Scaling the mountain to principalship: The barriers and the enablers of a female first time principal’s journey - chapter 6 ENABLERS IN JANET’S CLIMB TO PRINCIPALSHIP - Social Justice

ENABLERS IN JANET’S CLIMB TO PRINCIPALSHIP

Chapter Six: Social Justice

Social justice came out strongly as an enabler that kept Janet’s eye on the target of principal and helped pull her to the top.  It also compels her to remain there, even if she has days when she just craves to get down.

6.1 We “can’t have any more kids falling through the cracks and doing nothing” (Janet, 2015)

It is vital to ensure that no society wastes “the talent of its children and citizens” (Harris, James, Gunraj, Clarke & Harris, 2006, p.4) and social justice is high on Janet’s agenda.  However, social justice is an elusive concept and has a plethora of meanings (Sandretto, 2004).   I base my definition on Sandretto’s (2004) and Noddings’ (1999) proposals that all people must be treated equitably but also connect it to action (Lyman et al., 2012).  Therefore, in education, all students should be treated as individuals and given equitable opportunities to escape from “exploitation, economic marginalisation and deprivation” (Taysum & Gunter, 2008, p. 197). 

Janet’s mother was deacon in the Anglican Church and this had a “huge influence” on her values and beliefs even though Janet did not carry on in the church once she left home. Her mother was also a Justice of the Peace so Janet “saw her dealing with many social issues.” Janet uses these family values as her moral “guiding compass” (Lyman et al., 2012, p. 83) which steered her throughout her teaching career, directed her up to principalship and kept her there once she arrived.

Janet has a true passion for her community which has a “myriad of socio-economic problems” (Harris et al., 2006, p. 6) and her “extended kids.” This includes her own whānau as she has “a niece and a nephew in this town who walked out of school aged 15 who now sit in this community, have done nothing and receive the dole.”  Consequently, Janet felt that she “need[ed] to come back.”   She truly believes that society “can’t have any more kids falling through the cracks and doing nothing” as many other female principals and other leaders have indicated (Brown, 2002; Harris et al., 2006; Theoharis, 2007).  Social justice compelled Janet to make the journey from deputy principal up to the peak.