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Critical Reflective Practices: Connecting to Social Justice

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International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Social (In)Justice

Part of the book series: Springer International Handbooks of Education ((SIHE,volume 29))

Abstract

Leading for social justice is a highly emotional endeavor requiring courage, integrity, imaginative possibilities, and self-awareness. It is important to also acknowledge the ongoing debate and tensions regarding multiple meanings for social justice, what it means to lead for social justice, and pedagogies that encourage and support school leaders to lead for social justice. The author examines how critical reflection promotes a connective process that precedes meaningful learning centered on a change of self and, ultimately, changing ways of knowing and responding to the world. The author’s voice is that of a school social worker, inner-city school leader, and tempered radical—a marginalized voice missing from debates centered on preparing school leaders for social justice. Deepening new ways of understanding and knowing is not an easy process for those who work in schools. Educators and school leaders might reconsider to what extent they have the capacity to scrutinize the complexities of oppression in order to formulate questions that inquire about whose interests are actually served. Those interested in addressing the lived realities of marginalized populations in schools need to pay closer attention to the impact of the nation’s deepening cultural texture, racial tensions, and increasing percentage of students from historically disenfranchised populations. The author contends sense-making and artmaking are tools to engage school leaders in critically reflecting on these issues. This process affords people with opportunities to understand relationships between their sense of self and leading for social justice through the senses—ways in which educators perceive their lived experiences and relation to others.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Educational Administration, Kent State University, Kent, OH, 44240, USA

    Christa Boske

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  1. Christa Boske
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Correspondence to Christa Boske .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida, USA

    Ira Bogotch

  2. Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, USA

    Carolyn M. Shields

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Boske, C. (2014). Critical Reflective Practices: Connecting to Social Justice. In: Bogotch, I., Shields, C. (eds) International Handbook of Educational Leadership and Social (In)Justice. Springer International Handbooks of Education, vol 29. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6555-9_17

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