Educational Leadership for Social Justice in Multicultural Contexts: The Case of Melilla, Spain

ABSTRACT

In multicultural contexts, school principals and educators face unique challenges integrating disadvantaged and immigrant youth. We investigate how these leaders advocate, design and implement social justice pedagogies for inclusion. Drawing on an interdisciplinary literature and in-depth interviews with school principals in Melilla (Spain), we further explore the social justice ideologies and practices of leaders in culturally diverse, minority-majorityschools. The findings reveal that intercultural education and ICT both enhance the inclusion of students and families, transforming schools into more open, democratic, learning environments. However, scarce funding resources, exacerbated by Melilla’s remote location from its Central Ministry of Education and the limited bargaining power of leaders, often truncate social justice initiatives.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the participants and principals of the schools in this research in Melilla (CEIP Anselmo Pardo, CEIP Gabriel de Morales, CEIP Hipódromo, CEIP Juan Caro, CEIP Constitución y CEIP Real) for their time, accessibility, and interest. We would like also to express our gratitude to the special issue coordinators, and the referees of the article. Their careful reading and insightful comments have greatly helped to improve the quality of our contribution.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.