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In an era where social justice and equity are central to educational discussions, principals’ social justice leadership is crucial. Research shows how inequities perpetuate or increase in schools around the world. This chapter discusses how resistance can manifest in principals’ social justice leadership, both through their actions to promote social justice and their need to handle resistance from others. Traditionally, resistance has been seen as something to overcome. However, this chapter views resistance through Michel Foucault’s toolbox, describing it as necessary for change and an integral part of social justice leadership.

By introducing a conceptual framework consisting of the concepts of pastoral, disciplinary, and regulated power techniques, inspired by Foucault’s theories, this chapter provides the opportunity to reflect on and discuss strategies for handling resistance and how it can be expressed. The aim is to provide a language to discuss strategies and resistance in social justice leadership. Furthermore, the aim is to demonstrate Foucault’s way of critical thinking by analyzing how strategies and resistance, i.e., power techniques, can be analyzed in relation to norms and discourses, creating dialogue about how different strategies and resistance can either promote or hinder social justice and social justice leadership.

The chapter begins with a brief overview of social justice and leadership, followed by Foucault’s view of power and resistance to establish the understanding of the framework. It then introduces and exemplifies the framework, presenting concepts of norms, normalization, truths, and discourses as a theoretical lens. The chapter concludes with a discussion on how different power techniques can affect social justice leadership.