Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership: Exploring leadership theory, policy, and practice for diverse schools [1st ed.] 9783030547493, 9783030547509

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Policy Implications of Research in Education 11

Jon C. Veenis Sylvia Robertson Jami Royal Berry   Editors

Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership Exploring leadership theory, policy, and practice for diverse schools

Policy Implications of Research in Education Volume 11

Series Editors Prof. Stephen L. Jacobson, State University of New York, University at Buffalo – State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA Paul W. Miller, Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK Editorial Board Prof. Helen Gunter, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK Prof. Stephan Huber, Institute for the Management and Economics, University of Teacher Education Central, Zug, Zug, Switzerland Prof. Jonathan Jansen, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa Prof. Karen Seashore Louis, Educational Policy and Admin, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA Dr. Guri Skedsmo, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Prof. Allan Walker, Ctr, c/o Anthon Chu Yan Kit, Hong Kong Institute of Education, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong

In education, as in other fields, there are often significant gaps between research knowledge and current policy and practice. While there are many reasons for this gap, one that stands out is that policy-makers and practitioners may simply not know about important research findings because these findings are not published in forums aimed at them. Another reason is that policy-makers and educational authorities may tend to apply only those findings that agree with and legitimate their preferred policies. Yet we hear often the mantra that policy and practice should be research based and informed by evidence. This claim relates to the interplay between the social realities of science, politics and educational practice and draws attention to knowledge production and application, processes of implementation, change and innovation. However, there are often different interests involved, different knowledge domains, political and economic interests, and legitimate questions can be raised with regard to what counts as ‘research’, what counts as ‘evidence’, who should define it, what are their implications for policy, and what kind of actions should consequently be taken to improve education for children and youth. Please contact Astrid Noordermeer at [email protected] if you wish to discuss a book proposal.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11212

Jon C. Veenis · Sylvia Robertson · Jami Royal Berry Editors

Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership Exploring leadership theory, policy, and practice for diverse schools

Editors Jon C. Veenis State University of New York at Buffalo Williamsville, NY, USA Jami Royal Berry Department of Lifelong Education, Administration, and Policy University of Georgia Athens, GA, USA

Sylvia Robertson Centre of Educational Leadership & Administration College of Education University of Otago Dunedin, New Zealand

ISSN 2543-0289 ISSN 2543-0297 (electronic) Policy Implications of Research in Education ISBN 978-3-030-54749-3 ISBN 978-3-030-54750-9 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9 © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Preface

The impetus for this project emanates from a variety of different sources and experiences. Although there is no concrete moment that can be identified as the definitive one, certainly interactions with folks who are active in the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN) were of vital importance. During the summer of 2017, the lead editor for this volume had the opportunity to serve as a summer fellow at the Center for the International Study of School Leadership (CISSL) under the direction of Jami Royal Berry (University of Georgia). After a series of discussions that involved multiple parties connected to the organization, they came to the conclusion that, while advances in the field of educational leadership had been achieved in recent decades, gaps remained where it concerned the connections between educational leadership, multilingualism, multiculturalism, and school context. To the latter point, there was also a need to seek out new contexts and perspectives that might refresh and continue to invigorate discussions around the topic, both in terms of its theoretical intellectualization and its applicability to practice. And, at the same time, they recognized the inherent complexity of attempting to accomplish the aforementioned, especially in terms of attaining the goal of expanding the network to include fresh viewpoints. As the fellowship reached its conclusion, the editors had a broad vision of what they sought to accomplish through this new endeavor. During the Fall of 2017, the annual University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) conference in Denver, Colorado presented an ideal opportunity to present the idea for the project to fellow colleagues. The feedback was resoundingly positive and many agreed with its essential premise, including the need to address certain gaps in the extant literature. At the conference, the editors were exposed to some of the new voices in the field and their input, combined with sage words of advice from veterans of the network, helped to energize and congeal the subsequent work that lay ahead. Indeed, having left the conference with reinvigorated energy and resolve to bring this volume to fruition, there was a strong conviction that necessity was the driving force compelling the editorial team to deliver a volume that galvanized the various crossroads of diversity in the field of educational leadership. To that end, there was also a clear understanding that such an undertaking must address both the practical and theoretical implications of leadership, policy, and practice from the aforesaid prism. v

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The result of these efforts is a volume that offers a wide array of perspectives, methodological approaches, educational contexts, writing styles, and conclusions. As international migration proliferates worldwide, it is uniquely positioned to assist school leaders in their efforts to serve the learning needs of diverse students and their respective families. It is organized around four main categories, which include the following: Educational theory in practice, case studies emanating from diverse contexts, preparation for teaching and leading in diverse settings, and implications of research findings for policy and practice. Chapters in this volume include original and reexamined research that rigorously address the complexities and interdependencies between language, culture, context, and other variables that influence the overall effectiveness of school leaders. Under the first category of chapters, a variety of different theoretical perspectives and contexts are explored. These chapters offer a blend of practical recommendations for school leaders based on rigorous application of well-developed theory. Some of key constructs explored include culturally responsive leadership, local funds of knowledge, social reproduction, student empowerment, cultural capital, social justice, and critical moral leadership. Their work is a deep dive into the interdependent relationships between cultural aptitude and diversity, which clarifies the relevance of authenticity as a fundamental precondition of school leadership. In the second aggrupation of chapters, three case studies further develop key understandings about school leadership, identity, and school environment. Employing rigorous empirical methods, the authors of these papers examine a range of intriguing contexts, underscoring the intricate nuances of school leadership in relation to multiculturalism. Moving from practice to training, the next set of chapters investigate the core competencies needed to better serve culturally and linguistically diverse students. They critically analyze how and to what degree school leaders and educators of different types are being prepared to orchestrate more equitable outcomes in education and, in so doing, galvanize social justice efforts in pluralistic school contexts. Moving toward the implications of research findings for policy and practice, the final group of research papers illuminate poignant realities with respect to the aforementioned, cogently explicating how school leaders can agentively serve the interests of multilingual and multicultural students, as well as the relevance of intercultural competencies for leadership preparation programs. In sum, the chapters included in this volume represent an accretive step in the field of educational leadership and policy, deepening our collective understanding and conceptualization of the crossroads between school leadership and diversity. Williamsville, USA Dunedin, New Zealand Athens, USA

Jon C. Veenis Sylvia Robertson Jami Royal Berry

Acknowledgments

A volume of this nature, when brought to fruition, represents the harnessing and optimization of collectivist synergy. Nevertheless, at least one seed must first be implanted in order for a colony of fruit-bearing plants to eventually flourish. In this particular case, that proverbial seed was a summer fellowship sponsored by the UCEA, which brought two of the three editors together initially. It was during this time that the idea for this project was born and the network of collaborators began to coalesce. From there, various individuals from the ISLDN, some of them direct contributors to this volume, provided insights and suggestions about how to proceed forward with such an endeavor. In lieu of the infrastructural support provided by professional organizations and networks such as the aforementioned, the pathway toward coalescence would be vastly more cumbersome and daunting from an organizational perspective. To that end, prior ISLDN book projects served as important benchmarks that helped to guide the editorial team’s understanding of various professional needs extant in the field of school leadership. The vicissitudes that accompany a journey of this kind are part and parcel of any effort of this magnitude, especially one that seeks to incorporate people and perspectives emanating from all around the globe. We asked a great deal of our contributors along the way, and they truly rose to the occasion at every turn. Their patience, persistence, intellectual grit, professionalism and, perhaps most importantly, undaunting passion for their research is what made this project possible. They must be commended for their intrepid courage. It is both their work and their willingness to expose their work to the scrutiny of others that makes any of this a possibility in the first place. To them, we firmly salute, reassured that throughout this world, there are wonderful educators who are not only resolute in their mission to serve students of all linguistic and cultural backgrounds, but who feel inspired and privileged by the opportunity itself. And, if not for the existence of such practitioners in the field, dignified by their unequivocal commitment to professional growth, classrooms and schools would surely be a less fortunate place for the students of today and tomorrow. Truly, the merits of this volume belong to our contributors and, unequivocally, the fruits of their tireless labor are embodied in the pages that follow. To all of you, our utmost gratitude, respect, and admiration. vii

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This book is the product of many different influences, experiences, and understandings accumulated over the years and is ultimately the result of so much support we, the editors, have received from people both directly and indirectly involved in our professional lives. Research and writing are endeavors that take a considerable amount of time, patience, and endurance. And, without question, the people who surround us in our personal lives have also exhibited similar traits along the way as we forged ahead with our various academic and professional projects. To that end, the editorial team would like to first thank and acknowledge our families and friends who have always been there supporting us and, in synchronicity, adjusting to the seemingly unpredictable ebb and flow of our respective professional schedules. Secondly, each one of us have been so uniquely blessed to have been supported by various mentors and peers in our respective academic trajectories. Whether it be a former professor who insisted upon rigor in research methodology or a colleague who offered a caveat to consider, we feel compelled to thank all who have contributed to our professional growth over the years, challenging us to be better at what we do and inspiring us to new heights. We do hope that you, as readers of this volume, will find inspiration in the following chapters and that many of you will discover words that resonate with your personal experience. As educators from all across the globe, we can benefit from sharing our experience as we continue to move forward into a complex and uncertain future. Jon C. Veenis Sylvia Robertson Jami Royal Berry

Contents

Introduction Leadership for Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Schools in the Era of Transnationalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jon C. Veenis

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Exploring Educational Theory in Practice Moral Leaders for Multicultural Britain: The Lives and Identities of UK South Asian Head Teachers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lauri Johnson

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A Bourdieusian Approach to Educational Leadership in Culturally Diverse Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Peter Moyi, Rose Ylimaki, Suzy Hardie, and Jingtong Dou

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Critical Moral Leadership: Toward Social Justice for English Learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gregory Wise and Charles L. Slater

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Case Studies from Diverse Contexts How School Leaders Leverage Resources for Social Justice, Equity and Access to Secondary Schooling in Belize: Implications for an Island Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lorenda Chisolm Educational Leaders Building Relationships and Respecting and Affirming Indigenous Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Joseph Martin, Jon Reyhner, Richard Manning, Josephine Steeves, and Larry Steeves

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Leading in a Diverse Context: A Principal’s Efforts to Create an Inclusive Elementary School for Refugee Students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Nathern S. A. Okilwa ix

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Preparation for Teaching and Leading in Diverse Contexts Educating Against the Grain: A West Texas Teacher Preparation Program Champions Radical Reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Faith Maina and Amani Zaier Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk: Students’ Experiences in Two Programs to Prepare Leaders for Predominantly Latino Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143 Betty Merchant, Encarnacion Garza Jr., Juan Manuel Niño, Karina Vielma, and Hugo Saucedo Implications of Research Findings for Policy and Practice Intercultural Competencies of New Principals Tackling Challenges Related to Leading a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse School . . . . . 165 Anne Julia Köster Language-in-Education Policies in a New Immigration Country: Enabling and Disabling Local Leadership in a Multilingual School in Italy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Carla Paciotto, Enrico Castelli Gattinara, and Daniela Mainardi Conclusion Components of Linguistically and Culturally Responsive School Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Jami Royal Berry, Sylvia Robertson, and Melanie Brooks Epilogue: A Metaphoric Approach to Leading Diversity in Schools . . . . . 227 Ross Notman

Introduction

Leadership for Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Schools in the Era of Transnationalism Jon C. Veenis

1 The Impetus for This Project This volume emanates directly from the Center for the International Study of School Leadership (CISSL), which has as part of its core mission the fostering of crossnational efforts aimed at improving leaders and the quality of their leadership (i.e., leaders who, in turn, can be well informed about research at a global level and thereby positively steward the needs of students, families, and educators in their respective communities). During the initial stages of planning, the editorial team, working in consultation with active members and leaders within the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN), identified a set of needs and goals for the forthcoming project. One of the primary imperatives that emerged from these discussions included the need to address the implications of diversity for school leadership from a broader range of international perspectives and cultural contexts; that is, the team proactively sought to extend and deepen current understandings around the topic by tapping into new sources of research, knowledge, experience, and contextual milieu. Thus, the dual mission of the project can be seen as both (a) an effort to enhance understandings about school leadership (i.e., as it relates to cultural and linguistic diversity) and (b) extend the reach and overall inclusivity of the network itself. In doing each of the aforementioned, it is believed that important incremental progress has been achieved toward accomplishing the organization’s core mission. Notwithstanding the aforesaid gains wrought from this and other CISSL/ISLDN projects, efforts to achieve these goals and meet the needs of school leaders are ongoing, especially when considering the dynamic shifts that have taken place in education across the globe.

J. C. Veenis (B) Catskill Central School District, Catskill, NY, US e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_1

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Having discussed and consulted with scholars and practitioners both within and outside of the network, the editorial team identified three main elements that drive the need to better understand the role and paramount relevance of school leadership at the crossroads of educational contexts that are increasingly polyglot and multicultural. Firstly, shifts in demography around the globe continue at unprecedented levels and, in many cases, these monumental changes are reflected in the composition of schools. In turn, the need for educators who can lead effectively in diverse and continuously morphing educational settings is now and will continue to be a fundamental requisite for leadership—irrespective of national, regional, or local context. Part and parcel of this ongoing need includes but is certainly not limited to trends in global demography, which are explained in the next section of this introduction. In simultaneity, the literature points to various gaps in our collective understanding of how exactly school leaders help to foster learning contexts that draw upon the inherent strengths, attributes, and cultural backgrounds of diverse student populations (see, for example, Gurr and Drysdale 2018). In a more recent case study of an urban school leader, Reed and Swaminathan (2016) point out that some of our prevailing assumptions about school leadership fail to the recognize the inherent relevance of context itself. As it were, the proverbial silver bullet is but a myth when considering the actual challenges that school leaders face whilst immersed in the realities of their respective school contexts (p. 1118). And, though certain types of leadership styles tend to emerge from the literature as so-called “preferred” ones, it is important that researchers, practitioners, and policymakers alike avoid the one-size-fits-all mentality where it concerns the topic of school leadership. This becomes especially relevant when considering the multitude of varied and often complex contexts in which educators across the globe ply their respective trades. At the same time, we also know that school leaders play an important role in helping to shape the context for learning and professional growth in schools (see, for example, Goddard and Salloum 2011). With these ideas in mind, the editorial felt it imperative to continue the exploration of school leadership in all its many forms, manifestations, and diverse contextual nuances. Prior ISLDN projects also served as reference points for this work, especially those initiated and carried out by the social justice strand of the network (i.e., a group of scholars and practitioners within the network whose mission includes the advancement of scholarship that addresses equity and equality in education). To that end, a consistent theme that we identified was a need and a desire to expand and enrich the network of scholars who are actively involved in such endeavors. Consequently, the editorial team made explicit efforts to seek out contributors who could help extend the base of knowledge where it concerns understandings around leadership and diversity from a variety of international perspectives and distinctive settings. While the aforementioned work is undoubtedly an ongoing effort, and thus far from complete, we believe this volume represents an incremental step forward in the direction of both wider and deeper empirical knowledge in the area of school leadership overall and, as the title suggests, the crucial intersection between student diversity and the practices of school leaders. Once more, the relevance of language in relation to the topic of school leadership and student diversity is an important component of the volume’s content and empirical focus. We expressly sought out contributors

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who might help to bridge specific gaps in this particular area of knowledge. Again, the effort to ameliorate imperfections and fissures in our base of knowledge in these areas of scholarly pursuit is and will likely continue to be a priority going forward. Notwithstanding the previous disclaimer, our contributors offer insights that move the proverbial dial forward in terms of related understandings—whether they be focused on theory, practice, or both—and engender opportunities to consider next steps and emergent needs for scholars and practitioners immersed in efforts to advocate for and advance understandings about the topic.

2 The Macro Context for International School Leadership According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA), over the past three decades, net migration around the world has increased by over 50% (UNDESA 2013). Political unrest, economic uncertainty, natural disaster, armed conflict, the proliferation of international commerce, greater human interconnectedness, and the pursuit of better living circumstances are all factors that have contributed to net increases in human migration. In the era of post-globalization and transnationalism, the call for robust and nimble educational systems that can serve the learning needs of multicultural and multilingual students is increasingly ubiquitous, reaching corners of the globe once considered ethnically and linguistically homogenous. Sweden, for example—once dominated by monolingual tendencies— is now the site of growing multilingualism. In turn, various facets of Swedish culture, including but not limited to education, are enmeshed in the process of metamorphosis, albeit with some degree of resistance from certain segments of the population (Sundberg 2013). More recently, the Swedish government announced reforms to national education laws that address the placement of immigrant students in various programs of study, as well as substantive investments in the education of immigrant populations (Bunar 2017). Elsewhere in Scandinavia, the topic of multiculturalism is also a focus of policymakers. In 2016, for example, Finland launched a revised version of its national curriculum, emphasizing the importance of diversity with an enriched focus on social justice issues (Zilliacus et al. 2017). While human migration is a global phenomenon, its nuances and particularities are certainly unique to each local, regional, and national context. Yet, the predictability of migratory patterns in the modern world is also less certain than in decades past; that is, one denotes greater overall volatility and inconsistency in the movements of people throughout the world (McAuliffe and Ruhs 2017). Undoubtedly, human migration alters the demographic makeup of schools. To that end, greater unpredictability around the patterns of migration means that schools are called upon to be more nimble and responsive to changing population dynamics than ever before. In the United States, it is estimated that at least a quarter of its public school population will consist of English Learners (ELs) by the year 2025 (Gándara 2010). And, although a large percentage of them are Spanish-speakers, more than twenty five million U.S. residents use a language other English or Spanish at home; a reality

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that not only bespeaks linguistic diversity, but also cultural plurality. Once more, the linguistic and cultural landscape in the United States continues to both shift and expand; that is, one notes significant changes in the types of languages spoken in U.S. homes and, in simultaneity, a net increase in the total number of homes where a language other than English is spoken (Bond 2018). According to a recent Pew Research Center analysis of demographic trends in the United States, no one single race or ethnicity will form a majority in the general populous at or around the middle of the century. Currently, 14% of the population was born elsewhere; more than double the percentage reported in 1965 (Cohn and Caumont 2016). Indeed, in 2016, the immigrant share of the U.S. population approached an all-time high, quadrupling since 1965. And, although Latinos still make a very large share of the total, immigration from Asian countries has proportionally outpaced Latinos since 2010 (López et al. 2018). Yet, it is not just race, ethnicity, and language that shape the changing needs of American children. As just one example, the number of two-parent homes continues to shrink in the U.S. context—a reality that has an impact on children, although not always a negative one in terms of achievement (Waldfogel et al. 2010). In other words, the complexity of change when examining the profiles of American students is multi-faceted—not only encompassing changes brought about by immigration, but also fundamental shifts in the character and composition of American households. The United States and Scandinavia are not, of course, the only national and regional contexts where transnational influences are changing demographics and, correspondingly, the racial, ethnic, and linguistic composition of schools. Between 2000 and 2009, for example, countries belonging to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) experienced significant proportional increases in students with immigrant backgrounds; in several member countries, for example, the percentage of immigrant students measured in the teens and even up to 30% of total enrollments in public schools (OECD 2011). In many provinces of Canada, international migration accounts for a greater proportion of population increases than natural growth (i.e., rises in population attributable to birthrates). In fact, for the first time in almost a century, some Atlantic provinces have experienced negative natural increases to their respective populations (Martel 2015). With the integration of the European economies, and along with it, the facilitation of migration among the European Union (EU) members, schools across the continent are grappling with new challenges and opportunities (see, for example, Hart et al. 2016). In Africa, migration within the continent has risen sharply in recent decades, with nearly 25 million people moving to and from African nations in 2017, an increase of roughly 67% when compared to the turn of the millennium (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, n.d.). Notwithstanding recent surges in political nationalism (i.e., in certain corners of the globe), the overarching demographic trend appears to be rather clear—our world is ever more diverse, interwoven, fluid, and indeed, culturally and linguistically complex. Despite the realities described above, there is considerable empirical evidence that schools are not always attendant to the learning needs of linguistically and culturally diverse student populations (Amrein and Peña 2000; Cummins 2014; de Jong and

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Howard 2009; Irvine 1990; Ladson-Billings 1995; Pewewardy 1994). Some have suggested that inequities of this kind are at least in part to blame for incongruities in achievement that tend to impact these students disproportionately (see, for example, Gay 2013). As an example, historically, both Latinos and ELs in the United States have underperformed their mainstream counterparts on standardized tests in mathematics and English. Even more troubling is the reality that achievement gaps in the United States have grown for Latino ELs in recent years (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). Moreover, achievement and opportunity gaps for minority students can be quite vast on a global scale—a reality that does not exclude countries where financial resources might be presumed to be plentiful (Akiba and Letendre 2007). Notwithstanding the challenges that lay ahead for school leaders, there is a growing body of literature that claims to have identified leadership practices that are effective within the context of student diversity (Bloom and Erlandson 2003; Madhlangobe and Gordon 2012; Merchant et al. 2014; Johnson 2007; Reyes 2006; Riehl 2000). Some scholars have suggested that leadership training programs need to pay greater attention to social justice issues in the design of their degree and certification programs (Cambron-McCabe and McCarthy 2005; Giroux 1993; Marshall, 2004). Others point toward a need to remain focused on closing achievement gaps between white and minority students (Haycock 2001). If closing achievement gaps is the superhighway toward greater equity and equality in society, the metric for effective school leadership becomes a simplified equation of growth scores and proficiency percentages. Yet, opponents of this viewpoint assert that a monolithic focus on standardized achievement results may in fact exacerbate inequities for minority students by eliminating opportunities for enriched education (McNeil 2000). These areas of philosophical convergence and divergence are all relevant to the topic of school leadership, especially since they are fundamental considerations that all school leaders will need to grapple with and resolve if they are to be successful in their stewardship of diverse schools. And, of course, it is not the institution of education alone that grapples with and suffers from the dilemma of its own efficacy and relevance in the face changing population demographics. In the realm of politics, for example, one is likely to find underrepresentation of certain groups in a given political structure (see, for example, Hughes 2013) and, correspondingly, representative bodies too often fall short of the mark in terms of fully understanding and meeting the needs of all its constituents. To that end, leaders in other realms of public life can find themselves out-of-touch with the populations they attempt to reach. The media industry in the U.S., as another example, has failed keep pace with the rate of Latino growth in the country, grossly underrepresenting the ever-expanding Latino presence in nearly all forms of entertainment and popular communication. Yet, they do so at their own financial peril, considering that the Latino consumer market in the U.S. is estimated at roughly $1.6 trillion in buying power (Negrón-Muntaner et al. 2014). Whether out of lethargy or intentionality, institutions and large organizations are notorious for their inability to adapt nimbly to shifting sands, especially when such circumstances are perceived by its decision-makers as external to the institution’s core ecosystem.

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Nevertheless, when compared to other types of institutions, public schools, and therefore public-school educators, have or should have less discretionary choice in the matter—or at least one might expect this to be the case. Their mandate is or should be rather self-evident: to leverage the innate cultural and linguistic assets of the students they serve in pursuit of strengthening their academic knowledge, skills, self-awareness, confidence, social aptitude, and sense of reciprocal belongingness. When viewed from this perspective, the call for adaptability is not a one-way street where students and families are expected to do all of the adjusting. Rather, the aforesaid skill becomes an inherent and necessary component of the educator’s toolbox and the proverbial measuring tape that s/he employs in an effort to provide a better custom-fitted education for students of all backgrounds, languages, and socio-cultural perspectives.

3 The Chapters at a Glance The confluence of school leadership, linguistic diversity, and multiculturalism makes this volume unique, especially considering the pace at which global migration continues to accelerate, coupled with the need to accommodate an array of diverse learning needs in today’s schools. Chapters in this volume offer both original and reexamined empirical research that enhances an understanding of the interdependencies between leadership, culture, language, policy, and the mechanisms that advance (or hinder) school leaders from successfully leveraging resources in their respective school communities. In addition to identifying leadership practices that encourage positive outcomes for students of diverse backgrounds, certain works also underscore those practices that have not accomplished the aforementioned in an effort to present a more complete picture of the realities of leading in linguistically and culturally diverse schools. Peter Moyi and colleagues offer an intriguing application of Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction—focusing on the notion of capital—to the concept of educational leadership. More specifically, their work explores the essence of relationships between culturally diverse students and school leaders, providing theoreticians and practitioners an opportunity to reflect on how leaders might better draw upon cultural capital to engender more authentic and meaningful learning. Through an examination of South Asian school leaders’ life histories in the United Kingdom, Lauri Johnson uncovers new and thought-provoking insights about culturally responsive leadership—findings that extend the essential understanding of the construct beyond the American perspective. In addition to broadening our understanding of cultural responsiveness, her work underscores how school leaders empower and leverage local funds of knowledge to uplift the learning experience. Gregory Wise and Charles L. Slater skillfully meld two relevant theoretical perspectives to frame their analysis of critical moral leadership for English Learners. In so doing, the authors present a clear and cogent set of recommendations for school leaders that are thoroughly grounded in the principles and precepts of social justice.

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Delving deeper into the realms of practice, three separate papers based on case studies help to solidify emergent understandings about school leadership. Joseph Martin and colleagues explore effective leadership practices for Indigenous students through semi-structured interviews of school leaders in the Navajo and Cree contexts. Among other things, their findings illuminate potential ways forward for school leaders who seek to bridge the gap between history and identity for Indigenous learners. Employing a single case-study approach, Nathern S. A. Okilwa focuses on three specific aspects of school leadership and, in so doing, constructs a compelling portrait of a school leader who has successfully engineered an inclusive school environment that supports diversity and plurality. Building upon Leithwood and Riehl’s Four Core Practices of Successful Schools and Kose’s Transformational Leadership for Social Justice, Lorenda Chisolm explores a decidedly unique school context in the country of Belize. Her critical examination of socio-cultural spaces has both practical and theoretical implications for school leaders grappling with the challenges of being seen as ‘outsiders’ in a particular milieu. Shifting the focus from practice to preparation, Betty Merchant and colleagues analyze two specific leadership preparation programs in the state of Texas that feed into schools with large Latino populations. Applying a qualitative approach to a range of pertinent data, including but not limited to auto-ethnographies, the authors reveal how such programs can prepare future school leaders to champion social justice for Latino students. Faith Maina and Amani Zaier critically examine how and to what extent teachers are being prepared to implement Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) through the lens of a particular reform effort at Western Texas’s College of Education. Their work offers a succinct roadmap for better preparing teachers to lead their respective classrooms as skillful implementers of equity pedagogy, while also building essential cultural competencies. Anne Julia Köster reanalyzes case studies emanating from four different national contexts (Australia, Canada, East Timor, and South Africa). Applying Intercultural Competence as the core conceptual framework, she underscores the relevance of such competencies for leadership preparation programs. In the final section of the volume, we present a paper that centers upon educational policy at the crossroads of school leadership. Carla Paciotto and colleagues deconstruct the multifaceted connections between macro and micro Language Education Policies (LEPs) through an analysis of the Italian LEP context. Beyond accomplishing the aforementioned, the authors employ a well-structured application of two theoretical perspectives—critical sociocultural and scalar analysis. In so doing, they reveal poignant realities with respect to LEP in Italy, while also demonstrating how school leaders can fill in proverbial gaps in state policy, and thereby serve the interests of language minority students. The table that follows provides an overview of the chapters, topics, authors and their respective affiliations.

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Table 1 Overview of content Part 1: Introduction Chapter

Author

Chapter title

1

Jon C. Veenis Leadership for Linguistically Catskill Central School District, and Culturally Diverse Schools NY in the Era of Transnationalism

Part 2: Exploring educational theory in practice 2

Lauri Johnson Boston College, MA

Moral Leaders for Multicultural Britain: The Lives and Identities of UK South Asian Head Teachers

3

Peter Moyi, Rose Ylimaki, Suzy Hardie and Jintong Dou University of South Carolina, SC

A Bourdesian Approach to Educational Leadership in Culturally Diverse Schools

4

Gregory Wise Perris Union High School District, CA Charles L. Slater California State University Longbeach, CA

Critical Moral Leadership: Toward Social Justice for English Learners

Part 3: Case studies from diverse contexts 5

Lorenda Chisolm Buffalo Public Schools, NY

How School Leaders Leverage Resources for Social Justice, Equity and Access to Secondary Schooling in Belize: Implications for an Island Community

6

Joseph Martin, Jon Reyhner Northern Arizona University, AZ Richard Manning University of Canterbury, New Zealand Josephine Steeves Government of Canada, Canada Larry Steeves University of Regina, Canada

Educational Leaders Building Relationships and Respecting and Affirming Indigenous Identity

7

Nathern S. A. Okilwa University of Texas at San Antonio, TX

Leading in a Diverse Context: A Principal’s Efforts to Create an Inclusive Elementary School for Refugee Students (continued)

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Table 1 (continued) Part 1: Introduction Chapter

Author

Chapter title

Part 4: Preparation for teaching and leading in diverse contexts 8

Faith Maina and Amani Zaier College of Education, Texas Tech University, TX

Educating Against the Grain: A West Texas Teacher Preparation Program Champions Radical Reform

9

Betty Merchant, Encarnacion Garza, Jr., Juan Manual Niño, Karina Vielma, and Hugo Saucedo University of Texas at San Antonio, TX

Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk: Students’ Experiences in Two Programs to Prepare Leaders for Predominantly Latino Schools

Part 5: Implications of research findings for policy and practice 10

Anne Julia Köster European University Viadrina, Frankfurt, Germany

Intercultural Competencies of New Principals: Tackling Challenges Related to Leading a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse School

11

Carla Paciotto Western Illinois University, IL Enrico Castelli Gattinara and Daniella Mainardi Istituto Comprensivo Viadelle Carine - Scuola media statale Giuseppe Mazzini, Italy

Language-in-Education Policies in a New Immigration Country: Enabling and Disabling Local Leadership in a Multilingual School in Italy

12

Jami Royal Berry University of Georgia, GA Sylvia Robertson University of Otago, New Zealand Melanie Brooks Monash University, Australia

Components of Linguistically and Culturally Responsive School Leadership

Epilogue

Ross Notman University of Otago, New Zealand (Emeritus Professor)

A Metaphoric Approach to Leading Diversity in Schools

Part 6: Conclusion

4 Summary Remarks One thing seems almost unequivocally certain, predictability and constancy in education, if they ever existed, are and will continue to be fleeting phenomena in a world that is increasingly interconnected and transnational. To that end, the pace of change, whether it be the result of demographic shifts or other elements such technological advances, is more likely to accelerate in the years and decades to come than reach

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some point of stasis. As we push forward into a modern era that is, in part, defined by more fluid movements of people from one geographic and cultural context to another, the skills, knowledge, and traits required to successfully orchestrate success in schools and classrooms are surely to evolve in tandem with these indisputable realities. Indeed, contextual fluidity itself might be construed as the one constant in a world that is ever-more tectonic and acute in the magnitude and pace of technological, demographic, and cultural transformation. The implications for school leadership are multifold to say the least. For one, it means that our assumptions about school leadership must be continually revisited and, where necessary, amended when it becomes apparent that such notions flutter imperfectly against the winds of change. Furthermore, the reality of rapid and sometimes sweeping shifts in the needs of our students necessitates an ongoing vetting of our understandings where it concerns the juxtaposition of theory, practice, and policy; that is, if our intent is to better serve the needs of diverse student populations through excellence in leadership and teaching, it is incumbent that theorists and practitioners alike regularly engage in the examination, revision, and redevelopment of their own mental models where it concerns these very constructs. If adaptability and open-mindedness are essential characteristics embodied by effective school leaders—whether they be part of the formal hierarchy or not— then it follows that no one style of leadership is perfectly fitted to the mosaic of educational contexts in the global sphere. That is, the very notions of adaptation and openness are suggestive of a certain malleability where it concerns one’s approach to leading and educating others. Yet, at the same time, one might argue that certain ideals and traits embodied and modelled by educational leaders or even expressed through policy (e.g., fairness, impartiality, consistency, persistence, etc.) are worth preserving no matter what the context or however much the landscape has shifted. Throughout the conceptualization, design, and implementation of this project we have attempted to avoid the “silver bullet” fallacy and, in so keeping with this desire, the only correct answer to these and other possible theoretical, conceptual, or practical dilemmas is that there is likely no one correct answer to such quandaries. Indeed, certain traits and approaches are likely to be less or more desirable when considering the contextual backdrop. And, thus, we propose that school leaders, policymakers, and theoreticians alike review the chapters included in this volume through their own critical lens and with the implicit understanding that such findings, while relevant and thought-provoking, are inexorably entwined with the time, place, and perspective in which they were carried out and analyzed. To that end, that which can be intellectually gained and applied in practice from the work of our contributors is as much a product of their diligent work as it is the knowledge, insight, and experiences of the reader. With these ideas in mind, we offer the following: To recommend employing different leadership strategies that simultaneously and sequentially combine different elements seems like complicated advice, but developing this deeper feel for the change process by accumulating insights and wisdom across situations and time may turn out to be the most practical thing we can do—more practical than the best step-by-step models (Fullan 2004, p. 59).

