African American Spirituality and Cornel West’s Notions of Prophetic Pragmatism: Restructuring Educational Leadership in American Urban Schools

Abstract

Schools in America are facing rapidly changing demographics, and because of those changing demographics, this article makes the following propositions. First, the increasing demographic changes in urban schools demand new leadership approaches. Second, because many of the urban educational demands are shaped by ongoing social and cultural issues for addressing needs of African American students, perhaps the answer to leadership changes lies in African American culture. Third, and finally, one possible feature of the African American culture, the application of personal spirituality to community issues of social change and social justice, may provide a direction for educational leadership. The purpose of this article is to propose a theoretical base for reforming educational leadership in demographically changing public schools. With critical theory and antifoundational tenets of pragmatic thinking and postmodern thought interrogating the traditional canon of educational administration, educational leadership has had to, even if reluctantly, include voices of alternative perspectives into its discourse. This essay applies Cornel West's notions of prophetic pragmatism along with the tenets of African American spirituality to serve as the foundation for this progressive transformation of leadership especially in urban schools. Schools are "browning," and the status quo where school leadership, curriculum, and pedagogy are concerned is being challenged (

A critical review of race and ethnicity in the leadership literature: Surfacing context, power and the collective dimensions of leadership

“…She draws off work by Walker and Archung (2003) to describe this leadership style as involving both "interpersonal caring" and "institutional caring" and suggests this caring draws on the input and participation of parents, teachers and principals. Dantley (2005) notes the centrality of spirituality in African American culture and argues that it should be woven into educational leadership, which would include welcoming the "total self" into the educational process and proposing "ways to unpack the cultural realities of racism, elitism, classism and other institutionalized forms of silencing" often found in schools (p. 658).…”

Equitable leadership on the ground: Converging on high-leverage practices

“…In particular, social justice leaders are concerned principally with "addressing and eliminating marginalization in schools" (Theoharis, 2007, p. 223), embody an urgent moral call to disrupt the institutional systems and barriers that reinforce historical inequities (Murtadha & Watts, 2004;Rapp, 2002;Shields, 2004;Wilson, Douglas, & Nganga, 2013), and couple their understanding of power, privilege, and the political nature of schooling with advocacy and action to redress existing inequities (Byrne-Jimenez & Orr, 2013;Dantley, 2005;Shields, 2010;Shields & Warke, 2010;Wilson et al, 2013).…”

Fostering Movements or Silencing Voices: Learning from Egypt and South Africa, Leading Against Racism

“…With a growing body of research supporting these claims, educational researchers have extended the argument that US schools accomplish exactly what they are intended to do: maintain and reproduce a compliant, dispensable workforce and permanent underclass as a source of cheap labor to support the increasingly polarized distribution of wealth and resources for an elite, typically White, wealthy subsector of American society (Apple, 2013;Bell, 2004;Brooks, 2012;McLaren & Farahmandpur, 2005). Education policy and reform measures in the United States continue to rely on existing structural, institutional, and systemic forms of racism and class-based inequities to accomplish this task, disguised within the discourses of quality, excellence, and rigor (Au, 2009;Dantley, 2005;Hill & Parker, 2007;Knaus, 2007;Young & Laible, 2000).…”