The aesthetic pursuit of educational leadership for social justice: Grace in the struggle

Abstract

Attention to aesthetics in educational leadership literature and organizational leadership has increased over the last two decades. However, this attention has seldom included grace. We highlight emerging contemplations of grace to bring attention to conceptions of injustice and justice (i.e., transitional justice, global justice) through micro and macro-lenses (i.e., affective economy). This pairing of ethics and aesthetics provides an entry point for developing ways of being and doing educational leadership to enter the struggles against social injustices in and beyond schools and school districts. We first trace grace as a philosophical construct of European discourse up to the eighteenth century, including how it has become more broadly conceived as physical movement and within political movements and how some conceptions of it can undermine leadership intending to advance (social) justice. We then illustrate shifts away from conceptions of grace as a singularly intellectual or physical process to conceptions of grace as an affective and ethical process. These shifts are exemplified in historical and contemporary events including the Black Arts Movement, Indigenous perspectives, and public mourning over the loss of children or grandchildren. Given the increasing examples of hostilities in schools that include mass shootings and confrontations between students and staff over politically and racially charged discourse, those preparing to engage in educational leadership are challenged to enter the field poised to “act ugly” in confrontation with monsters, monstrosities, atrocities, and their own Shadow-Beast. This chapter aims to encourage educational leadership, as a field of performances, to perceive and practice grace informed by conceptions of it that support struggles for social justice.