Reframing leadership for a more just society

Abstract

This article provides an overview of important social and political contexts that underscore the need for an increased focus on the role of social justice in leadership education and development discourse. The article also discusses key misconceptions that inhibit critical conversations about leadership education and a leadership framework that designed to center social justice in leadership development efforts.

A quantitative examination of social justice orientation among members of a historically white sorority.

“…In the current sociopolitical moment, it is perhaps more relevant than ever to support students’ inclinations to advocate for disadvantaged groups (Mitchell et al, 2023), described as a social justice orientation. Historically white sororities are a space where educators can further develop this outcome given their propensity to uphold systems of marginalization, including but not limited to whiteness, heterosexism, and hyperfemininity (Beaird et al, 2021; Edwards, 2009; Park, 2012; Stone & Gorga, 2014; Zimmerman et al, 2018).…”

“…Consequently, we became curious about what may shape sorority members’ likelihood to adopt socially just orientations and in particular, women affiliated with National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) sororities, which are historically and predominately white organizations (e.g., see Freeman, 2020). As Mitchell et al (2023) contended, fostering social justice orientations in today’s college student populations is integral given the current sociopolitical moment. Importantly, other scholars have pointed to how involvement with campus organizations positively or negatively influences social justice attitudes (e.g., Chang & Acosta, 2023; Foste, 2020).…”

The prefigurative politics of leadership education: Connecting our practice to broader movements

“…Popular education has explicit and implicit politics that push for social and economic justice (Horton et al., 1990; Preskill, 2021). The politics of IE are not (as yet) clearly stated, though arguments for a more explicit social justice politics in leadership education are being made (Guthrie & Chunoo, 2018; Mitchell et al., 2023). In this case study, and in much of IE practice, there is at least an implicit politics.…”

“…While popular education models challenge neoliberal ideologies and work, both in their explicit and implicit politics, to promote social justice, IE does not yet explicitly do so. However, as demonstrated through the analysis and comparison to popular education above, IE does implicitly share some political aims with popular education and other forms of leadership education committed to social justice (Mitchell et al., 2023).…”

Centering intersectional sustainability in leadership education: A case for the sustainable development goals

“…It is clear that the causes and consequences of climate change are deeply interwoven with global patterns of inequality and that the impacts of climate change act as multipliers of existing inequities and vulnerabilities. This is why calls for centering social justice in leadership education and development have multiplied recently (see: Guthrie & Chunoo, 2018; Mitchell et al., 2023), and many practitioners and educators have taken up the challenge. Yet there remains a gap in both the literature and practice that must be addressed: sustainability and climate change are social justice issues and deserve to be centered and addressed together.…”