Chapter 5: Leadership for Social Justice: A Matter of Infl uencing Policy Development

We argue that the first consideration in creating policies for social justice is to strengthen the relationship between schools and communities. Furthermore, in training future leaders we must teach our candidates to take active roles that intervene on oppressive power differences and work to create schools that develop everyone’s capacity to think, to critique, and to carry out civil discourse about complex debatable issues. Leaders are stewards of the school and community and are engaged in revitalizing both to serve the needs of all children. The knowledge, skills, and dispositions that surround our work provide a framework for the words that follow. Knowledge: From Abstract to Attitudes