A systematic review on multiculturalism and educational leadership: similarities and contrasts in knowledge production across societies

The intersection of multiculturalism and educational leadership, under a Social Justice (SJ) framework to understand diversity and equity issues, has received major attention in the academic world internationally. However, few is known about commonalities and differences between societies within this intersection. To address this gap, we reviewed 215 indexed articles from main databases, following PRISMA procedures. Results detected most research conceptualises multiculturality as indigenism, ethnicity or race, and less often as gender, religion, and disabilities. Also, the understanding of leadership generally focuses on principals and empowered teachers within formal K-12 settings. Furthermore, we found the hegemony of Anglo-Saxon publications, even among non-English speaking countries, giving insights of academic colonialism. We concluded the relevance of the relationship of educational leadership with multiculturalism as a research+development agenda. To reach equity and develop SJ inside of several diversity understandings, educational leaders need to address broad communities by a culturally sensitive leadership.