Assessing Equity and Social Justice Competency Development in Educational Leadership Preparation Programs

As urgency grows for equity- and social justice-minded school leaders, understanding how educational leadership preparation programs develop equity and social justice competencies is increasingly important. This study captured program coordinators’ perceptions of their emphasis, pedagogical approaches, and needs on four key equity and social justice competencies. Data were collected through a 17-item survey created for this study, including an open-response question eliciting program needs. The survey was sent to the program coordinators of all 600+ known U.S. ELPPs at the time of study launch; 107 complete responses were analyzed in this study. The findings indicate principal preparation for social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion competencies remains disparate across U.S. educational leadership preparation programs where some programs perceive success and others lack the capacity, resources, and/or design intentionality. Analysis also reveals preparation approaches continue to include traditional pedagogies, presenting a need for the increased use of contextualized, active and interactive learning experiences in pre-service training as safe rehearsal opportunities which bridge theory to practice and complement the internship and residency experiences.