On Friday 13th March 2026, the Inclusion Leadership RIG hosted an event online entitled, ‘Leadership for Increasingly Diverse Schools’ (based on the book of the same name), with guest speakers, George Theoharis and Martin Scanlan.
This presentation grounded the work of K–12 school leadership in the realities that public schools are increasingly diverse. This means that students, staff, and families experience how their identities (race, SES, disability, language, sexual and gender identity, religion, and social ecosystems) intersect.
Those intersecting identities result in lived experiences of discrimination and lack of opportunities for some. As schools work to provide equitable and excellent education, we are experiencing strong political backlash against that work. We frame the leadership needed to support all students, key terms in this work, and ways leaders can foster their own communities of practice in support of this urgent and difficult work.
The premise of the presentation was straightforward: schools best serve the common good by eliminating marginalization across students’ multiple dimensions of diversity. Thus, the purpose of the book is to help school leaders deepen their knowledge, skills, and dispositions to create inclusive schools. We purposefully argue that seeking to eliminate marginalization requires action, and thus we include ideas and strategies for leadership practice. One key tool is an equity audit.
If you missed this event or would like to revisit it, you can now watch it in full below.
Thank you to the Inclusion Leadership RIG Co-Convenors for organising the event, to George and Martin for their inspiring presentation, and to everyone who joined us online.
George Theoharis
George Theoharis (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin- Madison) is a Professor in Educational Leadership and Inclusive Education at Syracuse University. Starting as a kindergarten teacher, he worked as a teacher, principal, university faculty, and university administrator focused on educational equity. Theoharis served as Department Chair, Associate Dean, and Director of Field Relations. His work emphasizes issues of inclusion, university/school partnerships, and leadership for social justice. He wrote hundreds of op-eds and articles, plus 13 books. He grew up in Wisconsin in an activist family. He has two ebullient young adult children and an inspiring partner.
Martin Scanlan
Martin Scanlan is a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Higher Education in the Lynch School of Education at Boston College. Before joining the academy, Scanlan spent over ten years as a teacher and administrator. He primarily worked in urban settings in schools serving traditionally marginalized students in Washington, D.C., Berkeley, CA, and Madison, WI. This laid a foundation for his teaching and scholarship interests, which focus on how schools can be organized to more effectively welcome all. Scanlan’s research primarily focuses on the organizational routines and practices of adults in schools, including the policies and procedures that shape these. While attending to multiple dimensions of diversity, his work has looked most carefully at how schools across sectors – including Catholic schools and public schools – can better serve students who have diverse cultural and linguistic heritages, as well as students with special needs. Scanlan has an extensive record of scholarship in academic journals reporting this work.
