Cross Analysis on Social Justice Leadership of School Principals in Turkey and Greece

Abstract

Although social justice is an old concept, practical applications of it in education are relatively new and highly dependent on contextual variables, just as social justice leadership. Social justice leadership has been fostered by various distinctive factors in western and eastern societies. From this point of view, the authors attempt to compare Greek and Turkish school principals’ social justice leadership to reveal the similarities and differences between them. In this qualitative case study, 12 principals in total from Greece and Turkey were interviewed through in-depth semi-structured interview questions. Comparative analysis was employed to identify the similarities and differences between principals’ practices, internal and external social justice leadership resources, supports and hindrances. The results show that while the principals adopt universal social justice principles, they also use their own methods because of their schools’ contexts and their life experiences.