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References Akiba, M., LeTendre, G. K., & Scribner, J. P. (2007). Teacher quality, opportunity gap, and national achievement in 46 countries. Educational Researcher, 36(7), 369–387. Amrein, A., & Peña, R. A. (2000). Asymmetry in dual language practice: Assessing imbalance in a program promoting equality. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 8. Bloom, C. M., & Erlandson, D. A. (2003). African American women principals in urban schools: Realities, (re)constructions, and resolutions. Educational Administration Quarterly, 39, 339–369. Bond, E. (2018). Linguistic diversity in the US hits record high. Retrieved September 20, from https://slator.com/demand-drivers/linguistic-diversity-in-the-us-hits-record-high/. Bunar, N. (2017). Migration and education in Sweden: Integration of migrants in the Swedish school education and higher education systems. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Retrieved from https://nesetweb.eu/en/resources/library/migration-and-education-in-swe den-integration-of-migrants-in-the-swedish-school-education-and-higher-education-systems/. Cambron-McCabe, N., & McCarthy, M. M. (2005). Educating school leaders for social justice. Educational Policy, 19(1), 201–222. Cohn, D., & Caumont, A. (2016). 10 demographic trends shaping the U.S. and the world in 2016. Retrieved March 31, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2016/03/31/10-demographictrends-that-are-shaping-the-u-s-and-the-world/. Cummins, J. (2014). To what extent are Canadian second language policies evidence-based? Reflections on the intersections of research and policy. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 1–10. de Jong, E., & Howard, E. (2009). Integration in two-way immersion education: Equalising linguistic benefits for all students. International Journal of Bilingualism and Bilingual Education, 12(1), 81–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050802149531 Fullan, M. (2004). Leading in a culture of change: Personal action guide and workbook. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Gándara, P. (2010). Special topic: The Latino education crisis. Educational Leadership, 67(5), 24–30. Gay, G. (2013). Teaching to and through cultural diversity. Curriculum Inquiry, 43(1), 48–70. Giroux, H. A. (1993). Educational leadership and school administrators: Rethinking the meaning of democratic public cultures. In T. A. Mulkeen, N. Cambron-McCabe, & B. J. Anderson (Eds.), Democratic leadership: The changing context of administrator preparation. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. Goddard, R. D., & Salloum, S. J. (2011). Collective efficacy beliefs, organizational excellence, and leadership. In K. S. Camerson & G. M. Spreitzer (Eds.), The Oxford handbook for positive organizational scholarship. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. Gurr, D., & Drysdale, L. (2018). Leading high needs schools: Findings from the international school leadership development network. International Studies in Educational Administration, 46(1), 147–156. Hart, E., Herrera, F., & Stepanek, M. (2016). Education of EU migrant children in EU member states. Santa Monica, CA: RAND. Haycock, K. (2001). Closing the achievement gap. Educational Leadership, 58(6). Retrieved from https://www.ascd.org/readingroom/edlead/0103/haycock.html. Hughes, M. M. (2013). The intersection of gender and minority status in national legislatures: The minority women legislative index. Legislative Studies Quarterly, 38(4), 489–516. Irvine, J. J. (1990). Black students and school failure. Westport, CT: Praeger. Johnson, L. (2007). Rethinking successful school leadership in challenging U.S. schools: Culturally responsive practices in school community relationships. ISEA, 35(3), 49–57. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32(3), 465–491. López, G., Bialik, K., & Radford, J. (2018). Key findings about U.S. immigrants. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center. Madhlangobe, L., & Gordon, S. P. (2012). Culturally responsive leadership in a diverse school: A case study of a high school leader. NASSP Bulletin, 96(3), 177–202.

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Marshall, C. (2004). Social justice challenges to educational administration: Introduction to a special issue. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40(1), 5–15. Martel, L. (2015). Recent changes in demographic trends in Canada. Statistics Catalogue no. Ottawa, Canada: 75–006-x. McAuliffe, M., & Ruhs, M. (2017). Making sense of migration in an increasingly interconnected world. In M. McAuliffe & M. Ruhs (Eds.), World migration report 2018 (pp. 1–11). Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Migration. McNeil, L. (2000). Contradictions of school reform: Educational costs of standardized testing. New York, NY: Routledge. Merchant, B., Garza, E., & Ramalho, E. M. (2014). USA—Culturally responsive leadership. In C. Day & D. Gurr (Eds.), Leading schools successfully: Stories from the field (pp. 174–183). London, UK: Routledge. Negrón-Muntaner, F., Abbas, C., Figueroa, L., & Robson, S. (2014). The Latino media gap: A report on the state of Latinos in U.S. media. New York, NY: Columbia University Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity. OECD. (2011). Pisa in focus: How are school systems adapting to increasing numbers of immigrant students. [PDF file]. Retrieved from https://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisainfocus/ 49264831.pdf. Pewewardy, C. (1994). Culturally responsible pedagogy in action: An American Indian magnet school. In E. Hollins, J. King, & W. Hayman (Eds.), Teaching diverse populations: Formulating a knowledge base (pp. 77–92). Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Reed, L. C., & Swaminathan, R. (2016). An urban school leader’s approach to school improvement: Toward contextually responsive leadership. Urban Education, 51(9), 1096–1125. Reyes, A. (2006). Reculturing principals as leaders for cultural and linguistic diversity. In K. Téllez & H. C. Waxman (Eds.), Preparing quality educators for English Language Learners (pp. 145–166). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers. Riehl, C. (2000). The principal’s role in creating inclusive schools for diverse learners: A review of normative, empirical, and critical literature on the practice of educational administration. Review of Educational Research, 70(1), 55–81. Sundberg, G. (2013). Language policy and multilingual identity in Sweden through the lens of generation Y. Scandinavian Studies, 85(2), 205–232. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. (n.d.). Economic development in Africa: Migration for structural transformation. Retrieved from https://unctad.org/en/Pages/ALDC/Afr ica/EDAR2018-Key-Statistics.aspx. United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division. (2013). International migration report 2013. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/popula tion/publications/pdf/migration/migrationreport2013/Full_Document_final.pdf. Waldfogel, J., Craigie, T. A., & Brooks-Gunn, J. (2010). Fragile families and child wellbeing. Future of Children, 20(2), 87–112. Zilliacus, H., Holm, G., & Sahlström, F. (2017). Taking steps towards institutionalising multicultural education – The national curriculum of Finland. Multicultural Education Review, 9(4), 231–248.

Exploring Educational Theory in Practice

Moral Leaders for Multicultural Britain: The Lives and Identities of UK South Asian Head Teachers Lauri Johnson

Abstract While the South Asian population in Britain is diverse in terms of ethnicity (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, and Sri Lankans) and religion (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh), South Asian educators have been underrepresented as school leaders and received little research attention. This chapter investigates the life histories of eight South Asian school leaders (four men and four women), and is part of a larger national study of three generations of UK Black and South Asian head teachers (28) across a 47-year-period (1968–2015). Participants were recruited through purposeful and snowball sampling and included 2nd generation UK head teachers of Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi, and Ugandan Asian background from five major UK cities. Narrative analysis revealed varied and complex social identities, which intersect with their ethnic and religious backgrounds and geographic locations and challenge essentialized notions of culture and “encapsulated” Asian communities. Themes from these life histories emphasize culturally responsive leaders who identify with the needs of recent immigrant children, incorporate local funds of knowledge in the curriculum, link their students with other ethnic and religious communities, and couch the mandated teaching of “Fundamental British Values” as humanistic concerns that transcend nation-states and specific religions. Importantly, they place moral purpose at the center of their leadership practices. This chapter extends the understanding of culturally responsive practices and moral leadership beyond a US centric framework. Keywords South Asian school leaders · Leadership practices · Social identities · Culturally responsive leadership · Moral leadership Schools across the UK (particularly England) have experienced rapid demographic shifts over the past 13 years. The proportion of pupils from ethnic minorities has risen steadily since 2006. In primary schools, over 33% of pupils are of minority ethnic origins (Department for Education [DfE], 2018a) and over 20% of pupils L. Johnson (B) Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA, US e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_2

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speak English as an additional language (Swinford 2017). Yet Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME)1 educators remain underrepresented in British schools, particularly school leaders who are known as head teachers. The latest Department for Education’s School Workforce Census indicates that 93% of head teachers across the country are from a White British background (DfE, 2018b),2 and Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic teachers are much less likely to be promoted to leadership positions than White teachers (Powney et al. 2003). This chapter investigates the life histories of eight South Asian head teachers who lead diverse state schools in five UK cities –London, Leicester, Bradford, Halifax, and Coventry. The narratives were collected as part of a larger year-long study that examined the lives and identities of three generations of UK Black and South Asian headteachers (28) across a 47-year-period (1968—2015) (see Johnson 2017). Based on the 2011 UK Census, the South Asian population currently comprises about 5% of the total British population, and is diverse in terms of ethnicity (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, and Sri Lankans) and religion (Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh). At 1.4 million or 2.5% of the total UK population, British of Indian descent are the largest ethnic minority group in the UK. British Pakistanis (1.17 million) are the second largest ethnic minority population and constitute 2% of the British population. The UK recognizes Sikhs as an ethnic group, and they comprise a national population of 750,000, while the UK Bangledeshi population numbers approximately 447,000 (0.8% of the UK population). (Census 2011, 2019). In the 1930s there were just 7,000 Asians living in the UK, one third of whom were university students. Immigration accelerated after the end of Empire and partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 when Indian and Pakistani men came to work in the factories and foundries of the Midlands and the North of England, often arriving with just a few pounds in their pocket.3 Their wives and families followed soon after. As the author of Asian Britain (Nasta 2013) notes, there was no “Windrush moment” for immigrants from the Indian subcontinent, yet by 1951 there were 43,000 South Asians in England.4 As a result of the British Nationality Act of 1948 all were entitled to live and work in Britain. The parents of the South Asian head teachers interviewed for this study immigrated to the UK during the late 1950s and early 1960s, with the 1 In

the UK the term BAME (Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic) is used to designate someone of African Caribbean, African, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, or Indian descent. It is increasingly contested, with critics arguing that it masks the differences between racial and ethnic communities and how they are affected by racism (see https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-43831279). 2 It’s difficult to obtain an accurate figure of the number of Black and South Asian headteachers because the category “not White and British” also lumps together White Irish, Other White, and Other categories. 3 Because of restrictions on foreign currency, those who immigrated to Britain could only carry three pounds, the limit set by the Indian authorities. See recent oral histories of South Asian immigrants in the BBC documentary Three Pounds in My Pocket, BBC Radio. Retrieved from https://www. bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02gc1lt. 4 This is a reference to the Empire Windrush, the ship which transported over 1000 passengers, mostly from the Caribbean, to London in June, 1948. The first generation of African Caribbeans who settled in the UK in the late 1940s through the early 1970s are often known as the Windrush Generation.

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exception of one headteacher of Ugandan Asian descent whose family arrived in Leicester in 1972.5

1 Studies on South Asian Educators Two seminal studies in the mid-1990s focused attention on the lives and careers of UK Asian educators. Ghuman’s (1994, 1995) study included 33 Pakistani and Indian teachers from the Midlands. He interviewed 22 first generation teachers who completed their teaching qualifications on the Indian subcontinent and 11 from the second generation who grew up and completed their professional qualifications in the UK. Ghuman found that first generation teachers felt their professional development and promotion had been strongly affected by the racism they met, while second generation Asian teachers were more optimistic about their future opportunities. Osler (1997) interviewed 48 Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) participants from the West Midlands about their strategies for advancement and their differential responses to the racism they encountered in their career paths. Although the majority of participants were teachers or teacher education students, ten senior managers (six head teachers, one deputy head, and three inspectors) were also included in her study. Osler’s study included some South Asian educators, but because all interview responses were aggregated and the educator’s race, ethnicity, religion, and school context were not always identified, it remains difficult to link the South Asian educators’ perspectives with their leadership practice. Much of the current research literature on UK South Asian educators focuses on Muslim teachers and headteachers, particularly as leaders of faith-based schools (Hammad and Shah 2018). In 2011 one third of state funded schools in the UK were faith based (Walford 2008). While the majority are Church of England (68%) and Catholic (30%), there are currently 156 Muslim faith schools in the UK, of which 14 are state funded (Association of Muslim Schools 2013). There are also a handful of Sikh and Hindu faith-based schools funded by the government that teach the British national curriculum alongside Sikh and/or Hindu values.6 Hammad and Shah’s (2018) empirical study of four headteachers in Muslim schools in London and Nottingham found that these leaders believed their role was more than leading teaching and learning. From an Islamic perspective, these headteachers defined leadership as a prophetic role of guiding learners toward God in addition to the holistic development of learners (Shah 2016). They stressed their role as spiritual leaders who aimed to instill Islamic values in their students. Several leadership challenges were noted in their faith-based schools, including the diverse 5 In

1972 Asians were expelled by Idi Amin’s government and given 90 days to leave the country. Over 20,000 Ugandan Asians settled in Leicester. 6 During Tony Blair’s administration there was an increase and focus on the development of faithbased schools in the UK, in part because of his Christian faith and his beliefs about the role of faith in society (see Walford 2008).

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expectations of parents from different Muslim traditions, the lack of support from the Muslim community, efforts to preserve students’ Muslim identity in a secular context, negative perceptions about the quality of educational services offered in Muslim schools, and financial challenges in schools that are not state supported. In her comparative study of 10 Muslim headteachers working in state schools in England and Pakistan, Iqbal (2018, 2019) explored the role of religion in their professional practice. She found that the five UK headteachers expressed their religion in a more covert way than the Pakistani headteachers, although they acknowledged it was the basis for most of their leadership principles. The language UK headteachers used was secular, which Iqbal concluded reflected their need to conform to professional expectations and the multi religious contexts of their schools. The lived experiences and leadership practices of the broader group of UK South Asian head teachers (Muslim, Hindu, Sikh) who lead diverse state schools has received little attention in the literature. This chapter aims to examine this subset of BAME headteachers to examine commonalities or differences in their life experiences, social identities, and leadership practice.

2 Conceptual Framework The larger study considered the life histories of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic (BAME) headteachers as a window into their professional and social identities. In Crow et al.’s (2017) recent collective framework for researching principals’ identities, they identify five dimensions: (1) the narrative dimension; (2) the epistemic dimension; (3) the emotional dimension; (4) the historical and cultural dimension; and (5) the political dimension. While in the larger study I focused on the historical and cultural dimension, and used a generational approach (Mannheim 1952) to analyze how BAME headteachers’ experiences might be different over time, in this chapter I focus on the narrative dimension. As Giddens (1991) notes, narrative is at the core of identity, which is created and recreated in light of the shifting experiences of day-to-day life. I reanalyzed the life histories of the South Asian headteachers to consider what could be learned about their leadership practices as well as their social identities. Social identity theory proposes that a person’s sense of who they are depends on the social groups to which they belong (Tajfel and Turner 1979). I was particularly interested in exploring the intersections of their social identities across ethnicity, gender, and religion.

3 Methods As Goodson (2013) notes, “Life histories focus not just on the narrative of action but also on the historical background, or what he calls ‘the genealogy of context.’” In his view, life stories become life histories when they are located in historical time

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and social space (p. 5). The inclusion of life histories has been advocated as a way to legitimize the leader’s voice in educational research (Goodson 1992) and document influences on the head teacher’s leadership development over time (Ribbins 2008, Sugrue 2015). In particular, I asked: How do British South Asian head teachers construct their role as leader and what is the influence of their familial, social, community, ethnic, religious, and geographic contexts? Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted during day-long visits to their schools which focused on the critical life experiences that influenced their path to leadership and the intersection of their professional and social identities. Questions were adapted from the identity protocol of the International Successful School Principal Project (ISSPP), an international leadership project which involves researchers from over 20 countries who produce case studies of leadership practice in their own countries and then compare their findings across national contexts. The ISSPP identity protocol asks participants to “tell me the story of your life” and includes probes about their childhood years, schooling, family relationships, along with questions about when they decided to take on leadership roles and the major values that motivated and influenced their work. Additional questions were added to the ISSPP protocol in the larger study, which asked participants to describe which social and professional identities were important to them and their metaphors for leadership. For this chapter I also inquired about how participants viewed the government’s emphasis on fundamental British values. Each participant was interviewed for up to two hours.

4 Participants Participants in the larger study were recruited through purposive and snowball sampling, initially based on referrals from UK colleagues. As the study progressed interviewees were asked to identify other Black and South Asian head teachers they knew who might be willing to participate in the study. An effort was made to include participants from diverse ethnic and geographic backgrounds. The subset of participants discussed in this chapter include South Asian head teachers of Pakistani (3), Indian (3), Bangladeshi (1), and Ugandan Asian (1) background. In terms of their religious background, six of the participants were raised Muslim (although two of these participants now describe themselves as humanists), one identified as Hindu and one Sikh. Interviewees included four men and four women from five UK cities in the North of England, the Midlands, and London. While the sample size is small, it reflects at least some of the ethnic, religious, and geographic diversity of the UK South Asian population.

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5 Analysis Life history narratives investigate how individuals construct identities, make sense of important events in their lives, and represent these events to others. I approached the analysis of these interviews much as Riessman (1993) has suggested, as windows into the participants’ self-representations. In the larger study I used Mannheim’s (1952) “sociology of generations” as a theoretical framework to analyze possible differences in the head teachers’ experiences across generations. For this chapter the interviews of South Asian head teachers were extracted from the larger study and reanalyzed using open coding and a grounded theory approach (Charmaz 2004) in order to identify common patterns or themes which “bubbled up” in each head teacher’s personal and professional life story. Through a narrative approach, themes were generated within each narrative and then compared across the narratives (Clandinin 2016). I was particularly interested in how, if at all, the unique experiences of this subset of South Asian headteachers might differ from the larger study.

6 Findings 6.1 Growing Up –Fitting In/Standing Out As second-generation South Asians growing up in Britain, participants were often the only Asian child in their neighborhood and primary school classroom. Some, like Amina S.,7 who became the head teacher of the large West London primary school she attended as a child, expressed: “We were of Muslim background but we followed the rules. We wore what the other children wore. We just went with the flow…We fitted in.” Others, such as Mohammed H., stood out as “hyper visible” because he wore traditional Pakistani clothing and remembers how, Growing up in Halifax in the 70s and 80s, you experienced racism. Even at the primary (level)… People saying “Pakis this…” (In) secondary it was pronounced… Part of what you do when that happens is you learn to keep your head down. And not stand out. And try to just fit in.

It was not until he went away to university and entered a more cosmopolitan environment that Mohammed felt he could converse with White people as equals. “Had I not been to university, I would be very racist and anti-White.” Teachers’ low expectations toward Muslim students fueled his “moral outrage” and motivation to become an educator and eventually a school leader. For Davinder G., growing up Sikh in Bradford was a positive experience. Her family home was a hub for recent immigrants from the Punjab who stayed with 7 All

names of participants are pseudonyms.

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Davinder’s family until they found a place to live, and she maintained close connections with the gurdwara (Sikh temple) where her father, who worked nights in a local foundry, served as the president and a community leader. She played field hockey for the Bradford team, but was not allowed by her family to attend the away games and consequently was viewed as “unreliable” by her coaches. As a school leader in a Sikh free school Davinder G. references these personal experiences as a way to empathize with the unique circumstances of the students and families she serves.8

7 Becoming an Educator Often the first in their family to pursue higher education, their parents strongly valued education and made sacrifices to ensure that they went to college. All but one of the participants, however, noted that their families wanted them to pursue what was viewed as a more prestigious career in medicine or law, not education. Tariq K. recalled his mother’s response when he informed her he was going to complete a teaching qualification in primary education: I think (my mum was) really disappointed. It was really interesting when mum’s friends used to come round and she’d still say, ‘He’s a teacher, but he’s going to redo.’ Divya S. reflected on her unlikely journey to become the headteacher of a large secondary comprehensive school in the West London neighborhood where she grew up: When I was 18 and I left school I was sure of only two things. One is I wasn’t coming back to [this predominately Indian neighborhood] to live, and the second thing was, I didn’t know what I wanted to do but I knew I didn’t want to teach. It’s funny that I should be here.

Once they began teaching, however, the participants quickly moved up into middle level leadership positions. These school leaders sought out challenges—for several their first headship was a failing school which they successfully turned around and increased student achievement.

8 Narrating Their Leadership Practices Themes uncovered across the narratives emphasized leadership behaviors designed to raise expectations, bridge diverse cultures, and create a universal values-based ethos in their schools.

8 Free schools are schools sponsored by community organizations or religious groups which receive

government funding.

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8.1 Raising Expectations As novice head teachers, they often encountered low expectations of their ethnically diverse students exhibited by other staff. Salma N. described what she terms the “tea and sympathy” model for managing students that was evident when she took over her East London secondary girls’ school. She remembers the teachers’ sentiments, “The poor little mites, they’re coming from hard backgrounds, so let’s make it a bit easy for them.” One of her first tasks as the new head was changing the school culture to provide more academic challenge for the students. In her words, The expectations have got to be high, the structure and support have got to be there, but also the academic rigor. You have to show the kids that we expect them to do as well as any other child in the country. Why can’t you do that? Why can’t our kids go to Cambridge? Why can’t they go to UCL (University College London)? It’s really important for us to give those clear messages.

When Mohammed H. became a deputy head he acknowledged “There were children of a similar background as myself who believed that they can’t achieve. And that’s what informed my teaching (and leadership).”

8.2 Bridging Cultures A common refrain across the interviews was how these school leaders used their own life experiences to identify with their students and their families from diverse backgrounds and expose them to new experiences that expanded their horizons. They strived to create inclusive schools where, in one case, students’ home languages and languages were incorporated as part of the national curriculum, and in another, students (girls in particular) were encouraged to pursue sports, martial arts, and orchestral music programs that had been unavailable in their working-class schools in the past. Tariq K., who has been head teacher of his predominately Pakistani primary school for 19 years, engages his students in original dance, music and drama through projectbased curriculum. During the nation-wide centennial of WWI, students learned about the role of the Indian Army on the front lines. He has also expanded his students’ knowledge of strong South Asian women through the study of Raziya Sultan, the first female sultan of Delhi who ruled in the thirteenth century. Tariq K. regularly stages intercultural events in his West Yorkshire city, which bring students together across neighborhood, race, and religion. He stated: Our main aim here with children is for them to identify and find a real positive place in society. And by that I mean not just having the academic values. But actually to contribute to the country in a very positive way…

After the terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in 2015 Tariq created a large bulletin board in the front hall of his predominately Muslim school that read “Je Suis Human.” He explains his reasoning,

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After the Paris shootings there was all this “Je Suis Charlie.” (At our school) we said, ‘Look. Je Suis Human… it’s about mutual respect and tolerance… Most schools point out the differences. We celebrate the similarities… and show there’s a mutual respect.

Several of the head teachers interviewed described themselves as “outward facing” and have consciously networked their students and staff with a variety of local and international organizations. Ten years ago, when Amina S. became the headteacher of a predominately Muslim (Somali, Pakistani, as well as Eastern European) junior school in West London, she set about incorporating innovative technology, a yearly teacher exchange with a school in Beijing, and embedding children’s rights into the school’s ethos. She aims to develop a global perspective in her students: No matter how you look at it the world has shrunk. We need to be able to enable these children to be global citizens. Now living on the [name] Estate where the children don’t really travel more than a mile radius, these children now have to fit in with the bigger world. Both in technology, in terms of experience and ability and how they carry themselves, socialization, all of those things. We kind of had to bring it to them. And then from there take them out.

These South Asian leaders have made a conscious decision to work in culturally diverse state schools. As Salma N. shared: I have a very great commitment to multicultural/multi-religious schools because that’s the model I think is really successful—as long as there is sensitivity shown, that everybody’s culture is really brought out in a very positive way. That’s the ideal.

9 Reinterpreting Fundamental British Values as Universal Their efforts to bridge diverse cultures has taken place in an increasingly political environment where notions of social cohesion and teaching “Fundamental British Values” have become part of the expectations for UK government schools. Instituted in November 2014, under the Cameron–Clegg coalition (2010–2015) government, the DfE advised that, “Schools should promote the fundamental British values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs” (DfE, 2014, p. 4).

As Tomlinson (2015) explains, this focus on British values is actually a response to fears of extremist religious ideologies and was accompanied by changes in the national curriculum towards a more traditional stance that also emphasized Shakespeare and other British literature. During the course of the larger research project (then) Secretary of Education Michael Gove made teaching “Fundamental British Values” (FBV) part of the OFSTED inspection regime, which involves high stakes examinations by a team of government evaluators who determine if your school “needs improvement,” is “good” or “outstanding.” This mandate weighed most heavily on predominately Muslim schools as they were under the closest scrutiny.

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The South Asian head teachers interviewed discussed the ambiguity associated with British values and how they were being interpreted and implemented in the schools. Amina S. in West London questioned “what are British values?” and joked, somewhat facetiously, that in her mind the “queue” was quintessentially British. Head teacher Sufia K. from the West Midlands, who is also an OFSTED inspector, noted that even the OFSTED inspectors she knows were somewhat skeptical about what would constitute British values: As inspectors when we were told (about British values), a room full of inspectors getting the training, everybody laughed and said ‘OK, so being respectful is actually a British value? That’s interesting.’ So does that mean other countries in the world do not have respect or tolerance, or liberty and democracy?

Other head teachers, like Mohammad H. from Bradford, concluded that the focus on British values by the DfE is “being used to silence people.” He worries that a twotier inspection framework may develop, where those schools that are predominately Asian in heritage might have to prove something different than schools that are predominately White. Mohammed H. advocates approaching terrorist acts like the bombings in the London tube in July 2007 head on. In his view, What you need to do is open the discussion (at school), because if it’s not challenged and not discussed than what happens is the only places where these discussions take place is online…

Panjwani (2016), in his survey of 39 teachers of Muslim heritage who taught in UK government schools, found that his respondents believed that British values were in compliance with Islamic values. Head teachers interviewed for this study, including Tariq K., who was raised Muslim but now identifies as a humanist, concluded that the values that have been characterized as British are actually “common human values that are apparent in every human being. And they transcend religions.” In general, these South Asian head teachers have reinterpreted the notion of promoting social cohesion and “Fundamental British Values” as larger humanistic concerns that transcend nation-states and specific religions.

10 Enacting Moral Leadership Perhaps most evident across the narratives was the strong focus on moral purpose which anchored their leadership practice. When Sufia K. agreed to take over as head teacher of a failing school in a high poverty neighborhood in the West Midlands, she characterized her motivation as, A moral duty to ensure that I did everything within my capacity to ensure that this community got a fair deal and that the children here were given the very best opportunities in life, in fact more so than if I worked in an affluent area which I did before I came here.

For some this was expressed as a calling to lead or implement a values-based ethos in their school. After her husband survived a life-threatening illness, Salma N. noted

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she “felt that Allah wants me to (contribute), do something more. I put everything into the school, and it just blossomed.” Davinder G., when asked to become head teacher of a Sikh free school, embraced the opportunity to lead a school with a Sikh ethos “of respect, tolerance, compassion, equality, mastery… to develop compassionate human beings who care about the world.” Zakir M., who has increased student achievement in two failing primary schools in East London over the last 22 years, characterizes his moral responsibility as a “spiritual leader” to set the direction for the school and “keep the true spirit of the school and education.” Sufia K. attributes her leadership to the values her father instilled in her growing up: I lead with values… Your values are what drive you to behave in certain ways. I think my religious values do not allow me to slip. I hold myself to account. I do not allow myself not to do a good day’s job.

Divya S. characterized it as her moral responsibility to provide opportunities for the students in her school, but also to pave the way for future BAME school leaders. In her words, Its moral responsibility, isn’t it? What do I say to people? I’m only here because of what people have done before me and therefore I have a sense of responsibility... My path has been opened because of the struggles (of the people who) have gone before me. And I need to be sure that I open that path for the people that come behind me.

Shah (2016), in her discussion of an Islamic perspective on leadership, explains that Muslim leaders often highlight their faith identity and focus on moral and ethical values irrespective of their religious practices. In my reanalysis of the themes from the South Asian head teachers’ narratives, it was apparent that everyone emphasized moral purpose, whether they identified as Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, or humanist.

11 Narrating Their Social Identities The life narratives also revealed complex social identities across the eight participants, which intersected with their ethnic and religious backgrounds and sometimes geographic locations. Several participants maintained close connections with India and Pakistan, including those who traveled back to visit family on a yearly basis and three who married Pakistani or Indian citizens in marriages arranged by their families. Yet most described hybridized or multiple identities such as British Sikh or British Muslim. This supports Modood et al.’s (1997) finding that around threequarters of young Asians in the UK said that they felt British and Indian/Pakistani, etc., suggesting the emergence of hyphenated social identities in the second generation. While all the participants had been raised in religious families, their current religious affiliations varied on a continuum from a “humanist” orientation to deeply observant.

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For Salma N., who grew up in East London and began her teaching career at the high school she attended as a teenager, her gender and ethnic identities are equally important. As a head teacher in a girl’s secondary school she purposely wore traditional Pakistani dress every day, “because that was part of my culture,” but she didn’t cover her head because, she reasoned, in her religiously diverse school (which included Muslim, Hindu, and Sikh students), doing so might ostracize other religious communities. Salma strongly identifies as a Muslim woman, but shares, “covering doesn’t make me a better Muslim.” Instead, she insists, “people will judge me for what I’ve done.” As a former science teacher and female head teacher she has been particularly proud to be a role model for the South Asian girls in her school, “To see somebody who looked a bit like their mom, their grandmother, being in a very professional role.” Davinder G. embraces what she views as her hyphenated social identity: On my passport I’m British. And I’m proud to be British. But I’m also Sikh. And I’m more of a Sikh person living in England than I am living in India. I’ve never lived there. So therefore for me the best identity is British Sikh.

Amina S. notes that her social identity is context and situation specific: If anybody says to me who do you identify with I would say I’m a British Muslim. I’m a British Pakistani. When I’m in Pakistan (however) I’m very Pakistani.

Growing up in Halifax Mohammed H. commented on how social identities may shift over time: We had a British passport, we had citizenship so you maybe could argue that we were British but people didn’t believe that we were. And to be fair when I was in primary school I probably didn’t think I was either. I probably think my sole loyalties in my head were probably to Pakistan.

Now he emphasizes his religious identity first. He identifies as Muslim, but also acknowledges he is a “Yorkshire man.” Two participants, however, identified solely as British. Tariq K. cites that his parents, who emigrated from Pakistan as adults in the late 1950s, “were incredibly proud to be British and still are proud to be British. (As residents of the Indian subcontinent before partition) they were British citizens.” Growing up in a predominately White neighborhood in a West Yorkshire market town, Tariq concludes, I didn’t feel as though I’d got a different identity. I seemed to adapt. (I felt) British growing up, (with) Westernized values.

Sufia K., a second generation Bangledeshi who grew up in a predominately White neighborhood in the West Midlands, also identifies as British but reflects, “I don’t know whether people identify me as British? I don’t think in the profession. The first thing people see is an Asian woman.”

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12 Discussion These South Asian head teachers narrated how they bring their life experiences into their leadership, through identifying with the needs of children who have recently immigrated, incorporating diverse cultural knowledge in the curriculum, and linking students and their families with other ethnic and religious communities and international concerns. In reference to the U.S. educational leadership literature these practices might be termed “culturally responsive” (Johnson 2006, 2014; Khalifa et al. 2016), because these headteachers hold high expectations for their ethnically diverse working-class students and incorporate community-based funds of knowledge and diverse religious traditions into their schools. The South Asian leaders in this study also practiced “bridge leadership” (Horsford 2012; Tooms and Boske 2010) by reaching out to neighborhood organizations and religious leaders, involving their students and teachers in international partnerships, and couching the mandated teaching of so-called “British values” as larger humanistic concerns that transcend nation-states. Their hybrid social identities challenge essentialized notions of culture as well as media concerns about “encapsulated” Asian communities (Crozier 2009; Keddie 2014). They have reinterpreted narrow notions of fundamental British values and social cohesion in order to create outward facing schools which embrace diversity and aim to increase students’ life chances and futures in multicultural Britain. What was particularly striking from this reanalysis, however, was the emphasis on moral leadership at the center of their leadership practice, regardless of the leader’s religious orientation. While this theme was evident in the larger study of 28 BAME headteachers, it proved particularly salient when I pulled out the narratives of the eight South Asian headteachers. These leaders appeared to support, as Willower (1994) reminded us over 25 years ago, that school administration is essentially an ethical undertaking. Greenfield (2004), in his review of the research literature on moral leadership, emphasizes the importance of examining the lived experiences and subjective meanings of school leaders and the role of social, historical, and cultural contexts on moral leadership. Further study about how this values-led leadership is experienced by other stakeholder groups in their schools might reveal richer portraits of their day-to-day interactions with teachers, parents, and students. In sum, this chapter underscores the importance of conducting more contextuallysensitive research on school leadership (Reed and Swaminathan 2016) which emphasizes leaders’ values and social identities, particularly in cross national contexts. Investigations of BAME headteachers in Britain often focus on the racism and barriers (as well as supports) they have experienced regarding their career progression (see Bush et al. 2006; Coleman and Campbell-Stephens 2010; Miller 2016; Miller and Callender 2018). In contrast, a life history approach reveals the importance of the leader’s biography, their values, and their social identities on their leadership practices. This chapter contributes to the scant literature on UK South Asian school leaders and extends our understanding about culturally responsive practices and moral leadership beyond a US framework.

