Do You See What I See? Fostering Aspiring Leaders’ Racial Awareness

Abstract

Programs preparing culturally responsive school leaders must address how race, power, and individual, institutional, and cultural racism impact beliefs, structures, and outcomes for students of color. To develop greater awareness of race, instructors in a principal preparation program assigned students in a primarily White cohort to compose racial autobiographies. Analysis of these racial autobiographies revealed early racial identity development impacted by racial isolation and family influence. The autobiographies included evidence of growing racial awareness and movement away from racial unconsciousness and colorblindness toward acknowledgment of privilege and commitment to future action. Racial autobiography serves as a useful tool to have students examine their own racial identity-a necessary first step toward building an awareness of race, privilege, and institutional and societal systems of racism and other forms of oppression. Further study will determine what changes in leadership practice, if any, might be attributed to this increased awareness.

Culturally Responsive School Leadership

“…Although there is only a limited literature around the role principals must play in developing their teachers into cultural responsiveness (Gooden & O'Doherty, 2015;McKenzie & Scheurich, 2004;Tillman, 2003Tillman, , 2005, we consider this to be one of the most important aspects of culturally responsive teachers. As we outlined earlier, research indicates the importance of culturally responsive teaching and pedagogy.…”

Fifteenth Annual AERABrownLecture in Education Research: Disrupting Punitive Practices and Policies: Rac(e)ing Back to Teaching, Teacher Preparation, andBrown

“…It is well accepted and understood that race is socially constructed (Bennett et al, 2017; Boutte, 2016; Farinde-Wu, 2018; Gooden & O’Doherty, 2014; Laughter, 2018; Milner, 2015; Sealey-Ruiz, 2016). In addition, race is phenotypically and physically constructed (Fergus, 2017; Harper & Donner, 2017; McGee et al, 2016; Monroe, 2013; Singer, 2016).…”

When they go low, we go high: Scholars of color, activism, and educational research in a post-truth era

“…There are several reasons for this emergence of critical and non-dominant scholarship in educational leadership research. First, a commitment to equality, democracy, and justice has grown in prominence in educational leadership preparation programs and scholarship (Gooden & O'Doherty, 2015;Roland, 2018). Second, programs like University Council for Educational Administration's (UCEA) Jackson Scholars Program, have focused on recruiting, developing, and supporting talented graduate students of color who have the potential to contribute to the education policy and leadership research.…”