Most educators enter the profession with a strong sense of purpose, often connected to a love of children and hope for the future, a desire to make a difference and give back to the community, or a belief in education as a catalyst for social justice. However, competing educational goals and purposes, as well as current educational reforms rooted in neoliberalism, detract educators from their why and create barriers that rob students of equitable educational experiences (de Saxe et al., 2020; Labaree, 1997; Slater, 2015). There is a need to better understand how social justice school leaders navigate this neoliberal educational landscape. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand how social justice school leaders understand their identities as social justice advocates within a neoliberal school system that continually challenges their ideas of equity and social justice and how they maintain their social justice beliefs and identities amongst this resistance. This study explored the lived experiences of social justice school leaders, the conditions that supported or hindered their social justice leadership formation, and the actions that they took to advance social justice in their schools. Seven participants co-created knowledge with the researcher over a series of three semi-structured interviews. Participants included social justice school leaders who held formal leadership positions at the site and district levels. Research findings indicate that (1) social justice school leaders develop their social justice leader identities with a strong sense of their why, (2) the barriers that social justice school leaders face daily challenge their social justice leader identities, (3) despite these challenges, social justice school leaders lean into their social justice leader identities to enact change and disrupt inequitable systems from the inside, and (4) social justice school leaders seek opportunities outside of their organizations to remain deinstitutionalized and strengthen their social justice leader identities. The dissertation concludes with implications and opportunities for further research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]