Breaking the ice: educator leaders' entré into equity and inclusion leadership in a rural high school

Abstract

It is trite but true, success is not achieved alone. The contributions of numerous friends and family, too numerous to list here, who helped me overcome the challenges I was presented with and make progress to the successful completion of this dissertation in practice, must be acknowledged. Whether it was guiding me through the process, showing interest in my work, offering support, sharing time, making my life just a little bit easier, giving me permission to be proud of myself, or providing resources, I hold gratitude for each and every person. None-theless, there are a few people I would like to highlight.Professor Teresa Divine, JD, LLM, who offered and dedicated hours to "peek-a-boo" so that I stuck to it and took the time to write. She also made this work, academic work, not so lonely and not so isolating.Professor Delores (Kandee) Cleary, PhD, who helped me to prioritize and carve the time to write. Associate Professor Gretchen Lopez, PhD, who seeded the confidence and advanced skills I needed to be successful in research, writing, critical thinking, and academics generally.Biren (Ratnesh) Nagda, PhD, who has become a mentor and friend, pushed my thinking, skills, and practice so that they are better integrated, subsequently exposing my gaps in knowledge and implementation.Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the Graduate School of Education in the College of Professional Studies at Northeastern University. The result of designing an action research dissertation in practice program was that I had an experience that broadened, deepened, and complicated my learning beyond expectation.