Social justice leadership in multicultural schools: the case of an ethnically divided society

Abstract

This paper reports on the results of an exploratory study focusing on the perceptions of elementary school principals who espouse a critical multicultural approach and show signs of a social justice leadership style. The study has taken place in an ethnically divided society (Cyprus) in which the political situation seems to influence the ways in which school leaders perceive issues of justice and multiculturalism. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 principals who espoused a critical multicultural approach and subscribed to values of social justice leadership. The analysis of these principals’ interviews reveals two important findings—one concerning the conceptualization of critical multiculturalism in a society that suffers from ethnic division and the other concerning the contextualization of social justice leadership in this setting. The paper discusses the implications for leadership preparation programmes and for future research on social justice leadership and critical multiculturalism.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. This claim does not reject the possibility of social justice work that may either be ‘underground’ so to speak (i.e. under the radar of the state) or done without creating much ‘fuss’ or seeking public attention (see Zembylas, 2010b for an example of a school principal who does this kind of work).

2. School inspectors in Cyprus have a twofold responsibility; on the one hand, they supervise and guide teachers in order to improve their teaching practices and, on the other hand, they evaluate individual teachers, school administrators and the school organization as a whole. In this manner, school inspects play a decisive role in teachers’ and school administrators’ career development (Theophilides, 2002).

3. According to Eurostat Education Statistics (July 2011), women constitute 82.6% of primary school teachers in Cyprus, therefore, most of the participating principals were women (available at http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Education_statistics#Women.C2.A0in_the_teaching_profession, accessed 14 May 2015).

4. The serial number assigned to each principal is in ascending order and was determined chronologically; the interview with principal 1 was the first to be conducted and the interview with principal 23 was the last. We avoided assigning pseudonyms because it would have been more difficult for the reader to recall names (in Greek) instead of numbers.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michalinos Zembylas

Michalinos Zembylasis is an associate professor of Education at the Open University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 12794, Latsia, 2252 Nicosia, Cyprus. Email: [email protected]. He is also Visiting Professor and Research Fellow at the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice, University of the Free State, South Africa. His research interests are in the areas of educational philosophy and curriculum theory, and his work focuses on exploring the role of emotion and affect in curriculum and pedagogy. He is particularly interested in how affective politics intersect with issues of social justice pedagogies, intercultural and peace education, and citizenship education.

Sotiroula Iasonos

Sotiroula Iasonos is an elementary school teacher and has a PhD in Educational Theory and Curriculum Development from the Open University of Cyprus, P.O. Box 12794, Latsia, 2252 Nicosia, Cyprus. Email: [email protected]. Her research interests are in the areas of educational leadership and intercultural education.