Caring, Inclusive, and Transformative Leadership: The Key to Social Justice in Education
摘要
This chapter examines the conditions required for the development of caring, inclusive, and transformative leadership in Quebec’s French-language public schools, with in mind greater social justice. Drawing on recent research conducted in schools outside the Montreal metropolitan area it highlights the systemic inequalities experienced by the people who work and interact within educational communities. It emphasizes the central role and responsibility of leaders, namely, managersManagers (directors generals, directors/coordinators of education or human resources, superintendents, and school principals), who are mostly from the dominant group, in transforming power relations, institutional practices, and organizational structures. Based on an empirically validated conceptual framework, the chapter describes the components of caring, inclusive, and transformative leadership: alignment between values, attitudes, and skills; commitment to a reflective and critical approach; consistent implementation of actions; active promotion of well-being, equity, and inclusion; and situated professional accompaniment. This leadership is presented as a relational, contextualized, and ethical process based on the recognition of inequities and the redistribution of power. The chapter emphasizes the importance of caring and reflective accompaniment, embodied by an accompanying person who is aware of their social position and who supports the commitment of leaders, particularly school principals, to a process of transformation. The dynamic articulation of the leadership conceptual framework and the accompaniment framework reinforces the coherence between ethical intentions and concrete practices. In short, this chapter offers a critical resource to equip leaders, without imposing a single model. It calls for collective, sustainable, and reality-based approaches to build inclusive, equitable, and meaningful educational environments capable of responding to the systemic challenges of the current sociopolitical and historical context.