Chapter 5: Navigating The In-Between: Defining the Third Space for Educational Leadership Programs

Administrators face multiple challenges with the increased enrollment of students whose first language is not English, who come from backgrounds of poverty, or who belong to underrepresented identities and cultures. These include combating systemic racism, oppressive policies, questions of power and privilege, and ensuring social justice and advocacy for all. Principals need the capacity to create inclusive learning environments meeting the needs of all students. While scholars have argued for such spaces in P–12 classrooms, we found little work on expanding this idea to Principal Preparation Programs (PPPs) and, in turn, to the work of the school (O’Meara et al., 2019; Pereira, 2019; Steele, 2017; Zeichner, 2010). Using a concept theorized by Bhabha (1994) and expanded on by scholars such as Anzaldúa (1998), we envisioned our PPP and the first years of leadership as literal and metaphorical third spaces, a decolonizing linguistic space. As this chapter will demonstrate, this is not an easy space in which to exist, but it is necessary to deconstruct and examine binaries and move toward inclusive leadership.