Routledge Educational Leadership for Transformation and Social Justice: Narratives of change in South Africa (Routledge Research in Educational Leadership)

Educational Leadership for Transformation and Social Justice examines the relationship between the lived experiences of educational leaders at the University of the Free State in South Africa and how they think about and practice leadership for transformation and social justice. Based on biographical information, public speeches, published writings, and in-depth semi-structured face-to-face interviews, the book presents and analyses seven chapter-length narratives of these leaders. This book explores how some leaders at the University of the Free State – from the vantage point of various racialized and gendered identities, and generational experiences – conceptualize and enact leadership for transformation and social justice. Ambrosio argues that there are certain values, beliefs, concepts, principles, and ways of thinking that cut across their experiences and demographic differences. The narratives are presented in the leaders’ own words, and describe how their lived experiences shaped their values and identities, and inform how they think about and practice leadership for transformation and social justice. One convergence that emerged among these leaders is that their leadership is an extension of who they are, of their core values, identities and ethical commitments. Another is that they are motivated by visions of change that go beyond the University; by bigger dreams that infuse their work with meaning and purpose. With its in-depth analysis of the narratives, this book will provide educational leaders who have an orientation towards transformation and social justice with insights that enable them to think differently about how to make the policies, programs, and institutional culture of their own universities more equitable and just. It will appeal to academics, researchers and postgraduate students in the fields of education, educational justice, higher education, educational leadership and change, social justice and racial justice. Review ‘At last a book that examines leadership from a completely new perspective as messy, conflicted, emotive, political, spiritual and ethical; in other words, leadership that at its core is a deeply human endeavour which is at once vulnerable and transformative, broken and just. Too many books on the subject are neat-and-tidy accounts of six or seven steps to effective management or authentic leadership. The picture of leadership that emerges from these many popular and even academic texts present leaders is one of firm and decisive agents who are always clear, determined and precise in how they do their work. These ground breaking case studies of real leaders on a deeply divided campus in a highly unequal country hold intellectual as well as practical significance for the problem of leadership, anywhere. Leadership, in such contexts, is as much about reparation as it is about reconciliation, about hurt as well as hope. This book must be required reading for those who lead, or study leadership, in difficult contexts.’ Jonathan Jansen, Vice Chancellor and Rector, University of the Free State, South Africa ‘The one thing which struck me most in this text about Educational Leadership is the challenge the seven University of the Free State leaders make to all of us to self-reflect. They come at it from different ideological perspectives but make clear how in conflict environments which operate on simplistic binary positions – particularly that of white versus black – one needs to be aware of the complex ways in which many of us are complicit in the production and reproduction of inequality. This book is not a manual for how leaders should lead but it insists that they should demonstrate deep educatedness – self-awareness – in everything that they do. In the current South African conjuncture of suspicion and animosity, I would like to suggest, this is the first requirement the leader must impose on him or herself.’ Crain Soudien, Chief Executive Officer, Human