The Compensatory School: Can Social Justice Leadership Bridge the Opportunity Gap

This study aims to identify the factors predicting high school students’ future expectations within the framework of Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction. Data collected from 1,372 students across 24 high schools representing five school types were analyzed using HLM. The findings revealed that individual variables (resilience, gender, grade, parental education) do not significantly predict future expectations, whereas school-level factors (teachers’ social justice leadership, school type) emerge as strong predictors. To promote educational equity, policy makers should integrate social justice leadership into teacher professional development and redesign diverse school tracks to offer enriched career opportunities aligned with students’ unique interests.