Employing a social justice framework, this book provides educational leaders and practitioners with tools and strategies for grappling with the political fray of education politics. The framework offers ways to critique, challenge, and alter social, cultural, and political patterns in organizations and systems that perpetuate inequities. The authors focus on the processes through which educational politics is enacted, illustrating how inequitable power relations are embedded in our democratic systems. Readers will explore education politics at five focal points of power (micro, local/district, state, federal, and global). The text provides examples of how to "work the system" in ways that move toward greater justice and equity in schools. This book: (1) Conceptualizes educational politics within a pragmatic social justice framework; (2) Examines the various layers of politics and how they interact; (3) Explains governance structures and policymaking processes, such as policy formulation and implementation; (4) Offers insights into how power operates and how it can be invoked to support the needs of struggling students; and (5) Explores why certain values, needs, and ideas are heard while others are not. [Foreword by Enrique Alemán Jr.]