New Guide Introduces Student Affairs Administrators to Leadership Framework Rooted in Liberation and Equity
“Leadership for Liberation: A Leadership Framework and Guide for Student Affairs Professionals” from the Pullias Center and NASPA focuses on developing education leaders in social change
A new publication from the Pullias Center in partnership with NASPA has been created to help student affairs professionals prepare students to grapple with complex, interconnected systems of oppression and domination that prevent the envisioning of a liberated world.
“Our current turbulent times have only intensified the need for student leaders to be introduced and to think about liberation especially as it becomes increasingly evident that radical transformation is needed for our society,” notes Jordan Harper, Pullias Center Research Assistant and co-author of the report.
The guide introduces important commitments and mindsets that serve as the bedrock for liberatory values while discussing those values along with the team roles and competencies needed for achieving individual and collective liberation. The guide also provides opportunities for higher education professionals to reflect on their own institutional context and programmatic situations
“This work represents an entirely different methodology of leadership – one that is intentionally separate from traditional systems of power and privilege and, instead is rooted in liberation as a social construct,” explains Kevin Kruger, president of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA). “The guide’s provocative thesis argues for a bold and forward-thinking leadership that focuses on the systems, structures, and cultural norms that are the heart of our most challenging societal problems.”
“The Leadership for Liberation framework includes essential cultural commitments, mindsets, liberatory values, and liberatory concepts for driving equitable social change,” shares Adrianna Kezar, Director of the Pullias Center and co-author of the guide. The values and concepts introduced in this guide originally emerged from a forthcoming critique of the Social Change Model of Leadership in the Journal of Leadership Education by Harper and Kezar that highlights how it neglects to mention race, power, and oppression.“This guide is strongly grounded in notions of intersectionality and that various aspects of one’s identity may result in being minoritized or discriminated against,” adds Kezar.
“Leadership is often framed in terms of characteristics such as courage, vision, honesty, and decisiveness but almost never in terms of the principles of liberation,” says John Brooks Slaughter, Pullias Center faculty member and professor of Engineering and Education at USC. “Liberation leadership means that effective leaders understand and act on the realization that so long as some persons are disadvantaged and/or marginalized by the normalized processes and practices of mainstream society, all persons are oppressed and mistreated. Leadership for Liberation should be required reading for all leaders and prospective leaders, not just for student affairs leaders.”
Leadership for Liberation: A Leadership Framework and Guide for Student Affairs Professionals, is available for download now.