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A Bourdieusian Approach to Educational Leadership in Culturally Diverse Schools Peter Moyi, Rose Ylimaki, Suzy Hardie, and Jingtong Dou

Abstract As student populations become increasingly diverse, there is urgency to explain relationships between leaders and students from culturally diverse backgrounds. While many leadership scholars have recently drawn attention to student diversity and the need for culturally responsive leadership, few researchers have theorized leadership from a Bourdieusian perspective. A Bourdieuian perspective explains leadership-student relations considering capital, fields, and habitus. We argue these concepts are essential for contemporary leadership theory, policy, and practice in diverse schools. Capital is at the core of Bourdieu’s theory of social reproduction. ( Bourdieu, P. (1977a). Cultural reproduction and social reproduction. In Karabel, J. & Halsey, A.H. (Eds.), Power and ideology in education (pp. 487–511), New York: Oxford.) argues upper-class students are advantaged not by the merit of their experiences but by the unequal value bestowed to these experiences by schools. He introduces the concept of habitus as the dispositions acquired through life experiences in different dimensions, and theorizes that the social world is divided into fields. Each field has a set of practices, and people who dominate and are dominated. Using habitus and field, researchers can examine the dispositions, traits, and practices of school leaders, as they operate across a number of fields, each with different power structures and properties. This chapter lays the groundwork for theorizing relationships among individual educational leaders and increasingly pluralistic communities so as to further inform empirical research. We construct a framework grounded in the theoretical logic of sociology beyond organizational and critical theories that explains relationships between leaders and students from culturally diverse backgrounds P. Moyi (B) · R. Ylimaki · S. Hardie · J. Dou University of South Carolina, Columbia, US e-mail: [email protected] R. Ylimaki e-mail: [email protected] S. Hardie e-mail: [email protected] J. Dou e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_3

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Keywords Educational leadership · Culturally diverse · School leaders · Bourdieu

1 Changing Demographics, Changing Cultures, and the Need for a New Leadership Approach The world is being reshaped by global migration. According to the data from the United Nations, there are more than 250 million migrants worldwide who are living outside of their birth countries (Pew Research Center 2018). In 2017, about 49.7 million people living in the United States were born in other countries (Pew Research Center 2018). The U.S. Census Bureau (2014), projects the number of foreign-born United States residents will rise to 78.2 million by 2060 (Colby and Ortman 2015). As the United States becomes more pluralistic, school leaders need to be prepared to lead schools with greater student diversity in ways that bring education and democracy closer together. If we are to fulfill the democratic prospect articulated by John Dewey (1916), educational leaders must be able to mediate among culturally diverse individuals, schools, and communities. Pierre Bourdieu was an influential social theorist of the twentieth century (Calhoun and Wacquant 2002; Grenfell 2010). In education, Bourdieu is best known for his theory of social and cultural reproduction. Bourdieu’s research identified the central role that schools play in reproducing social and cultural inequalities. The work of Bourdieu is also useful for theorizing educational leadership (Lingard and Christie 2003). Bourdieu’s theoretical approach sought to go beyond the structure-individual agency conundrum in sociology using his “thinking tools”—habitus, capital, and field. According to Lingard and Christie (2003), Bourdieu provides “a way through that central sociological conundrum and a way to allow for contextual constraints and individual possibilities within the work of principals” (p. 319). Yet few researchers (Lingard and Christie 2003) have theorized leadership from a Bourdieusian perspective using habitus, capital, and field. Habitus, capital and fields are concepts that we argue are essential for contemporary leadership theory, policy, and practice in diverse schools. Due to the changing demographics and culture of students attending public schools in the US, school leaders more than ever, need to be aware of their own identity and how their self-concept impacts those who are following (Turbin 2017). Moll et al. (1992) drew on Bourdieu’s notion of cultural capital, and Vygotsky (1978) to conceptualize funds of knowledge; however, leadership received little attention. We ask: How can we construct a framework grounded in Bourdieusian theoretical logics beyond the current literature that theorizes relationships between leaders and frequently marginalized students? How do we theorize leadership for education and social inclusion that explicitly considers the cultural background of the students in an increasingly diverse democratic society? In our view, such theorizing of leadership calls us to look beyond theories that explain practice from organizational or political theories alone. This chapter will lay the groundwork for theorizing relationships between the individual educational leader and increasingly pluralistic communities that might inform future empirical research.

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2 Leadership Literature Over Time Organizational theorists (Fayol 1949; Simon 1958) influenced the educational leadership field with many empirical studies focused on relationships among the school or district as a micro organization, leaders and other school participants, and the broader social, economic and political environment or context. For example, leadership scholars such as Hoy and Miskel (2005) synthesized organizational theories from business and sociology and applied these theories to the work of leaders in school organizations defined as systems. Here Hoy and Miskel (2005) explained relations between inputs (e.g. economic resources, policies) and outputs (student outcomes). More recently, a growing number of educational leadership scholars have utilized various social theories to consider relations among social structures, politics, policies and schools. With an increasing plurality of students in educational organizations/schools worldwide, we see a significant need to bring these two strands of leadership literature into dialogue and theorize the relationships among the individual, school structure, and the broader society, including multiculturalism and multilingualism. In the following paragraphs, we further discuss leadership literature over time and then present a leadership approach that extends existing literature with deeper theorizing of culture.

3 Organizational Theory Approach to Leadership Hoy and Miskel (2005) argued that organizational theories evolved from rational to human relations to open systems approaches. A rational approach uses a formal organizational structure and ontology to define the role of organizational members (Taylor 1947; Fayol 1949). In a rational approach to organizational theory, administrators are managers or instruments for the attainment of formal organizational rules and goals. Natural systems perspectives emerged in response to rational system approaches to organization, positing that individuals in organizations do not always adhere to formal rules (Follett 1918). According to natural systems theory (Follett 1918), the informal structure of relations among participants is more influential in guiding the behavior of participants. In addition to natural system theorists, some organizational theorists conceived organizations as open systems that combine both rational and natural system assumptions about reality (Simon 1958). From this perspective, while schools are organizations that are shaped and defined by the actors within the local school, they also are shaped and defined by the larger societal context within which they exist. Empirical studies of leadership from an open systems perspective resulted in combinational leadership approaches within organizations. This included early approaches to management in transactional leadership and more relation-oriented and inspirational approaches such as transformational leadership that mediates the external (context) and internal factors that contribute to organizational learning (Leithwood 1992).

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Many leadership scholars have used organizational theories to understand leadership in effective schools located in communities with a majority of families with lower socioeconomic status. For example, Hallinger and Murphy (1986) analyzed differences in the operation of school effectiveness factors in effective elementary schools of differing student socioeconomic status (SES). Their findings indicate transformational leaders fostered a well-coordinated curriculum which emphasized the achievement of basic reading and math skills. Organizational theories have an underlying rationality theory in theoretical logic and provide conceptual tools to understand relations between organizations and the external environment. Rational and open systems theories tend to focus attention on the organizational unit and actors within them with open systems acknowledging a greater role for the external environment. While natural systems theorists such as Follett (1918) explicitly considered informal structures and power relationships, they did not integrate understandings of individuals’ habitus and cultural capital into their explanations regarding the creation of informal structures.

4 Empirical Studies in Culturally Diverse, High Needs Schools Over time, scholars have applied organizational theories and other social theories that emphasize the external environment, including students’ socioeconomic and racial/ethnic backgrounds. Since the 1970s, many scholars have examined effective schools in which students perform better than expected given the prerequisites. Classic school effectiveness studies of leaders in high-needs schools (Edmonds 1979; Levine and Lezotte 1990) were conducted in the wake of the Coleman Report (1966) that identified students’ socioeconomic background as more important to student success than the work of schools. Thus, Edmonds (1979) and Levine and Lezotte (1990) among many others studied those schools there were effective for all students regardless of socioeconomic status. More recently, the term “turnaround school” has emerged as a description of schools in which school principals led declining schools with high populations of children living in poverty and children of color to educational improvement in a short amount of time (Peck and Reitzug 2014). Research on effective schools and turnaround schools (and leaders thereof) focuses on characteristics and practices of school organizations that contribute to student outcomes, including the development of a clear school mission, monitoring of student progress, protection of instructional time from interruptions, and maintenance of high standards for teachers and students (Bossert et al. 1981; Brookover and Lezotte 1979; Murphy at al. 1985; Stallings and Mohlman 1981; Wellisch et al. 1978). These studies demonstrated the quality of the school principal plays a central role in school management, facilitating effective teacher instructions, and improving student learning outcomes (Chapman at al. 2016; Edmonds 1979; Teddlie & Reynolds, 1999). Studies conducted in the US, Canada and England concluded

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that student learning outcomes and school improvement cannot be achieved without effective school leaders; leadership has direct and indirect positive effects on student outcomes (Day et al. 2016; Louis et al. 2010). While the above literature refers to the external environment, until recently, few scholars have specifically examined the ways in which school participants, including leaders, respond to student culture. Johnson (2007) applied the notion of culturally responsive pedagogy (LadsonBillings 1995) to leadership in high needs schools, defining culturally responsive leaders as those who support high academic achievement, value and affirm the home cultures of their students, empower parents from all economically and culturally diverse settings, and actively seek societal change in an effort to make the surrounding communities better places for all. However, even in schools identified as highly successful, principals were inhibited in their abilities to provide a multicultural curriculum and involve parents in a meaningful way due to the high stakes policy environment focused solely on closing the achievement gap (Johnson 2007). Johnson (2007) contends, “Culturally responsive leaders also need models of how they might challenge the status quo of inequitable assessment practices, incorporate students’ cultural knowledge into the school curriculum, and work with parents and community activists for social change in the larger community” (p. 55). Since 2007, leadership scholars such as Khalifa, Gooden and Davis (2016) also posit the importance of culturally responsive leadership in schools. However, we see a continued need to theorize and apply explanations of culture from Bourdieu as part of leadership capacities needed in effective schools. As the International Schools Leadership Development Network (ISLDN) researchers and others (Belchetz and Leithwood 2007; Bennis and Thomas 2002; Gurr and Drysdale 2018; Mayo 2007) argue, the vast literature regarding school leadership frequently identifies the importance of context regardless of specific leadership approach (instructional, transformational, transformative, or culturally responsive), but the relationship between leadership and community/cultural context is not fully (theoretically) explained nor understood. As Gurr and Drysdale (2018) put it, “The interplay between leadership and context to some extent remains a ‘black box’: a process whose inputs and outputs (and the relationships between them) are known, but whose internal structure or working is not known or well understood” (p. 149). The ISLDN was developed as a joint initiative of the British Educational Leadership, Management, and Administration Society (BELMAS) and the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) (Baran and Berry 2015). The aim of ISLDN is to contribute to knowledge in the field of educational leadership by facilitating an international comparative study of how those involved in school leadership are supported in their preparation and development as leaders (Barnett and Stevenson 2011). Selection criteria for participants in ISLDN research across countries such as Mexico, Sweden, USA, and Australia include high percentages of individuals from families with incomes below the poverty line; high teacher/leader turnover rates; and high percentages of historically socially excluded groups. More specifically, in terms of leadership, research teams in the participating countries focused on new principals or principals with greater than two years in their post where the school showed signs

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of improvement. Data collection sources featured interviews with the school leader, teachers and other senior staff members, parents, and students as well as observations and relevant document analysis. Interview questions focused on learning, leadership, and context. In ISLDN literature and related leadership literature (Hallinger 2018a, b), context is challenging to define, as context can be an element or layer or conceived as several layers. Findings from ISLDN scholars (Gurr and Drysdale 2018; Okilwa and Barnett 2018) indicate, not surprisingly, that school leaders adapt their leadership practices to suit the context. Okilwa and Barnett (2018) describe this leadership ability as contextual acuity. Contextually driven leadership practices include entrepreneurial strategies such as marketing to neighboring schools for students, strategic interventions to improve student outcomes, adaptability to changing circumstances, building trust and relationships to bring people together around a common purpose of providing quality education, and transformative leadership practices aimed at equity and social justice. This literature not only synthesized current school leadership practices, but also pointed out the direction of future inquiry and capacity development for leadership culturally diversity, responsiveness, and social justice. And while we appreciate extant attempts to define culture as part of the context for empirical study, we see the need to extend and enhance this work theoretically and empirically in light of the contemporary situation of increasing cultural diversity among students. For this, we draw primarily on the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1977a) as well as Lingard and Christie (2003), two scholars who have applied Bourdieu’s theories to educational leadership.

4.1 Leadership Approaches from Social Theories Beyond ISLDN, a growing number of educational leadership scholars have proposed leadership approaches in schools aimed at societal transformation, most often using various critical theory lenses that expand functionalist organizational theory and the role of leadership (Theoharis 2007; Shields 2010). Here scholars seek to explain and promote individual school leaders and social justice work in schools. Drawing on empirical findings and other scholarly models or approaches (Burns 1978; Freire 1970; Foster 1986; Leithwood 2010), Shields (2010) highlighted the differences among the three approaches that have dominated the educational leadership field for three decades, transactional, transformational, and transformative leadership. According to Shields (2010), transactional leadership involves a reciprocal transaction; transformational leadership focuses on improving organizational qualities, dimensions, and effectiveness; and transformative leadership begins by challenging inappropriate uses of power and privilege by challenging inappropriate uses of power and privilege that create or perpetuate inequity and injustice. In Shields’ (2010) approach to transformative leadership, the fundamental task is to ask questions, for example, about the purposes of schooling, about which ideas should be taught

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and about who is successful. Her critique lays the groundwork for the promise of schooling that is more inclusive, democratic, and equitable for more students. Transformative leadership, therefore, recognizes the need to begin with critical reflection and analysis and to move through enlightened understanding to action—action to redress wrongs and to ensure that all members of the organization are provided with as level a playing field as possible—not only with respect to access but also with regard to academic, social and civic outcomes. (Shields 2010, p. 572).

Shields (2010) argues for a careful and consistent deconstruction of old knowledge frameworks that perpetuated deficit thinking and inequity, creating new frameworks of inclusion and equity that undergirded the continuous improvement mentality. Although, Shields (2010) enhances leadership approaches to include aims toward social transformation, we still do not see the educational leadership literature as complete in terms of understanding leadership practice in a cultural context. Other scholars have proposed transformative leadership approaches (e.g. Dantley and Tillman 2006; Fuhrman and Gruenewald 2004;) to shed light on how the school social and cultural context influences the operation of effectiveness in elementary schools. In our view, the significance of their findings is limited in terms of explicit explanations of students’ social and cultural capital in instructional improvement programs and leadership as it emerged from the effective schools’ literature. Besides focus on the development of curriculum, the following studies indicate the characteristics of transformative leaders. Transformative principals develop a clear school mission, monitor student progress, protect instructional time from interruptions, and maintain high standards for teachers and students (Bossert et al. 1981; Brookover and Lezotte 1979; Murphy et.al. 1985; Stallings and Mohlman 1981; Wellisch et al. 1978). Dimmock and Walker (2004) aligned school leadership with reflection of strategic intents, values, and connectivity, emphasizing the importance social-cultural context in contemporary multiethnic communities. Research (e.g. Hallinger 2016) regarding knowledgebased educational leadership and management drew on the way school context (community, socio-cultural, political, and economic) influences leadership practice, thus illustrating the nature of successful leadership practice. Khalifa et al., (2016) also discusses culturally responsive school leadership and argues that culture plays a significant role in shaping the thinking, behaviors, and practices of school leaders and other school stakeholders. Theoharis (2007) concept of social justice leadership illustrates how principals develop and sustain their social justice work in order to lead their schools to transform and to benefit the marginalized students. Hallinger’s (2017) systematic review of research on educational leadership and management in Africa shows the increasing need to diversify the corpus of studies beyond the traditional Anglo-American centers of knowledge production. We see Bourdieu’s theories and thinking tools as a way to diversify the corpus of studies beyond the Anglo-American centers of knowledge production as we shall discuss below.

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5 Bourdieu’s ‘Thinking Tools’ Many education researchers know Pierre Bourdieu for his work on social and cultural reproduction. For example, Bourdieu (1990a, 2008, 1974, 1977a, 1986) describes how schools are not agents of social mobility but rather perpetuate existing societal inequalities. According to Bourdieu, the concepts of habitus, capital, and field are integral in understanding practice. Bourdieu (1977a, 1984, 1990a) explained that practice was the complex interplay of these main concepts. These concepts help make sense of the relationship between objective social structures (like institutions) and everyday practice.

6 Habitus Bourdieu describes habitus as “socialized subjectivity” (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992, p. 126). Bourdieu suggests that through the experiences of everyday life social agents (individuals and collective) unconsciously adopt the norms of the society. In society, social practices are characterized by regularities despite there being no explicit rules that dictate these practices (Bourdieu 1990b). Conceptions of what is right and/or appropriate become embedded, instinctive patterns of thought and behavior. According to Bourdieu (1990a), habitus constitutes, Systems of durable, transposable dispositions, structured structures predisposed to function as structuring structures, that is, as principles which generate and organize practices and representations that can be objectively adapted to their outcomes without presupposing a conscious aiming at ends or an express mastery of the operations necessary in order to attain them. (p. 53).

To Bourdieu, habitus constrains but does not determine thought and action; it operates at the subconscious level. Bourdieu (1984) writes, “The schemes of the habitus, the primary forms of classification, owe their specific efficacy to the fact that they function below the level of consciousness and language, beyond the reach of introspective scrutiny or control by the will” (p. 466). For Bourdieu, habitus defines the dispositions through which we perceive and act in the world through lasting exposure to particular social conditions and conditionings. The habitus is not just the producer of actions, but it is a product of the structural conditions a social agent encounters. Bourdieu (1990b) also describes habitus as a “feel for the game” or a “second sense” that equips social agents with practical knowledge to navigate the social field. The concept of habitus confronted organizational theorists’ assumptions that individuals and organizations make rational decisions. According to Bourdieu the theorists ignored the socio-economic conditions that shaped the actions they take (Bourdieu 1990b; Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). Bourdieu concludes that habitus is the result of social conditionings or history but it can be transformed as it encounters different types of fields (Bourdieu 1990a, 1990b; Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992).

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Not only can habitus be transformed by new experiences, it can also be “controlled through awakening of consciousness and socio-analysis” (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992, p. 116).

6.1 Capital Capital is anything that has been designated to have value in a particular social field. Capital is context specific, transferable, and convertible (Bourdieu 1993a). Bourdieu (1986) identifies three primary forms as, economic capital, cultural capital and social capital. Economic capital can be directly converted into money social capital can be defined as connections or networks that can be converted into economic capital. Bourdieu defines cultural capital as background, knowledge, dispositions, and skills. Cultural capital has three distinct forms: embodied, objectified and institutionalized (Bourdieu 1986). Embodied cultural capital consists of dispositions and competencies. Objectified cultural capital consists of physical possessions, such as books and works of art. Institutionalized cultural capital consists of institutional recognition, in the form of academic qualifications of the cultural capital held by an individual. Bourdieu (1986) used cultural capital to explain differences in educational outcomes between children of different classes. According to Bourdieu, children from upper class households inherit a substantially different cultural capital than do those from poor working-class households. Schools reward the cultural capital of the upper classes at the same time they devalue or misrecognize that of the poor working classes. Cultural capital allows those well endowed to benefit from education in ways those without cannot. Bourdieu (1986) defines social capital as “the aggregate of the actual or potential resources which are linked to possession of a durable network of more or less institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition” (p. 248). The amount of social capital will depend on the size of the network and the capital (economic and cultural) members of the network possess. This network is the product of investment strategies.

6.2 Field Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) describes fields as microcosms in which the social agents (individuals or social institutions) interact and struggle with each other in accordance with field-specific rules and hierarchies. The struggle within the fields is for control of resources (economic, cultural and social capital). Bourdieu (1998) describes a social field as, A structured social space, a field of forces, a force field. It contains people who dominate and people who are dominated. Constant, permanent relationships of inequality operate inside this space, which at the same time becomes a space in which various actors struggle for

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Therefore, a society can be viewed as a system of interconnected fields; each field has its own characteristics, hierarchies and laws of functioning (Bourdieu 1990a). Although fields are autonomous, they are embedded and influenced by other fields. For example, the educational leadership field may also be influenced by the political and the economic fields. According to Bourdieu, society can be thought of as one large field; within the field, there is a struggle skewed in favor of those with economic, social and cultural capital (Bourdieu 1991; Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). In each field the social space is stratified. Capital determines the dominant and the dominated social agents. One can only determine what constitutes a field by studying empirical work; however, Bourdieu cautions researchers about the complexity of the relationships between fields (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) suggest three necessary and interconnected steps that could be used to study a field. The first step analyzes the positions of the field vis-à-vis the field of power. The second step maps out the objective structures of relations between the positions occupied by the social agents (individuals or institutions) who compete for power in the field. And, the last step analyzes the habitus of social agents. Bourdieu studied many fields including, education, art, television, journalism, religion, housing construction, and literature (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). In sum, we see Bourdieu’s (1977b, 1984, 1986, 1990a) concepts of habitus, field and social capital as critically important to understanding the relationships the individual has with schools and society. Bourdieu’s theories extend and enhance sociological perspectives on schools as societal institutions and leaders as agents within these institutions (Fayol 1949; Simon 1958), yet few scholars have explicitly applied Bourdieu’s theories to schools and school leadership.

7 The Interconnectedness of the Thinking Tools The formulation “(Habitus x Capital) + Field = Practice” helps us to see how the thinking tools are interconnected (Bourdieu 1984). The equation can present the relationship between the tools: practice is the result of relations between one’s habitus (dispositions) and the quantity and quality of one’s capital within the current field. Bourdieu uses the thinking tools to understand social practice, and particularly to uncover the inequalities in particular social spaces. The thinking tools cannot be examined in isolation from one another. Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) emphasize, “Such notions as habitus, field, and capital can be defined, but only within the theoretical system they constitute, not in isolation.” (p. 96). The value of capital hinges on the existence of a field or game that allows the possessors to wield power; thus “capital does not exist and function except in relation

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to a field” (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992, p. 101). Therefore, any strategies of social agents in the field depend on the quantity and quality of capital they possess. While most social agents play the game to increase or conserve their capital, others play to transform the existing rules of the game (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) argue that “in order to construct the field, one must identify the forms of specific capital that operate within it, and to construct the forms of specific capital one must know the specific logic of the field” (p. 108). Habitus can be seen as the theoretical bridge between capital and field because it explains why within a particular field social agents’ actions or decisions are based on the types and quantity of capital they possess (Bourdieu and Wacquant 1992). Therefore, as we work with Bourdieu to understand educational leadership, we must examine the relationships that exist between the thinking tools in the context of schooling.

8 Extant Scholarship on Bourdieu and Leadership In an introductory essay for a special issue on Bourdieu in the International Journal of Leadership in Education, Lingard and Christie (2003) present the case for using Bourdieu’s theoretical framework to examine the work of school principals. The special issue sought to explore how Bourdieu’s conceptual frameworks and methodological approaches might be applied in educational leadership research. Lingard and Christie (2003) articulate substantively how Bourdieu enhances the educational leadership field with attention to relationships between individuals and social structures within the context of schooling. They argue that Bourdieu’s theoretical approach will “enable us to move beyond trait, situational and transformational leadership theories, emphasizing instead the recursive relationship between agency (individual leader habitus) and structure (field) in the broader social context” (p. 319). Lingard and Christie (2003) develop a ‘productive leadership habitus’ as a way in which school leadership ought to be practiced. This principal leadership habitus has three main elements. The first, reflexivity, is derived from the work of Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) and Brubaker (1993). According to Lingard and Christie (2003), reflexivity allows productive leaders to acknowledge the logics of practice, “challenging them, utilizing them, mediating them, rejecting them, selectively working with them, reflecting on them, segueing between them, in terms of keeping their eye on the central purposes of schooling” (p. 328). Secondly, leaders need to be prepared to “do the most good and cause the right change” (p. 329). Lingard and Christie (2003) argue that as school leaders develop and improve school practices, they must not lose sight of the capacity of schools to reproduce social and economic inequalities. Principals need to be cognizant of the central role that schools have in changing and reproducing social and economic inequalities.

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Thirdly, schools are complex and operate within different fields. The school principal must be aware of the different fields, their logics of practice, and, in many cases, their competing demands.

9 Extending the Bourdieusian Approach to Leadership Agency in Diverse, Democratic Schools While Lingard and Christie (2003) provide critically important insights from Bourdieu for educational leadership, we extend their productive leadership habitus and give explicit consideration to engaging with the cultural capital from increasingly diverse students. Specifically, we focus on the relationship between the school and the community in terms of how leaders mediate between diverse students’ cultural capital and habitus and the common culture of schools in democratic societies. Bourdieu’s (2008) theoretical work explains how schools produce and reproduce social and cultural inequalities from generation to generation. According to Bourdieu schools are structured to favor those with the cultural capital of the dominant classes (Bourdieu, 1974, 1977a, 2008). In other words, schools convert social hierarchies into academic hierarchies, and in so doing, legitimate the social inequalities of society. Specifically, Bourdieu suggests that there are two main ways in which schools reproduce existing social inequalities. First, by ignoring the differences in children’s backgrounds. Bourdieu (1974) posits, “by treating all pupils, however unequal they may be in reality, as equal in rights and duties the educational system is led to give its de facto sanction to initial cultural inequalities” (p. 38). Secondly, teachers (and by extension school principals) are the products of the education system hence they are likely to unconsciously transmit the culture of the dominant class. Bourdieu (2008) argues, It would no doubt be abusive in summary to describe relations between the upper classes and teachers as some kind of conspiracy. What is rather involved, though, is something most serious, complicity that is unconscious, and often hidden beneath generous professions of faith, the complicity based on an affinity of lifestyle and values. (p. 38).

The culture of the dominant class may come naturally to teachers and principals meaning they do not see the fundamental inequality in the system. Ease with the culture of the dominant class occurs because the habitus of most teachers and principals are in part the result of success in schools; they are products of the system. Therefore, according to Bourdieu, social reproduction is inherently embedded in the structure and functioning of schools, and as such social reproduction occurs largely in spite of the good intentions of teachers and school administrators. A closer examination of Bourdieu’s work suggests that for students to be successful in school they must adopt the cultural capital and habitus of the dominant classes, typically at the expense of their own culture. This may explain the “acting white” phenomenon; a reference to situations where some minority students ridiculed their minority peers for engaging in behavior that was perceived to be characteristic

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of whites (Fordham and Ogbu 1986). In part, Bourdieu’s assumption was that the cultural values promoted at school were different from those of the minority and/or low-income communities. Schools tend to embody the cultural capital of the dominant class. Schools may ignore the cultural resources of children for minority and/or low-income households because they are structured to reproduce the cultural capital of the dominant class. Thus, Lingard and Christie’s (2003) approach is important as it illuminates the importance of the individual leader’s consciousness about the community they serve. Next, we take Lingard and Christie’s (2003) argument a step beyond leader consciousness to leader agency and mediation, by changing the logic of practice or the rules of the game (Bourdieu 1977b). As noted earlier, Bourdieu viewed society as a system of fields; each field with its own logic of practice. Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) argue that a field “follows rules or better, regularities, that are not explicit or codified” (p. 98). The school leader must understand these rules or regularities both in the school and the community. According to Bourdieu, fields are contested social spaces where those with the capital (economic, social and cultural) have the ability to influence the rules of the game within the fields. People and institutions individually or collectively implement strategies in order to improve their positions in relation to others within the field (Bourdieu 1993b). Therefore, to a certain degree, school leaders have the capital within the school and the community to influence and change the logic of practice. Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) note that there are social agents that can, Transform, partially or completely, the immanent rules of the game. They can, for instance, work to change the relative value of tokens of different colors, the exchange rate between the various species of capital, through strategies aimed at discrediting the form of capital upon which the force of the opponents rests and to valorize the species of capital they preferentially possess. (p. 99).

School principals can change the relative value of tokens; in this case, increase the value of the cultural capital of students. Given this influence, school leaders can ensure the cultural capital of all students is embodied in schools. Since schools mainly embody the cultural capital of the dominant group, school leaders need to engage with the school community so that local funds of knowledge become part of the school. Each member of the school community brings a habitus formed under specific economic and social conditions and within diverse fields. Some will be shared with other members and some will differ from them significantly. Bourdieu and Wacquant (1992) posit, “Human action is not an instantaneous reaction to immediate stimuli, and the slightest ‘reaction’ of an individual to another is pregnant with the whole history of these persons and of the relationship” (p. 124). School practice cannot be fully understood without including the habitus of the members. In our view, a leader’s mediation between the school and the community must focus on pedagogical practices. We are not the first to argue for bridging marginalized students’ cultural capital or funds of knowledge with the academic knowledge reflective of the common state and national culture. Referring to teachers, Moll et al. (1992)

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highlighted how collaborations between the schools and the community can promote learning for students from minority communities. Similarly, Ladson-Billings (1995), also in reference to teachers, argues that teachers need to think about the teacherstudent relationship in terms of culture, curriculum, and teaching. Here teachers need to have consciousness of their own culture in relation to students’ cultures and bring that consciousness into their pedagogical practices. In our Bourdieusian approach to leadership, we argue that school leaders also have the responsibility to recognize, understand and integrate the cultural funds of knowledge of the community they serve into their school practices. Such recognition begins with consciousness and reflexivity as well as an awareness of the inequalities and differing logics of practice in schools. For Bourdieu it is the interaction of the thinking tools, habitus, capital and field, that enables us understand the logic of practice. Bourdieu (2008) argued “it is by knowing the laws of reproduction that we can have a chance, however small, of minimizing the reproductive effect all of the educational institution” (p. 53). Specifically, we see the role of today’s school leader as a mediator between the fields of school and community, using Bourdieusian thinking tools to influence change in schools and communities. Drawing on Bourdieu (1977b), leaders engage diverse cultures in ways that connect schools and communities, supporting students toward autonomy, freedom and equality toward the democratic prospect (Dewey 1916). We are currently working as a research team to apply the Bourdieusian theories and thinking tools to empirical case studies in ISLDN.

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Critical Moral Leadership: Toward Social Justice for English Learners Gregory Wise and Charles L. Slater

Abstract English learners (EL) account for 10 percent of American public school students. EL students experience restricted access to opportunities and systemic forms of disadvantage. The purpose of this research was to better understand the relationship between the beliefs and practices of educational leaders, and the experiences of English learners. The conceptual framework combined the theories of Applied Critical Leadership (Santamaria, Santamaría, Educational Administration Quarterly 50:347–391, 2014) and Moral Leadership (Sergiovanni, Moral leadership: Getting to the heart of school improvement, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 1992). EL student placement in higher and lower track educational pathways was examined in a sample of 11 educators who worked with a student population of 8,000 students across three high schools.

Findings indicated that the beliefs and practices of educational leaders were consistent between schools and that levels of inequity, for English learners remained consistent. While all three schools had made progress, they were hindered by lack of two leadership components. These were the ability to engage staff in critical conversations regarding race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status, and the ability to extend collaborative decision-making processes to include diverse perspectives of staff, students, and parents. Based on the findings, recommendations are made for the establishment of systemic opportunities for educational leaders to employ specific leadership practices that may achieve greater levels of equity for English learners.

