Understanding how micro affirmations support multiply marginalized social justice school leaders to thrive

Abstract

Purpose This paper illuminates and amplifies enduring wisdom from the everyday experiences of thriving women of color social justice school leaders who receive and give microaffirmations as an essential part of their asset-based leadership praxis. This study contributes to the knowledge base that informs leadership scholarship and practice in service of creating the conditions that truly support and sustain a diverse educator workforce. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a purposive case study of four women of color social justice school leaders. Information was gathered over multiple years based on four volunteers from a professional development support network. Sources include ten observations of affinity-based network meetings; eight in depth, semi-structured interviews, feedback surveys and written accounts of participants; descriptive and reflective field notes and artifacts including publicly accessible material. Findings Our analysis suggests that receiving diverse types of microaffirmations sustained participants’ resilience in the face of persistent racial and gendered microaggressions. Their social justice leadership praxis touches various levels of school organizations, indicating how microaffirmations serve as a key strategy for coping with a singular paradox: being punished (i.e. microaggressions) for doing transformative leadership. Originality/value This paper makes an important contribution by centering rich insights from participants who are multiply marginalized leaders by focusing on microaffirmations as a response to microaggressions. This study connects concepts and constructs from different disciplines (leadership, race and gender).