Public education in the United States operates following a bureaucratic model designed for the industrial era. The monocultural design of this model perpetuates hegemony in that the dominant cultural group asserts its ideological and cultural norms over other groups. This permeates policy, finance, law, ethics, curriculum, instruction, and differing levels of rigor in course offerings. Institutionalized racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, ableism, sizeism, ageism, and religious intolerance exist within it. The curricular inclusion of cultural pluralism and human rights education is resisted. These problems indicate a need to prepare educators to become competent and confident educational justice leaders. In this article, the results of our phenomenological study of 18 doctoral students from a private university in California, United States are presented. Transcribed interviews were analyzed using semi-structured questions based on Mezirow’s theory of transformative adult learning. Four emergent themes are described: (a) disequilibrium and critical reflection, (b) inclusive worldview and perspective shifts regarding self and others, (c) differences between transmissive and transformative learning, (d) and obstacles to transformative learning. The use of a problem-posing model for higher education may create the conditions for transformative learning that empower leaders to critically examine and challenge societal institutions that hinder social justice.
Education leadership review, volume 12, number 1 (april 2010)
NCPEA
Education Leadership Review is a nationally refereed journal published two
times a year, in Winter (April), and Fall (October) by the National Council of Professors ofEducational Administration.
Editor: Kenneth Lane , Southeastern Louisiana University;
Assistant Editor: Gerard Babo , Seton Hall University;
Founding Editor: Theodore Creighton , Virginia Tech.
This manuscript has been peer-reviewed, accepted, and endorsed by the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) as a significant contribution to the scholarship and practice of education administration. In addition to publication in the Connexions Content Commons, this module is published in the
International Journal of Educational Leadership Preparation, Volume 6, Number 2 (April - June, 2011), ISSN 2155-9635.
Authors
Philip Mirci , University of Redlands
Phillis A. Hensley , Texas A&M - Corpus Christi
Introduction
The work of educational justice leaders is to transform the current monocultural model of schooling. Because education exists as a subsystem of the larger societal system, social justice discourse must be the center for educational transformation. Such discourse involves consciousness raising and questioning one’s presuppositions of the oppressive uses of power and control in schooling and society. Educators are required to transmit an approved monocultural curriculum to students (Freire, 2000). This model is dominating through standardization to reproduce the social and economic status quo (Shannon, 1992).
