Educational Administration Quarterly Vol. 43, No. 2 (April 2007) 221-258 Social Justice Educational Leaders and Resistance: Toward a Theory of Social Justice Leadership George Theoharis Purpose: A subgroup of principals—leaders for social justice—guide their schools to transform the culture, curriculum, pedagogical practices, atmosphere, and schoolwide priorities to benefit marginalized students. The purpose of the article is to develop a theory of this social justice educational leadership. Research Design: This empirical study examined the following questions: (a) In what ways are principals enacting social justice in public schools? (b) What resistance do social justice–driven principals face in their justice work? (c) What strategies do prin- cipals develop to sustain their ability to enact social justice in light of the resistance they face in public schools? Data Collection and Analysis: A critical, qualitative, positioned-subject approach com- bined with principles of autoethnography guided the research methods. Seven public school leaders who came to the principalship with a social justice orientation, who make issues of race, class, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and other historically margin- alizing factors central to their advocacy, leadership practice, and vision, and who have demonstrated success in making their schools more just, were studied through interviews. Findings: A description of (a) how the principals enacted social justice, (b) the resis- tance they faced as well as the toll the resistance had on them, and (c) the strategies they developed to sustain their social justice work is provided in detail. Implications for administrator preparation are made at the close of this article. Keywords: social justice; leadership; equity; principals; resistance The literature on leadership for social justice identifies schools that have demonstrated tremendous success not only with White, middle-class, and affluent students but also with students from varied racial, socioeconomic, lin- guistic, and cultural backgrounds (Capper & Young, in press; Maynes & 221 DOI: 10.1177/0013161X06293717 © 2007 The University Council for Educational Administration - at MICHIGAN STATE UNIV LIBRARIES on January 27, 2016 eaq.sagepub.com Downloaded from