Arab women’s educational leadership and the implementation of social justice in schools
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JEA-10-2016-0131 |
| Date | 05 February 2018 |
| Published date | 05 February 2018 |
| Pages | 18-32 |
| Author | Khalid Arar |
| Subject Matter | Education,Administration & policy in education,School administration/policy,Educational administration,Leadership in education |
Arab women’s educational
leadership and the
implementation of social
justice in schools
Khalid Arar
The College for Academic Studies, Or Yehuda, Israel
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to focus on gender and social justice (SJ) among pioneer female
principals and superintendents in the Arab education system in Israel. The research questions were: what
motivated these women to act for SJ? Are there common personal characteristics and educational values
which characterize these women? What actions have they taken to apply SJ through their work?
Design/methodology/approach –Four superintendents and two principals participated in in-depth
interviews, describing their careers in education and their contributions.
Findings –The findings indicate that these women were highly motivated often by their backgrounds to
right social wrongs upholding values of equality and justice and empowering others to succeed.
They employed leadership skills that initiate a strong desire to succeed and challenged inegalitarian rules and
norms. They brought their unique feminine strengths and experience to promote social goals far beyond
requirements of their official job descriptions. Hopefully their views and actions can guide the Arab education
system to pedagogy that rectifies social injustice includes students and empowers teachers.
Originality/value –It is concluded that through their jobs these women leaders were able to initiate a policy
of change and promote a new educational agenda.
Keywords Principals, Gender, Educational administration, Social justice
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The concept of social justice (SJ) is discussed extensively in extant educational literature,
especially in relation to educational leaders’role in the application of SJ principles in school
(Arar, 2015; Arar et al., 2017; Berkovich, 2014; Theoharis and Brooks, 2013). However, the
concept of SJ is opento various interpretationsand often politically loaded (Brookset al., 2015;
Jean-Marie et al., 2009). Severe criticism is voiced toward the education system, arguing that
the declared aspiration to improve SJ in schools and rectify discrimination, exclusion and
marginalization, often remains in therealm of rhetoric and is not expressed inschool policies
and praxis (Fraise and Brooks, 2015; Wang, 2016).
It has been argued that equal access to educational processes, of itself cannot guarantee
SJ, when the output is not equal (Garratt and Forrester, 2012). Brooks and Miles (2006)
indicated that in order to face the challenge of dealing with social inequity, school leaders
should ensure that schools embody the principles of justice, containment, caring and
empathy. Therefore, school leaders are expected to develop critical awareness of forms of
oppression, exclusion and marginality (Brooks and Miles, 2006), and to understand how
non-representative resource and power distribution in the educational organization can lead
to the favoring of one group over another (Diem and Boske, 2012).
Various scholars have examined how educational leadership can turn SJ into a regular
school practice; they describe three main dimensions of SJ which should be considered in
schools: distributive justice, relational justice, and cultural justice (Arar, 2015; Bogotch and
Shields, 2014; Brooks and Miles, 2006; Fraise and Brooks, 2015). Diem and Boske (2012)
claim that leaders who wish to improve SJ in their school should be aware of the power
distribution in their organization and how the status quo is maintained. Using this
Journal of Educational
Administration
Vol. 56 No. 1, 2018
pp. 18-32
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0957-8234
DOI 10.1108/JEA-10-2016-0131
Received 25 October 2016
Revised 13 July 2017
Accepted 16 July 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0957-8234.htm
18
JEA
56,1
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