Educational Leadership for Transformation and Social Justice ─ Narratives of Change in South Africa

There is a burgeoning crisis in schools and institutions of higher education in South Africa which calls for the creation of opportunities for previously marginalized and excluded students to access institutions of higher education, and to succeed academically. The need to do so is of vital importance to the social, economic, and political stability and development of South Africa, and to strengthening its nascent democratic institutions and traditions.

Written in an ethnographic style and based around ten semi-structured face-to-face interviews with key senior and mid-level leaders, this book explores views on leadership for transformation and social justice within higher education. Through analysis of how key leaders, at a university which is considered a leader in academic and institutional transformation in South Africa, think about and practice leadership for transformation and social justice, this book endeavours to inform the practice of other educational leaders, particularly in countries that face the challenge of creating a more equitable system of public education.

The book will be particularly pertinent to managers who are grappling with the issue of how institutions of higher education, in post-conflict societies marked by a long history of racial oppression and exclusion, can achieve integration and transform the institutional cultures of universities.

John Ambrosio is Associate Professor of Social Foundations in the Department of Educational Studies at Ball State University in Muncie, USA. He received a Core Fulbright Scholar Program grant to teach and conduct research with the Faculty of Education at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa from August 2013 to July 2014.