Inclusive Leadership Communication and Public Trust: A Discourse-Historical Analysis of Zohran Mamdani’s Victory Speech and Its Implications for Education Management
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.38035/dijms.v7i6.7098Keywords:
Inclusive Leadership Communication, Public Trust, Discourse-Historical Approach, Education Management, Political DiscourseAbstract
This study analyzes inclusive leadership communication and public trust in Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech after being elected mayor of New York City. The speech, published by The Guardian, was selected because it constructs strong messages of affordability, working-class dignity, immigrant belonging, and democratic hope. This research aims to examine how leadership discourse represents social actors, builds legitimacy, and creates a sense of collective belonging through Ruth Wodak’s Discourse-Historical Approach. This study uses a qualitative discourse analysis method by focusing on four discursive strategies: nomination, predication, argumentation, and perspectivation. The findings show that Mamdani’s speech constructs workers, immigrants, minorities, tenants, and volunteers as legitimate political actors, while elite power is represented as a structure that must be challenged. The speech also links historical exclusion with present struggle and future hope. This study concludes that inclusive leadership communication can strengthen public trust by recognizing marginalized voices, building collective identity, and transforming political messages into ethical and socially responsive leadership discourse. The findings offer implications for education management, especially in developing inclusive, culturally responsive, and trust-building communication in educational institutions
References
Bush, T. (2020). Theories of educational leadership and management (5th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and social change. Polity Press.
Fairhurst, G. T. (2007). Discursive leadership: In conversation with leadership psychology. SAGE Publications.
Fairhurst, G. T., & Connaughton, S. L. (2014). Leadership: A communicative perspective. Leadership, 10(1), 7–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715013509396
Guardian staff. (2025, November 5). The full transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s victory speech after being elected NYC mayor. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/05/zohran-mamdani-victory-speech-transcript
Hallinger, P. (2011). Leadership for learning: Lessons from 40 years of empirical research. Journal of Educational Administration, 49(2), 125–142. https://doi.org/10.1108/09578231111116699
Khalifa, M. A. (2018). Culturally responsive school leadership. Harvard Education Press.
Leithwood, K., Harris, A., & Hopkins, D. (2020). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited. School Leadership & Management, 40(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1596077
Nagy, K. (2023). The discourse-historical approach and ideologies in the speeches of Turkish presidents. Linguistic Forum: A Journal of Linguistics, 5(2), 57–84. https://doi.org/10.53057/linfo/2023.5.2.9
Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). Making it safe: The effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27(7), 941–966. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.413
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). SAGE Publications.
Randel, A. E., Galvin, B. M., Shore, L. M., Ehrhart, K. H., Chung, B. G., Dean, M. A., & Kedharnath, U. (2018). Inclusive leadership: Realizing positive outcomes through belongingness and being valued for uniqueness. Human resource management review, 28(2), 190-203. . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.07.002
Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2005). Discourse and discrimination: Rhetorics of racism and antisemitism. Routledge.
Reisigl, M., & Wodak, R. (2009). The discourse-historical approach. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds.), Methods of critical discourse analysis (2nd rev. ed., pp. 87–121). SAGE Publications.
Shields, C. M. (2010). Transformative leadership: Working for equity in diverse contexts. Educational Administration Quarterly, 46(4), 558–589. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X10375609
Shore, L. M., Randel, A. E., Chung, B. G., Dean, M. A., Ehrhart, K. H., & Singh, G. (2011). Inclusion and diversity in work groups: A review and model for future research. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1262–1289. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310385943
Tourish, D. (2014). Leadership, more or less? A processual, communication perspective on the role of agency in leadership theory. Leadership, 10(1), 79–98. https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715013509030
UNESCO. (2020). Global education monitoring report 2020: Inclusion and education: All means all. UNESCO. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000373724
Van Dijk, T. A. (2006). Discourse and manipulation. Discourse & Society, 17(3), 359–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926506060250
Van Dijk, T. A. (2009). Society and discourse: How social contexts influence text and talk. Cambridge University Press.
Wodak, R. (2004). Critical discourse analysis. Qualitative research practice, 185, 185-204.
Wodak, R. (2018). Discourse and European integration. The Transformative Power of Europe". https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-57625-7
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (Eds.). (2015). Methods of critical discourse studies (3rd ed.). SAGE Publications.
Yeo, J. Y., Ting, S. H., Jerome, C., & Leong, H. J. (2025). A retrospective view of discourse-historical approach (DHA). Gading Journal for the Social Sciences, 28(1), 22–37. https://doi.org/10.24191/gading.v28i1.504
Yentür, M. M. (2023). The Effect of geography teachers’ Self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes toward teaching on their motivation. International Journal of Educational Research Review, 8(2), 360-367. https://doi.org/10.24331/ijere.1255100
Yukl, G. A. (2013). Leadership in organizations (Global ed.). Essex: Pearson.
Yulianti, P. D., Sugiharto, D. Y. P., Surjaningrum, E. R., & Hartini, N. (2021). Mental Healthy Literacy of Teachers: a Systematic Literature Review. Journal of Educational, Health & Community Psychology (JEHCP), 10(2). https://doi.org/10.12928/jehcp.v10i2.20512
Yusriani, S., Utomo, K. W., Patiro, S. P. S., & Hendrian, H. (2025). How Do Self-Efficacy and Social Support Help International Students in Denmark Manage Stress and Foster Creativity?. Al-Tanzim: Jurnal Manajemen Pendidikan Islam, 9(2), 606-623. https://doi.org/10.33650/al-tanzim.v9i2.10137
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Sri Yusriani, Lasmawati Lasmawati, Bendaoud Nadif, Kabul Wahyu Utomo, Anggana Mahendra, Hapzi Ali
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish their manuscripts in this journal agree to the following conditions:
- The copyright on each article belongs to the author(s).
- The author acknowledges that the Dinasti International Journal of Management Science (DIJMS) has the right to be the first to publish with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
- Authors can submit articles separately, arrange for the non-exclusive distribution of manuscripts that have been published in this journal into other versions (e.g., sent to the author's institutional repository, publication into books, etc.), by acknowledging that the manuscript has been published for the first time in the Dinasti International Journal of Management Science (DIJMS).
