From preservice leaders to advocacy leaders: exploring intersections in standards for advocacy in educational leadership and school counselling

Abstract

In this empirically based paper, we discuss educational leadership preparation as it relates to social justice, the concept of advocacy and the standards that guide leadership and counselling, respectively. To reveal how preservice leaders conceptualize advocacy as understood in professional standards, we draw on our research with 11 preservice students about the current US Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium standards and its relationship to what educational leaders should be able to know and do. Based on the insights students shared, we looked to the school counselling field to see how explicitly advocacy and social justice are defined for preservice counselors in standards and competencies for practice. We suggest that leadership programmes can look to school counselling and other disciplines to further inform them in preparing leaders for advocacy. We discuss why including more definitive advocacy and social justice language in leadership standards carries implications for future educational reforms. With more explicit and intentional definitions and examples of advocacy and social justice in education leadership standards, the better the likelihood that once students step into a school leadership role, they are prepared and willing to use their skills and knowledge in action.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Emily R. Crawford

Emily R. Crawford is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Email: [email protected]. Her most recent publications have been published in the International Journal of Leadership in Education and the Journal of School Leadership. Her research agenda includes educational policy and immigration issues and schools.

Noelle Witherspoon Arnold

Noelle Witherspoon Arnold is an associate professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Email: [email protected]. Her research agenda includes analyses of life history and narratives documenting and analysing leadership and work issues for people of colour. Other aspects of her research agenda explores how various belief systems emerge and impact the (re)interpretation of policy and practice, social justice and advocacy, ethics, and the intersection of gender and race. Her articles have appeared in the Teacher’s College Record, International Journal of Leadership in Education, International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, The Journal of Educational Administration History, Equity and Excellence in Education, The Journal of Negro Education, International Journal of Educational Reform and the Journal of Educational Administration. She most recently published the book Ordinary Theologies: Religio-spirituality and the Leadership of Black Female Principals.

Andre Brown

Andre Brown is a doctoral candidate in Higher Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis at the University of Missouri-Columbia and programme coordinator for the Alabama Power Academic Excellence Program Shelby Center for Engineering Technology at Auburn University. Email: [email protected]. His research agenda includes the college experience of Black males. Most of his current publications have appeared in Teachers College Record and International Journal of Leadership in Education.