About

Osly Javier Flores is an Assistant Professor in Education Policy, Organization and Leadership at the University of Illinois. His research focuses on critical issues in education leadership, with a particular emphasis on race-conscious approaches, ethics, and communal responsibility. Flores's work explores themes such as school leadership, social sciences, and counter-narratives, highlighting the importance of ethical leadership and anti-racist practices in educational settings. His scholarship includes investigations into vulnerabilities and protective factors among Latina/o graduate students, principal preparation through the lens of critical race methodology, and sustaining professional learning communities focused on equity. Flores has contributed to advancing understanding of race-conscious caring and narrative ethics as frameworks for cultivating communal responsibility and anti-racist leadership in schools. In recognition of his impactful research, he received the AERA Division A Emerging Scholar Award in 2024.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Social Science
• Psychology
• Social psychology
• Public relations
• Library science
• Pedagogy
• Gender studies
• Criminology
• Developmental psychology
• Anthropology

Selected publications

• Researching Race: A Review of Principal Preparation Literature Through the Lens of Critical Race Methodology

  Education Sciences · 2026-01-03

  articleOpen access

  The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the literature to better understand how the field researched principal preparation in relation to race and racism. Using a critical race theory methodological lens (CRM), we analyzed 36 studies of current candidates or recent graduates with an emphasis on the research design and methods. The research chosen for inclusion was (1) empirical, (2) focused on principal preparation programs in the U.S., (3) focused on preparing candidates around issues related to race and racism, and (4) published between 2012 and 2024. Literature was drawn from three major databases that include journals in the field of educational leadership, ERIC, ProQuest, and Education Full Text, in the summer of 2025. It is important to note that our literature search focusing on peer-reviewed articles poses a limitation in terms of the comprehensiveness of the sampled literature, thus excluding potentially important information sources. To analyze the studies, we created a scoring rubric to assess the degree to which each article addressed each CRM tenet. To assess risk of bias, each article was scored by two authors, and the third author also scored the article if the first two disagreed. Our findings show that focus on race and racism was present in most studies reviewed, and almost half centered on the experiences of candidates of color. However, most of the studies reviewed conformed to traditional research paradigms and methods, as illustrated by choices related to frameworks, methods, and data sources. We offer recommendations for researchers of principal preparation who are interested in more critical work related to race and racism, and we argue for increased opportunities for scholars to meet, discuss, and collaborate across institutions around how they are studying leadership preparation for racial equity. The review is registered through Open Science Framework.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Interrogating Vulnerabilities and Protective Factors Among Latina/o Graduate Students: A 30-Year Synthesis of the Literature

  Review of Educational Research · 2026-04-07 · 1 citations

  articleSenior author

  Prior reviews have documented Latina/o students’ experiences at K–12 and undergraduate levels; yet, there is a dearth of scholarship about the adversity they face and factors that contribute to their successes within graduate contexts. Guided by intersectional r(ac)esilience as a framework, the purpose of this systematic review is to interrogate vulnerabilities and protective factors encountered by Latinas/os as they navigate and progress toward degree completion. Our 30-year review, covering scholarship from 1990–2020, revealed five vulnerabilities: (1) negative encounters with institutional agents, (2) prevalence of systems of oppression, (3) contentious familismo, (4) navigating uncharted waters, and (5) self-doubt and the infiltrator experience and five protective factors: (1) supportive institutional agents, (2) r(ac)esilience and the role of social identities, (3) leveraging peer networks, (4) familismo as collective support, and (5) the imperative role of funding. We conclude by offering guidance on ways to expand the current knowledge base through asset-based frameworks and methodologies, as well as practices for institutional agents that work with Latina/o students.

  PublisherDOI

• "Education as a Pathway to Liberation": Graduate Students of Color and the Purposes of Education

  Innovative Higher Education · 2026-05-16

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract While public and private perceptions over the purpose and value of education have long existed, ongoing politicized attacks on higher education have given new consequences to these tensions. Although literature has examined varying undergraduate student perceptions of education, less has been written about graduate populations. Thus, guided by Labaree’s framework on education’s competing goals, we explore how graduate student perceptions of education (mis)align with such ideals. This exploratory study draws from semi-structured interviews with 48 students from postsecondary institutions across the United States. Their narratives highlight four prominent findings: connecting with and contributing to society, the convergence of financial gain and altruistic ideals, social efficiency perspectives, and critical thinking and pursuit of self-knowledge. We conclude by recommending an expansion of Labaree’s framework, more research connecting perceptions of the purposes of education and students’ programs and social identities, and the importance of developing critical thinking skills in higher education.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Ethical Leadership in an Era of Book Bans, Identity Erasure, and Fake History

  Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership · 2025-04-22 · 1 citations

  article

  The case captures leadership challenges related to recent legislation promoting parents’ rights and the tensions that emerged from new mandates affecting the school’s inclusive culture. The principal finds himself balancing the needs of parents, teachers, and students while staying true to his commitments and ethics. Challenges include growing anxiety in the school’s LGBTQ+ community, parents’ requests to inventory reading lists, and a private social media page for parents concerned with “indoctrination.” This case offers educational leadership faculty an opportunity to engage students in discussion related to ethics, education law, school vision and culture, family engagement, and managing competing demands.

