File(s) under permanent embargo
Positional matters: school leaders engaging with national equity agendas
journal contribution
posted on 2019-01-01, 00:00 authored by Tebeje Molla MekonnenTebeje Molla Mekonnen, Trevor GaleThis paper claims a central role for school leaders (principals or head-teachers) in the enactment of social justice policy in schools, who act as key agents or ‘gate keepers’ for what counts as social justice in their contexts of practice. Social justice means different things in different contexts depending on where leaders–who use policy as an opportunity to advance what they think is achievable within the limits of available resources–are positioned in the field and how that defines their stances. Drawing on qualitative data generated through in-depth interviews with ten secondary school principals in two Australian cities, the paper analyses the engagement of school leaders with nationally prescribed equity-related policies. Our analysis shows that, depending on the institutional ethos and resources of schools and their own social justice dispositions, school leaders tend to take different stances towards nationally defined equity agendas. Their responses range from compliance to compromise to contest. The paper suggests that doing social justice in schools can never be unilateral, as policy documents suppose, but is characterised by context-informed policy translation, mediated by a range of interactive forces and interests.
History
Journal
Journal of education policyVolume
34Issue
6Season
Australian Education Policy – a case of global education reform hyperactivityPagination
858 - 876Publisher
Taylor & FrancisLocation
Abingdon, Eng.Publisher DOI
ISSN
0268-0939eISSN
1464-5106Language
engPublication classification
C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journalCopyright notice
2018, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis GroupUsage metrics
Categories
No categories selectedKeywords
Licence
Exports
RefWorks
BibTeX
Ref. manager
Endnote
DataCite
NLM
DC