Preparing Leaders for Social Justice: Lessons from an Exemplary Counseling Psychology Department

Abstract

The literature on preparing educational leaders does not take into account what we can learn from other disciplines that have been successful in preparing professionals for social justice over a long period of time. To address this gap in the literature, this case study examined the policies and practices of an exemplary Department of Counseling Psychology oriented toward social justice. In so doing, we addressed these research questions: (a) What are the critical elements of this successful program? (b) What types of resistance did the program face? And, (c) how can these critical elements and resistance inform educational leadership programs? Drawing on a framework for preparing leaders for social justice, we addressed the research questions by interviewing key faculty and students in the program and extensively analyzing documents and archival date. During the change process, we found that (a) evolving meanings of diversity, multiculturalism, and social justice emerged; (b) the need to manage tensions was key, and (c) leveraging funding was critical. Their key policies and practices included (a) recruiting and hiring diverse faculty; (b) recruiting and selecting diverse students; (c) depicting the public “face” of the department and (d) implementing culturally responsive knowledge, skills, and pedagogy. We identify six lessons for educational leadership programs for social justice include (a) focusing on the world in which we are preparing leaders to lead; (b) hiring faculty of color and recruit students of color; (c) exploring the meaning of equity/social justice and how it should inform department policies and that practices should be an on-going conversation; expecting and valuing conflict in the process; (d) aligning all department decisions with the department equity mission; (e) leveraging university resources, and (f) developing courses, curriculum, and pedagogy that prepare leaders for diverse contexts. The paper concludes with limitations of and suggestions for the framework.

Color-Blind Leadership

“…Indeed, scholarship on social justice had been plentiful among educational administration scholars in the years leading up to the ELCC update (e.g., Alemán, 2009; Alston, 2005; Bogotch, 2002; Brooks et al, 2007; K. M. Brown, 2004, 2006; Hernandez & Marshall, 2009; Jean-Marie, Normore, & Brooks, 2009; Lugg & Shoho, 2006; Marshall & Ward, 2004; McKenzie, Skrla, & Scheurich, 2006; McKinney & Capper, 2010; Murtadha & Watts, 2005; Pounder, Reitzug, & Young, 2002; Shields, 2004; Skrla, Scheurich, Johnson, & Koschoreck, 2001). While there are a range of contemporary examples, we find Theoharis’ (2007) definition of social justice leadership to be more relevant, up-to-date, direct, and useful than that cited by the ELCC report.…”

A Measure of the Quality of Educational Leadership Programs for Social Justice

“…The second domain of research specifically focused on educational leadership preparation for social justice encompasses seven different categories: (a) general essays on leadership preparation for social justice (Cambron-McCabe & McCarthy, 2005; Jean-Marie et al, 2009; Johnson & Uline, 2005; Karpinski & Lugg, 2006; Pounder et al, 2002; Scheurich & Laible, 1995; Stevenson & Doolittle, 2003); (b) articles that propose frameworks for leadership preparation for social justice (Capper, Theoharis, & Sebastian, 2006; Furman, 2012; McKenzie et al, 2008); (c) research on related programs in the social sciences that focus on social justice and their implications for educational leadership programs (McKinney & Capper, 2010; Rodriguez, Chambers, Gonzalez, & Scheurich, 2010); (d) research that focuses on the efforts of particular university programs in preparing leaders for social justice, profiling the programs and discussing the strengths and areas for growth of the programs (Hernandez & McKenzie, 2010; McClellan & Dominguez, 2006); (e) evaluations of particular leadership preparation programs oriented toward social justice that are internal and autoethnographic (Gerstl-Pepin, Killeen, & Hasazi, 2006; McClellan & Dominguez, 2006), are external (Hoff, Yoder, & Hoff, 2006), or include practitioner perspectives of the effectiveness of their leadership preparation (McHatton, Boyer, Shaunessy, Terry, & Farmer, 2010); (f) articles that address curriculum or pedagogical frameworks for preparing leaders for social justice (Brown, 2004); and (g) research that addresses the lack of, or proposals for, integrating a specific identity into leadership preparation such as gender (Rusch, 2004; Young, Mountford, & Skrla, 2006), ability (Crockett, 2002; McHatton et al, 2010; Sirotnik & Kimball, 1994), social class (Lyman & Villani, 2002), or race (Boske, 2010; Evans, 2007; Gooden & Dantler, 2012; Hawley & James, 2010; G. R. López, 2003; Murtadha & Watts, 2005; Parker & Shapiro, 1992; Tillman, 2004; Young & Laible, 2000).…”

Social Justice Leadership as Praxis

“…These programmatic suggestions are not exhaustive—they relate only to program content that specifically targets these capacities. I do not discuss here other important programmatic issues, such as program structure (e.g., cohorts and internships), student recruitment, and the institutional politics involved in programmatic change, important topics that others have addressed (e.g., McKenzie et al, 2008; McKinney & Capper, 2010; Rodríguez, Chambers, Gonzáles, & Scheurich, 2010). Furthermore, most of the instructional ideas here are not original with me, though I have used and modified several in my own courses; they draw from the many fine analyses and recommendations by scholars reviewed earlier in this article, as well as other relevant sources.…”