Promoting Our Students: Examining the Role of School Leadership in the Self-Advocacy of At-Risk Students

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to describe how an alternative school leader taught at-risk students and their parents to advocate for students’ educational interests and how this affected students’ academic and social success. In social justice leadership literature, parents and students are described as passive recipients of a strong social justice leader. But the process described in this research, which is referred to here as self-advocacy, demonstrates a way that principals can include stakeholders (i.e., parents and students) in the struggle for school inclusion and social justice. The study was a 2-year ethnographic study that closely examined the students, parents, staff, community members, and principal of an urban alternative high school. The findings suggest that principals can develop students and parents into self-advocates, who can themselves advocate for students’ school inclusion.