Job Description

The Leadership in Education Department in the University of Massachusetts Boston’s College of Education and Human Development seeks applicants for a tenure-track Associate/Full Professor to begin September 1, 2025, in the Educational Leadership for Social Justice Program. We are specifically looking for a collaborative, equity-minded, senior scholar whose research agenda focuses on transformative and culturally sustaining leadership particularly as it relates to the development, implementation, and/or continuous improvement of community schools. Of particular interest are candidates who have expertise in university-assisted community schools. As our university and region seek to advance the community school movement, we need transformative scholars who have a vision for educational justice and academic rigor in urban public schools.

UMass Boston's Educational Leadership for Social Justice program’s mission is to develop effective leaders who support the transformation and design of schools and community organizations at all levels while confronting the inequities of educational systems and addressing social justice issues on various levels: personal, institutional, and societal. The program’s goals are to provide practical and theoretical experiences and knowledge by focusing on Eight Leadership Tenets that examine the beliefs and values that impact learning, culturally sustaining practices to promote inclusive and equitable instruction for all, and supporting students in developing a portfolio of evidence reflecting skills and practices in leadership. The program, offering master’s degrees and Certificates of Advanced Graduate Study (CAGS), is housed in the Leadership in Education department that includes doctoral programs in Higher Education and Urban Education Leadership and Policy Studies.

Faculty are responsible for teaching, research, and service that enhance CEHD’s community-engaged mission. We are especially interested in colleagues who have interest in serving in a leadership role that helps us advance our efforts in co-creating community schools. Other responsibilities include: 1) teaching graduate courses in the Educational Leadership for Social Justice Program; 2) conducting research that is relevant to the field of educational leadership particularly in community schools; 3) advising master’s and CAGS students, maintaining and reviewing students’ capstone portfolios, and serving on dissertation committees in the Leadership in Education department; and 4) contributing service to university, college, departmental, and program committees, to professional associations, and to local, national, and/or international communities. The College recognizes that the scholarly work of faculty often includes the integration of teaching, research, and service.

Candidates must have an earned doctorate in education or a related field; an established research agenda and publication record; a demonstrated record of external funding; and teaching experience at the graduate level. Experience teaching and/or leading at the PreK-12 level in urban public schools is preferred.

The department and CEHD are especially interested in candidates who 1) take a critically conscious, equity-minded, and asset-based approach to advancing equity and racial justice in education through their scholarship, teaching, and service and 2) are committed to strengthening the capacity of educational leaders in schools and community-based organizations to contribute to organizational change for equity and racial justice in education. The position offers opportunities for collaboration with UMass Boston’s Collaborative of Asian American, Native American, Latino, and African American Institutes (CANALA - UMass Boston (umb.edu).

Application instructions:

To apply, submit the following materials online: a cover letter describing teaching, research and service experience related to the above description; a current curriculum vitae; links to at least three samples of scholarship published in academic venues such as peer-reviewed journals, academic books, and conference proceedings, or scholarly artifacts in the form of reports, digital publications, blog posts, policy briefs, among other products; names and contact information for three academic references. URL

Application review will begin November 15^th and continue until the position is filled. 

Additional Information: 

The College of Education and Human Development, ranked among the top 5 schools of education in New England and the #1 public school of education in the state of Massachusetts, is guided by our core values of social justice, community engagement and academic excellence:

• Social and racial justice and inclusion involve equity of access and success for all students, faculty, staff and community members especially those who have faced oppression as a result of race or ethnic background, national origin, immigration status, social class, gender, age, sexual orientation, disability, or religious affiliation. 
• Community engagement is valuing and honoring the knowledge of people through reciprocal relationships between partners inside and outside of the university. Community engagement within CEHD includes local, state, regional, national, and global communities and addresses geographic, social, political, and organizational issues.
• Academic excellence applies diverse theories and evidence-based practices to produce transformational learning and positive human development.

Currently, the College of Education and Human Development is leading UMass Boston’s efforts in co-creating the Ruth Batson Academy, a Boston Public School, as Massachusetts’s first university-assisted community school. In collaboration with the City of Boston, Boston Public Schools, and the school, we expect the Ruth Batson Academy to serve as a model for other university-assisted community schools in the region.

UMass Boston is an urban public research university with a teaching soul, whose impact is both local and global. We are the third most diverse university in the country - more than 60% of our undergraduate students come from minoritized communities and groups and more than half of our students are the first in their families to attend a college or university. Thus, our students come to us from richly diverse life experiences and backgrounds; they bring to our classrooms and research settings the robust range of perspectives growing out of the socio-cultural, economic, and historical contexts in which they have lived, along with the challenges they encounter, engage, and strive to overcome. We invite applications from candidates who reflect the diverse life experiences of our student body, who appreciate that students bring their holistic selves into the academic setting, and who recognize and articulate how their own life experiences and backgrounds have shaped their journeys, practices, and commitments as researchers, scholars, and educators.

UMass Boston is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, we will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations for the hiring process. If reasonable accommodation is needed, please contact HRDirect@umb.edu or 617-287-5150.