Sister R. Leadership

Abstract

Sister R., the first author, is a Dominican Sister of Peace. Until recently, Sister R. had been the director of the Maya Ministry Family Literacy Program, working with the Maya Community in Lake Worth, Palm Beach County, Florida. She described her work with these indigenous, preliterate, hardworking peoples as “a university of the poor” in which “I do community.” She worked tirelessly and lived among a largely invisible community, but what she thought and did—as a leader—made the seemingly impossible possible. These case stories will describe how she brought leadership capabilities to indigenous, preliterate peoples, a seemingly impossible accomplishment when leadership is defined by traditional assumptions of power and literacy. As authors, we wrote these case stories specifically for the field of educational leadership, which urgently needs to develop new ideas and practices on how to integrate social justice into everyday school leadership. Sister R.’s leadership exemplifies a courage and humanity rooted in a philosophy of service and until these teachings are incorporated into school leadership development programs at the pre- and in-service levels, the failures associated with invisible and marginalized communities will continue.