  PublisherDOI

• “Kids Have Taught Me. I Listen to Them”: Principals Legitimizing Student Voice in Their Leadership

  AERA Open · 2024-01-01 · 5 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Few studies have shared insights on how principals invite student voice to enact equitable leadership practice. The purpose of this study was to explore the ways in which principals demonstrated their commitment to equity via advocating for student voice using in-depth interview data from six school principals in the United States. We present three findings that contribute to the field of leadership and student voice: (a) motivation for student voice, (b) desires and concerns for student future, and (c) student voice for authentic learning. This study advances how school leaders develop student democratic agency and critical consciousness through pursuing and welcoming student voice.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Challenges in sustaining professional learning communities focused on equity

  Journal of Educational Change · 2024-07-17 · 7 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Race-Conscious Caring for Anti-racist Leadership: A Narrative Ethics for Cultivating Communal Responsibility

  Journal of School Leadership · 2023-05-05 · 3 citations

  article

  Background -- Limited work has been done to integrate ethical leadership and anti-racist school leadership practice. Through narrative ethics, this paper links caring with race-consciousness to form a foundation for critical praxis. Purpose -- The authors address the limitations of caring leadership by arguing for a race-conscious narrative ethics that promotes communal responsibility for students, with specific attention to racialized and marginalized students. Research Design – This conceptual paper draws on caring theory, feminism, womanism, and culturally responsive leadership. The paper considers racism within a United States context, drawing from theory developed in additional contexts. Analysis – The paper builds from the limitations of caring theory and seeks alternative caring ethics from critiques and African-American historical struggles for sustainable and anti-racist praxis. Results -- The authors argue that predispositions toward caring among teachers and school leaders are insufficient for the project of anti-racist education because of uncritical assumptions of sameness, misplaced empathy, and the evasion of race and racism. The resulting impersonal caring reproduces racist power relations and reinforces standardized and competitive notions of responsibility for children, forestalling opportunities for collective action. Conclusions -- As an alternative to impersonal caring, the authors explore the possibilities of deepening leaders’ engagement in race-conscious caring through the significance of experience, the quality of caring relations, and the value of narrative ethics. A key implication is that race-conscious caring is necessary but insufficient for the work of anti-racism unless it informs changed practices, structures, and systems.

  PublisherDOI

• (Re)orienting White Spaces Through Compañerismo : Latino Graduate Students Creating Homeplaces at a PWI

  Journal of college student development · 2023-09-01 · 2 citations

  article

  Abstract: This study employed homeplace and compañerismo as conceptual frameworks to examine the role of space among Latino men in graduate school. While research has highlighted the importance of space for marginalized students on college campuses, this literature has primarily focused on the undergraduate level. Such is valuable work, yet it is critical to examine spatial dynamics among graduate students. Here, we highlight spaces important to this group of students while centralizing close-knit relationships as an added layer. Analysis of the data revealed the continuous importance of the participants’ compañerismo across university spaces, making both compañerismo and space central components across themes, which included reciprocity of space and compañerismo, bending space through compañerismo, and compañerismo as empowerment. We conclude with implications for practice and research.

  PublisherDOI

• Using Homeplace to Examine the Relationship Between Compañerismo and Space for Latino Male Graduate Students

  Proceedings of the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting · 2022-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• "Kids Have Taught Me. I Listen to Them": Principals Legitimizing Student Voice in Their Leadership

  Proceedings of the 2022 AERA Annual Meeting · 2022-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Michael G. Gunzenhauser

  University of Pittsburgh

  6 shared

• Michael Quigley

  Robert Morris University

  4 shared

• Oscar E. Patrón

  3 shared

• Eric Kyere

  Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis

  3 shared

• Joonkil Ahn

  University of Arizona

  2 shared

• Anjalé D. Welton

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  2 shared

• Óscar Medina

  Universidad Autónoma del Carmen

  2 shared

• Donald G. Hackmann

  University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

  1 shared