Defining moral responsibility for school leaders in times of democratic crisis

Abstract

In this chapter, I offer an ethical alternative to liberal neutrality in the present political contexts of educational governance and leadership, one that does not abandon important principles of political liberalism. The context for shared political and ethical life in the United States provides a democratic moral framework for understanding the challenges of moral responsibility, as the concept applies to public schooling in an era of democratic crisis. The traditional conception of the moral responsibility for positional educational leaders, particularly building principals, is too often viewed as fulfilling a linear, directive task of communicating and enforcing the correct moral ideal to guide educators, families, and students, with the expectation that this proper set of ideals (or, less often, theories) will determine right practice. I argue here for a contextual moral responsibility, derived from a practice-based ethic grounded in democratic political and ethical norms lived within a school community.