G. Wise (B) Perris Union High School District, Perris, California, US e-mail: [email protected] C. L. Slater California State University, Long Beach, CA, US e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_4

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1 Critical Moral Leadership: Toward Social Justice for English Learners Among the responsibilities of the public school system is that of ensuring equity of access to educational opportunities for all students and student groups. However, this statement becomes problematic when examining the educational realities for various student groups within public education. Among those student groups most vulnerable to issues related to equity of access to educational opportunity are English learners (ELs) (Callahan 2005; Gandara and Rumberger 2002; Kanno and Kangas 2014). ELs currently constitute nearly 10 percent of all students enrolled in US public schools and that number has been steadily increasing in recent years (National Center for Education Statistics [NCES] 2015). In California, ELs comprise nearly 23% of all student enrollment in public schools with the vast majority of those students, roughly 84%, coming from homes in which Spanish is the primary spoken language (California Department of Education [CDE] 2015). Despite the significant number of EL students enrolled in public schools across the state and nation, research indicates that culturally and linguistically diverse students, and English learners in particular, may often lack appropriate educational services to support their specific academic needs (Scanlan and Lopez 2012; Sullivan 2011). Furthermore, access to various opportunities within education becomes problematic for ELs for a number of reasons, including (a) instruction and assessment taking place in a language in which the student is not proficient, (b) disproportionate placement of ELs in special education programs, and (c) placement of EL students in remedial courses that may deprive them of access to a complete curriculum (Koelsch 2006; Sullivan 2011). Koelsch (2006) indicates that current attempts to mitigate the historical achievement gap between EL students and their non-EL peers through remedial course placement, identification for special education programs, and restrictive language policies have actually increased the very achievement gap they were intended to narrow. In addition to concerns regarding educational outcomes, be they test scores, graduation rates, or achievement gaps, are concerns related to the processes that foster these outcomes. Significant scholarship (Leithwood and Duke 1998; Santamaría 2014; Sergiovanni 1992; Starrat 1994; Theoharis 2007) has been developed studying educational leadership through the lens of creating ethical structures and processes within schools through a system of moral leadership. The topic for this research is that of equity of access to educational opportunities for ELs. This research seeks to understand the ways that educational leaders perceive educational equity in regard to their EL students. These topics are explored within the context of creating ethical systems of education that reflect the moral imperatives of school communities and work toward creating social justice for all students. There are two research questions. First, how do public secondary school leaders—specifically teachers, counselors, and site administrators, who work directly with ELs—perceive that they employ elements of Critical Moral Leadership to promote educational equity for EL students? Second, what is the relationship between the ways in which school

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leaders perceive elements of Critical Moral Leadership and levels of educational equity experienced by ELs?

2 Theoretical Framework The theoretical framework used for this study was founded on the intersection of Santamaría’s (2014) Applied Critical Leadership (ACL) theory and Sergiovanni’s (1992) Moral Leadership Theory (MLT). This intersection is defined by six specific leadership characteristics shared between ACL and MLT that will be discussed below. These six leadership characteristics form a theoretical framework that is distinct from both ACL and MLT and consist of (1) use of a CRT lens, (2) engagement in critical conversations, (3) consensus building as the primary decision making process, (4) honoring the diverse perspectives and experiences of constituents, (5) leading by example, and (6) the commitment to servant leadership. This new theoretical framework can be called Critical Moral Leadership (CML). In order to form an understanding of the origins of CML, the following section traces the epistemology of ACL as a descendent of multiple other theoretical traditions, including MLT, and describes the overlap between ACL and MLT that provides the foundation for CML. ACL establishes explicit consideration of race, socioeconomic disposition, historical marginalization, and institutionalized racism as inherent in systems constructed within schools. Santamaría (2014) positions ACL as a direct descendent of Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the work of such scholars as Bell (1992), Ladson-Billings (2005), Ladson-Billings and Tate (1995); Sleeter (1996), and Solorzano (1998), among others, as the practical extension of the moral imperative to foster social justice for historically marginalized student groups. Whereas Bell (1992) primarily establishes CRT within the realm of legal theory, Ladson-Billings (1995) situates much of Bell’s work within the context of educational research. Also, from a multicultural perspective, researchers such as Banks (1993, 2008); Sleeter (1996); and Sleeter and Grant (2003) establish that the goal of multicultural education is to mitigate discrimination against traditionally marginalized groups while promoting equity and social justice for all social groups. Santamaría (2014) describes AClL as occurring as a result of a leader beginning with a frame of multiculturalism and then viewing that multiculturalism through the lens of CRT. This approach establishes a context that values diversity of perspective and experience in regard to gender, race, ethnicity, social class, and sexuality while consciously acknowledging the institutional and historical marginalization of social groups in these areas. The leader, in the midst of this context, is thus led to question the ways in which identity and positionality may affect a leader’s understanding of, and experience with, leadership practice as it addresses issues of equity, inclusion, and social justice (Santamaría 2014). ACL is defined by nine specific leadership characteristics identified by Santamaría: (1) a willingness to engage in critical conversations concerning a variety of forms of institutional and historical marginalization in regard to race, ethnicity,

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gender and socioeconomic class, (2) the choice to view leadership through a CRT lens, (3) the use of consensus building as the preferred strategy for decision-making, (4) the leader remaining conscious of fulfilling negative stereotypes for groups with whom he or she identifies, (5) the need to conduct empirical research that would add to the body of understanding of historically underserved groups, (6) the priority of honoring all constituent members and including voices and perspectives of groups and individuals who have been traditionally silenced, (7) the choice to lead by example of servant leadership, giving back to the traditionally marginalized communities with whom the leader identifies or serves, (8) the building of trust with mainstream constituents or others who may (or may not) share the same perspectives concerning leading for educational equity, and (9) the belief that one’s work is the result of a calling to lead for a greater good (Santamaría 2014). Santamaría (2014) positions ACL as a derivative of the work of Sergiovanni (2007) and Theoharis (2007) in establishing a theory of moral leadership. As used by Sergiovanni (1992), moral leadership is a philosophy of leadership that emphasizes the importance of creating systems within organizations that reflect the moral values of those organizations. To the moral leader, the adherence to ethical processes is more important than the outcomes alone. Situated within the context of MLT are the concepts of structural morality and servant leadership that should be defined here. Structural morality refers to the concept of moral leadership as applied to the structures and processes of schools and organizations, and answers the question, “are the systems of the school organized in a way that is consistent with the professed moral beliefs of the organization and its members?” For example, if democratic values are identified as an important virtue by an organization, then decision-making processes within that organization should reflect that value in a shared leadership model as opposed to an organization that professes a belief in shared or democratic leadership, but that makes most decisions through directives using the positional authority of individuals.

3 Methods The first author carried out interviews for this multiple-site case study in three high schools within the same school district during the 2016–17 school year. Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews with educational leaders from each of the three school sites included in the study: three principals, two assistant principals, three counselors, and three Teachers On Special Assignment (TOSA). The method of a case study was particularly suited to this purpose because of its ability to provide a comprehensive portrait of the sample through a combination of (a) qualitative data exploring the beliefs and (b) perceptions of educators and demographic data illustrating ways that EL students are represented in various educational programs. This methodological approach draws largely on the work of Skrla et al. (2001a, 2001b, 2004) whose use of equity audits is quite similar to the data collection described in this study.

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4 Procedures/Data Collection Methods Data were collected to analyze the proportionality of EL student participation in various academic programs compared to EL proportionality with the student population generally (Perris Union High School District 2018). An EL is a student whose primary language in other than English and who has not yet attained proficiency in English. Student data were collected measuring enrollment in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, completion of graduation requirements, identification for special education, and enrollment in remedial courses. These criteria were adapted from the work of Skrla et al. (2004) in their studies analyzing levels of educational equity for students of color in Texas public schools. Qualitative data were collected through participant interviews. The purpose of these interviews was to explore educational leaders’ perceptions and practices regarding leadership relating to ELs. For these interviews, an interview protocol was developed for this study using CML theory. Each of the six components of CML was adapted into an interview question meant to provide data in regard to each educator’s beliefs and experiences in relation to that criterion of CML. Following initial data collection, interview recordings were transcribed and coded using a codebook developed from the six elements of CML. Additional codes were also developed to account for emergent themes not originally accounted for within the CML model. Interview transcripts were returned to each participant in order to provide an opportunity for feedback, clarification, and to ensure accuracy. Following data analysis, one participant from each site was given a draft of the results to provide additional feedback and clarification and to check for accuracy of data and analysis.

5 Demographics of Schools and Representation of English Learners The sites for this multiple-site case study were three comprehensive high schools within the same district. The aforementioned organization is a mid-sized, 7–12 district serving approximately 11,000 students in a semi-rural area of southern California. Students from three different communities feed into this school district and the demographics of these surrounding communities vary significantly. Nuevo High School. The community in which Nuevo High School is located is primarily Latino and low-income. The students are 86% Latino, 9% African American, and 2% White. Approximately 91% of these students qualify for free and reduced lunch and 23.8% are ELs (Perris Union High School District, 2018). During the 2013–2014 school year, EL students comprised 23.8% of the total student population. However, during that same school year, EL students represented 16.1% of graduating seniors and only 3.2% of graduating seniors who completed California A-G requirements, which qualify students for admission to schools within the University of California and California State University systems. Furthermore, EL

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representation in AP courses was 9.6%, while EL representation in Special Education and remedial courses in math and English Language Arts was 50.7% and 72.6% respectively. Briggs High School. The students are 63% Latino, 21% White, 7% African American, and nearly 3% Filipino. Seventy percent of these students qualify for free and reduced lunch and 13.2% of students are ELs. Almost no EL seniors completed the recommended graduation requirements during the 2013–2014 school year. EL representation in AP course enrollment was 4.5%, while EL representation in Special Education was 24% (approximately twice the rate of EL representation in the student population as a whole). EL representation in remedial courses was 40.8%. Bradley High School. Students are 51% Latino, 34% White, 5% African American, and just over 6% Asian and Filipino. Approximately 55% of these students qualify for free and reduced-price meals and approximately 6.6% of students are ELs. During the 2014–2015 school year, Bradley High School was able to eliminate that graduation gap completely between ELs and the total senior class. Only a small percentage of ELs completed recommended graduation requirements during the 2014–2015 school year. EL enrollment in AP courses was 1.6%, 18.2% in Special Education, and 23.4% were enrolled in remedial courses.

6 Description of Participants Nuevo High School. Principal Michael is in his fourth year at Nuevo High School. He is in his late thirties and has been an educator for the past 17 years. Racially, Michael is almost entirely White and has never been an EL. However, there is a small portion of his family on his father’s side that is Latino. Though racially he is primarily White, Michael describes feeling more comfortable ethnically and culturally within the Hispanic community. Assistant Principal: Kitty is in her late thirties. She struggled with English language proficiency early in elementary school. She was placed in lower reading groups than many of her peers and pulled out of class for language specific instruction and assessment. Kitty described the experiences of both of her older siblings as they struggled perhaps more than she did to learn English while enrolled in Spanish only classes. Kitty focused on socioeconomic status and elucidates the realities that students and families living in lower income areas often experience. I grew up in the early 90s’ through high school, so there was a lot of gang violence. I grew up in east LA. I lost several friends to drive by shootings, to overdoses, to life in prison. Of every boy that I went to sixth grade with, I didn’t graduate high school with any of them. They were either dead, in jail, or their parents moved them out for their own safety.

It is this connection between economic environment and life opportunities that Kitty describes as guiding her work as an educator. In her own vernacular, she

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identified schools as representing the potential for interrupting cycles of trauma taking place in lower income communities. Counselor: Patricia is a Latina in her mid-forties. Her caseload consists of half of Nuevo High School’s EL population—a group of approximately 400 students. Patricia was identified as an EL early in elementary school, and was reclassified by about third grade. She was raised in East Los Angeles. Her family came to the United States from Mexico when she was three years old and she attended public school in a neighborhood similar demographically to the community surrounding Nuevo High School. Specifically, this community was largely characterized by lower-income, Latino families. Teacher Cynthia is a TOSA. This means that though her official classification is a teacher, she is released from the classroom on a fulltime basis to work on a special project for a site or the district. Cynthia’s title for the past two years has been EL Lead at Nuevo High School. She collects and monitors EL student data, coordinates staff professional development to help meet the needs of EL students, facilitates parental involvement, and moreover supports the academic success of EL students at her assigned site. Cynthia is a Latina in her late thirties. She identifies as Mexican–American (i.e., the daughter of Mexican immigrants) and describes her experiences growing up as an EL herself in Los Angeles County. Briggs High School. Principal: Henry is 38 years old. When he was five, Henry’s family immigrated to the United States from Mexico and settled in the Coachella Valley. Most of the people that Henry knew growing up were, like him, lower income Latino ELs. One of the defining characteristics of Henry’s childhood is his relationship with his parents. Henry’s mother was a single parent working two jobs to support her son. His father, on the other hand, was never around. “I was very angry when I was very young,” he states, “very angry that my dad was never there.” Perhaps partly as a result of this absence, Henry did not do well in school: “I had my challenges in high school. I actually went to a continuation school for a couple of years after my ninth grade year. I got kicked out for doing some – making some stupid choices.” Counselor Maria is one of two counselors assigned to work with ELs at Briggs High School. The other half of her caseload, in addition to EL students, is Briggs High School’s special education population. Maria draws explicit connections between her own experiences and the ways that she is able to impact the students at Briggs High School. Like many of the students with whom she works, Maria was once an EL herself. In addition, Maria is also able to identify personally with the challenges faced by those of her EL students who are also immigrants from outside the United States: “I came to this country when I was five years old from Oaxaca, Mexico… I was undocumented, so I can relate to what the students are dealing with coming into a new country.” Teacher Isabel shares some important similarities with the EL students with whom she works. Isabel is Latina; her first language is Spanish, and she immigrated to the United States as a child, settling in a mostly Hispanic neighborhood in Los Angeles. In some very important ways, however, that is where the similarities end. Unlike many Latino ELs living in southern California, Isabel is not Mexican. Her family moved to California from Chile. Additionally, Isabel’s family did not face the

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financial challenges that often characterize the experiences of immigrant families. By contrast, Isabel’s family were generally well educated, part of the middle class, and had a degree of social and cultural capital in Chile similar to many American middle class families. Bradley High School. Principal Nate is a White man in his early sixties. A native of Montana, he spent the first 10 years of his teaching career as a special education teacher there. His tenure as a teacher was followed by a 14-year absence from education during which he pursued other career paths before returning to education in southern California where he has spent the last 12 years of his career. Assistant Principal Michelle is in her mid-thirties and has been an assistant principal at Bradley High School for the past three years. Michelle has never been an EL herself. In fact, she describes her environment growing up as a “very homogeneous population at the time, very White, middle-class.” She did well in school and aspired to become a pediatrician. Michelle loved working with kids and excelled in science and, thus, a career as an educator made sense to her. She went to college and was at the top of her class in the pre-med program at UCLA when she began looking into medical schools. Ultimately, she changed her mind and went into teaching. Counselor Sandra has worked in public education for nearly 17 years. In that time, she has worn a variety of different hats: health technician, special education clerk, and counselor. Sandra shares some important similarities with the students she works with. She was an EL as a young student in public school. Sandra is a Latina whose father immigrated to the United States from Mexico before she was born. Sandra’s mother is an American born daughter of Mexican immigrants. Sandra is the youngest of her siblings and grew up in a house where both English and Spanish were spoken. While she remembers having to take English Language Development (ELD) classes early in her education, she had a much easier time with English than her older brother and sister, who themselves grew up in a house that spoke only Spanish before they began school and learned English themselves. Teacher Brenda, who is now 30 years old, is a TOSA whose primary responsibilities at Bradley High School are to monitor data, facilitate professional development, arrange assessments, and organize communication with the parents of EL students. The daughter of immigrant parents who came to the United States from Guatemala and who spoke Spanish at home throughout Brenda’s childhood. Brenda was briefly identified as an EL student herself, but reclassified out of the EL program in the second grade. Brenda remembers excelling in becoming proficient in English due to a strong language foundation in Spanish; however, though she ultimately became fully literate in both languages, she does describe a feeling of being different from the other students, of being singled out, and how that feeling continues to affect the ways in which she uses her current role to work with and support her students.

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7 Findings The purpose of this study was to better understand the research questions that explored the intersection between educational leadership and ELs. The first research question was: how do public secondary school leaders—specifically teachers, counselors, and site administrators, who work directly with ELs—perceive that they employ elements of Critical Moral Leadership to promote educational equity for EL students? The elements of CML that appeared most strongly represented in participant responses were (a) the practice of leading by example in order to give back to marginalized communities and (b) a commitment to servant leadership (Greenleaf 1977). Three additional elements that were consistently present in participant responses, yet varied in degree by participant and by site, were the reliance on consensus building as the primary decision-making process, the need to honor the diverse perspectives of constituents, and the use of a CRT lens (Ladson-Billings and Tate 1995; Solorzano 1998; Solorzano and Yosso 2002). There was little evidence that participants and site staffs were engaging in critical conversations concerning race, SES, culture, and language in meaningful ways that may lead to greater levels of equity for students. Use of a CRT lens. During the interviews, participants often discussed topics of equity, adversity, and student performance from a perspective that included elements of CRT (Ladson-Billings & Tate 1995; Solorzano 1998; Solorzano and Yosso, 2002). Participants, who were once ELs themselves, and especially those who either grew up in economically disadvantaged areas or who were immigrants to the U.S., tended to discuss their efforts to explicitly reach out to EL students and their families in order to overcome systemic forms of marginalization. For some participants, these challenges were interpreted more specifically as a result of economic marginalization (i.e., as opposed to a result of ethnic or linguistic bias). In multiple cases, these participants described working with school resources to provide economic assistance to families in the form of school supplies and gift cards to local merchants. Of the participants at Nuevo High School, Teacher Cynthia most clearly identified her purpose as leading for social justice. While her colleagues often described leading in ways that empowered students, promoted equity, and gave back to marginalized student groups and communities, Cynthia made explicit connections between the everyday circumstances she faced at work and broader social and political realities that help to define the macro context. It’s important in our country that we add and contribute to this machine of democracy. If people don’t participate, if they’re not prepared, if they’re not literate, if they never find their voice, then we’re not doing justice for society. Whether students, whatever they want to do, and wherever they stand on their opinions and their views, it’s critical and it’s powerful to help our students to find their voice. It could have a significant impact in our society, especially in this particular area, where there’s a great amount of need.

Avoidance of critical conversations. This element of CML remained the most challenging for all sites. While several participants expressed the importance of engaging in explicit conversations about race, SES, language proficiency, and other

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factors that have historically presented hindrances to student equity, none of the participants described these conversations taking place at a staff level at any of the sites in ways that may have a meaningful impact on levels of student equity on campus. A variety of reasons were given to account for this. In one case, the participant felt that educators at that site had not been able to transform conversations that did take place at staff meetings into improved instructional practices outside of the context of the meeting itself. One of the site principals who participated in the study described intentionally avoiding topics, at least in the short-term, that may have been perceived as being politically charged or divisive, opting in favor of building trusting relationships among the staff as a necessary prerequisite to such conversations. Other participants described meeting with pushback that appeared to border at times on hostility from other staff members who held different beliefs regarding student equity and social justice—beliefs that participants describe as focusing on deficiencies in students, families, and communities in order to explain disparate student experiences in schools. These perceptions ultimately proved to be consistent with Skrla’s et al. (2004) findings in regard to educator explanations of disparate student achievement in Texas schools. While Counselor Maria appeared to be genuinely positive in her feelings about her colleagues and the systems in place to serve students at Briggs High School, there were also areas where further improvement was needed. She said, for example, that race and SES in relation to disparate levels of opportunity and success between student groups were not topics discussed amongst staff. Furthermore, Maria was also very clear about her concerns in regard to the level of classroom support provided to students. Reliance on consensus building. Consensus building and collaborative, inclusive leadership practices appeared in somewhat different ways among the three sites and were displayed most predominantly at Briggs High School and Bradley High School. Though this looked different at each of the two sites, participants from both sites described their perception of a supportive leadership environment characterized by an intentional effort on the part of site administration to create shared leadership practices. To say that Principal Henry preferred to lead through collaboration may be an understatement. When asked how decisions were made in regard to Briggs High School, and in regard to ELs specifically, Henry described a complex network of collaborative decision-making bodies on campus. There was an EL Task Force, a Leadership Team, a Site Advisory Cabinet, and a Site Relationship Council, all composed of diverse groups of individuals including administrators, counselors, department chairs, union reps, and EL leads from across campus. They represented different perspectives to provide Henry with the most diverse and inclusive governing body possible. Describing how decisions were made in relation to individual students at Briggs High School, Henry compared the level of collaboration and attention devoted to the decision-making processes of the school to an Individualized Education Plan that is constructed for students in special education.

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Principal Nate’s strategy at Bradley appeared to be modeling collaborative decision-making with his assistant principals, and then expecting them to establish similar relationships with the teams with whom they worked. While Nate was very aware that the long-term goal was cultural change at Bradley High School, many of his first steps involved creating structures and relationships that fostered greater inclusivity amongst the staff. Honoring diverse perspectives, needs, and experiences of constituents. This element of CML was closely aligned to that of consensus building in most participants’ responses. Similar to collaborative leadership practices, this practice varied to some extent by site and was generally only found in regard to diversity among staff; that is, input from students and parents remained underrepresented. In the context of fostering inclusive cultures of leadership on campus, the use of multiple committees that sought input from many teacher groups was seen as an effective use of this leadership characteristic. However, participants did not describe this practice as extending to classified staff, to students, or to families in a meaningful way. Though there were some opportunities for students and parents to become actively involved in school leadership, primarily through the School Site Council, participants generally described this characteristic as representing a strength where it concerned the certificated staff, but a challenge in regard to other constituents. When Teacher Isabel at Briggs High School referred to the students who needed her unique attention, she did not speak in generalities. Instead, she provided specific accounts of the aforementioned. She described a “heartbreaking” story of a student who left his parents in Mexico to come live with his grandparents in the United States, and she referred to the uplifting banter between her and students in the classroom. Isabel described deeply personal connections to individual students and families. As previously mentioned, she described feelings of being different when she was growing up that returned to her when she began working in education. “I had forgotten about having to be Mexicanized… I forgot about that and it all had to come back from when I was a child.” Counselor Michelle described a concern she held in regard to staff members at Bradley High School for whom adapting to change had not been welcomed or, alternatively, did not come easily. There is a mentality among some of our teachers that, “those kids don’t belong here.” Then when you push people to define what they mean by that, they shirk away and “someone’s got a behavior issue and so they shouldn’t really be in this advanced class” or “they’re just lazy. Why are they taking a seat in this class? Isn’t there somewhere else they can go where if they just want to be lazy, they can go be lazy somewhere else?”.

She believed that statements identifying students’ “laziness” or “behavioral concerns” may be code for other circumstances that really lie at the heart of some teachers’ concerns. For some of our teachers I would say yes, it is code for students of color. You have to look at the history of my site.[Bradley High School] was very White and middle-class for a very long time and it’s not that way anymore. We have a very diverse population of students, but to talk to some of our teachers you wouldn’t know that.

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Counselor Sandra at Bradley talked freely about difficult topics such as advantages and disadvantages experienced by diverse student groups, about creating environments that were inclusive and that celebrated students’ diverse backgrounds and identities, and about empowering students, teachers, and parents to contribute to students’ success. Ultimately, Sandra was an optimist. Though she recognized the often very difficult circumstances faced by her students, her belief in her own ability to impact the lives of students was apparent. She described the most fulfilling part of her job in a way that echoed responses of other participants. She wanted to break cycles of violence, abuse, and poverty. She talked of empowering others and teaching them to do the same. Leading by example to give back to marginalized communities. This element of CML, along with a commitment to servant leadership, was among the leadership characteristics most strongly displayed in participant responses. The aforementioned took a variety of forms in terms of leadership practices. Several participants described this element in terms of intervening in the lives of individual students in order to break perceived cycles of poverty, marginalization, and various forms of trauma. While discussion in regard to this topic often related to education as part of a greater purpose to change society, examples described by participants often told the stories of lived experiences with respect to individual students. In regard to the notion of giving back, specifically to communities that had experienced historical marginalization, participants often described a feeling of satisfaction that resulted from working with communities that they perceived needed and relied on them more than others. Ultimately, like several other participants in this study, Principal Henry at Briggs was inspired the most by what appeared to be closely connected to his own experiences as a child. On the one hand, there was a distinct characteristic of gratitude and indebtedness in the way Henry reflected on his role as an educator and as a leader. Though it may have been many years removed, he talked in a way that suggested that he was keenly aware of the ways that he owed his success to the sacrifices of others and to their stubborn belief in him. It was also very clear that Henry perceived his way of repaying that belief was not to those who guided his own education and supported his own career successes, but to those whom he may now guide. There was a calling for me to give back because I had so many people that along the way pushed me and reached out to me and did not allow me to fall through the cracks…that I felt a need to pay it forward. I felt, gosh, I’ve made so many mistakes in my life and, actually, not only have hurt myself, but along the way I hurt others and let others down. I’ve got to repay all that, man, and I’ve got to give back too, and help other kids not make the same mistake.

Commitment to servant leadership. Servant leadership (Greenleaf 1977) practices were among the most important leadership characteristics described by participants interviewed for this study. Furthermore, unlike other leadership characteristics such as collaboration and diversity of perspective, the focus on servant leadership appeared to move beyond involving just staff. Instead, it appeared that participants perceived themselves as servants not only to each other, but most importantly, to students and families. Multiple administrators described leading in ways that sought to empower, as opposed to direct, non-administrative staff. Likewise, this feeling of

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empowerment was echoed by teachers and counselors, affirming the predominance of these leadership practices. While a lack of parental involvement was noted by several participants as a challenge, and while this inhibited more diverse perspectives in the decision-making process, the perception of one’s self as a servant to the community and the desire to serve the interest of the students and families of that community were among the most often repeated views of leadership from participants. While Principal Michael at Nuevo High School did not use the term servant leadership, he often discussed leadership in terms of empowering others and building capacity, ensuring that others were not only involved in the decision-making process, but were a fundamental part of that process. To that end, based on his conceptualizations of leadership, the final product of their collective efforts was inherently built by the vision of the various stakeholders. Michael believed that one of his primary responsibilities was to provide others with the confidence to move from knowledge to action in order to effect change. The second research questions was: what is the relationship between the ways in which school leaders perceive elements of Critical Moral Leadership and levels of educational equity experienced by English Learners in three contexts? Differences in site and community demographics did not appear to impact leadership practices or levels of student equity. However, some differences were indicated in levels and types of collaborative decision-making practices and in the use of a CRT lens. The most important finding in regard to the qualitative data collected was that all sites struggled to engage in critical conversations concerning topics that have traditionally been connected to decreased levels of equity for EL students (Artiles et al. 2005; Blanco 2010; Callahan 2005; Gandara and Baca 2008; Gandara and Rumberger 2002; Gandara and Rumberger 2009; Gandara et al. 2003; Garcia et al. 2008; Koelsch 2006; Parrish et al. 2006; Rueda & Windmueller 2006; Scanlan and Lopez 2012; Sullivan 2011). These topics include race, ethnicity, SES, and language proficiency among others. In fact, there did not appear to be evidence that educational leaders were leading staff-wide conversations concerning student equity at any site in ways that were having a meaningful impact on equity. It is this specific relationship that appeared to be the most significant. While modest gains may have been made in creating proportionate levels of EL representation in various academic programs through a combination of leadership practices represented in CML, significant progress in fostering systemic equity for traditionally marginalized student groups may have required educational leaders to engage their staff in critical conversations addressing issues of race, ethnicity, SES, and language acquisition, among other sources of inequity encountered by students and families.

8 Implications Findings from this study suggest that employing leadership practices consistent with many of the characteristics of CML was a priority for all participants included in the research. Findings also suggest that all three sites had recently made progress in

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fostering greater levels of equity for ELs. However, data indicated that those gains, while a positive sign, remained modest in most areas, and that the experiences of EL students at these three sites continued to differ significantly from those of non-EL students. Evidence suggested that the creation of collaborative processes for decisionmaking and shared leadership practices needed to extend beyond certificated staff (DeMathews et al. 2016; Khalifa and Davis 2016). While all three sites involved in this study demonstrated collaborative processes to varying degrees, there was little evidence that this shared form of leadership extended to classified staff, students, families, or the surrounding community. Without the partnership of these other constituent groups, educational leaders continued to confront challenges in achieving equity for all students. Ultimately, these two implications can be stated very simply. Educational leaders must begin to employ the efforts of the entire community in honestly confronting the realities encountered by students in schools. This includes engaging in conversations that challenge biases and bridge gaps between disparate points of view. Once more, it means acknowledging the ways that schools and other societal institutions can perpetuate systems of inequity, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Learning to engage in these conversations means simultaneously assuming the best of intentions from colleagues while being honest about shortcomings in commitment to students. Without the courage to be honest, and without a sense of communal leadership in addressing the needs of students, systems that disadvantage those students will be perpetuated.

9 Recommendations 9.1 Recommendations for Practice Findings from this research suggested that the educational leaders who participated in this study employed many of the leadership characteristics found within the framework of CML. Evidence in their responses suggested that this stemmed from deeply held beliefs that schools and educators had the responsibility and the capability to foster equity for all students (Banks 2008; DeMathews et al. 2016; Khalifa and Davis 2016; Ladson-Billings and Tate 1995; Leithwood and Duke 1998; Santamaría 2014; Sergiovanni 2007; Shields 2010; Skrla et al. 2004; Sleeter 1996; Theoharis 2007). However, these sites largely fell short of attaining this equity. This is not to dismiss the important gains that these sites have made toward equitable conditions in recent years. The first recommendation is that schools and districts employ practices that explicitly seek out greater representation of constituent groups that have traditionally been underrepresented in schools’ decision-making processes (Howard 2015). These groups include classified staff, students, parents, and community members.

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Secondly, it is recommended that schools and districts create systemic and regular opportunities for all constituent groups to engage in critical conversations concerning the topics of race, ethnicity, SES, systemic advantage and disadvantage, and the myriad other topics explicitly and implicitly connected to the findings of this research in regard to the ways that various student groups experience inequity in schools. However, individuals—whether educators, students, or parents—cannot be expected to inherently understand how to engage in meaningful and productive discussions about these topics with individuals whose own beliefs, experiences, and perspectives may challenge their own. Third, it is recommended that schools and districts provide professional development opportunities for all constituent groups that may develop the skills necessary to engage each other and these topics in ways that result in more equitable experiences for all students.

9.2 Recommendations for Future Research The findings of this study implied a relationship between student equity and two elements of educational leadership: honoring the diverse perspectives, needs, and experiences of constituents, and engaging in critical conversations concerning race, ethnicity, SES, and language proficiency. In order to test that relationship, it is recommended that future quantitative research be conducted to analyze the potentially causal or correlational relationship between those two elements of educational leadership and levels of student equity. This research focused solely on ELs as one traditionally marginalized student group. However, research (Bell 1992; Ladson-Billings and Donner 2005; LadsonBillings and Tate 1995; Shields 2010; Skrla 2001; Sleeter 1996; Sleeter and Grant 2003; Solorzano and Yosso 2002) indicates that other student groups experience similar forms of inequity in schools. These groups include African-American students, Latino students, students of color generally, and students from economically disadvantaged homes and communities, among others. It is recommended that future research extend beyond just ELs to include these other student groups. In this way, significant differences in the experiences and needs of various student populations can be more specifically identified as educational leaders, in general, continue to employ practices that foster greater equity for all students. Ultimately, this research further validated trends found in much of the prior research regarding levels of inequity experienced by ELs in public schools (Artiles et al. 2005; Blanco 2010; Callahan 2005; Gandara and Baca 2008; Gandara and Rumberger 2002; Gandara and Rumberger 2009; Gandara et al. 2003; Garcia et al. 2008; Koelsch 2006; Parrish et al. 2006; Rueda and Windmueller 2006; Scanlan and Lopez 2012; Sullivan 2011). However, working from a foundation of ACL (Santamaría 2014) and Moral Leadership (Sergiovanni 1992), the conceptual framework of CML provided a lens through which relationships between specific leadership characteristics and forms of equity and inequity experienced by EL students could be better explored. As a result of this exploration, data suggest that educational

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leaders must further develop the two leadership characteristics of (a) greater inclusivity and (b) engagement in honest, critical conversations regarding topics related to student inequity. As American public schools continue to become increasingly diverse communities, it will remain of vital importance for educational leaders to engage schools in the recommendations for both research and practice discussed above in order to continue to move toward establishing more equitable opportunities and outcomes for all students.

