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Illinois School Board Journal
January/February 2002

Terrorism: A challenge for moral leadership

by Gregory M. Hauser

Gregory M. Hauser is an associate professor at Roosevelt University in Chicago, Illinois.

The recent acts of terrorism in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C., have presented school boards and district administrative teams with several unique and difficult challenges. Immediately following the September attacks, a wide range of resources emerged to assist administrative personnel in addressing a number of issues.

But school board members still are certain to face potential policy questions associated with terrorism as it impacts the district and the community. The district administrative team will face issues associated with implementing board policy, as well as developing and evaluating plans, programs and procedures associated with responding to terrorism.

Initially, school board members need to consider how they will think about the crisis. As they consider potential broad policy implications, board members will wish to ensure the district is providing a comprehensive response that meets the needs of the educational community and the larger community in which the district resides. Approaching this crisis from the perspective of ethical leadership will help in their thinking about district policies as a response to terrorism.

What is ethical leadership? Joan P. Shapiro and Jacqueline A. Stefkovich provide a framework of ethical leadership and decision making by identifying four ethical models: justice, critique, care and profession.

The ethic of justice challenges school board members to consider policy issues related to the rule of law, questions associated with equity and equality, and the rights of the individual versus society. In contrast, the ethic of critique, drawn from the writings of Paulo Freire and Henry A. Giroux, among others, might stimulate school board members to consider policies associated with concepts of power, privilege, culture, language, race, gender and sexual orientation. All of these factors of society potentially place any individual or group at disadvantage in favor of the majority.

The ethic of care, based substantially on the work of Carol Gilligan, Nel Noddings and others, compels board members to consider feelings and emotions related to concern, connectedness, belongingness and issues associated with who will benefit from or be hurt by our actions. The ethic of care offers a vehicle to explore the full range and importance of emotions connected to the recent terrorist acts.

Finally, the ethic of profession is inspired by the various educational associations' codes of ethics. According to Karen Lebacqz, as quoted by Shapiro and Stefkovich, these codes provide "the highest moral ideals of the profession ... presenting an ideal image of the moral character of both the profession and the professional." Board members could benefit from these codes of ethics as they formulate all district personnel and related policies.

Taken one at a time, each of the four ethics provides a useful framework to explore policy questions associated with terrorism in working with the administrative team.

Under the ethic of justice, for example, board members will want to review district safety policies, as well as discrimination policies related to race, color and national origin. Fortunately, there are many excellent resources available to address these issues, including publications from Illinois Association of School Boards, the Office of Civil Rights and the Safe & Drug Free Schools Program. Specifically, do district policies related to health, safety, discrimination and other issues associated with the ethic of justice provide adequate direction to district personnel given the context of terrorism?

The ethic of critique calls on board members to consider policy questions associated with terrorism from the perspective of those who may have been placed at potential disadvantage as a result of their culture, language, race or religion. Clearly, the terrorism crisis has focused attention on Muslims in particular, and Arabs in general, in many districts and communities. Somewhere between five and six million Muslims in America may be unfairly targeted as a result of the September 11th incidents. The city of Chicago alone is home to approximately 13,000 persons of Arab descent and nearly 31,000 people of Arab descent reside in Illinois.

School board members should attempt to determine who may be at risk of overt or covert discrimination and determine an appropriate school board response. They may wish to review Title IV of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Another important first step would be to support administrative programs and procedures that reinforce tolerance, acceptance and support of all people.

Like most Americans, school board members may have personal feelings associated with anger, hurt, fear and confusion connected with the terrorist attacks. The ethic of care is important to consider as they acknowledge and accept their own feelings and emotions.

In doing so, they can model appropriate and healthy behavior for the school and the larger community. Board members also may wish to explore how school districts across the country have responded with enhanced counseling and security by contacting the National School Board Association or the National Association of School Psychologists.

The ethic of care also provides a way for board members to think about supporting the administrative team in its work with teachers and students as they work through their own feelings regarding the crisis. Students and teachers in districts around the country have sponsored activities ranging from fundraising efforts to provide disaster relief for those affected by the crisis to sponsoring a memorial program for the victims and all those affected by the tragedy.

Board members can use this tragedy to reinforce the importance of concern, connectedness and belongingness to the school community. They might ask themselves if they are giving appropriate acknowledgement to their own feelings associated with the terrorist crisis. Are they giving support and resources to the administrative team as they work with teachers, students and other members of the educational community to provide an appropriate outlet to express emotions associated with the crisis?

Board members also need to consider providing policy direction to encourage the professional development of administrators and other staff regarding the complex array of school and community issues associated with terrorism. Fortunately, a range of resources is available. For example, curricular material dealing with terrorism, bias prevention and coping with loss, is available from the Education Development Center, the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, the National Elementary School Principals Association, the National Middle School Association, the National Association for Secondary School Principals and the U.S. Department of Education. These resources are available on the Internet at the Web addresses cited in the list of references.

But it also is important for board members to recognize that incorporating these materials in the curriculum may create concern among some parents and other community groups. They may need to consider whether board policy on Teaching about Controversial Issues (IASB Policy Reference Manual 6:80) provides adequate direction to the administrative team, as well as the professional development resources necessary to address issues associated with terrorism.

The terrorist attacks have taken a terrible toll on American society and have challenged everyone across the country in ways unimagined prior to September 11th. School board members have a special opportunity through this tragedy to exert ethical leadership to the benefit of schools, districts and communities.

The four ethical models of justice, critique, care and profession provide a useful framework for school board members to think about the crisis and district policy from a constructive and comprehensive point of view.

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Safe and Drug Free Schools Program. (2001) Homepage. Washington, D.C. Retrieved October 1, 2001 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/SDFS/

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