Peter Lang Gmbh, Internationaler Verlag Der Wissenschaften Justice in Search of Leaders: A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership: 516 (Counterpoints: Studies in Criticality)

Justice in Search of Leaders: A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership is a guide for educators who are committed to equity-driven teaching, leading, and policy-making, and would like to operationalize socially just school practices for all children. Moving beyond a heroes and holidays approach to addressing racism, bias, injustice, and a cluster of isms, it provides a deeper understanding of the causes of structural inequities in schools, and suggests approaches for deconstructing them. The book includes a frank discussion of race, racism, social dominance, and implicit bias, and encourages both objective and subjective analyses of how they infect school practice. America's ambivalent response to race, racial identity development, the nature of prejudice, and how humans form values and develop belief systems is explored in some depth. There is also a critique of Whiteness as a socio-political concept as it relates to power and privilege, and as a demographic reality as it relates to institutional discrimination in schools. The book is not a critique of white people, and it is important that readers make that distinction. This leads to a discussion of the tricky and challenging process of changing beliefs, values, and attitudes as they relate to school leadership and teaching, and how all of this is connected to the power dynamics in schools. Justice in Search of Leaders: A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership encourages educators to acknowledge that we all have racial identities and biases that inform professional practice, and to reflect on the significance of this. It means thinking deeply about socially abhorrent subjects which make us uncomfortable and cause us to retreat to the safety of our comfort zones. This is necessary because for most under-served students, there is no retreat and no safety; there are only discomfort zones. Review " Justice in Search of Leaders: A Handbook for Equity-Driven School Leadership should be required reading for every teacher, administrator, and psychologist, no matter how many degrees they possess. In a nutshell, this is what it's all about--that when we talk of ignorance about 'race', what we're actually talking about is skin color. I hope that this book will cause its readers to see the world in an entirely different way, and to appreciate their fellow human beings as they never have prior to reading this remarkable work. Until we rid ourselves of the belief in several different races, and begin to realize, recognize, and admit we are all members of the same race, the human race, we will continue to treat others in less than human ways. In denying the humanity of others, we de-humanize ourselves." --Jane Elliott, Creator of the Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes Exercise; Internationally-Known Teacher, Lecturer, and Diversity Trainer "Gloria Graves Holmes provides a passionate and clearly reasoned case for placing racial equity and social justice at the heart of any school change efforts. She challenges school administrators and teacher leaders to a higher calling for our work--not merely closing gaps and moving data points, but deconstructing the arrangements of social dominance that are the deeper causes of racial disparities. Holmes' lifetime of research and activism shines through in every chapter." --Gary R. Howard, Author of We Can't Teach What We Don't Know; Founder, The REACH Center for Multicultural Education; Civil Rights Activist and Tireless Advocate for Social Justice and Educational Equity About the Author Gloria Graves Holmes is Professor Emerita in the School of Education at Quinnipiac University. She earned a Ph.D. in English from SUNY Stony Brook, a MA/LS from SUNY Stony Brook, and a MS from Queens College, CUNY. She also earned a Professional Diploma in School Administration from Long Island University. Holmes has received the Torch of Liberty Award from the Anti-Defamation League, the Multicultural Teacher of the Year Award in Highe