References Artiles, A. J., Rueda, R., Salazar, J. J., & Higareda, I. (2005). Within-group diversity in minority disproportionate representation: English language learners in urban school districts. Exceptional Children, 71(3), 283–300. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440290507100305 Banks, J. A. (1993). Multicultural education: Developments, dimensions, and challenges. Phi Delta Kappan, 75(1), 22–28. Retrieved from JSTOR databases. Banks, J. A. (2008). An introduction to multicultural education (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon. Bell, D. A. (1992). Faces at the bottom of the well: The permanence of racism. New York, NY: Basic Books. Blanco, M. (2010). The lasting impact of Mendez v. Westminster in the struggle for desegregation. American Immigration Council. Retrieved from https://www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org/ research/lasting-impact-mendez-v-westminster-struggle-desegregation. California Department of Education. (2015). Facts about English learners in California. Retrieved from https://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/sd/cb/cefelfacts.asp. Callahan, R. M. (2005). English language proficiency and track placement: Variable effects on academic achievement. Retrieved from https://www.lingref.com/isb/4/033ISB4.PDF. DeMatthews, D. E., Edwards, D. B., & Rincones, R. (2016). Social justice leadership and family engagement: A successful case from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Educational Administration Quarterly, 52(5), 754–792. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X16664006 Gandara, P., & Baca, G. (2008). NCLB and California’s English language learners: The perfect storm. Language Policy, 7(3), 201–216. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-008-9097-4 Gándara, P., & Rumberger, R. (2002). The inequitable treatment of English learners in California’s public schools. Retrieved from ERIC databases. Gandara, P., Rumberger, R., Maxwell-Jolly, J., & Callahan, R. (2003). English learners in California schools: Unequal resources, unequal outcomes. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 11(36), 1–54. Retrieved from https://cmmr.usc.edu//FullText/ELLs_in_California_Schools.pdf. Gandara, P., & Rumberger, R. (2009). Immigration, language, and education: How does language policy structure opportunity?.The Teachers College Record, 111(3), 750–782. Retrieved from ERIC database. Greenleaf, R. K. (1977). Servant leadership: A Journey into the nature of legitimate power and greatness. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. Howard, T. C. (2015). Why race and culture matter in schools: Closing the achievement gap in America’s classrooms. New York: Teachers College Press. Kanno, Y., & Kangas, S. E. (2014). “I’m Not Going to Be, Like, for the AP” English Language Learners’ Limited Access to Advanced College-Preparatory Courses in High School. American Educational Research Journal, 51(5), 848–878. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831214544716 Khalifa, M. A., Gooden, M. A., & Davis, J. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 1272–1311. https://doi.org/ 10.3102/0034654316630383

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Koelsch, N. (2006). Improving literacy outcomes for English language learners in high school: Considerations for states and districts in developing a coherent policy framework. Research Brief.National High School Center, November, 1–9. Retrieved from ERIC database. Ladson-Billings, G., & Donnor, J. (2005). The moral activist role of critical race theory. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed., pp. 279–301). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Ladson-Billings, G., & Tate, W. F., IV. (1995). Toward a critical race theory of education. Teachers College Record, 97, 47–68. Retrieved from ERIC database. Leithwood, K., & Duke, D. (1998) Mapping the conceptual terrain of leadership: A critical point of departure for cross-cultural studies. Peabody Journal of Education, 73(2), 31–50. Retrieved from https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15327930pje7302_2. National Center for Education Statistics. (2015). The Condition of Education. Retrieved from https:// nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_cgf.asp. Parrish, T. B., Merickel, A., Perez, M., Linquanti, R., Socias, M., & Spain, A. (2006). Effects of the implementation of Proposition 227 on the education of English learners, K-12: Findings from a five-year evaluation. Retrieved January from https://www.wested.org/online_pubs/227Reportb. pdf. Perris Union High School District (2018). School Accountability Report Cards. Retrieved June 1, from https://www.puhsd.org/. Rueda, R., & Windmueller, M. P. (2006). English language learners, LD, and overrepresentation: A multiple-level analysis. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 39, 99–107. Santamaría, L. (2014). Critical change for the greater good: Multicultural perceptions in educational leadership toward social justice and equity. Educational Administration Quarterly, 50(3), 347– 391. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X13505287 Scanlan, M., & Lopez, F. A. (2012). Vamos! How school leaders promote equity and excellence for bilingual students. Education Administration Quarterly, 48(4), 583–625. https://doi.org/10. 1177/0013161X11436270 Sergiovanni, T. J. (1992). Moral leadership: Getting to the heart of school improvement. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Sergiovanni, T. J. (2007). Rethinking leadership; A collection of articles. San Francisco, CA: Corwin. Shields, C. M. (2010). Transformative leadership: Working toward equity in diverse contexts. Education Administration Quarterly, 46(4), 558–589. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X1037 5609 Skrla, L. (2001). Accountability, equity, and complexity. Educational Researcher, 30(4), 15–21. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189X030004015 Skrla, L., & Scheurich, J. J. (2001). Displacing deficit thinking in school district leadership. Education and Urban Society, 33(3), 235–259. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013124501333002 Skrla, L., Scheurich, J. J., Garcia, J., & Nolly, G. (2004). Equity audits: A practical leadership tool for developing equitable and excellent schools. Educational Administration Quarterly, 40(1), 133–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013161X03259148 Sleeter, C. E. (1996). Multicultural education as social activism. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press. Sleeter, C. E., & Grant, C. (2003). Making choices for multicultural education: Five approaches to race, class and gender (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Wiley. Solórzano, D. (1998). Critical race theory, racial and gender microaggressions, and the experiences of Chicana and Chicano scholars. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 11(1), 121–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/095183998236926 Solórzano, D. G., & Yosso, T. J. (2002). Critical race methodology: Counter-storytelling as an analytical framework for educational research. Qualitative Inquiry, 8(1), 23–44. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/107780040200800103 Starrat, R. J. (1994). Building an ethical school: A practical response to the moral crisis in schools. Bristol, PA: The Falmer Press.

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Sullivan, A. L. (2011). Disproportionality in special education identification and placement of English language learners. Exceptional Children, 77(3), 317–334. Retrieved from ERIC database. Theoharis, G. (2007). Social justice educational leaders and resistance: Toward a theory of social justice leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(2), 221–258. https://doi.org/10. 1177/0013161X13514440

Case Studies from Diverse Contexts

How School Leaders Leverage Resources for Social Justice, Equity and Access to Secondary Schooling in Belize: Implications for an Island Community Lorenda Chisolm

Abstract In many developing nations, where a primary education was once considered sufficient, this is no longer the case. As secondary school is non-compulsory in Belize, there is much agency for a 12 or 13-year old to drop out or not continue beyond primary school. This stand-alone case study takes place in Belize and follows the work of the school leaders, two white women from North America, in establishing the first, and currently only, secondary school on the island. Based on a crosswalk of (Leithwood and Riehl, Firestone and Riehl (eds), A new agenda: Directions for research on educational leadership, Teachers College, New York, NY, 2005) Four Core Practices of Successful School Leadership and (Kose, Urban Education 44:628–663, 2009) Transformational Leadership for Social Justice, a set of overlapping leadership tenets were used to guide this study. This chapter reports the efforts of the school leaders in navigating systems and socio-cultural spaces to leverage resources for school sustainability. Results indicate a strong emphasis for the school leaders to leverage resources from internal and external sources to not only support the sustainability of the school and provide students access to a formal and informal curriculum, but also in a personal effort to gain their own access, as ‘outsiders’, to the Belizean system. Keywords School leadership · Social justice · Social justice school leadership · Secondary schooling · Developing nation Education has a direct impact on nations, societies and their economies. Global competitiveness has led many nations to take a closer look at their education systems as they are tasked with preparing young people for global citizenry. As such, school leaders must ensure equitable access for all students as they prepare young people to become global thinkers able to fully participate and complete in a global market. This is especially true among developing nations such as Ghana, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and Belize (Ashcraft and Grant 1968; Bosu et al. 2011; Brown L. Chisolm (B) Buffalo Public Schools, Buffalo, NY, US e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_5

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and Conrad 2007; Cogan 1982; Lewis 2000), where British colonialism has had an adverse impact on education (Cogan 1982) and where full participation in education means breaking the cycle of poverty and expanding opportunities for young people to civically engage. In particular, in the developing nation of Belize, a primary education was once considered sufficient, and “indigenous and minority populations are the most discriminated against in regard to access to educational opportunity” (Hargrove 2005, p. 4). In such cases as Belize, school leaders must employ creative and meaningful ways to leverage resources in an effort to ensure access to educational opportunities are granted to a disenfranchised group of students. In the United States, where school budgets and the allocation of government funding and other resources are primarily based on student numbers as opposed to student need, many school leaders find themselves making decisions related to staffing, instructional programming, and extra-curricular activities based on limited budgets. As school leaders face making challenging decisions around the allocation of these funds, they must exercise the ability to think critically and creatively. Among developing nations the need is even more profound based on the cultural context and/or the institution type, as well as access to resources due to geographic location (Chisolm 2017). As Chisolm (2017) describes: a) schools in developing nations operate on a considerably smaller budget such that school expenditures for these nations are but a small fraction of industrialized nations and b) there is a cultural factor that cannot be ignored, especially as it relates to ‘access’ since many rural schools in developing nations are physically located too far from the Ministry of Education (MoE) to benefit from governmental resources necessary to support school leaders, teachers and students (Cohn and Rossmiller 1987). This stand-alone case study takes place on the island of Blue Cove Caye, an island community where there is currently only one primary school and one secondary school. This research follows the work of two school leaders from North America and identifies their role in providing equity and access to secondary schooling in Belize. This research study takes into account school leadership frameworks that conceptualize comparative and cultural understandings to leadership for social justice and teaching and learning.

1 Historical Context of Education in Belize Previously known as the British Honduras, Belize is a Central American nation that recently gained its independence from British rule in 1981. Rooted deep in Mayan tradition, Belize is the only Central American nation where English is the official language, spoken by more than 80% of the nations’ people. Today, Belize is a multiethnic nation that serves as home to the Black African, Creole, Chinese, East Indian, Garifuna, Mestizo, and Middle Eastern populations (McConnell-Farmer et al. 2012), as well as migrant populations from Guatemala, El Salvador, and the Honduras.1 1 As

established during site visit through community conversations.

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Table 1 Education levels in Belize (2015) Education level

US grade equivalent

Age

Years

Assessment for promotion

Additional

Primary Infant 1 & II, Standards 1 - V, and 1st Form

K-8

5–13

8

Belize Junior Achievement Test (BJAT)

Compulsory

Secondary (2nd—4th Form)

8–11

13–17

4

Primary School Examinations (PSE)

Post-Secondary (Tertiary or Vocational)

12-University

17 +

2

Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize (ATLIB)a

a The

ATLIB is a local admissions test in math and English for those seeking acceptance into an associate’s degree program

Rooted in the British education system, students move through schooling based on a series of standards and forms comparable to that of grade bands and levels in the United States. Belizean schools are divided into three education levels: primary, secondary and tertiary. Academic promotion requires transition through the standards and forms (see Table 1: Education Levels in Belize) and further promotion requires successful performance on the National Selection Examinations such as the Belize Junior Achievement Test (BJAT), the Primary School Examinations (PSE), and the Association of Tertiary Level Institutions of Belize (ATLIB). Since the early colonial era, many Belizean schools continue to be associated with the Roman Catholic Church in both proximity and social thought (Chisolm 2017). Several schools throughout Belize are physically attached to a Catholic church, and therefore, the strong church-state partnership continues to influence education. Education in Belize is non-compulsory beyond primary school and comes with costs associated with tuition and fees, uniforms, and supplies. Approximately 40% of the nation’s school-aged children who complete primary school, transition to secondary school. Prior to the inception of the Social Justice Academy in 2008, there was only one primary school located on the island. Students were required to travel to the mainland to attend secondary school. This option was usually reserved for those who excelled in primary school and performed well on their PSE or for those who could afford the additional expense associated with a daily water taxi commute. For those wishing to pursue tertiary school, great emphasis was placed on the ATLIB or the Caribbean Examination Council (CXC)2 exam. Unfortunately, for those students who either could not afford the associated costs of schooling, were deemed to have behavior or cognitive issues, or were unable to demonstrate

2 CXC

is the Caribbean Examination Council. It is a regional tertiary exam administered across 16 Caribbean countries in five different subjects.

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proficiency on the PSE, the likelihood to persist or be promoted to secondary school was exponentially decreased.

2 Literature Review 2.1 School Leadership Educational research on school leadership and successful principal practices is largely conducted among more developed, industrialized nations such as Cyprus, Demark, England, United States, and New Zealand (Jacobson and Day 2007; Leithwood and Riehl 2005; Pashiardis et al. 2012; Santamaria et al. 2014; Ylimaki and Jacobson 2011). This is primarily because “a) industrialized nations have greater access to resources and financial stability, more efficient systems of accountability, and a longer history of organized education systems, and b) industrialized nations are not faced with the long-endured, negative effect on education systems as a result of British colonialism that has oppressed” (Chisolm 2017, p. 20) and “influenced subsequent educational systems” (p. 21) such as those found in Belize, Ghana, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago (King 1987; Lall 2007). Many studies on school leadership focus on instructional leadership and student achievement (Blasé and Blasé 2004; Leithwood and Louis 2012; Pashiardis et al. 2012; Santamaria et al. 2014), while others seek to critique principal preparation programs and professional development (Barnett 2006; Cardno and Howse 2005; Stewart 2013). It is the result of these national studies which often lead to educational reforms and cross-national policies that are often impossible “for any society in a globalized era to refrain from’borrowing’… especially from Western, more industrialized societies” (Brown and Conrad 2007, p.183). Cohn and Rossmiller (1987) note two distinctly polarizing differences that ultimately impact student achievement between developed and developing nations. First, schools in developing nations operate on a considerably smaller budget such that school expenditures for these nations are but a small fraction of industrialized nations. Second, there is a cultural factor that cannot be ignored, especially as it relates to ‘access’ based on distal proximity. Many rural schools in developing nations are physically located too far from the Ministry of Education (MoE) to benefit from governmental resources necessary to support school leaders, teachers and students (Cohn and Rossmiller 1987).

3 Social Justice and School Leadership Justice, as a theory, is a conception of society, a political ideology (Chisolm 2017). In A Theory of Justice-Revised Rawls (1999), identifies justice as ‘fairness’ and considers it to be “an essential part of the common core of the democratic tradition” (p.

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xi). Within this premise is a basic assumption of a mutual agreement among members of society; spawning much criticism based on the ideology that all men are ‘fairly represented’ in society and a universal acceptance of a theory by Anglo-American philosophical scholars who shared the same presumptions (Dowling and Thigpin 1983; Schaeffer 1979). Unfortunately, ‘justice’ and ‘fairness’ have not, historically, been at the foundation of many systems and social institutions, in particular government, human services, labor, and in this case, education (Chisolm 2017). “Social justice” is a broad set of concepts that are dependent and applied to various settings (Chisolm 2017) and, as a concept, is not easily defined. It is seen as a set of actions that serve as a means of ‘fixing’ inequities in access (Marshall and Ward 2004) or more broadly “the exercise of altering these arrangements by actively engaging in reclaiming, appropriating, sustaining, and advancing inherent human rights of equity, equality, and fairness in social, economic, educational, and personal dimensions, among other forms of relationships” (Goldfarb and Grinberg 2002, p. 162). This is especially true in less developed nations where issues of access and allocation of resources are so pervasive that there are serious implications on student achievement. Many of the practices identified as successful school leadership are found among those who consider themselves to be leaders for social justice. Kose’s (2009) work on the principal’s role in professional development looks at the principal as a change agent or transformative leader who enacts leadership that seeks potential motives of followers (Denmark 2012). This business model was applied to the educational context (Leithwood 1994). Brown (2004) investigated social justice school leadership and transformational school leadership from a critical theorist perspective, a theory grounded in evaluating how social structures devised by the dominate class effect the daily lives, structures and cultures of others. In this capacity, the school leader uses his or her influence to employ transformative leadership for social justice as a means to challenge and address the disparities within education systems and societies (Chisolm 2017). The role of a social justice school leader is to alleviate the inequities found within educational institutions, institutions that are mere microcosms of a larger society (Chisolm 2017). The ‘socially just’ school leader, as a transformational leader (Brown 2004; Kose 2009), strives to bridge the ‘opportunity gap’ by acknowledging such inequities and advocating for all students. Social justice school leadership, according to Larson and Murtadha (2002), is a set of “theories and practices of leadership that are vital to creating greater freedom, opportunity, and justice for all citizens—citizens who, through public education, are better able to participate in and sustain a free, civil, multicultural, and democratic society” (p. 136). This definition holds at its core a belief that education is the key to access and opportunities. In applying this definition to the role of educational leaders, particularly those found in developing nations, social justice not only stems from the desire to act, but comes with special cultural and contextual considerations of disparities in the quality of education. Leaders must consider incorporating the concerns of others in their daily practice, while addressing institutional systems and policies (decision-making bodies) that continue to marginalize segments of the population based on race, gender, and religion (Larson and Murtadha 2002; Jost and Kay 2010; Cohn and Rossmiller

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1986). In fact, the social justice framework for schools in developed nations such as England and developing nations such as Venezuela, Tanzania, and Ghana keeps central to its focus an interdisciplinary understanding of the historical, political, cultural, religious, and economic contexts within geographical locations as it relates to disparities between groups of people (Bosu et al. 2011; Goldfarb and Grinberg 2002; West and Currie 2008). It is the school leader who can “influence building-wide decisions and practices by setting expectations and exercising behaviors that often times are not in alignment with an educational system established by those with ‘power’” (Chisolm et al. 2019, p. 71). What varies between developed and many developing nations is the focus of the school leader, such as the case in Belize, where a social justice leader is providing access to secondary education.

4 Theoretical Framework The conceptual framework for this study draws on a ‘crosswalk’ of two leadership frameworks: Leithwood and Riehls’s (2005) Four Core Practices of Successful School Leadership and Koses’ (2009) Transformational Leadership for Social Justice (see Table 2: School leadership tenets and leadership statements of practices). Leithwood and Riehls’s (2005) Four Core Practices of Successful School Leadership framework was developed based on a seven-country report (Australia, United States, China, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and England) that identified four “basic” core leadership practices that were shared across national contexts: (1) setting direction, (2) developing people, (3) refining and aligning the school organization, and (4) improving the instructional program. Koses’ (2009) leadership framework identifies a set of school leader behaviors associated with being a transformative visionary leader, transformative learning leader, transformative cultural leader, transformative structural leader, and transformative political leader. While it was the overlapping leadership statements of practice that helped guide the analysis of this study, it is “the enactment of these practices that varied based on the contexts in which they were applied” (Chisolm 2017, p. 17). Based on the crosswalk of these two school leadership frameworks, this work serves to not only extend and apply the successful leadership practices to developing nations, but to identify the role of school leaders as leaders for social justice in leveraging resources in an effort to provide equity and access to secondary schooling in the developing nation of Belize.

5 Methods This is a stand-alone case study that investigates the role of school leaders in providing equity and access to secondary education in the developing nation of Belize. Through in-depth interviews, document analysis, and on-site classroom observations, data was triangulated to uncover relevant, contextual conditions for behaviors that cannot be

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Table 2 School leadership tenets and leadership statements of practice Conceptual frameworks for school leadership: crosswalk of leadership practices Four core practicesa (Leithwood and Riehl 2005)

Transformational leadership for Leadership statements of social justiceb (Kose 2009) practices

Setting direction

Transformative visionary

Fostering collaborative learning; promoting collective responsibility for all students; connecting school with social justice; building collaborative cultures; restructuring the organization to support collaboration; building productive relationships with families and communities; connecting the school to the wider community

Developing people

Transformative learning leader

Providing individualized support and consideration; offering intellectual stimulation; modeling appropriate values and practices; fostering teacher development for social justice; promoting organizational learning for social justice

Refining and aligning the school organization

Transformative cultural leader

Fostering collaborative learning; promoting collective responsibility for all students; connecting school with social justice; building collaborative cultures; restructuring the organization to support collaboration; building productive relationships with families and communities; connecting the school to the wider community

Improving instructional program

Transformative structural leader

Providing instructional support; staffing the program; monitoring school activity; buffering staff from distractions to their work; aligning resources; creating formal learning teams; organizing common work, time, and space; distributing internal resources; structuring an inclusive service-delivery model (continued)

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Table 2 (continued) Conceptual frameworks for school leadership: crosswalk of leadership practices Four core practicesa (Leithwood and Riehl 2005)

Transformational leadership for Leadership statements of social justiceb (Kose 2009) practices Transformative political leader

Maximizing external resources and opportunities for professional learning; building school-wide support for change decisions

* Overlapping

leadership statements of practice are italicized Leadership to Student Learning, Leithwood and Seashore-Louis (2012) b “The Principal’s Role in Professional Development for Social Justice: An Empirically-Based Transformative Framework”, Kose (2009) a Linking

manipulated within a setting (Yin 2003) in order to draw connections and make meaning between participants lived and envisioned experiences. Social Justice Academy (SJA) was co-founded by two women from North America. Located on the island of Blue Cove Caye, SJA was established as the first, and only, non-profit community secondary school in 2008 with a core commitment of providing equitable access to secondary and universal education for the children of Blue Cove Caye. This school site was selected because of its geographic location (developing nation) and the school’s commitment to equity and access (first secondary school) to secondary education. Prior to SJA, access to secondary education was reserved for those students who excelled academically and could afford associated costs of schooling and travel to the mainland.3 At the time of the study, the school had three school administrators, eight fulltime and three part-time teachers, and approximately 15–20 volunteer/community instructors. Having started with 35 students, the student population has since doubled since its inception serving just over 70 students with an equitable distribution of males to females. SJA provides instruction in 19 courses across all four forms and even offers a bridge program, an academic intervention program for students who require additional academic support as they transition from Form 1 to Form 2. There were two main participant groups in this study, primary and secondary (see Table 3: Participant Demographics). The primary participant group consisted of the former school principal and two of the three school founders, Heather and Ilene, both of whom serve as co-principals and teachers in the school and play an integral role in the establishment of the school, the school’s vision and mission, instructional program design, and business management. Although there is a third school founder this individual does not play a management or leadership role with the school, and therefore, was not included in this study. Secondary participants included one school

3 Belize is a country comprised of a mainland (where Belize City is located) and approximately 450

smaller islands. Blue Cove Caye is among the many islands, also known as the ‘Cayes’ (pronounced “keys”).

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Table 3 Participant demographics Participant

Role

Gender

Educational background

Experience at SJA (Yrs)

Heather

Principal

Ilene

Co-Principal

Dr. Lazala

Experience in Interviews K-12 (Yrs) conducted

F

M.S

9

9

3

F

M.Ed

9

20 +

3

School counsellor

F

Ph.D

4

4

2

Tricia

Teacher, Science

F

B.Da

9

9

1

Marco

Teacher, Computer

M

A.Db

3

3

1

David

Teacher, Mathematics

M

A.D

2

2

1

Arlenec

Former principal

F

A.D

5

10

1

a Bachelor

Degree Degree c Principal from 2010–2015 (Retired) b Associates

counselor, three classroom teachers, and a 10-member heterogeneous student focus group. Following a set of interview protocols established by the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN), main data sources included one 40– 60 min in-depth individual interview with school leaders and teachers and one 60min student focus group to share participant’s narratives. All interviews were transcribed and subject to open coding to enhance reliability of analysis (Mays and Pope 1995) and focus coding to refine and categorize emerging themes (Given 2008). All interviews were conducted in English, the official language of Belize. In addition to interview data, observations were conducted on site over a 10-day period during the 2015–2016 academic school year and document analysis was conducted. Data was triangulated to increase the validity of the researcher’s claims (Lindlof and Taylor 2002; Mays and Pope 1995) and to make connections between the lived and envisioned experiences of school actors.

5.1 Findings Several leadership practices for social justice were exemplified in which school leaders identified a need to leverage local, national and international resources, both human and fiscal, for the benefit of students and school sustainability. These practices included: (a) staffing the program and aligning resources; (b) building productive relationships with families and communities; c) promoting collective responsibility for all students; and (d) connecting the school to the wider community. This research

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identified and defined school leader attributes that contributed to student learning while also promoting social justice.

6 Building Productive Relationships with Families and Communities Prior to opening the doors to SJA, the school’s leaders began with homeschooling 10 students on a front porch. The school’s leaders realized in order to forge forward their efforts to start the first secondary school on the island they needed to gain the trust of the island community and gain the consent of the Ministry of Education. Former principal Arlene commented: I’ve always believed that a school that is established or started in a third world country needs to be very cognizant of what exists already and try to effect change using what already exists. Third world countries I think we have been taken advantage of so many times by foreign entities that there is presently resistance to it. Whichever foreign entity…comes here, it is wise for them to use the present culture…rather than drive home this is the way it should be in the first-world country (Interview 1).

Recognizing their own positionality, as outsiders, the school leaders had to develop trust among the island community. Both school leaders identified the urgent need to bridge the cultural gap and create greater community relations in order to move the school forward. The school leaders intentionally hired a Belizean school principal, a prominent figure on the island, and a school counselor from the mainland within the first three years of inception. It was their intent to bring on board members of the community who not only knew the families and the culture, but also could navigate those spaces these white women could not forge right away. Arlene reflects: I think what has helped a lot is my background because I’m native. I’m from here. I know their families; their extended family, their grandmother who has more influence over them, over the kids themselves. Another help is that I know both Spanish and English so I am able to communicate ideas and different things to parents, literate or illiterate (Interview 1).

In addition to the hiring of a native school principal, the school leaders also hired a Belizean school counselor, the first and only counselor on the island, from the mainland. Recognizing that language is sometimes a barrier to home-school communication, having Dr. Lazala as part of the school team has made a positive impact. In addition to providing much needed services to students, parents and staff, Dr. Lazala shares that her influence has also helped to benefit the school in navigating the Belizean educational system: I have some contacts and a bit of influence. I was just saying to the Principal, Mrs. Gordan, the other day that because she said we’re supposed to see the Minister of Education because it looks like the grant aid will come in and the Deputy Chief Education Officer is saying that…the Minister really thinks a lot of you…he didn’t know you were there. If you are there, you can make a big difference (Interview 1).

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The students of SJA have also recognized the need for the cultural connection between the school and the community. One student referenced the former school principal as “a great principal compared to the outside principals because she knows us. She knows our parents…she’s been through a few things we’ve been through…we’re Belizean, we are grown differently than how an outsider’s grown”. The school leaders made efforts to bridge the cultural gap and gain acceptance among the island community. However, it became apparent that there were some negative perceptions based on the race and ethnicity of the school leaders. Since the school founders/leaders are two white women from North America, SJA is sometimes referred to as the “white school”. This characterization seems to suggest an element of distrust by some members of the island community. As teacher Tricia points out, “for some people, no matter what she [the current principal] tries to do, they will never be able to see past that” and Dr. Lazala agrees “there’s a kind of not always friendly response when “the faces” show up, but the intentions and their commitment and everything is there.” There is an area of improvement when it comes to relationships with families. “Blue Cove Caye has nothing to do with Belize.[It’s] just the island itself. You don’t belong here, you have to get somehow accepted” says Dr. Lazala. Over time, Heather and Ilene have forged relationships with community members and worked to bring positive publicity to the school. In addition, they have established residency and have become citizens of Belize.

7 Staffing the Program and Aligning Resources Aligning resources at SJA not only encompassed human resources, but also the acquisition of fiscal dollars from local and outside sources. The distal locale of SJA from the mainland posed significant challenges to accessing resources, such as supplies and technology, to support students and the school. School counselor Dr. Lazala shared: The biggest hindrance here I find, and I think for the larger Belize, is economic. It also relates to how resources are made available. There’s a lot of political influence in how entities can or cannot function. This school for instance- I’m being paid on the basis of a grant that is provided specifically for this position. What that grant provides is very little. At the end of the day, in order to give kids the kind of service I want I have to go the extra mile to make sure it happens. What I’m saying is that generally speaking, in this institution as it is right now, that creates some limitations in the kind of service that you can provide or wish to provide, whether it’s for parents, whether it’s for the students and what can we do for the community sometimes…like I said, it’s many times I don’t think it’s equitably distributed [among schools in Belize] (Interview 2).

The lack of financial resources also poses a challenge to the recruitment and retention of teachers at SJA. The high cost of living on Blue Cove Caye coupled with limited housing compared to the mainland posed a challenge for teacher retention. Some subject area teachers are stable, but other subjects, like computers and math,

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have experienced high teacher turnover. “To come here and live here and work here, it’s very expensive on the Cayes because tourism is the base for what happens here”, says Dr. Lazala, who commutes between her home on the mainland and the school on the island three times a week. She notes the teachers have to cover the costs of accommodation and food etc. Teachers do not necessarily bring their families because it may be more cost effective to keep families where they are. As a result teachers go home periodically to be with the family. David, one of the teachers reflects, “compared to the mainland it’s expensive, money is a problem, rent on the island and travel to mainland on weekends”. Because the teacher, and in some cases their families, bear the expense to teach at SJA, the “quality [of teachers] was very low standards…teachers keep changing, some five teachers in one semester” says Marco. The challenge then becomes how to make the job appealing enough that good teachers, qualified teachers, would invest leaving home to teach at SJA, and then how school leaders might encourage them to stay. “This school definitely doesn’t work if you’re a teacher who just kind of wants to come in, follow a syllabus, do your job, go home, and it’s done” comments teacher Tricia. In an effort to combat such challenges to staffing, school leaders actively seek out opportunities for grant-aid funds to cover all the teacher expenses. In some cases, school leader Ilene has had to personally take on this challenge using her own monies to supplement and sometimes fund teacher salaries. She says: In the context of Belize and Blue Cove Caye and Social Justice Academy, social justice right now is tied into resources…If I was working [in] a Canadian context of a public school where my salary was guaranteed, my textbooks were guaranteed, my water bills were paid, then I could focus my energies on…instructional leadership…energies are focused on funding (Interview 2).

The lack of faculty due to fiscal resources and distal location of the island can lead school leaders in some developing nations, such as Ilene and Heather, to serve in the capacity of lead teachers or classroom ‘teaching principals’. At one point, the school did not have a technology teacher and so it was one of the principals who had to teach a computer class. In the interim, in addition to the 10-member faculty servicing over 75 students, the school continues to welcome the support of teacher volunteers who visit throughout the year, as well as those from the community who serve as student mentors.

8 Promoting Collective Responsibility for All Students The school leaders shared that connecting students to post-secondary ‘windows of opportunities’ and knowledge was one way they identified themselves as leaders for social justice. Their work to align the school organization has not come without challenges such as the need to navigate the social politics of the island community. Ilene explains:

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Our educational goals [are] teaching the kids how to be entrepreneurs. Their entrepreneur and communication classes create a small business where volunteer groups and tourist can have students accompany them and interpret the local marine ecosystems and the cultural history of the island... And so, tourists will pay more for this than they would just to rent a kayak because the profits they know are supporting student fees (Interview 1).

As part of the school’s entrepreneurial programs, the PE program offered at SJA is connected to sports and activities on the island that are attributed to the highest paid jobs and the most growth in the industry; thus providing students with the skills necessary to participate in an eco-tourist economy. Due to limited staffing, local business owners serve as instructors and mentors to provide students with hands on, experiential learning opportunities. Another school leader, Heather recalls: Years back when we were having trouble with a disconnect between how the community felt about what was happening and what was really happening, we said, we need to get them in our schools. So, we had forty-one different mentors, like forty-one different businesses. A lot of people and businesses are connected, and so that helps them (Interview 3).

According to Ilene, “Our PE program students can enroll in scuba diving, flyfishing, kayaking, wind surfing, these are all sports on our island where the highest paid jobs and the most growth in industry are”. In addition to these courses, the school leaders have incorporated an entrepreneurial, small business program where students have the opportunity to start small business in the areas of ‘kayak with purpose’, ‘bike with purpose’, and fish with purpose’, in order to earn income to help offset the costs of tuition. As a school that relies heavily on fundraising, Ilene notes that the need to fund raise is incorporated within their educational goals of teaching the kids to be entrepreneurs. She believes the tourists pay more than they would just to rent a kayak because they know the profits are supporting the student fees. One student, Robert, noted: It has opportunities that other schools in the city [don’t] have. For example, they have the Fish with Purpose, which is a PE and it teaches the students to interact with tourists and fishing and so much more. When I first started here, I had a PE, which was Scuba Diving, and I got certified for Advanced Scuba Diving. In the future, if I want to work as a tour guide, I already can dive. I just need to get certified as a tour guide (Interview 1).

In addition to working in the community, students are required to give back by completing 40 service hours towards graduation. For example, students volunteer at a local animal shelter and often give back by tutoring at the primary school. In addition, students participate in environmental education and advocacy in such programs as the Marine Biology Apprenticeship with Belize Fisheries and the Ocean Conservancy International Beach Clean Up. This is important because a key component to social justice and social justice teaching is participation in service-oriented work. What makes this service-oriented work different from the school’s entrepreneurial program is that it incorporates a sense of advocacy. Collective responsibility is also promoted in the recruitment effort of SJA school leaders and teachers at the local primary school. The school leaders and teachers meet with the primary teaching staff to identify and access the strengths and needs of rising first form students and discuss any concerns of families shared between

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the two schools. In addition, students from SJA volunteer at the primary school, drawing an even greater connection with student mentorship and shared peer-learning opportunities.

