ABSTRACT
This chapter examines alternative perspectives in the field of educational administration and leadership and how they supply different ideas, practices, and values in relation to the principalship. It presents alternative historical perspectives focused on the work of Black and Latina/o principals who, because of racist conditions, had little choice but to work with communities and lead for social justice. The chapter reviews the work and key contributions of Thomas Greenfield, Richard Bates, William Foster, and Charol Shakeshaft, because their scholarship challenged traditional conceptions of the principalship and provoked the field to reconsider its direction. Critical theory and postmodernism influenced about public education and educational inequality in the 1970s and 1980s. Black principals in the segregated South needed to know more than how to manage a school's budget and oversee administrative processes. Principals in Latina/o communities often confront similar challenges to principals in Black communities given the nature of racial oppression in US society.
