily work of school leadership.
• Provides rich and abundant examples, ideas, and strategies for how to be a school leader committed to issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
• Includes a new focus on culturally sustaining leadership and how disability studies inform practice.
• Offers an examination of how leaders conduct equity audits to improve outcomes for minoritized students.
• Shows how leaders navigate challenges to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in their communities.

George Theoharis is a professor in educational leadership and inclusive elementary education at Syracuse University, and coauthor of What Every Principal Needs to Know to Create Equitable and Excellent Schools.

PRAISE FOR THE FIRST EDITION—

“Theoharis does a beautiful job at marrying research with practical application that can be utilized by school administrators.”

—Journal of Educational Administration

“Presents a hopeful, humanistic, and democratic approach to school reform that many will no doubt wish to replicate.”

—American School Board Journal

"An important book that deserves a wide readership."

—Michael W. Apple

"A powerful guide for current and future school principals."

—Carl Glickman

“George Theoharis provides us with a new and powerfully updated edition. The book offers a compelling vision for how principals can upend long-standing patterns of inequality and make a profound difference in the lives of their students. In a moment when social justice education has come under increasing attack, the stories and theories in this book are essential reading. It is the book we all deserve.”
—John Rogers, professor of education, UCLA

“Practitioners and researchers look to the work of George Theoharis as ballast for acting on our social justice principles….We are eager to read and use the updated version of this valuable book. The same issues that beset the seven school leaders 20 years ago have only become amplified and magnified in the intervening years. For communities to have the schools that children and families deserve, we must reinvigorate ourselves on a regular basis with the radical hope that we can lead those schools.”
—From the Foreword by Lynda Tredway is senior associate for the Leaders for Today and Tomorrow Project at the Institute for Educational Leadership

“In this second edition of his foundational work, we see that Theoharis’s documentation and portrayal of the social justice leadership of seven school principals has proven both timeless and invaluable. Full of both reality-based examples of practice in action, as well as research-derived frameworks to guide practice, this text offers a practical guide to school leaders who sincerely seek to improve learning conditions and outcomes for students who would otherwise be marginalized and underserved.”
—Sharon I. Radd, program director, MA Organizational Leadership; associate professor, St. Catherine University

“Although books addressing social justice leadership have increased multifold, Theoharis’s book endures. With new updated analyses of principals’ improvement practices that made the book so influential for well over a decade, this second edition is a reminder of both the continuing need for social justice leadership and the challenges and benefits of enacting it. This book is a must for any school leader who is serious about creating equitable schools.”
—Decoteau J. Irby, associate professor of educational policy studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

“This second edition of The School Leaders Our Children Deserve couldn't come at a more pressing time. Dr. Theoharis beautifully illustrates the continued relevancy of social justice leadership through the perspectives, challenges, and lessons learned via public school principals engaged in the hard work of making their schools just, inclusive, and free of opportunity gaps. Current and aspiring school and district leaders alike can readily connect, reflect, learn from, and apply the strategies presented to be the leaders our children need.”
–Melissa A. Martinez, professor in educational and community leadership, Texas State University

"The School Leaders Our Children Deserve is a compelling manifesto for educational leadership that prioritizes equity, inclusion, and student success. The book masterfully combines research-backed insights with real-world examples, providing a roadmap for leaders dedicated to creating schools that serve every child, regardless of background or ability. This book offers a refreshing perspective on how school leaders can play a pivotal role in shaping a more just and effective educational system.”
—Frank Hernandez, dean of the College of Education, Texas Christian University

Contents

Acknowledgments  xi

Foreword by Lynda Tredway  xv

Note on Methodology  xxi

1.  School Leadership and Social Justice  1
Disparate Educational Opportunities  5
Social Justice Leadership as a Necessary Alternative to School-as-Usual  10
Organization and Content of the Book  14
A Framework for Social Justice Leadership  16
Conclusion  19

2.  The Seven Social Justice Principals and Their Schools  21
Introducing the Principals and Their Schools  21
Conclusion  29

3.  “There Is No Social Justice Without Inclusion”: Advancing Inclusion, Access, and Opportunity for All  31
The Connection Between Inclusion and Social Justice  34
Strategies That Advanced Inclusion, Access, and Opportunity for All  35
Conclusion  50

4.  “Changing How We Teach, What We Teach, and How We Approach Schooling”: Improving the Core Learning Context  53
The Connection Between Improving the Core Learning Context and Social Justice  54
Strategies to Improve the Core Learning Context—Both the Teaching and the Curriculum  55
Conclusion  72

5.  “Connecting and Respecting”: Creating a Climate of Belonging  75
The Connection Between a Climate of Belonging and Social Justice  76
Strategies That Create a Climate of Belonging  77
Conclusion  88

6.  Closing the Opportunity Gap and Increasing Student Learning: Toward a Theory of Socially Just School Reform  91
The Connection Between Increasing Student Learning and Social Justice  92
Increasing Student Learning  93
Toward a Theory of Socially Just School Reform  97

7.  “At Every Turn”: The Barriers Faced by Social Justice Principals  101
Barriers Within the School Site  102
Barriers at the District Level  111
Barriers at the Institutional Level  117
Consequences of the Barriers  122
Conclusion  124

8.  “Saving My Sanity”: The Resilience That Leaders Develop to Sustain Justice and Equity  127
Professional Strategies  128
Personal Strategies  136
Conclusion  140

9.  “The Intricacies and Details”: Consciousness, Knowledge, Skills, and Core Traits of Social Justice Leaders  143
Acquiring Broad, Reconceptualized Consciousness, Knowledge, and Skills  143
Possessing Core Leadership Traits  155
Conclusion  164

10.  “But That’s Just Good Leadership”: Lessons and Directions for Social Justice Leadership  165
Lessons for Educators  166
“But That’s Just Good Leadership”  174

References  179

Index  187

About the Author  199