9 Connecting School to the Wider Community In continuing the work to close the ‘opportunity gap’ for the students of SJA, students gain valuable exposure to broader networks of opportunities. The school connects to the wider community through national and international competitions, entrepreneurial programming, and student volunteerism. The students of SJA have won several awards leading to increased local recognition and funding for the school and individual students, e.g., the United Nation’s International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Sports in Education Award (International), National Sagicor Visionaries STEM Competitions Most Creative and Innovative Project (National), and Belize Department of Youth Service’s National Youth Award for Environmentalism (Local). Dr Lazala notes “It’s spreading a little bit beyond Blue Cove Caye because the Ministry of Education, they’re very much interested in some of the things we’re doing.” Student participation in national and international competitions has promoted school pride, positive aspects of the school, and has increased recognition and visibility from the Ministry of Education. Ilene is heavily involved in seeking out scholarship opportunities for students. In addition, she mobilizes local businesses and advocates for individual sponsors to nominate students for scholarships. These scholarships, of course, help to offset costs associated with schooling for students and families. Scholarships are provided to students for academics, as well as for exemplifying positive attribute such as honesty and determination. This helps to ensure the ‘door remains open’ to students who are facing financial difficulties. Ilene recalls “It was unique, this idea that a child could not pay their school fees every month and we wouldn’t expel them, which is what was happening at other schools”. Some of the awards students and the school have received are related to technology and science and environmental curricula; subject matters that also speak to innovative ways to learn to protect and advocate for their island community. Such awards include national and international awards for environmental education, national and international awards for aquatic tourism programs, and regional and national awards for character development. Many of these awards include financial assistance for individual students to help defray the cost of student tuition or costs associated with a tertiary education program. As stated by one of the students, “The thing about being in a small school is even your peers recognize your accomplishments”. Dr. Lazala further supports this statement by sharing that SJA is “respected by the Minister of Education; we are respected by the people outside of this country”.

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10 Discussion In addition to providing students with an informal STEM curriculum beyond that of the national curriculum, school leaders leveraged resources in effort to ensure students are provided with ‘windows of opportunities’ for civic engagement and full participation in the islands eco-tourist economy. Beyond the local island community, vital partnerships were created at the regional and international levels that, through time, donation of materials and supplies, as well as fiscal support helped to offset costs associated with student tuition. This shared level of accountability created a ‘shift’ in the culture and mindset around school leadership for social justice and access to education at SJA. Much research conducted among developing nations investigates the role of the school leaders based on gender (Fitzgerald 2003; Morris 1999; Oplatka 2006; Sperandio and Kagoda 2008; Strachan et al. 2010), but there remains an absence of existing literature that investigates insider/outsider positionality among non-native school leaders in developing nations; specifically among nations impacted by postcolonialism (Chisolm 2017). As outsiders or non-native school leaders, there were cultural barriers to their level of access embedded in perceptions of distrust by some factions of the island community. These cultural barriers posed challenges for SJA and its leaders, making it difficult to navigate and operate within and across political, educational and cultural systems in their effort to support the development and sustainability of the newly established school. The forging of vital partnerships was heavily dependent on the school leaders’ ability to navigate socio-political and cultural spaces of the Belizean community. “In underdeveloped countries the preceding generations have both resisted the work or erosion carried by colonialism and also helped the maturing of the struggles of today” (Fanon 1963, p. 206). The overt disposition of the island community speaks to the remnants, or “abuses” as Fanon (1963) refers to them, of post-colonialism and its effect on a group of people who lived to witness a transition period during the granting of independence. This is evident in the island community of Belize where a national industry of “rest and relaxation” has been developed for business people from more industrialized nations in the name of tourism (Fanon 1963). In the case of the school leaders of SJA, the costs associated with their whiteness and perceived privilege presented in the form of their own ‘barriers to access’ (Chisolm 2017). In addition to challenges navigating Belize’s social structures, the school leaders had to develop trust among families and the school community. With the SJA being established by two white women from North America, sharing experiences based on Western perceptions and ideology, parents and elders questioned their intent and to what extent their views will be infused, if at all, into the Belizean culture. School leaders worked to establish trust by establishing national citizenship and by engaging the island community in their ongoing and persistent efforts in providing access to secondary education.

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11 Conclusion As school leaders face making challenging decisions regarding the allocation of funds, they must exercise the ability to think critically and creatively. Among developing nations there is a greater need for this based on the cultural context and/or the institution type, as well as access to resources and geographic location (Chisolm 2017). Many rural schools in developing nations are physically located too far from the Ministry of Education (MoE) to benefit from governmental resources necessary to support school leaders, teachers and students (Cohn and Rossmiller 1987). As Cohn and Rossmiller (1987) assert: (a) schools in developing nations operate on a considerably smaller budget such that school expenditures for these nations are but a small fraction of industrialized nations and (b) there is a cultural factor that cannot be ignored, especially as it relates to ‘access’. In developing nations where the pressure and roles of school leaders are often heightened, it is imperative that educational researchers apply culturally contextual understandings of teaching and learning to the role of school leaders. International research on school leadership must continue to extend to those developing nations where educational systems have been heavily influenced by colonialism (Lewis 2000). In addition, cross-cultural comparison studies must consider the educational, economic, socio-political, and cultural contexts with recommendations for change implementation in developing and underdeveloped nations to “enhance educational leadership understanding and learning both in the developed and developing world” (Sider and Jean-Marie 2014, p. 262).

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Educational Leaders Building Relationships and Respecting and Affirming Indigenous Identity Joseph Martin, Jon Reyhner, Richard Manning, Josephine Steeves, and Larry Steeves

Abstract The purpose of this study was to frame promising practices for Indigenous students in United States American Indian and Canadian First Nation schools. Through a relational, narrative interview process, a cohesive focus emerged on holistic views of education and success, the importance of non-Indigenous teachers’ engagement with multiple Indigenous perspectives, particularly those of their own students and their families, and the importance of developing an interconnected relationship between administrators, teachers, students, and families. The findings are practical and directly applicable within Indigenous and tribal models of success. Keywords Indigenous students · School leadership · Principal · Community engagement This chapter draws attention to our concern that a growing body of research suggests the schooling typically experienced by Indigenous students in the United States (US) and Canada, seldom captures or builds upon the epistemologies and ontologies of Indigenous students and their communities. Moreover, currently in the US, policies such as the No Child Left Behind Act (2002) and the Every Student Succeeds Act J. Martin · J. Reyhner (B) Northern Arizona University, AZ Flagstaff, US e-mail: [email protected] J. Martin e-mail: [email protected] R. Manning University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] J. Steeves Government of Canada, Oakville, Canada e-mail: [email protected] L. Steeves University of Regina, Regina, Canada e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_6

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(2015) are undermining the implementation of culturally-appropriate practices— that evidence demonstrates actually enhance the schooling experiences of Indigenous students, families and communities. We further explain that schools in the US and Canada serve diverse Indigenous communities with children having different needs and desires. All of this suggests it is important for new school administrators and teachers, in both countries, to know what experienced school leaders have already learned from working with these diverse communities. This chapter specifically draws upon research we conducted in the US and Canada specifically designed to provide new school administrators and teachers insight with regard to empowering Indigenous students—who often do not have successful school experiences (Native Americans, 2013). We interviewed nineteen school leaders with extensive experience working with Indigenous communities and students in the US and Canada. We sought to find out what they have already ascertained in terms of how best to improve the education of American Indian and First Nations students and compare their thoughts to existing research on Indigenous education and the education of other students. We specifically drew-upon Tribal Critical Race Theory in our American and Canadian settings to explore the evolving argument that: Colonization has been so complete that even many American Indians fail to recognize that we are taking up colonialist ideas when we fail to express ourselves in ways that may challenge dominant society’s ideas about who and what we are supposed to be, how we are supposed to behave, and what we are supposed to be within the larger population. (Brayboy, 2005, p. 421)

We, likewise, related these arguments to our assessment of the reconciliation movement in Canada that seeks to come to terms with historical abuses that schools, especially boarding schools, inflicted on Indigenous children (National Center for Truth and Reconciliation, 2016).

1 Methodology As stated previously, this article provides an account of what we learned from conducting nineteen recorded and transcribed semi-structured interviews (see Appendix) with experienced school leaders in Arizona and Saskatchewan in 2016. Each interview took about two hours. Nine took place in Arizona with five Navajo K-12 principals and four central office administrators (including a school superintendent, associate superintendent and a tribal education superintendent). All but two of the interviewees were Navajos working within the Navajo Nation. One Navajo participant worked on the San Carlos Apache Nation and another was an Acoma Pueblo tribal member, working on the Navajo Nation. All of the participants had extensive experience in working with schools serving Indigenous students. The four senior individuals were Navajo men who had served in senior policy or management positions, mostly at the central office level of the

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Navajo Nation’s tribal education system. One had gained senior policy experience at the regional and national level, and the others had served as principals, and in central office positions, before moving into superintendent roles. The five interviewees from school level positions were women, three were principals of state funded public schools and two served in the United States Federal Government’s Bureau of Indian Education funded schools. The three from the state funded schools were assistant principals (one of these had lengthy previous experience as an instructional leader and coach in a Navajo Nation public school). The Canadian sample consisted of five individuals from senior educational management positions and five from school administrative positions. All the Canadian interviewees were located within the province of Saskatchewan, and were mainly Cree, though three were non-Indigenous. All brought extensive experience in working within First Nations systems or with Indigenous students. Of the five senior individuals, four were First Nations—all Cree. They had served in senior policy or management positions, mostly at the provincial level, with one having senior policy experience at the national level. The final individual was non-Indigenous and had previously served as a Deputy Director (Superintendent) in a large provincial urban system. He subsequently served as a Director and Assistant Director within a Tribal Council. Four of the five were male. The five interviewees from school level positions included four men and one woman. Three were principals and two were vice-principals (one of these had lengthy experience as a principal within a First Nations school before moving to the provincial system as a vice-principal) and one was a woman. Three were First Nations, primarily Cree and two were non-Indigenous. Both the non-Indigenous individuals had extensive successful experience working with Indigenous children. We present below some of the thoughts of our participants and show how they connect to existing research on Indigenous education, especially using the findings of University of Toronto professor Jim Cummins (1992) on empowering American Indian students—to guide the discussion that follows.

2 The Importance of History: School as a Place for Becoming White The research participants frequently spoke of the need to understand the history of Indian and First Nations education, including the history of boarding schools in both countries where many students experienced trauma in the past that can continue to negatively impact Indigenous communities today (Colmant et al., 2004; Reyhner, 2018). Our study echoes the conclusion of a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) research review (2018), that concluded that every learner acquires a distinct “array of knowledge” and “cognitive resources” during the course of their lives (pp. 2–3).

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These cognitive resources are “molded by the interplay of that learner’s cultural, social, cognitive, and biological contexts” (NASEM, 2018, pp. 2–3). Educational leaders, accordingly, need to understand that the developmental, cultural, contextual, and historical diversity of learners is pivotal in determining how people learn (NASEM, 2018). We also extracted from our nineteen interviews the importance of educators affirming the Indigenous identity of their students, which supports the literature on identity affirmation by Cummins et al. (2005), Reyhner (2017) and Huffman (2018).

3 Motivating and Engaging Students with Cultural Incorporation Cummins (1992) describes four factors, and the research supporting them, that influence the success of Indigenous and other ethnic minority students. The first factor asks school leaders to consider how effectively are the students’ home language/s and culture/s incorporated into curriculum design, delivery, plus assessment and evaluation. Next, Cummins (1992) draws attention to whether or not the Indigenous/ethnic minority community is proactively encouraged to be an integral part of their children’s education. Additionally, Cummins (1992) identifies classroom instructional methods as a pivotal factor in the process of actively engaging Indigenous/ethnic minority students (in order to generate their own knowledge). Well-designed diagnostic and formative assessment tasks constitute Cummins’ (1992) final key factor because they can assist Indigenous/ethnic minority students to identify their learning strengths and those areas needing further strengthening. This, in turn, avoids a deficit approach, which often focuses on Indigenous/ethnic minority student weaknesses and privileges summative assessment tasks designed to classify these student’s educational levels as either low, average or gifted (and then placing them into streamed classes accordingly). With regard to Cummin’s (1992) first factor (above), research supports his conclusion that students who cannot reconcile what they are learning in school to their lives outside of school can become disengaged from the school’s curriculum and become disruptive and ripe for dropping out of school. For example, the most frequent reason students give for dropping out of school is boredom (Bridgeland et al., 2006; Reyhner, 1992). The 2011 National Indian Education Study reported dropout rates exacerbated by a combination of inequitable educational opportunities. These included inadequate resourcing particularly around recruiting and retaining “highly-effective” teachers capable of presenting an engaging pedagogy, and less focus only on their stature as being “highly qualified” (National Center, 2011). This study correlated with the National Academy of Sciences research review, How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, which found “[s]chool failure may be partly explained by

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the mismatch between what students have learned in their home cultures and what is required of them in school” (Bransford et al., 2000, p. 72). The task of motivating and engaging Indigenous students (inside and outside of the classroom) should also be drawn to the close attention of new school administrators and teachers, particularly when evaluating strategies meant to raise Indigenous student’s self-esteem and build upon their tribal forms of knowledge. Such strategies were frequently identified by our interviewees as important to enhancing Indigenous student learning and outcomes, which reflects the conclusion by a recent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018, p. 29) research review found that “the healthy brain does not waste energy processing information that does not matter to the individual.” It also reflects what one of the authors learned at a parent conference with his son’s high school chemistry teacher at Tuba City High School in the Navajo Nation. He related how in his first year of teaching his best student, a Navajo girl, asked him, “Why are we learning chemistry?” This made him start thinking about how he could make chemistry more relevant to the lives of his students, and thus motivate them better. One of this study’s interviewees indicated how a focus on engaging the kid within the learning was more important than a focus on assessment: “But how kids score is not important; it’s whether or not the kids can engage.”1 Part of engaging children with their education is providing relevant content matter the student can relate to, whether it be part of their Indigenous history and culture. Ensuring students can see themselves reflected in the curriculum content was identified by our school leaders as important. Engaging students outside of the classroom was also important, as one interviewee stated, “The kids that are most successful here are engaged in the school. To engage them in the classroom we have to engage them out of the classroom.” Our participants emphasized the importance of having what goes on inside of the school connected to what goes on outside the school” and the “first step in any good planning should be knowing where your kids are.” Another recommended to colleagues that they “make sure you get to know each kid as an individual…. I have found that the number one impact on learning in schools, and I will say First Nations, is relationships” and this does not mean just where they are academically. This idea of “getting to know the students” was mentioned by a couple of the Navajo administrators as a deterrent for students to test established school rules for the simple reason they didn’t want to disappoint their relationship with a fellow Navajo person of authority—whose support they may need later on.

1 All

quotes not otherwise identified are from the remaining part of this chapter are from nineteen interviews carried out in 2016 by Joseph Martin, Larry Steeves and Jon Reyhner. A preliminary review of the interviews used in this study appears in J. Martin, R. Manning, L. Steeves, J. Steeves & J. Reyhner (2017). What educational leaders see as important for improving the education of Indigenous youth. In J. Reyhner, J. Martin, L. Lockard & W. S. Gilbert (eds.), Honoring our teachers (pp. 19–34). Flagstaff, AZ: Northern Arizona University.

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While it is important to know all of your students, the large number of students in many classrooms and departmentalized comprehensive secondary schools can make achieving very difficult. However, strategic actions can help, such as restructuring secondary schools to ensure the allocation of a manageable number of students for each homeroom teacher to get to know. A Saskatchewan interviewee, for example, advised how the school’s curriculum needs to reflect the students’ home communities: “Well, you need to know your communities. You need to know your culture and your knowledge. You need to understand treaties.” A Navajo administrator summarized his experiences with this reflection: Being a good principal in a reservation-based school is about developing a deep understanding of how to support teachers and other staff members throughout the school. This goal includes coordinating responsibilities with central office personnel, school board members and engaging parents in school operations; managing the curriculum in ways that promote not just the State and Bureau of Indian Education Standards, but also tribal-nation and local community and parental education priorities; and developing the ability to transform schools into more effective organizations that foster sound culturally-compatible teaching and leadership. You must place a high priority on personal values and upon school-culture rather than just the mainstream structural settings in the school.

This echoes somewhat the findings of African American scholar Lisa Delpit. She concluded from her study of African American children’s schooling experiences that “[i]f the curriculum we use to teach our children does not connect in positive ways to the culture young people bring to school, it is doomed to failure” (Delpit, 2012, p. 21). This argument emphasizes the importance of affirming identity by supporting students’ home cultures and the dialects they speak. A Navajo administrator used the metaphor of good sports coaches, to describe effective administrators and teachers: A good school administrator and a good teacher will find ways to do the same thing. They’ll look at the students as individuals, they’ll begin to understand their culture, they’ll validate their culture, their way of learning, their way of knowing, they’ll try to engage their parents, they’ll seek support and try to get everybody on the same team to help the student learn. They won’t expect the kid to come to school, school ready, they’ll go to kid and say, “hey, we’re here to help you.

As Geneva Gay (2018) has pointed out, culturally responsive teaching is critical for the success of many Indigenous students (see also, Reyhner, 2015). However, that responsive teaching is dependent on the particular ways families and communities are raising their children, and it is critical for school administrators and teachers to build relationships with families and communities for them to understand the particular needs of their students. One of our interviewees noted, “I’m a big proponent of culture and education, language and education; but let’s first and foremost give them a reading coach, you know, and bring them up to par.”

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4 Engaging Parents and Communities by Building Relationships Cummins’s second criteria for empowering minority students focuses on giving minority families a say in their children’s education, something that boarding schools in the United States and residential schools in Canada were specifically designed to discourage. Richard Littlebear, currently president of Chief Dull Knife College in Montana, described in 1992 how a Northern Cheyenne elder advised him teachers need to “cross the cattle guard that separates many school compounds located on Indian Nations and to observe and visit with community members (Littlebear, 1992, p. 105). While interviewees stressed the importance of traditional cultures, one of our Cree interviewees (Canada) noted “every community is different” and that “many of our communities are split” with some families practicing traditional religions and some with a long history of Christianity. One of our non-Native Canadian interviewees drew a similar conclusion, advising us “there are some First Nations people, who are not interested in any connection to the traditional. They don’t want that as part of their children’s life”. This interviewee cautioned schools to avoid making assumptions about Indigenous learners’ spiritual beliefs, “especially in urban schools.” One of the Canadian participants noted the need to have discussions with community members about your goals as a leader and that you need to be willing to surrender power. Another stated the need to “absolutely respect humility, take time to learn the background of the community and what their issues are. Take some time to get to know them. Don’t put a blanket statement saying, ‘We’re all this way.’” A Cree principal told us that much of what he had learned about the importance of developing and maintaining effective working relationships in military leadership settings are relevant to school leadership: A good leader, as I learned in the military, is one who wouldn’t ask your troops to do something you wouldn’t do…. My [teaching] staff right now will do anything for me because you do those things for them and with them … [Y]ou have to know your troops and if you don’t know them, then you’re going to be a lost leader. If they don’t respect you, you’re going to be even more lost! The biggest thing is that you have to know your people.

Getting to know the community in which students live, particularly understanding local tribal and First Nation community dynamics, was frequently identified by the interviewees as a critical process for success and as something much broader than just simply getting to know students’ parents or nuclear families. They stipulated that extended families constitute important factors in Indigenous students’ lives. They also stressed that effective leaders will foster robust dialogue in ways that engage the wider community and school staff in constructing and maintaining durable learning community relationships. This dialogue helps all partners to understand the financial, legal and policy schools that inform daily school operations. Communities themselves are diverse and require a significant investment of time and energy for educational leaders to observe if they are to learn how to master the intricacies of community relationships to help support children enjoy success. Several

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interviewees emphasized the need to build relations with the Indigenous community, both with extended families and institutions like local tribal government and religious leaders. One interviewee for example described children who are “standout athletes” and “standout students’ because they do have at least one adult—outside of school— who will advocate on their behalf. This interviewee reasoned that, “the problem never starts in the classroom, it starts in the home, it starts in the reserve. It starts in the Chief in Council, the leadership”. This interviewee observed that if a child has that level of support, this child is more likely to enjoy a successful life than the one that does not. When a teacher or educational leader commits the time necessary to build relationships with the community and the family of the child, they are better able to connect the lives of the child outside of school with what they are learning in school. Our interviewees frequently argued schooling should not just focus upon test scores. It is a process of socialization and must pay attention to the child’s physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental health. A Canadian interviewee, for example, said: Good teachers and administrators will create an environment that welcomes a student and … builds on what they bring and tries to help them expand that. If we don’t do that, it’s very easy to turn people off … the school, the culture, the bias, the prejudice, the racism has a tendency to turn kids off. There’s a lot of cultural influences … the perception that the parents have [due to] the residential schools. All of those things have a tendency to pull [Indigenous students] back from school … But in order to be successful, you’re going to have to build the relationship with the kids. You’re going to have to understand what connects with them, how do they learn, what are the rewards that they see as important to them, to help them gain confidence and strength and be willing to try.

School administrators need to take on the role of community leaders as found in Martin’s (2015) Arizona-based research which noted, amongst other things, that it is more desirable for administrators to learn how to work with community leaders rather than doing things for or to them (Martin, In press). The importance of parent and community support for the schools their children attend is axiomatic, however as shown in the history of Indigenous education (Adams, 1995; Reyhner and Eder, 2017), Indigenous families may not trust schools to have their children’s best interests at heart as they know schools historically sought to assimilate them into EuroAmerican/Canadian cultures. Moreover, they cannot see themselves made to feel welcome in schools today (Adams, 1995; Reyhner and Eder, 2017). The interviewees repeatedly claimed that Indigenous parents and leaders want administrative personnel and school board members to manage the curriculum in ways that promote tribal or First Nation and local community and parental schooling priorities as well as state/provincial and federal education standards. One Navajo school administrator, for example, explained that many teachers tend to deficit theorize Native American parents when they claim they don’t see enough involvement from them in their children’s schooling. This interviewee also contended these teachers also often hold a belief that education is the responsibility of the schools, when in fact education starts in the home and the parent is a key ingredient to an Indigenous student’s growth and schooling.

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This interviewee concluded that “as soon as we gain an understanding of that as an institution: making things more parent-friendly, upholding their opinions, making them feel like they’re part of the solution, part of the equation, I think we’re going to continue to struggle with parent involvement.” Another Navajo administrator similarly argued that parents “want to be involved”, and that they “want to be aware of, not only policies, but why decisions are made”. This interviewee drew upon personal experiences to explain that the message parents convey most strongly is they “want to know about everything that is happening in the school.” This Navajo administrator also helped contextualize the school/home communication challenges of working at a reservation school when observing: One of the challenges I’m finding is … not every parent has access to email because they don’t have internet at home. And not every parent has a cell phone, so you have to stop and rethink what is the best way to get hold of these parents. To send notices home with the intent of keeping parents abreast of what is happening in the school has been one of the most important aspects of creating positive relationships with parents. I’ve found the most effective way is going back to the good old way of just sending paper notices home to parents.

A further Navajo school administrator noted the physical distance between teachers and the communities they purport to serve: Usually the school is … independent of the community. When I first stepped in there, I saw that it was … isolated from the outside community itself, and even the teacher houses are separate from the community itself—gated, right now, in fact. We tend to look at the school as that one entity within the community, and the first thing that needs to happen is for both communities to come together and share, share their outcomes, their desires, their goals, their dreams, not only for the students but for the staff, the families … the school board, the administrators, and the teachers. I think there needs to be a sharing both ways.

He also described the different kinds of students American Indian school administrators can face, whilst isolated the wider community: I see two different kinds of teens coming into the high school. I see the teen who is very much supported by the family, by the school system, and overall just has a general positive outlook about their whole experience. The second teen I see coming into high school are those that have experienced very traumatic events with no support. I mean no support from family and school, for some reason they have a negative experience based on some of the educators they encountered, some of the schools they’ve been in, in our district, and some of the relationships they did or didn’t have.

This Navajo administrator typified the thinking of others when suggesting that teachers and administrators must also be cognizant of the diversity of Navajo parental expectations. He said that if “you push the limit too far on Indianism”, there “could be risks” because some Navajo families are “not so traditional” and expect “different opportunities for their kids …They’re not going to want to hear about cultural philosophies of learning”. This administrator contended these parents often say: Okay, you’re the principal of the school … How are you getting my kid ready for college? I want these high standards, I want these high expectations.” So, trying to deal with them in a [traditional] Navajo way is not going to work. You’re going to have to (finger snap) switch gears and adjust.

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The school leaders we interviewed consequently emphasized the importance of building respectful relationships through listening carefully to students and their families to understand the needs of the students and their families and to gauge what they can do to ensure their curriculum reflects the aspirations of the communities they serve. To help bridge these gaps, one Navajo administrator emphatically stated: By most standards, being fluent in the local tribal language is a valuable attribute for anyone desiring to work in a Navajo school and expect to maintain good relations with stakeholders. If elders, parents, or local leaders can’t understand you, their perception is that you probably don’t know what you’re taking about.

However, within those communities we would caution that it is also important to note how a focus on how school sponsored sports, especially basketball or rodeo in the United States, can draw a community’s attention away from academic success and how a lack of reading material in homes is correlated to lower academic performance (Evans, Kelley, Sikora, & Treiman, 2010).

5 Understanding How Children Learn and How to Motivate and Support Them The third area Cummins (1992) focuses on, for empowering Indigenous and other ethnic minority students, is pedagogy. Overall, the suggestions for teachers presented in this chapter align with the constructivist and social constructivist learning theories recommended in the United States by the National Academies of Sciences (2018), Donovan & Bransford (2005), Bransford et al. (2000) as well as the assisted performance approach advocated by Roland Tharp and Ronald Gallimore (1988). The participants in our research reiterated that teaching methods that provide intrinsic motivation, and actively engage Indigenous students in their learning, work better than having students sit passively reading and memorizing textbooks or lectures (Cleary, 2008; Cummins, 2000; Reyhner and Jacobs, 2002). As Paulo Freire (1990) and Jim Cummins (2000) have also eloquently pointed out, traditional schooling often involves an anti-dialogical pedagogical process that places students in a passive role absorbing the content of lectures and textbooks, which disempowers and demotivates them. This begs the question whether Native American students’ preferred learning styles, and the way they are traditionally taught in schools, are culturally congruent with those students’ Tribal communities’. For instance, Martin’s research notes that a Navajo student’s preferred leaning style is to observe first, think about the learning, and then act to try or practice a new learning. In contrast, non-American Indian/Alaska Native learners will typically want to try something new, question, and then think about a learning outcome (Martin, In press). With regard to dependence on textbooks, a Navajo administrator observed, “we rely too much on textbooks because the sequence [within them] will tell you what to do every single day; it [is] rather robotic.”

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Another Navajo educator noted how in her efforts to improve student performance her school has “gotten away from the lecture type approach that was here when I first came to the junior high, the lecture and notetaking, because we have varied learning styles … We’re trying to incorporate people who are more hands-on, or more visual.” A third Navajo school administrator alluded to the importance of valuing traditional Indigenous epistemologies and developing a more holistic (Indigenous) view of knowledge and highlighting the interrelationships between curriculum areas as opposed to adopting a traditional Western schooling model that often has curriculum areas listed separately in silos: I guess … the textbook [approach] was very frustrating for me because the non-Indian way, it was a list ... what I’ve learned now … is that everything’s working together, kind of like in a round-about way … So, building the idea in your head that everything effects everything, in life, you’re taught that when you’re Navajo. That’s why you don’t mistreat animals, or that’s why you’re supposed to keep water sacred.

A Canadian school administrator, meanwhile, noted that: The kids that are most successful here are engaged in the school. To engage them in the classroom we have to engage them out of the classroom. So, you look at our First Nation kids, and our Metis kids and the kids from our non-dominant culture here. The kids that are doing the best in the school are the ones that are playing sports, doing drama, involved in band, so we’ve got to find that hook for them and we’ve got to take away the barriers.”

A growing body of international research also supports many of the interviewees’ comments and suggests that culturally responsive, community and place/landbased education activities can provide authentic learning tasks that provide intrinsic motivation for Indigenous students to engage more with schooling (see Kawagley & Barnhardt, 1999; Trinidad, 2014; Tuck, McKenzie & McCoy, 2014; Manning, 2017; Manning & Harrison, 2018). Likewise, assessment for learning requires consideration.

6 Testing: One Size Does not Fit All Cummins’s fourth area of concern, regarding the schooling success of Indigenous/ethnic minority students, involves: (i) how they are tested and, (ii) whether assessment seeks to identify authentic (not perceived) student needs and/or to direct them into advanced or remedial classes. Today, there is an emphasis on measuring students and evaluating teachers based on student (summative) test scores. In a largescale study of North Carolina high school students, Jackson (2018) found that just looking at their students’ test scores to evaluate teachers “leaves out important teacher effects on test scores capture only a fraction of teacher effects on human capital” (p. 2074). In other words, the students’ overall success in life goes beyond well their test scores. The U.S. government, especially, has mandated a regime of standardized tests for all students and evidence-based approaches to education, starting most notably

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with the No Child Left Behind Act (2001), and continued under the Every Student Succeeds Act (2015). Despite considerable financial support for these initiatives, American Indians especially, have shown little academic progress due to the introduction of these standardized approaches (Native Americans, 2013). Despite this emphasis placed on standardized testing, our interviewees had the least to say on this subject. One of the Canadian interviewees did state: The first step in any good planning should be [the teacher] knowing where your kids are [i.e. due to the usage of sound diagnostic, formative & summative assessment tasks]. If you really do a good job of it … it’ll carryover from one step to the next step [i.e. through the diagnosticformative-summative stages]. When you think you’ve achieved the outcome, what’s your [summative] assessment going to go to say, ‘Yes, they can do it.’ If you only have one [i.e. summative] test, you only have one way of knowing, you probably don’t know it. You need to have a deeper understanding, multiple ways the students can show their learning.

A Navajo school administrator added that standardized assessment tests does not successfully capture or build on potentially important content knowledge including understanding of Navajo students: In order to determine with better accuracy the level of Navajo student learning and the quality of the learning, we need to begin work devising an assessment tool that will do a better job of assessing Navajo student learning. Relying exclusively on state standardized assessment tests that is not a good-fit for Navajo students and one that under-values the language and cultural differences of how Navajo children are raised is counter-productive.

It is important that a process of assessment for learning is implemented to ensure that teaching and learning activities strategically empower teachers of Indigenous students to know where their students are located on their learning journeys and to provide them with appropriately leveled instruction and curriculum (i.e. scaffolding) to move them forward. It is equally important for school administrators to gauge teachers’ knowledge of assessment for learning and provide them with professional development opportunities to facilitate their development of culturally responsive assessment activities. Our school leaders shared little about state, provincial, and federal standards-based reform and testing mandates. A few commented about how the new content standards delineate more challenging curricula and the extent to which new performance standards outline how well students must learn the content. There were, however, also comments, which we believe reflected concerns about having to implement a standards-based education. These participants explained that not every school is the same. They also shared concerns about basing student achievement solely on external tests, goals or objectives without critically considering their relevancy or purpose in relation to tribal or First Nation education priorities. This observation is significant because a recent study of U.S. state history standards, for example, found the standards overwhelmingly present Indigenous peoples in a pre-1900 context and relegate their importance in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Moreover, Wyoming, home of the Arapaho and Shoshone on the Wind River Reservation, was unique in that it does not “include a single content strand about Indigenous content in its state standards” (Shear, Knowles, Soden, & Castro, 2015,

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p. 81). Instances of a lack of respect, such as this example from Wyoming, hamper the building of relationships between Indigenous communities and the schools that purport to serve them. In the United States, problems appear compounded by a high turnover of teachers aggravated by a perceived lack of respect for educators and top down mandates often unrelated to Indigenous students’ needs. As Doris Santoro (2018, p. 43) writes: For teachers experiencing demoralization, the moral dilemma is not what they should do to be a good teacher, but that they cannot do what they believe a good teacher should do in the face of policies, mandates, or institutional norms. School administrators can face similar demoralization.

