The unique role of school middle leaders in enacting social justice leadership

In recent years, social justice leadership in schools has received growing scholarly attention; however, the role of middle leaders in advancing equity has remained largely overlooked. To address this gap, the current study explores how middle leaders enact social justice leadership. This qualitative study involved 23 middle leaders from elementary schools in Israel. Data were collected through individual interviews and analyzed using a three-stage process comprising sorting, coding, and categorizing. The findings suggest that middle leaders promote social justice through three key avenues. First, they draw on their close understanding of classroom challenges to inform the development of more equitable schoolwide policies. Second, they utilize their departmental leadership to initiate equity-driven improvements within their own teams. Third, they use their position to advocate for individual students who have experienced unfair treatment. These findings suggest that middle leaders’ efforts to promote equity are neither simply an extension of the principal’s leadership nor a replacement for classroom-based equity practices. Rather, they represent an autonomous dimension of social justice leadership in their own right.