Moving away from willful ignorance: A critical whiteness examination of leadership educator socialization

In the face of calls for the standardization and professionalization of leadership education, a sub-field in higher education, it is important to understand who leadership educators are and how they come to understand themselves as belonging to this sub-field. Recent critiques have arisen about the overwhelming whiteness that permeates the knowledge accepted within leadership education. To be cognizant of that critical perspective, this article applies the critical whiteness studies framework to analyze existing literature about leadership educator identity and socialization. It concludes with recommendations for the field of education to implement in order to combat the impact of whiteness on the field of leadership education.