Chapter 11: Ethics, Values, and Social Justice Leadership: Embarking on a Moral Quest for Authenticity

Writing this paper about the problems associated with developing and implementing educational programs during September 2005 in Louisiana was a real challenge. At times I found it difficult to focus. At other times I was drawn so deeply into the vortex of deliberating about values and ethics that I would almost lose sight of myself. This was not an atypical experience for me. In fact, I have found it to be the case whenever I attempt to reflect on the indistinct processes of the human mind and spirit. The reflection becomes a journey, always intricate and often obscure, of grappling with the “overarching ideas, concepts, and theories” (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000, p. xiv) of ethics, values, and social justice in educational leadership. Perhaps not surprisingly, this journey of reflection and deliberation in the lifelong process of becoming authentic, true to oneself, is often considered “the most weighty of life’s moral activities” (Starratt, 2004a, p. 5).