The Principal’s Role in Professional Development for Social Justice

Literature on principal leadership in professional development offers important but underdeveloped conceptions of how school principals promote professional development for social justice. This article offers an empirically-based framework of the principal’s role in professional development for social justice. An in-depth qualitative multicase study design was used to examine how three school principals for social justice influenced professional learning in their schools. Data collection included 5 months of field work and more than 40 semistructured interviews with principals, teachers, specialists, and other personnel. Data suggest five principal roles worked together to optimize professional learning: transformative visionary, transformative learning leader, transformative structural leader, transformative cultural leader, and transformative political leader.