Critical Leadership Praxis for Educational and Social Change

Book excerpt: "In this edited volume, contributors draw on the work of Andrade and Morrell (2008) in articulating critical leadership praxis, as well as critical race theory and critical education leadership scholarship, in order to "offer new and generative theories of change; they make explicit power dynamics, social inequities, and taken-for-granted forms of stratification in educational organizations with the primary purpose of offering specific and useful frames, concepts, and practices to educational leaders that they can adopt in their own work. The goal is for educational leaders to develop their sense of agency and and their knowledge and professional competencies for taking an equity and inquiry stance in their work of transforming the organizations and people around them." The work is intended to provide a counter narrative to a broad literature in educational leadership that "reinscribe white middle-class male leadership styles, values, and priorities as an assumed and normative backdrop, both in terms of the frames used and the values and epistemologies promoted." The work is organized into four sections: Transforming Self; Transforming Educators; Transforming Organizations; and Transforming Systems. Contributors include practicing leaders, doctoral students with leadership experience, and leadership faculty and researchers"--