Tales from the Real World: Putting Leadership Theory Into Social Justice Practice

In this vignette, I offer concrete examples of weaving a critical social justice (Sensoy & DiAngelo, 2011) framework into the context of a living-learning program in higher education. Examples include implementation at both the broad program level and the individual curricular and co-curricular experience level, through passive and active learning strategies. Prior to delving into the program content for this vignette, it is imperative that I share my positionality in a spirit of transparency, equity, and accountability – recognizing that my identities always influence my work in both conscious and unconscious ways.

As a professional working in equity and leadership education, my identities as a white, settler, cisheterosexual woman require me to engage in continual self-reflection and to accept ongoing accountability when I operate from places of privilege. Simultaneously, my identity as a disabled educator, with both physical and mental illnesses, provides a unique perspective on proactively infusing accessibility into my work as a leadership educator and social justice advocate. Guided by my personal identities and my professional grounding in educational studies and critical social theories (Agger, 2013), I approach leadership education as synonymous with equity and social justice work, and as such, I bring this lens into my role as the director of the leadership and service living-learning community, or village, at my home institution.