Journey of a Culturally Responsive, Socially Just Leader

Abstract

Principals' beliefs and actions have powerful outcomes in the lives of the students and families they serve. In this article, we offer the portrait of a long-standing principal of a diverse urban school where the student body is 90% Latinx, 65% English learners (ELs), and 87% eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. We explore many key practices cultivated during his tenure, including creating a bilingual campus, enacting expeditionary-style learning, and building a strong sense of community. We invite readers to consider important challenges and possibilities along their own journeys toward becoming more culturally responsive, socially just leaders.

Collaborative Conversations Between Teacher and School Leader Candidates: A Co-Mentoring Network Develops

“…First on the agenda were brief selfre-introductions, a review of the group agreements, a review of the cooperative learning roles and the handout for self-assessment of one's cooperative learning role, a review of the process for the written reflection and the discussion-board post. The topics and corresponding anchor readings for CC#2 were: culturally responsive pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995) and Funds of Knowledge (Moll et al, 1992(Moll et al, /2005); for CC#3 the topic and related anchor readings focused on what CSSJP may look like in practice (Newcomer, 2019;Newcomer & Cowin, 2018); and CC#4 focused on a reflection on the CCs process and revisiting all six articles. The sessions were video recorded with transcription available.…”

Principals leading for social justice in predominantly white suburban schools

“…Moreover, this study identified strategies and challenges to leading for social justice in the specific context of predominantly white suburban schools. Much of the research on social justice leadership in public schools took has taken place in the context of large, urban school districts (Carpenter, Bukoski, Berry, & Mitchell, 2017;DeMatthews & Izquierdo, 2017;Goddard, Skrla, & Salloum, 2017;Newcomer & Cowin, 2018;Shields & Hesbol, 2020;Sun, 2019;Wang, 2016). These school environments historically educate a diverse student population.…”

“…However, in some schools, including students with disabilities or non-native English speakers does not happen regularly. Principals leading for social justice actively eliminate existing practices and structures that are discriminate against students who belong to marginalized groups (Newcomer & Cowin, 2018;DeMatthews & Izquierdo, 2017).…”

“…This communication includes having difficult conversations with educators, confronting deficit thinking, colorblindness, and other situations where a teacher's privilege and lack of awareness may perpetuate the status quo. In addition to individual conversations, principals leading for social justice create professional learning opportunities about equity and social justice (Shields & Hesbol, 2020;Newcomer & Cowin, 2018). Professional learning can focus on institutional oppression, examining bias, and expanding instructional strategies to be more culturally responsive (Shields & Hesbol, 2020;Newcomer & Cowin, 2018).…”

“…These urban public schools are often categorized as "high needs" because of their generally lower achievement as measured by standardized tests, acceptance to and attendance at higher education institutions, the higher percentage of students who do not graduate, and higher suspension rates (Lewis & Hunt, 2019). Much of the existing research on social justice leadership has been completed in these large, urban settings (Theoharis, 2007;DeMatthews & Mawhinney, 2014;DeMatthews & Izquierdo, 2017;Newcomer & Cowin, 2018;Reed & Swaminathan, 2016;Wang, 2016;Carpenter, Bukoski, & Angelides, 2017;Sun, 2019;Shields & Hesbol, 2020;Goddard, Skrla, & Salloum, 2017).…”