7 The Challenges Posed by History and Affirming Indigenous Peoples’ Identities If students do not get culturally relevant education, they can develop “oppositional identities” that reject schools as places for “becoming white” and that devalue their Indigenous identities. Anthropologist John Ogbu (1995) found evidence that in the United States ethnic minority children, such as African Americans, American Indians, and Hispanics (who he classified as “involuntary minorities”) often equate schooling to not just learning of the culture and language of white Americans, but also assimilating into white mainstream English-speaking American culture. A study of an American Indian Controlled Boarding school in New Mexico conducted by Alan Peshkin (1997) found a similar situation in that schools were still widely seen as places designed for indigenous children “becoming white” (and leading to academic apathy). Another author, Fedullo (1992), cited the recollections of an Apache elder to explain historical concerns shared many Indigenous communities throughout the United States: [Many Indian parents had] been to school in their day, and what that usually meant was a bad BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs] boarding school. And all they remember about school is that there were all these Anglos [white people] trying to make them forget they were Apaches; trying to make them turn against their parents, telling them that Indian ways were evil. Well, a lot of those kids came to believe that their teachers were the evil ones, and so anything that had to do with “education” was also evil—like books. Those kids came back to the reservation, got married, and had their own kids. And now they don’t want anything to do with the white man’s education. The only reason they send their kids to school is because it’s the law. But they tell their kids not to take school seriously. (Fedullo, 1992, p. 117)

One of the Canadian interviewees reinforced these observations, explaining how her mother’s generation had “such a bad experience they don’t care to be in schools, they don’t want to be in schools. They’re scared to be in schools”. She therefore contended that a key challenge for Indigenous teachers and school administrators today is largely “about showing them [the local Indigenous community] that we’re not actually that bad here.” Another Canadian participant felt “one of the big issues

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for a lot of First Nation’s kids has been…I hesitate to use the word ‘shame’, but shame is part of it, where their parents have not had positive experiences in school, their relatives have not had good experiences at school.” This participant also emphasized that many First Nation students and parents have “been kind of looked down upon.” She added that “the idea of having to publicly say, ‘I don’t get this, I need help’ is a big road block to them, and they have other things that come up within their society that are more important to them to school, and they should be.” A Cree principal (Canada) alternatively acknowledged long-standing historical issues resulting from the reserve system and residential schools, but proposed that it was time for Indigenous communities to engage with teachers and school administrators, to exercise agency and focus on collaborative problem solving. This principal emphasized that “sooner or later, we really … need to start doing the solutions … it starts in the home, it starts in the reserve, it starts in the Chief in Council, the leadership.” One of the major themes that emerged from our interviews therefore is the importance of affirming students’ identities by getting to know what experiences and knowledge they bring to school from their homes and communities and the need for educational leaders to develop respectful relationships with the school staff, community and parents they serve. The interviewees, in various ways, reasoned that the more they know their students, the better they become at understanding why it is important for them to continually seek out examples of “best practice” for serving Indigenous students (and to enhance their own coaching and mentoring of new and continuing teachers they supervise). For example, one of the Canadian interviewees mentioned building relationships repeatedly, noting that, “focus on building relationships” and “the relationship piece is the key.” Showing respect and humility in interactions with the community is critical in building those relationships. Many Indigenous groups see humility, along with respect, as one of their key values (see e.g., Barnhardt & Kawagley, 2011). One Canadian interviewee noted, “We lead from behind.” Another stated, “there’s a certain level of humility that has to be within everybody in order to be a successful teacher.” This interviewee reasoned, “I came from a family that did a very good job educating me to never think I’m better than anyone else.” He also said Indigenous students often want their teachers to “take time” to get to “know them” before “deciding who they are” and “don’t pigeonhole me and say I’m a First Nations person and this is exactly who I should be and this is what my values should be.” He also asserted that First Nation chiefs should model humility and “get rid of that ego, leave it at the door…. The success of one is the success of all.” A further Canadian participant emphasized how school administrators and teachers “see large numbers of Indigenous kids who are a little less secure, and it’s really easy, it can be really easy to turn them off and turn them away from school.” He went on to advise that an effective school administrator and/or teacher, will develop methods to achieve the same thing. They’ll strive to view the students as individuals, they’ll seek to understand their culture, their ways of learning and their epistemologies. This participant reiterated that effective school administrators and teachers will proactively try to engage with Indigenous parents, they’ll request

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support and “try to get everybody on the same team to help the students learn”. Our American and Canadian participants stressed the importance of individualized approaches to teaching and learning because Indigenous students represent a very diverse socio-cultural demographic. Far too often, Indigenous students are treated as a homogenous group in policy discussions and academic research. There will be important religious, cultural and socio-economic divisions, within every community, that need identifying for policies or interventions to be successful. In order for teachers or educational leaders to find success in teaching and inspiring these youth, the participants in our study proposed that they need to spend time in their local (Indigenous) community to “get to know” the nuances that exist. For example, if a student and their family prioritize post-secondary education, they may reject culturally based programs, as they are viewed to be unhelpful to assisting a student reach his/her family’s particular goals (i.e. College entry). School leaders who serve children living in economically challenged Indigenous communities have the unique responsibility of developing learning communities capable of meeting the specific needs that arise when a large number of the children attending school live in difficult situations brought on by poverty (Berliner, 2013). Student achievement cannot, however, be increased in these areas without addressing the barriers created by poverty. This requires teachers and school administrators in Indigenous communities must go beyond traditional job expectations and make sure they have the necessary skills and knowledge to meet the challenges faced by their students (Martin, 2015). As previously discussed, both Navajo and Saskatchewan school administrators in our study stressed the importance of using culturally relevant pedagogy and curriculum that works to provide the foundation needed to increase the academic success of Indigenous students. The material and teaching methods—even if culturally relevant—need to adequately prepare students who wish to continue on to postsecondary education. As one participant noted, there are “Navajo families who are not so traditional who expect a little bit different opportunities for their kids. For example, college bound kids. They’re not going to want to hear about cultural philosophies of learning.” While tradition and culture consequently were “key factors” identified by participants to unlock learning for some Indigenous students, they were not the only factors identified to ignite learning. The participants in our study also stressed the need to change and enhance the focus of pre-service/in-service teacher education programs. They stressed that there is already a lot of focus on sustained professional development for teachers and school administrators with a focus placed on school improvement approaches and how to implement change (National Center, 2011). Some participants contended that this focus needed to shift towards an emphasis placed upon knowing more about Indigenous peoples and their particular educational needs. One of the Navajo administrators, for example, spoke of how “the NIEA [National Indian Education Association] provided him with “a lot in terms of support in understanding Indian education, and the Indian child.” Evidence collected during our literature review also suggests there is no question about the need for teacher and educational leadership programs that better-prepare school educators to work in Indigenous schools

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(Aguilera-Black Bear & Tippeconnic, 2015). There is currently a focus on “evidence based” one-size fits all curriculum, especially as supported by federal legislation in the United States. However, too often, the evidence used to make decisions about teaching strategies and curriculum does not come from studies of Indigenous and other minority groups, and there can be, as there are in evidence-based medical treatments as well, damaging side effects experienced by students (Zhao, 2018). Changes to the way educational leaders are prepared in Colleges of Education could instill some of the knowledge our interviewees provided based on their years of experience. One promising exception to the lack of attention paid to Indigenous peoples at the state and federal level is the Montana Indian Education for All legislation that emphasizes the role of Montana’s Indigenous people in the state’s history as well as in the present day (Ngai & Koehn, 2010). The school administrators interviewed in this study exhibited diverse perspectives on educating Indigenous students and improving their chances of success in school and in life. While they only presented their perspectives on this complex challenge, their wealth of experience and specialized knowledge is often missing in current educational literature and research focused on non-minority students. The majority of literature focused on Indigenous student achievements in line with our findings and points to the importance of Indigenous ways of knowing and cultural values (see e.g., Seeking Their Voices, 2014). Overall, our interviews support what Terry Huffman found from over two decades of interviews with Indigenous students, teacher and school administrators (2010). He concluded that, “culturally traditional American Indians can achieve academically while retaining their cultural integrity” (Huffman, 2010, p. 203) and in fact that their tribal identity can be a very important factor in their educational success (Huffman, 2018). In addition, our findings are supported by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (2018, p. 126) research review that concluded a “number of studies indicate that a positive identification with one’s racial or ethnic identity supports a sense of school belonging, as well as greater interest, engagement, and success in academic pursuits.”

Appendix Interview Guide Introduction/Thank You: • Thanks for participating in the interview • Review/signature of the Interviewee consent form • Confirmation that the e-mailed materials arrived successfully

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• Review of the materials and key concepts within them • Supplementary Comments (if needed): – The preparation of school administrators, Indigenous or otherwise, who are appropriately prepared to create/sustain positive learning outcome for Indigenous/Navajo students is a very real challenge. In addition to a deep understanding of culturally relevant pedagogy, these administrators must also have a solid leadership background. This requirement poses a substantial responsibility for university school administrator leadership preparation programs. These programs are typically geared towards rural, suburban and urban school leadership; substantial development will be required to address the requirements of Indigenous/Navajo students and communities. Research to more clearly identify these mores specific needs is required—it is our hope that the research project that you will be involved with through this interview will assist with this process. Question #1. Improving Indigenous/Navajo Student Learning: • Having reviewed the materials and also given your own considerable experience dealing with this topic, what are your thoughts/opinions regarding the desired approaches to improving learning outcomes for Indigenous/Navajo students? Question #2. Indigenous/Navajo and Western Approaches to Leadership: • Having reviewed the materials and also given your own considerable experience as a leader, what are your thoughts regarding Indigenous and Western approaches to leadership? • Supplementary Questions (if needed): – Are there differences between the two leadership styles? – Would there be benefits using one style versus another while engaged in daily management tasks? Question #3. Indigenous/Navajo and Western Approaches to Educational Leadership: • Having reviewed the materials and also given your own considerable experience as an educational leader, what are your thoughts/experiences regarding Indigenous/Navajo and Western approaches to educational leadership? • Supplementary Questions (if needed): – Would there be benefits from utilizing one style as opposed to the other in certain circumstances?

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– Given what we know from research related to improving Indigenous/Navajo student learning, would the use of a more Indigenous style of educational leadership result in any benefits or drawbacks? Question #4. Preparation of Educational Administrators—Academic or Otherwise: • Given our preceding discussion, what thoughts might you have regarding the most effective means of preparing current/future educational administrators for working in settings with Indigenous/Navajo students? • As researchers working within an academic setting, what advice would you have for us as regards the academic preparation of current/future educational administrators? • In a very concrete sense, what things should be done—or not be done—in an academic program preparing current/future educational administrators working in settings with Indigenous/Navajo students? • Supplementary Questions (if needed): – Depending on employment circumstances, administrators will work in communities that are Indigenous/Navajo versus provincial/state schools. What might be some of the implications for the development of graduate programming for administrators working within schools that are Indigenous/Navajo communities? – What are the elements of effective professional development for school administrators that work in Indigenous/Navajo school systems (vice principals, principals, superintendents, curriculum/special education directors, budget directors, etc.? – Again depending on employment circumstances, some administrators will work in communities that are Indigenous/Navajo while others will be employed within provincial/state schools. Will/should this affect the nature of the academic program? If so, what might this mean for academic programming? – Again depending on employment circumstances, some administrators will work in schools that primarily serve Indigenous/Navajo while others will be employed in schools with high percentages of Indigenous/Navajo students? How might this affect the nature of the academic programming focussed on school leadership? – Do mainstream leadership topics/skills play out differently in schools serving Indigenous/Navajo communities than in non-Navajo schools? – Do school administrators/principals working in Indigenous/Navajo schools need more preparation in instructional leadership then in other leadership topics; for example being a turnaround principal with a strong instructional leadership emphasis? – Do alternate routes to administrative certification make sense for training school administrators, in particular those dealing with Indigenous/Navajo schools? – How effective is technology in delivering professional development to school administrators in Indigenous/Navajo administrators?

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– The preparation of current/future educational administrators within the Arizona context as compared to Saskatchewan can be quite different. One example would be the much greater degree of structure as regards certification processes/requirements within Arizona. How might one deal with these state requirements while designing an appropriate program model for educational administration graduate students? – How can Navajo schools and districts attract and retain outstanding Navajo and non-Navajo administrators.

Thank You/Ending the Interview: • Thanks for participating in the interview • Review of future processes in compliance with ethics approval • Request for any final/closing thoughts

References Adams, D. W. (1995). Education for extinction: American Indians and the boarding school experience. Lawrence, KS: University Press of Kansas. Aguilera-Black Bear, D., & Tippeconnic, J. W. (Eds.). (2015). Voices of resistance & renewal: Indigenous leadership in education. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. Barnhardt, R., & Kawagley, A. O. (2011). Sharing our pathways: Native perspectives on education in Alaska. Fairbanks, AK: Alaska Native Knowledge Network. Berliner, D. (2013). Effects of inequality and poverty vs. teachers and schooling on America’s youth. Teachers College Record, 115(12), 1–26. Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (2000). How people learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school (expanded). Washington, DC: National Academy Press. Brayboy, B. (2005). Toward a tribal critical race theory in education. The Urban Review, 37(5), 425–446. Bridgeland, J. M., DiIulio, Jr., J. J., & Morison, K. B. (2006). The silent epidemic: Perspectives of high school dropouts. Washington, DC: Civic Enterprises. Retrieved from https://docs.gatesfoun dation.org/documents/thesilentepidemic3-06final.pdf Cleary, L. M. (2008). The imperative of literacy motivation when Native children are being left behind. Journal of American Indian Education, 47(1), 96–117. Colmant, S., Ciali, P., Dorton, J., Riveva-Colmant, Y., Robbins, R., & Schultz, L. (2004). Constructing meaning to the Indian boarding school experience. Journal of American Indian Education, 43(3), 22–40. Cummins, J. (2000). Language, power & pedagogy: Bilingual children in the crossfire. Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters. Cummins, J. (1992). The empowerment of Indian students. In J. Reyhner (Ed.), Teaching American Indian students (pp. 3–12). Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press. Cummins, J., Bismilla, V., Chow, P., Cohen, S., Giampapa, F., Leoni, L., et al. (2005). Affirming identity in multilingual classrooms. Educational Leadership, 63(1), 38–43. Delpit, L. (2012). Multiplication is for white people. New York: The New Press.

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Leading in a Diverse Context: A Principal’s Efforts to Create an Inclusive Elementary School for Refugee Students Nathern S. A. Okilwa

Abstract Schools in the United States are experiencing significant shifts in student demographics. There is a notable increase in students from diverse socioeconomic, ethnic/racial, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds as well as ability levels. The change in the student population constitutes an increase in refugee students due to ongoing conflicts, persecution, and natural disasters around the globe. The purpose of this chapter is to examine how an elementary school principal rallied a diverse school to create an inclusive environment for refugee students. Utilizing conceptualization of inclusive leadership (Ryan, Inclusive leadership, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA, 2006), I analyze interview data and report the findings based on three principal practices: advocacy, focusing on teaching and learning, and collaborative partnerships. The principal’s efforts yield an inclusive school environment for refugee students. Keywords School leadership · Principal · Diversity · Inclusion · Refugee students Current evidence shows an increasingly diverse student body, featuring ethnic/racial, economic, linguistic, cultural, and ability level diversity (Spring, 2018). For instance, in 2015, student demographics in United States K12 public schools included 49% White, 26% Hispanic, 15% Blacks, 22% economically disadvantaged (EcoDis), and 9% English Learners (ELs). By comparison, 10 years prior (i.e., 2005), student populations consisted of 57% White, 20% Hispanic, 17% Black, 19% EcoDis, and 9% ELs (National Center for Education Statistics, 2018). In contrast to the student demographics is the race/ethnicity distribution of teachers in K12 schools. In the 2015/16 school year, there were 80% White teachers, 9% Hispanic, and 7% Black. Given the student demographic shifts, schools need to respond accordingly, in their policies and practices, or else continue to marginalize and deny minoritized students the right to fully participate in the educational process (Bogotch, 2002; Howard, 2007; Theoharis, 2007). Part of the response is to create an inclusive school environment N. S. A. Okilwa (B) Department of Educational Leadership & Policy Studies, University of Texas At San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, US e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_7

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where all students are presented with equitable opportunities to succeed. According to Stainback and Stainback (1990), “An inclusive school is a place where everyone belongs, is accepted, and is supported by his or her peers and other members of the school community in the course of having his or her educational needs met” (p. 3). Principals are empowered by district and state policy to strive to improve the conditions of learning for all students. Howard (2007) argues that in the midst of increasing diversity, school leaders’ responses should consider: building trust, engaging personal culture, confronting issues of social dominance and social justice, transforming instructional practices, and engaging the entire school community. The purpose of this chapter is to examine how an elementary school principal rallied a diverse school to create an inclusive environment for refugee students who comprised 20% of the student population. In the following sections, I will first present a review of the literature guided by Ryan’s (2006) inclusive leadership constructs. I will follow up with the study’s design and methods, then a reporting of the findings, and finally a discussion and conclusion section.

1 Related Literature 1.1 Theoretical Constructs In his book, Inclusive leadership, Ryan (2006) notes that leaders interested in implementing inclusive leadership should: think differently about leadership, include participants, advocate for inclusion, educate participants, develop critical consciousness, promote dialogue, emphasize student learning and classroom practice, adopt decision-making and policymaking practices, and incorporate wholeschool approaches. In the following sections, I will explore literature related to each of the aforementioned leadership practices. Thinking about leadership. Ryan (2006) argues that “To be consistent with the ideals of inclusive leadership, we must move away from seeing leadership, as many do, in terms of individuals and as a form of hierarchy among people” (p. 99). Given the ever-increasing demands and expectations on principals (e.g., instruction, school culture, management, strategic development, micro-politics, human resources, and external development), leadership can no longer be conceptualized as a one-person show, heroic leader, or based on hierarchical relationships (Portin, 2004; Ryan, 2006). Instead, school leadership has to move toward collective or collaborative approaches to attend to the widening scope of the job of principal. Consequently, increasing research has established distributed (or shared) leadership as one approach that engages and empowers others in a collective effort to meet the multidimensional demands of leading today’s schools (Brooks, 2007; Harris, 2004, 2011; Jacobson & Leithwood, 2007; Leithwood, Mascall, Strauss, Sacks, Memon, & Yashkina, 2007). Advocates of distributed leadership argue that it frees up principals to focus their attention and effort on core functions of their job such as instructional leadership;

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that is, improving the teaching and learning processes. Benefits of distributed leadership include (a) advancing the efficient implementation of decisions, (b) maximizing the range of knowledge and experience needed in school administration, (c) promoting transparency and consensus in administrative decisions, (d) holding everyone accountable for the effective management of the school, (e) cultivating the civic goals of schooling, and (f) the likelihood of increasing teacher retention (Natsiopoulou & Giouroukakis, 2010). For instance, transparency in the decisionmaking process and implementation is reassuring and empowering to those involved, particularly teachers. To involve teachers, Ryan (2006) suggests opportunities such as supporting participation in master teacher programs and school governance committees, serving as department head or grade level team leader, promoting school vision and mission, sharing expertise, and volunteerism. Similarly, Okilwa and Barnett (2017) established that the four principals in their study created opportunities for shared decision-making and leadership with teachers, thus shaping a culture of collective responsibility for student learning. For the principals in the study, shared leadership was fundamental in ensuring the school’s turnaround and consequently sustaining academic success. Shared leadership is in essence inclusive, incorporating the ideas and input of others. Therefore, school leadership has to be reimagined as a collective practice not individual-dependent (Ryan, 2006). Include school community members. Major stakeholders such as parents, students, and teachers have a right to be involved in making decisions that influence teaching and learning. Because all change flows through principals, they are positioned to facilitate engagement through shared leadership, thus offering members of the school community the opportunity to contribute their experiences, knowledge, and expertise toward achieving school improvement. Murphy, Smylie, Mayrowetz, and Louis (2009, p. 182) note, “These formal leaders are in a critical position to move initiatives forward or to kill them off, quickly through actions or slowly through neglect.” Partnership with these stakeholders are too important to ignore. Teachers, for instance, as implementers of most of the school initiatives, need to feel involved in the decision-making process. Otherwise, the implementation phase becomes unlikely to succeed. Ryan (2006) suggests a variety of formal and informal opportunities to involve parents (e.g., school council membership, volunteering, and communicating); and students (e.g., advisory teams, student council, surveys, and roundtable discussions) in leadership processes. Similarly, Epstein (1995, p. 704) proposes a framework of six types of involvement that have the potential to “promote a variety of opportunities for schools, families, and communities to work together.” Epstein’s involvement framework includes parenting (i.e., families establish learning home environments), communicating (i.e., design effective forms of school-to-home and home-to-school), volunteering (i.e., recruit and organize parent help and support), learning at home (i.e., families provide help with homework and other schoolrelated activities), decision making (i.e., parents included in school decisions and parent leadership), and collaboration with the community (i.e., identify resources and services from the community). To that end, parents and community members as tax payers need to be treated as part-owners of neighborhood schools (Moore, Bagin, & Gallagher, 2012).

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Advocate for inclusion Ryan (2006). suggests that “those involved in leadership enterprises need to be prepared to actively promote inclusion” that gives every child an opportunity to succeed (p. 105). As schools experience an increasingly diverse student body (economically, linguistically, culturally, and ability level), the expectation for school leaders to orchestrate an environment where these differences are in fact appreciated is imperative (Hamm, Dogurga, & Scott, 2016). The preparedness of those in leadership to advocate and facilitate an inclusive school climate and culture is thus tested. Advocating for inclusion may first require a reflective orientation from the leader. That is, the principal should “use information gathered from reports, teachers, parents, and community members to develop reasoned approaches for action and help generate new meanings about the changes ahead…mobilize teams of teachers and parents to inform their decision-making” (Salisbury & McGregor, 2005, p. 5). The collective information acquired should consequently translate into actionable strategies that bring about desirable changes. Salisbury and McGregor (2005) argue, for change to occur, other ingredients need to be present such as vision, skills, incentives, resources, and an action plan. Ryan (2006) proposes a number of strategies for the principal engaged in inclusion efforts to help catalyze broader and deeper advocacy. Some of these recommendations include the following: making inclusion a nonnegotiable; creating a discomfort with the status quo; building a theoretical, ethical, and research-based rationale for inclusion; engaging and negotiating with stakeholders; and advocating for marginalized groups. Educate participants. Most people fear the unknowns of an inclusive educational setting due to limited understanding of the other. Differences (or diversity) present both opportunities and challenges, whatever the setting. Often the benefits of inclusive settings from the larger societal context are not articulated and considered. Therefore, a holistic exploration of inclusion through informal and informational educational forums is necessary. Ryan (2006, p. 110) proposes that “The most learning occurs when avenues are provided for teachers and community members to share their respective areas of expertise with one another.” For instance, who better to teach educators about the unique cultural values and beliefs of other students than parents from those backgrounds. Some schools innovatively create opportunities for cultural learning and exchanges through forums such as cultural nights. During these sessions, families share facts about their culture to include food, clothing, music, language, and overall way of life. For teachers, targeted Professional Development (PD) and professional learning communities (PLCs) are important for educating teachers about including diverse students (Hamm et al., 2016). Particularly, teachers can leverage the curriculum to incorporate marginalized knowledge, representative of other people’s stories and culture (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & Gonzalez, 1992; Yosso, 2005). All students stand to benefit from an expanded and more representative curriculum. Develop critical consciousness. A school leader should foster critical consciousness–the ability to intervene in reality as a means to change it (Freire, 2005)–in self, teachers, students, parents, and community members. Critical consciousness, in essence, is a tool that enables individuals to question the nature of their historical and social situations (Freire, 2005). Schools, as social institutions that perpetuate inequality, require school leaders who continually reflect and question the existence

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of oppressive and exclusionary practices, structures, and systems. School leaders willing to bolster their own critical consciousness need to habitually engage in selfreflection—a conscious effort to “pause, step back from their daily routines, and inquire into their own and others’ thoughts and actions” (Ryan, 2006, p. 115). Similarly, Osterman (1990, p. 134) notes that “Reflection is concentration and careful consideration, and reflective practice is the mindful consideration of one’s actions, specifically, one’s professional actions.” Osterman further notes, “Reflective practice challenges us to discover those habits of belief or behavior which preserve the inadequacies of the current system and prevent the introduction of new and better approaches to education” (p. 137). Indeed, educational institutions are far from the claims of “objectivity, meritocracy, colorblindness, race neutrality and equal opportunity” (Yosso, 2005, p. 73). Therefore, heightening critical consciousness among educational stakeholders is necessary, particularly when exclusionary practices are not always easy to identify and most individuals are oblivious or ignore them altogether (Ryan, 2006). Ultimately, the goal is to engage in critical conversations, or what Singleton (2015) refers to as courageous conversations, to “help school communities acknowledge, recognize, critique, and change invisible practices that impede inclusion” (Ryan, p. 115). Promote dialogue. To initiate dialogue where everyone is “meaningfully included, schools need to provide opportunities for people to communicate effectively with one another” (Ryan, 2006, p. 119). The principal has to create a safe space where marginalized voices are given an opportunity to be heard. Meaningful dialogue has the potential to build coalitions that support inclusive school improvement (Ishimaru, 2013). For instance, Ishimaru (2013) reports on three principals who collaborated with the multiethnic and interfaith community organizing group, referred to as People Acting in Community Together (PACT), to lead three new small autonomous schools that became academically successful. Emphasize student learning. Centering on student learning sharpens the focus on all efforts, initiatives, and key decisions that are championed by school leaders. Sometimes, however, it is difficult to draw a link, direct or indirect, between key school initiatives and improved student outcomes (e.g., Munoz & Chang, 2007). One priority that has shown to significantly impact student learning is placing high quality teachers in every classroom. Research is quite clear about teachers being the most influential, among school-based factors, on student learning (Alanís, & Rodriguez, 2008). Thus, hiring teachers with skillsets compatible with diverse students’ experiences is crucial. These are teachers that will present an inclusive curriculum that “honors different ways of knowing and different sources of knowledge” (Ryan, 2006, p. 123). In other words, hiring teachers who employ culturally relevant or responsive pedagogies (Gay, 1994, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995). According to Gay (2010), culturally responsive teaching is geared toward “understanding students’ prior experiences and learning styles, as well as [uses] cultural knowledge to ensure that learning is appropriate to culturally diverse learners” (p. 106). Understanding students’ prior experiences is particularly critical for refugee students whose experiences are often incomprehensible for most teachers. Competency in culturally responsive pedagogy has the potential to shift educator’s perspectives from a deficit mindset (i.e., solely

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focused on challenging conditions associated with refugee students) to a funds of knowledge-based orientation (Moll et al., 1992; Roy & Roxas, 2011). For those teachers who may not demonstrate competency in culturally responsive pedagogies, it is the responsibility of the principal to avail pertinent PD and other relevant resources. Most importantly, however, the principal needs to also model and demonstrate culturally responsive leadership competencies (Khalifa, Gooden, & Davis, 2016). Khalifa and colleagues (2016) note that culturally responsive leaders: critically self-reflect on leadership behaviors; develop culturally responsive teachers; promote culturally responsive/inclusive school environment; and engage students, parents, and indigenous contexts. Adopt inclusive policymaking process Hollins (1996). argues that “Schools are shaped by cultural practices and values and reflect the norms of the society for which they have been developed” (p. 31). Some argue that school structures, organization, and policies, therefore, predominantly espouse and communicate Eurocentric values and ideals (Lareau, 2003). Consequently, non-Eurocentric representation is often missing. Though many of the issues that manifest themselves in schools today have historical origins (Ladson-Billings, 2006), the principal is positioned to bridge the past, present, and the future. The principal bears the responsibility of creating an inclusive school culture that espouses a variety of ideas. In essence, this individual must engender a school culture that honors different kinds and sources of knowledge. When it comes to policymaking, the principal has the responsibility to provide vision and direction to the policy deliberation process that engages marginalized voices. Some voices may be marginalized because they lack time, skill (or specialized knowledge), language, and confidence (Ryan, 2006). However, there is need to pursue other non-traditional ways of policy deliberation that generate a variety of input. It may, for example, require a change in the time, place, or format of collecting input from stakeholders. There is a sense of ownership when people–be it teachers, students, or parents–feel they are part of the process and sense that their input is taken seriously. Once more, it is particularly crucial to involve those stakeholders who will be impacted the most by any potential policy changes. For instance, incorporating student voice could be as simple as allowing students to participate in creating the student code of conduct. Quite simply, when students are part of the process, they are more likely to feel obligated to follow the rules (Rieg, 2007). Incorporate whole-school approaches. Seeking engagement that is most representative of the school community only helps to enrich our understanding of the complex issues that impact schools today. Hiring educators who demonstrate competency to engage with culturally and linguistically diverse students and families makes inclusivity a possibility (Delgado & Stefancic, 2001). Enacting holistic approaches is no easy task because it means dealing with dynamic, distinctly rich, and sometimes contested cultures, as well as addressing a diverse set of needs (Ryan, 2006). In their study of three Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in the UK, Arnot and Pinson (2005) identified a holistic model as one that acknowledged the diverse needs of asylee and refugee students and established support systems to meet these unique needs. Consequently, the students have a better chance at succeeding in their new homeland.

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2 Study Design and Methods The purpose of this chapter is to examine how an elementary school principal rallied a diverse school to create an inclusive environment for refugee students.

2.1 Site Northstar Elementary School, a public EC-5 (Early Childhood to 5th grade) school in Central Independent School District (Central ISD), is located in a major urban city in Texas (Note: all names used in this chapter are pseudonyms). Northstar is nestled in an aging middleclass neighborhood adjacent to a major thoroughfare. On the other side of the highway is the location of apartment complexes where most of the refugee families reside. Northstar was purposefully selected because it was the only district-designated elementary school (at the time of the study) to enroll and serve refugee students. In 2006, Northstar was selected as the English as a Second Language (ESL) cluster campus (a group of four elementary campuses), providing ESL services in an effort to consolidate resources to better serve ESL students. In 2007, refugee students began enrolling at Northstar. Table 1 shows some basic demographic information about Northstar for the 2014–2015 school year. Refugee students constituted about 20% of the student population, originating from countries Table 1 Northstar elementary school demographic information for 2014/15

Basic demographic information for school year, 2014/15 Campus size

736

Grade Span

EC-5

% African American

8

% Hispanic

49

% White

22

% Asian

18

% Other

3

% Economically Disadvantaged

68

% ELL

30

Mobility Rate (%)

27

# of Refugee Students

144

# of Languages

30

# of Teachers

52

# of Newcomer Teachers

5

# of Language Support Teachers (LST)

2

Administrative Team (Principal, VP, 2 Counselors)

5

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such as Iraq, Somalia, Burma, and Nepal. There were a total of 30 languages spoken by Northstar students. The Northstar Newcomer program provided a safe and sheltered learning environment exclusively for refugee students to learn the general curriculum content coupled with targeted language acquisition and socioemotional supports. Sheltered instruction is a preferred model for language instruction and content mastery because it provides: extralinguistic cues (e.g., visuals, props, and body language), linguistic modifications (e.g., repetition and pauses), interactive instruction with frequent comprehension checks, collaborative learning strategies, thematic approach as opposed to detail orientation, and finally, it focuses on reading and writing strategies to develop thinking, as well as an overall emphasis on main ideas (Janzen, 2008; Markos & Himmel, 2016). In addition, refugee students were exposed to general/ESL classrooms and peers when attending classes such as science and physical education. Refugee students were fully transitioned into general/ESL classrooms based on their proficiency assessments and, most importantly, discussions between the Newcomer instructors (i.e., teachers assigned to the sheltered Newcomer program), general/ESL teachers, and the principal. These conversations helped to determine students’ overall readiness for inclusion in general/ESL classrooms.

2.2 The Principal Ms. Connolly is a White female who earned a Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education (with an emphasis in mathematics) and a Master’s degree in Educational Administration. She started teaching in 1991 as a general education teacher in a major urban city in Texas, where she taught 4th grade for two years. In 1993, she moved to her current city and school district, Central ISD, as a 5th grade teacher. She taught 5th grade for five years before transitioning to a math specialist position for kindergarten through the 5th grade at Northstar in 1998. During her time as the math specialist at Northstar, the campus was designated as bilingual–providing instruction mainly in Spanish and English; however, there were no refugee students enrolled at that time. After eight years as a math specialist, Connolly was promoted to the position of Vice Principal (VP) in 2006. During her tenure as VP, refugee students started enrolling at NES. Five years later, in 2011, Connolly advanced to the role of school principal. At the time of this study (2014–2015), she was in her 5th year as the principal.

2.3 The Newcomer Teachers The five Newcomer teachers work exclusively with refugee students in the sheltered Newcomer classrooms. Ms. Connolly purposely hired these teachers based on their

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experience teaching or working with diverse populations, as well as other multicultural competencies. For instance, T11 was a military child, lived around the world, and subsequently taught at a private school for 17 years with an emphasis on mission work. T22 has a master’s degree in teaching ESL and taught at a bilingual campus with students who had interrupted formal education. She also taught adult ESL and is married to an individual who came to the US as a refugee. T33 worked in China with migrants from North Korea, refugees from Somalia and Ethiopia, and adult refugees in Community Centers in the US (i.e., mostly in a tutoring capacity). T44 worked at a school for unaccompanied minors, teaching ESL students from a variety of countries. T55 taught ESL to predominantly Spanish Speakers. This teacher also worked on a grant-funded project that helped develop language arts curriculum and, simultaneously, trained teachers in Malawi and South Africa.

