Doing it for Culturally Responsive School Leadership: Utilizing Reflexivity from Preparation to Practice

Abstract

To collectively engage future administrators in reforming culturally responsive practices that have been traditionally understood from socially just approaches, principal preparation programs must embed curricula that is utilized beyond the classroom. In this article, I reflect on the rap group Migos’ popularized phrase “do it for the culture” and contend that doing it for culturally responsive leadership will carry out actions that benefit the shared culture of teaching and learning that represents all teachers and students equitably. A consistent idea that permeates within the field is that a course(s) will prescribe the adequate tools on what to do instead of how to be cultural responsible. Utilizing the role of reflexivity, this case study offered six themes that stemmed from session discussions. The themes that arose were: (1) Interpretations of Cultural Responsiveness, (2) Culturally responsive is what you are not what you do, (3) Self-identity is recognized, (4) Learned the community diversity, (5) Celebrate all, and (6) Practice by disruption. The personal reflections illuminate the significance of relationships between the faculty researcher, future administrators, communities, the effortless disposition of the insider-researcher, and the intricacy of developing the narrative research that promotes culturally responsiveness.

Theorizing a Culturally and Linguistically Sustaining School Leadership: Exploring the Intersections of Cultural Sustenance and Care

“…Preparation programs might include experiences and curriculum for future school leaders to establish dense networks of care, engage the racial, cultural, and linguistic identities of their teachers and students, enact democratic structures, and cultivate critical consciousness. Including specific and actionable recommendations for practice might bridge the social justice beliefs of school leaders towards the concrete implementation of said beliefs (Genao, 2021; Miller & Martin, 2015). This paper builds on the recommendations of DeMatthews and Izquierdo (2020) for preparation programs to articulate technical, adaptive, and advocacy-oriented manifestations of CLSL such as having critical discussions with stakeholders to formulate long-term action plans of school initiatives that deepen multicultural and multilingual school-wide practices beyond superficial diverse celebrations.…”

How are Principal Preparation Programs Preparing Leaders for Family and Community Engagement?

“…Transformational dispositions center inclusivity as expressed by attentiveness to family and community concerns and shared responsibility for student success and wellbeing (Lac & Diaz, 2022). Content in this area incorporates partnership development, community and family assets, culturally responsive practices (Leu Bonanno, 2023;Genao, 2021), and collaborative models of schooling (e.g., community schools). Transformational skills include establishing trusting relationships, developing shared goals, and collaborative practices (Stanley & Gilzene, 2022), Democratic FCE is concerned with building inclusive networks to promote justiceoriented structural change.…”

Linguistically Responsive Leaders: Working With Multilingual Students and Their Families

“…Education leader preparation for multilingual students. Education leadership preparation programs rarely include coursework with objectives focused on the pedagogical, program, or cultural skills and dispositions to support the learning assets of multilingual students, their teachers, or their families (Baecher et al, 2013;Bland, 2020;Buss, 2021;Genao, 2020Genao, , 2021Halloran, 2020). Yet, school leaders play a central role in shaping the programs, policies, and practices that impact the ways multilingual students experience school.…”

“…School administrators participating in this study reflect the linguistic mismatch among students and educators in the region. Inevitably, the policies and practices multilingual students and their families experience in schools are guided by education leaders whose preparation and ongoing professional learning has lacked guidance on working with multilingual students and their families (Baecher et al, 2013;Bland, 2020;Buss, 2021;Buysse et al, 2005;Cutri & Johnson, 2010;Davis et al, 2012;Genao, 2020Genao, , 2021Gitlin et al, 2003). Two primary research questions guided our study:…”

“…As education researchers and education preparation practitioners we have a collective responsibility to support transformation in the practice of pre-service and inservice educators in our K-12 schools as they serve multilingual students and families (Genao, 2020(Genao, , 2021Halloran, 2020). We describe the collaborative work of the International Consortium for Multilingual Excellence in Education (ICMEE), a federally funded grant at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and an advanced school administrator preparation program at a regional university in Oregon.…”