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Abstract
This study describes how a culturally responsive school leader promoted equity in a racially and linguistically diverse school. The authors shadowed Faith, an assistant principal, and did follow-up interviews with her after each day of shadowing. They observed teachers in their classrooms, conducted multiple interviews with teachers and parents, and gathered artifacts from administrative offices, classrooms, and common areas. The authors found that Faith practiced culturally responsive leadership on three levels: personal, environmental, and curricular. Faith's culturally responsive leadership included six themes: caring, building relationships, being persistent and persuasive, being present and communicating, modeling cultural responsiveness, and fostering cultural responsiveness among others.
Keywords
culturally responsive leadership, social justice, diversity
In the United States, and Texas in particular, an imbalance exists between the percentages of White educators and minority students. Such demographic and attendant cultural differences can negatively affect culturally and linguistically diverse learners (Chamberlain, 2005). The increasing diversity in schools calls for new approaches to educational leadership in which leaders exhibit culturally responsive organizational practices, behaviors, and competencies. According to Gay (2005),
Significant changes are needed in how African American, Asian, Latino, and Native American students are taught in U.S. schools. Two characteristics of their current achievement patterns highlight this imperative. One is the consistency of performance patterns among ethnic groups across different indicators and measures of school achievement. The other is the variability of achievement of subjects of individuals within ethnic groups. These characteristics suggest that there is a need for systematic, holistic, comprehensive, and particularistic reform interventions, simultaneously. (p. xiii)
The majority of principals and teachers of culturally diverse students do not come from the same cultural backgrounds as they do, and a number of studies over the past decade indicate that students' school performance may be linked to lack of congruence between the students' cultures and the norms, values, expectations, and practices of schools. However, there is little guidance for school leaders on how they should help teachers work with students from cultural backgrounds different from their own (Ladson-Billings, 2002; Saifer & Barton, 2007). This qualitative case study critically examines and describes how a culturally responsive school leader performed her leadership roles in a culturally and linguistically diverse high school.
Theoretical Basis of the Study
We grounded this study in...