2.4 Data Collection and Data Analysis The study went through two separate Institutional Review Boards (IRBs), the author’s institution and the Central ISD, before interviews were conducted. Participant interviews were conducted in the school setting and lasted between 60 and 90 min. For the broader study, we conducted interviews with the principal, the vice principal, two counselors, two language support teachers (LSTs), two-session focus groups with Newcomer teachers, and a one-session focus group with general/ESL teachers. All the interviews were audio-recorded and professionally transcribed. This chapter focuses on principal leadership and, as such, the principal interview is central to the analysis (i.e., with a measure of analytical support from the teacher interviews). The principal was asked questions about how the school, particularly her leadership, has supported refugee students. For this chapter, Ryan’s (2006) conceptualization of inclusive leadership practices in diverse contexts served as a priori coding scheme in the analysis of the principal interview. Consequently, the findings are distilled and organized in three main categories: advocacy, focusing on teaching and learning, and collaborative partnerships.

= Teacher One. = Teacher Two. 3 T3 = Teacher Three. 4 T4 = Teacher Four. 5 T5 = Teacher Five. 1 T1 2 T2

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3 Findings In this findings section, each of the three leadership practices are explained and analyzed using predominantly excerpts from the principal interview. Simultaneously, I triangulate the aforementioned interview with other qualitative information provided by the teachers.

4 Advocacy Ms. Connolly was agentic in advocating for a more inclusive learning school environment for all students. When the number of English Learners (ELs) increased at Northstar, Connolly was thoughtful about the teacher-student ratios and student composition in the classroom, i.e., Native English Speakers (NESs) and ELs. She noted: I didn’t want to overload an ESL general ed class which is what was happening because our numbers were rising, so when we pushed them out into an ESL class—if you only had one—well, it ended up a whole ESL class—maybe two or four English speakers. Well, then how does the English child feel? They are the true minority in that classroom which some parents are ok with but some parents are not.

This mindfulness was critical at a time when the Northstar community was grappling with changing student demographics, particularly the increase in refugee students. Connolly, pointed out that some parents had raised concerns about the aforesaid changes: I had parents [of NES] coming to me not wanting their child in ESL classroom. Well, I wouldn’t move their child—they’re still getting a quality teacher—this teacher might be even better qualified because they’ve had more training. So, I wouldn’t move them. I told them they needed to give it six weeks. Wait and see—it’s going to be a great experience and it worked out.

Connolly listened to parents’ concerns, pushed back at some of their thinking, and at the same time sought to address the need for a balanced learning environment: “But then I reflected upon it and I understand. You know, do you want to be the complete minority in that classroom? We need to have it more balanced so I asked for one more ESL teacher and they [district] granted it.” Connolly, understood the importance of diverse students interacting within the same classroom environment— getting to know each other while also cultivating a balanced and effective learning environment. To create a conducive learning environment, where every student has an opportunity to succeed, Connolly continually advocated for resources at the district level and from community partners. She petitioned the district for more teaching staff (Newcomer, LST, and ESL teachers) to adequately meet the academic needs of students. For instance, she requested district funding for teachers to be ESL certified as well as additional teacher stipends:

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I asked if there was some funding because I needed more teachers to become ESL certified. What I had was one bilingual teacher at each grade level—one ESL teacher. They were able to give us funds to help us so they could go to training—receive the training and receive the stipend—and turn around and be able to pay for their licenses because I couldn’t. So, the district was able to help me just that one time. So, I did have about 10 teachers go take the test and pass the test.

The outcome of her advocacy increased the number of ESL certified teachers per grade: The next year I had two teachers at every grade level that were ESL certified. But, as our numbers continued to grow, I asked if I could have three. So right now the way it is, if I have five teachers, the district allows me to have, three ESL classes, one special ed collaborative class, and one general ed class. So we have those options. So that’s where I am today.

Additionally, as student needs expanded, Connolly pushed for more teachers to support students’ language development: We have the language support teachers [LSTs] so at one time, I only had a half LST that moved to a full time LST that moved to one and a half LST’s. Then it got cut in 2010 to one. And, so that was something I fought for again and asked if I could please have a second one because our population was growing. So this is the second year we’ve had two full time LST teachers. They are strictly doing all day pull outs. They pull out small groups of students—refugees and regular ESL students—who need that support.

The ESL and LST allocations were in addition to five Newcomer teachers who worked primarily with refugee students in sheltered academic support classrooms– combined grade configurations: “One new thing this year is being assigned to different grade levels—we have a kinder, a 1–2, a 2–3, a 3–4, and a 4–5.” The goal of sheltered instruction was to make grade-level content more accessible to refugee students meanwhile developing English proficiency. Ms. Connolly advocated for other resources such as teaching materials pertinent to the needs of refugee students: “Other support—when they [Newcomer teachers] ask for what they need when they figure it out as to what they need we try to get it for them.” However, she expressed frustration with the lack of district urgency to respond with appropriate curriculum materials specific to refugee student needs: The state adopted program is REACH…that is available. But once again a campus only gets so many [copies] and they’re campuses that don’t even use it so that’s my dilemma too. I’m always asking them to try and get them from another campus that’s not using them because we will use it. But, that’s a challenge because they just kind of divvy it out evenly instead of looking at what is the need.

5 Focusing on Teaching and Learning Ms. Connolly consistently reiterated that in all her efforts and those of teachers, the goal was to do what was best for refugee students: “So that’s the bottom line— with everything we’re doing—the bottom line is what is best for the kid, and trying to figure that out.” With the understanding that teachers are influential in creating

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either an inclusive or exclusive environment, Connolly was intentional about hiring Newcomer teachers with the appropriate experiences and skill sets to work with refugee students in the Newcomer classrooms. She noted: The five teachers I have, and I purposely selected them, were not moved from within my school. They were posted positions and I looked specifically for people who had something in their background related to ESL, which all of them they have. There was something about them. They’re all passionate teachers and love their jobs. They’re enthusiastic and they study the art of education—the philosophy of it—and then just develop their art. Walking into their classrooms I just wish every class was a Newcomer. When I walk in the kids are all engaged. There is learning going on. It’s just that we can’t learn quickly enough for the state of Texas. But, amazing things are going on and I give them much credit.

Accolades for the Newcomer teachers came from one the general/ESL teachers who noted: You are going to be very impressed with the Newcomer teachers.[Ms. Connolly] has done a wonderful job hiring. They have a heart and they have a diverse background. They’ve all been over in those countries whereas previous Newcomer teachers had not. I just think these [Newcomer teachers] are more qualified than ones we’ve had at the beginning. These [Newcomer teachers] are very knowledgeable.

Hiring for experience, knowledge, and heart for this unique student population was important for Connolly. One of the most recent members of the Newcomer teacher team acknowledged, Connolly successfully sought for teachers with “previous experience working with children from other countries and with refugees.” Similarly, in building her administrative team, Connolly was keen on individuals with a diverse background and who embraced an inclusive philosophy. For instance, when she hired the vice principal she noted: I did hire a vice principal, purposely. When looking for qualifications, he is bilingual and is ESL certified. He taught bilingual. He’s had more training in that field and he, himself, [was an] English as a second language learner. Spanish is his first language. So, he’s gone through it as a child learning. That was one of the things when I chose him for our campus, that’s one of the things I liked about him. He’s qualified and knows what he’s talking about and has experienced it.

The purposeful VP hire is an important one because often the VP deals with student discipline issues, as well as supporting teachers to create an inclusive learning environment. Hiring someone with such a background was particularly critical for this context, especially considering the demographic shifts that had taken place at Northstar. Centering on student learning was clearly evident in the purposeful hiring of teachers with appropriate skillsets and the support Connolly provided to the teachers; ranging from team planning time to targeted PD to curriculum resources. She, for instance, reorganized the master schedule to accommodate common planning time for Newcomer teachers. Professional development was offered through the district and experts from a local university who focused on bilingual and ESL strategies, as well as developing an awareness and orientation toward refugee students’ conditions. As Connolly noted, “When they [teachers] ask for what they need when they figure

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it out as to what they need we try to get it for them.” And, the teachers concurred that Connolly supports them “in every way she can and gets what she can.” For instance, one teacher noted, “[Ms. Connolly] bought a program for each of us, a computerbased program that helps with listening. One for that and then another license for us to have the paper books. That tells me that they are concerned about these students.” Indeed, Ms. Connolly reiterated that their decisions about student learning were collaborative and inherently centered on student needs: I base my decisions on teacher feedback. Every decision we make; we discuss as a team of what we think is best for the kids—what’s best for this situation. You can’t make it a blanket. It’s got to look at each individual kid.

Decisions about transitioning refugee students from the sheltered Newcomer program to general education was thoughtfully determined on a case by case basis and often progressively as a means to minimize potential setbacks caused by the transition. To that end, Ms. Connolly noted: When I became principal, my goal was to push them out more and not keep them totally sheltered. So I said for science and social studies—because that’s when we usually push out our ELL students—to get them that social interaction and practice their English in a kind of safe environment. Science and Social Studies are more project based where they can work with other kids. So that’s what we do but I let the teachers make the decision as to when.

Ms. Connolly was sensitive about decisions concerning refugee students’ learning and sought collaborative approaches to decision making: “I’m making them [decisions] with the teachers and we are logically reasoning about what we think is best. There’s no right or wrong answer. We’re just making the decision of what we think is best for the kid.” Likewise, she empowered the teachers to decide what was best for students based on their professional judgement: So there hasn’t been major issues and the teachers handle things. In the Newcomer classrooms they handle any issues. They take care of it. They don’t come running to me. They’re not sending kids to the office. So they handle their own classroom management.

Ms. Connolly’s efforts were focused on ensuring students had a positive learning environment and fruitful academic experiences. Bringing on board teachers and the administrative team with the background, experiences, and knowledge were part of the strategies used to create an inclusive school environment.

6 Collaborative Partnerships With the kind of diverse student population at Northstar, Ms. Connolly understood the school’s limitations and pursued partnership with parents and community resources. Understanding that alliance with parents has no substitute, Connolly intently sought parent relationships and encouraged teachers to do the same: “The key is everybody developing those relationships and that’s throughout the whole school—the

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teachers developing relationships with their kids and getting to know them and understanding their needs.” Connolly added “It’s that parent connection. The parents are so wonderful. They appreciate everything. They never have a complaint. When they do, they do come to talk to me to help them if their child is having difficulty.” For refugee students who failed the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR test), Connolly convened Grade Placement Committee (GPC) meetings with parents at the apartment complexes where the families lived: I had to have 30 GPC meetings. Were they here? No, I went to their apartment complex had the middle school principals meet me at the apartment complex. I didn’t have to do it just once I had to do it twice. I had to do it after the second administration and after the third administration.

Considering most refugee families lacked transportation from their residence to school, Ms. Connolly and the teachers often conducted home visits and pertinent meetings at the apartment complexes where these families lived. Connolly indicated: We have family nights here like we had our family literacy and math night—sports theme— tailgating. We did do that at the school. So some of the families, if they happen to have a car and can get here—great. But then we also go to the apartment complexes. We started that last year. We went to Creek [apartments] and had a family night and we went to Ranch [apartments]. It was awesome—absolutely wonderful. The parents appreciated it.

Going to the parents’ residences expressed understanding, care, concern, and a commitment on the part of the school, which thus cemented a strong relationship with the families. Connolly reiterated “…parents are very receptive and very appreciative when you meet with them.” Catholic Charities is a strong partner with Northstar throughout the refugee resettling process. Connolly acknowledged their invaluable assistance: “Again it’s me talking to the Catholic Charities getting them to support—and they have been very supportive.” Particularly, Catholic Charities provided translators for a variety of languages spoken by refugee families. Connolly noted: Right now, it’s me, it’s the LST’s, it’s the teachers talking to Catholic Charities. We need translators. I don’t have the money for it, but Catholic Charities has the grant money. So we just had parent conferences last Wednesday. Catholic Charities helped transport the parents to our school so we could have parent conferences with them.

In addition to providing translators, Catholic Charities offers classes to refugees on topics such as hygiene, helping with homework, and discipline. Additionally, they offer tutoring sessions for students: Well the Catholic Charities is very involved in that so they along with the district and House of Prayer are setting up classes for parents. They talked to us about what do we need for parents to learn about. So we talked about hygiene, how to help the child with homework, discipline, and accountability. Catholic Charities is doing that training [and]…has a room at the Creek [apartments]. They do tutoring every week. So they tutor a lot of our kids.

In addition to Catholic Charities, Northstar forged partnerships with local places of worship. One year when Northstar offered an after school literacy program for both

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refugee students and parents, a number of local church partners provided transportation. Connolly noted: “We contacted churches to see if we could get their buses to go pick up [parents]. University Methodist helps out. St. Matthews is involved. House of Prayer is involved. The Baptist Church is involved.” Unfortunately, the literacy program was short-lived due to what Connolly called “too much technicality” and “it [program] fell apart.” Furthermore, House of Prayer offers classes to refugee parents, tutoring sessions for students, and provides “…gardens [to grow vegetables]. Those are our refugee’ parents. Those are their gardens,” Connolly said.

7 Discussion The increase of student diversity in schools presents both opportunities and challenges. Principals are positioned to orchestrate an inclusive environment where every student is presented with the best opportunities to succeed. In this section, I discuss the findings presented above and how they intersect with existing literature. The discussion is structured around the three leadership practices: advocacy, focusing on teaching and learning, and collaborative partnerships.

8 Advocacy There is no better positioned person within the school to advocate for an inclusive school environment than the principal. By virtue of their positionality, principals are empowered by district policy and held accountable to facilitate positive learning conditions within the school setting (Khalifa, Gooden, & Davis, 2016). The principal is therefore responsible for creating conditions whereby inclusivity is accepted and celebrated. Ryan argued, inclusion should be made a nonnegotiable and acceptable reality of an increasingly diverse society. Ms. Connolly pushed for it at a time when some parents were questioning the conduciveness of the learning environment for their children. Today, Northstar’s diversity is celebrated. For instance, the annual Parade of Nations is an inclusive event that celebrates the school’s diversity. During the Parade of Nations, students from representative countries walk past the crowd, holding the flag of their native country while one student presents pertinent facts about each country. Parade of Nations has become a pride event that engages the staff, students, parents, and community members. It is an educational moment for everyone that embraces different cultures, a moment to appreciate and celebrate diversity. The event is often highlighted in the local print and television media. The event nurtures a sense of pride and excitement when students see themselves on television or read about it in the newspaper. This creates a sense of belonging. However, advocacy for inclusion cannot be hinged solely on an annual event. It needs to be part of the daily school experience, largely, within the classroom setting where most of the interactions happen (Solomon, Battistich, Kim, & Watson, 1996).

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9 Focusing on Teaching and Learning All school initiatives and efforts should not lose sight of the ultimate goal, which is educating all students. Effective leadership is needed to maintain a student-centered environment (Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom, & Anderson, 2010). Refugee students, in particular, savor the opportunity of being in school—an opportunity that was denied them due to conflict, persecution, or natural disaster in their homeland (McBrien, 2005). Refugee students and their parents know fully well that, in their new homeland, the ticket to social mobility is a good education. Therefore, ensuring a positive classroom environment that is centered on learning is critical. Placing the right teachers in every classroom is an important first step. This means strategically pairing students with teachers whose backgrounds, experiences, and skillsets are compatible with refugee students. That is, having the right teacher for the task is a fundamental part of creating a positive learning environment. Ms. Connolly was intentional about hiring Newcomer teachers with multicultural backgrounds and experiences which enabled them to appreciate the experiences refugee students brought to the classroom. There is a need for teachers to create a cohesive learning environment where students feel safe to take risks in the learning process. At Northstar, classroom cohesiveness was particularly necessary, especially when students from warring factions in their countries of origin converged in the same classroom space. Part of maintaining a focus on teaching and learning is ensuring students experience stability in the classroom. This means advocating for better teaching conditions, such as pertinent professional development, resources, manageable teacherto-student ratios, and input in decision making in order decrease teacher turnover (Darling-Hammond, 1997; Ingersoll, 2001). To that end, teacher turnover rates in the United States are concerning and these trends may be exacerbated under high-need circumstances such as working with diverse refugee students (Darling-Hammond, 2003; Ingersoll, 2004; Simon & Johnson, 2015). Maintaining consistency in the classroom is a necessity for refugee students, most of whom have only experienced inconsistency in their academic lives. Darling-Hammond (2003, p. 11) notes that “Great school leaders create great school environments for accomplished teaching to flourish and grow.” Ms. Connolly endeavored to support Newcomer teachers as well general/ESL teachers in order to create conducive teaching conditions. In turn, her support paid dividends in terms of cultivating a culture of learning at Northstar.

10 Collaborative Partnership As student diversity in schools increases, so does the multidimensionality of student needs–academic, socioemotional, health, economic, and physical. Schools do not have the capacity to serve all the needs singlehandedly. Seeking alliances and partnerships with a range of stakeholders has promise to holistically serve refugee

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students. Epstein (1995) articulates her argument for school, family, and community partnerships this way: If educators view children simply as students (emphasis in original), they are likely to see the family as separate from the school…If educators view students as children (emphasis in original), they are likely to see both the family and the community as partners with the school in children’s education and development. Partners recognize their shared interests and responsibilities for children, and they work together to create programs and opportunities for students. (p. 701).

Epstein points to the imperative need for partnerships to achieve a common goal of educating all children. Epstein goes further to discuss the rationale for partnerships to include providing family services and support, increasing parents’ skills & leadership, connecting families, providing support for teachers, improving school programs and climate, expressing ‘care’, and ultimately focusing on student success. Connolly understood these benefits and pursued partnerships with parents, places of worship, businesses, and other community organizations. For instance, Catholic Charities was a major partner significantly involved in the lives of refugee families from the first day they arrive in the United States. That is, their services include airport pick up, apartment setup with furnishings, food and clothing assistance, cultural orientation, school registration, English classes and health screenings (“Catholic Charities”, 2018). Meaningful partnerships with families acknowledges families as equal partners with funds of knowledge and assets instrumental in educating the children. In their study of Spanish-speaking immigrant parents’ school engagement, Gabriel, Roxas, & Becker (2017) report how the parents made an effort to teach their children cultural beliefs, values, and traditions. Ultimately, they wanted the school to acknowledge these aspects of their culture as well. Similarly, the community itself is an important partner because of the numerous resources it can provide to immigrant families.

11 Conclusion As schools experience demographic shifts, it is incumbent on school leaders to foster a sense of inclusivity amidst differences in ability, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culture, and language. Student diversity (or differences) should be accepted and celebrated. Schools should be spaces where students feel accepted and supported in order to achieve their full potential. The principal has the responsibility to create an inclusive environment where refugee students, feel safe to explore their potential in a new country. First, school leaders can facilitate inclusivity through advocacy—advocating for students’ needs, accessing services and resources, and creating opportunities to pursue their dreams. Second, the principal is positioned to create an environment that focuses on learning. Hiring teachers that are sensitive to diversity and utilize culturally responsive pedagogy is one way to ensure classrooms are healthy learning environments. School leaders seek collaborative partnerships, fully understanding that the opportunities and challenges a diverse student body

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presents cannot be fully met by a single entity. Harnessing the collective expertise and resources has the potential to address the multidimensional needs of the students. The ultimate goal of all school initiatives and efforts should be to provide students with opportunities to engage fully in a quality education and, in turn, pursue their goals and aspirations unencumbered by societal inequities.

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Jacobson, S., & Leithwood, K. (Eds.). (2007). The leading edge of distributed leadership research [Special issue]. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 6(1). Janzen, J. (2008). Teaching English language learners in the content areas. Review of Educational Research, 78(4), 1010–1038. Khalifa, M. A., Gooden, M. A., & Davis, J. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 1272–1311. Ladson-Billings, G. (1995). But that’s just good teaching! The case for culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 159–165. Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in US schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3–12. Lareau, A. (2003). Unequal childhoods: Class, race, and family life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Leithwood, K., Mascall, B., Strauss, T., Sacks, R., Memon, N., & Yashkina, A. (2007). Distributing leadership to make schools smarter: Taking the ego out of the system. Leadership and Policy in Schools, 6(1), 37–67. Louis, K., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K., & Anderson, S. (2010). Learning from leadership: Investigating the links to improved student learning. New York: Wallace Foundation. Markos, A., & Himmel, J. (2016). Using Sheltered Instruction to support English Learners. Center for Applied Linguistics. Washington, DC. Retrieved from https://www.cal.org/siop/pdfs/briefs/ using-sheltered-instruction-to-support-english-learners.pdf. McBrien, J. L. (2005). Educational needs and barriers for refugee students in the United States: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 329–364. Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & Gonzalez, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 132–141. Moore, E. H., Bagin, D. H., & Gallagher, D. R. (2012). The School and Community Relations (11th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson. Munoz, M. A., & Chang, F. C. (2007). The elusive relationship between teacher characteristics and student academic growth: A longitudinal multilevel model for change. Journal of Personnel Evaluation in Education, 20(3–4), 147–164. Murphy, J., Smylie, M., Mayrowetz, D., & Louis, K. S. (2009). The role of the principal in fostering the development of distributed leadership. School Leadership and Management, 29(2), 181–214. National Center for Education Statistics (2018). The condition of education. Retrieved from https:// nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_clr.asp Natsiopoulou, E., & Giouroukakis, V. (2010). When teachers run the school. Educational Leadership, 67(7), (online). Retrieved from https://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/ apr10/vol67/num07/When-Teachers-Run-the-School.aspx. Okilwa, N. S., & Barnett, B. (2017). Sustaining school improvement in a high-need school: Longitudinal analysis of Robbins Elementary School (USA) from 1993 to 2015. Journal of Educational Administration, 55(3), 297–315. Osterman, K. F. (1990). Reflective practice: A new agenda for education. Education and Urban Society, 22(2), 133–152. Portin, B. (2004). The roles that principals play. Educational Leadership, 61(7), 14–18. Rieg, S. A. (2007). Principals and young children: A dozen recommendations for building positive relationships. Early Childhood Education Journal, 35, 209–213. Roy, L. A., & Roxas, K. C. (2011). Whose deficit is this anyhow? Exploring counter-stories of Somali Bantu refugees’ experiences in “Doing school.” Harvard Educational Review, 81(3), 521–541. Ryan, J. (2006). Inclusive leadership. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Salisbury, C., & McGregor, G. (2005). Principals of inclusive schools. National Institute for Urban School Improvement, Tempe. AZ: Arizona State University. Retrieved from https://www.mdsc. org/mdsc_Content/documents/principals.inclusive.LETTER.pdf. Simon, N. S., & Johnson, S. M. (2015). Teacher turnover in high-poverty schools: What we know and can do. Teachers College Record, 117(3), 1–36.

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Singleton, G. E. (2015). Courageous conversations about race: A field guide for achieving equity in schools. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Solomon, D., Battistich, V., Kim, D., & Watson, M. (1996). Teacher practices associated with students’ sense of the classroom as a community. Social Psychology of Education, 1(3), 235–267. Spring, J. (2018). American education (18th ed.). New York: Routledge. Stainback, W., & Stainback, S. (1990). Support networks for inclusive schooling: Interdependent integrated education. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes. Theoharis, G. (2007). Social justice educational leaders and resistance: Toward a theory of social justice leadership. Educational Administration Quarterly, 43(2), 221–258. Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race, Ethnicity, and Education, 8(2), 69–91.

Preparation for Teaching and Leading in Diverse Contexts

Educating Against the Grain: A West Texas Teacher Preparation Program Champions Radical Reform Faith Maina and Amani Zaier

Abstract Critics of teacher education programs argue these programs perpetuate a middle-class white discourse that privilege Eurocentric approaches to curriculum development and implementation. Such approaches prepare pre-service teachers for the status quo, often represented in normative standards of whiteness with little consideration towards addressing issues of equality, diversity, and race. Some teacher education programs across the nation have heeded the call for reform. These programs incorporate culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) within the curriculum, aiming to produce practitioners with a CRP mindset and dispositions. Indeed, much research documents teacher education programs that incorporate various elements of CRP so as to adequately prepare teachers to educate diverse student populations. Adding to such research, this chapter provides a critical analysis of a radical reform effort in teacher preparation that resulted in the transformation of a traditional college of education in Western Texas. The college is now a nationally recognized leader in providing candidates with the competencies and dispositions to work in pre-K-12 classrooms with diverse populations of students. The analysis reveals how the program integrates intense content knowledge with equity pedagogy to equip pre-service teachers with deep understanding, adequate skills and emerging cultural competencies thus promoting academic success for all learners. Keywords Teacher preparation · Culturally responsive pedagogy · Curriculum · Student diversity · Equity pedagogy · Reform

F. Maina (B) · A. Zaier College of Education, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, US e-mail: [email protected] A. Zaier e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_8

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1 Introduction and the Background Critics of teacher education programs across the nation argue that these programs perpetuate white supremacy by using Eurocentric approaches to curriculum development and implementation. The Eurocentric approach, they argue, prepares preservice teachers to theoretically work in predominantly middle-class white schools that are assumed to be the norm, with little consideration in addressing issues of equality, diversity, and race. The silence of teacher preparation programs on these issues is perhaps indicative that those involved in the design lack concern, are neglectful or disinterested in addressing the needs of a diverse student population. For this reason, one may presume that teacher preparation programs inculcate teachers with the assumption that standardized norms of middle-class white schools take priority over other groups, and that assimilation is an integral part to student success. As the diversity of the United States (US) student population continues to grow, educational disparities persist and educators’ capacity to provide effective instruction to students from culturally diverse populations remains evidently inadequate (Darling-Hammond 2015; Gorski 2017). This has led to calls across the nation to drastically reform education preparation programs to incorporate Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) into the curriculum as a way of producing culturally responsive practitioners. Some teacher education programs across the nation have heeded the call for reform. Indeed, a copious amount of research has documented teacher education programs that have incorporated various elements of culturally responsive pedagogy to adequately prepare teachers to educate diverse student populations (Aronson and Laughter 2016; Warren 2018). This chapter documents the administrative vision of a radical reform implemented at a teacher preparation program that transformed a traditional college of education in Western Texas into a nationally recognized leader, producing teacher candidates with qualified competencies and dispositions to work in pre-K-12 classrooms containing diverse student populations. This program has integrated content knowledge with equity pedagogy as a way of equipping pre-service teachers with deep understanding and adequate skills for CRP.

2 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (CRP) Ladson-Billings, in her 1995 seminal work “Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy” defined CRP as “a theoretical model that not only addresses student achievement, but also helps students to accept and affirm their cultural identity while developing critical perspectives that challenge inequities that schools (and other institutions) perpetuate” (p. 469). Working with eight teachers of successful African American students, Ladson-Billings (1995) found that key pedagogical practices of these teachers were preparing students for confronting inequitable and undemocratic social structures, but more importantly, these practices provided a way for students to maintain their “cultural integrity while succeeding academically” (p. 476).

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CRP therefore advocates for academic success where students experience intellectual growth, acquire cultural competence through appreciation and celebration of their own cultures as well as gaining socio-political consciousness. Students develop “the ability to take learning beyond the confines of the classroom” (Ladson-Billings 2014 p. 74). This way of thinking is reinforced by Gay (2010) who argues that CRP enables students to use their cultural knowledge, prior experiences, frames of reference, and performance styles to make learning encounters more relevant and effective for them. This thinking also concurs with the assertion of Irvine and Armento (2001) that a student-centered and transformational approach promotes collective empowerment and provides a framework of teaching for social justice (as cited in Camangian 2013). According to Johnson (2011), CRP is not “just good teaching” but it also enables teachers to change their beliefs of self and others and create learning environments that provide opportunities for students to be successful. Unfortunately, despite many attempts at school reform and restructuring, teacher ideologies and beliefs often remain unchanged. In the last several decades, CRP has experienced evolution from a foundational paradigm to a set of steps and checklists (Parsons and Wall 2011). According to Sleeter (2012), CRP has been simplified and reduced to cultural celebrations, while culture has been trivialized, essentialized and substituted for political analysis of inequalities. It is from this analysis that Ladson-Billings (2014) acknowledges that change and evolution in theory construction is inevitable and the “pedagogies” must evolve to address the complexities of social inequalities” (p. 77). In agreement with Paris (2012), Ladson-Billing (2014) also embraces the transition of CRP into Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP). CSP is a framework that seeks to perpetuate and foster linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism as part of the democratic project of schooling. CSP sustains the practices and traditions of communities of color while moving towards equity and supporting critical examinations of policies and practices that continue to disenfranchise students. As CRP is transformed into CSP, CRP can be reframed and integrated into critical aspects of teacher education programs to support the social justice work that teacher education programs should aspire to pursue (Allen et al. 2017). Teacher education programs should therefore abandon deficit approaches whose goal is to eradicate the linguistic, literate and cultural practices many “students of color brought from their homes and communities to replace them with what was viewed as the superior practices” (Paris 2012, p. 2). Attempts at reform by adding one book about people of color, or posting diverse images to make one “culturally relevant” do not meet the threshold of culturally sustaining pedagogy. Instead, “pedagogy shifts, changes, adapts and recreates instructional spaces to ensure that consistently marginalized students are repositioned into a place of normativity—that is, they become subjects in the instructional process, not mere objects” (Ladson-Billing 2014, p. 76). The fundamental change that needs to occur in this process is to challenge current practices by concentrating on replacing classroom and behavior management with student learning and academic achievement, replacing cultural assimilation and eradication with cultural competence, and school-based tasks that do not go beyond school application should be replaced with sociopolitical consciousness (Ladson-Billing 2014).

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3 Culturally Responsive Pedagogy in Teacher Education Programs Gay (2010) reminds us that CRP is an approach about teaching and learning that is grounded in the belief that students from culturally diverse backgrounds have an equal opportunity to succeed in academic endeavors. Advocates of this practice call for the acknowledgment of students’ cultural background, experiences, prior knowledge, and individual learning preferences in order to facilitate the teaching– learning process (Siwatu 2007). Research has also shown that the CRP approach has positive impacts on students from diverse backgrounds because it builds bridges between their environments outside the school and their school experiences (Banks 2008). The bridges are assumed to break the barriers that prevent culturally diverse students from making smooth transitions between their home and school environments. It is also assumed that teachers adopting this philosophy of teaching use a wide variety of instructional strategies that best fit their students’ needs and learning styles and such teachers enrich the curriculum by incorporating multicultural information and materials to which diverse students can relate (Banks 2010). However, the CRP approach is challenging especially for pre-service teachers expected to teach in diverse educational contexts (Banks 2008; Gay 2010). Recent research shows that much needs to be done to prepare pre-service teachers to be culturally responsive practitioners (Banks 2010; Darling-Hammond 2016). Therefore, rigorous educational reforms should be designed to help pre-service teachers become exceptional educators. Since pre-service teachers are also expected to develop higher-level skills and competencies, the training they receive should be positively reflected in their instruction and connected to the students’ achievement (Darling-Hammond 2016). There is no doubt that the challenges of reforming teacher education programs to incorporate CRP philosophy are many and complex. Borrero et al. (2016) found that recruiting and supporting new teachers of color could alleviate some of these challenges by reducing discriminatory practices, providing alternative perspectives on curriculum and pedagogy, as well as serving as role models for diverse students of color. Kevin, a teacher of color in their study, worked to interrupt oppression at his site which made him vulnerable in front of other teachers; an important step towards his humanization and the humanization of his own students. The act of “modelling vulnerability was central to maintaining his identity as a social justice teacher” (Borrero et al. 2016, p. 32). Despite the demographic makeup of the US student population that continues to become increasingly more diverse, public school teachers are still predominantly European American at 83% in 2015 (Borrero et al. 2016). Increasing the number of teachers of color in the US classrooms could disrupt the dominant narrative in teaching and teacher education that prioritizes white, middle class values and beliefs as the norm. Indeed, as Borrero et al. (2016) argues, New teachers of color are our future scholars and leaders—and thus, it is imperative that we not only seek to learn from them but that we also actively build scholarships and programs that speaks to their strengths and needs (p. 32).

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In the midst of high-stakes teacher certification and program accreditation, developing culturally relevant teachers is not the priority, and attempts at doing so are often relegated to one course on race, urban education or equity (Milner 2008). This “onestop shop” multicultural course is not enough to incorporate or to add the historical, political and social experiences required to make effective change. Instead, it leads into disjointed and isolated curricula. Even worse, this additive approach often leaves teacher candidates confused, angry and frustrated because they are unsure how to process, internalize or implement this information (Ladson-Billings 2014)(LadsonBilings, 2014). In addition, academic discourse is often rooted in colorblind ideology, where educators are often turning a “blind eye” to racial difference, “despite the fact that skin color does indeed impact how individuals are treated” (Castro and Atwater 2008, p. 247). Furthermore, the problem is that teacher candidates have not truly internalized the importance of developing a CRP disposition, regardless of the community or context in which one will teach (Allen et al. 2017).

4 Promoting CRP in Teacher Education Programs Allen et al. (2017) state that critical questions, social justice action and critical reflection are the methods used to integrate teacher education programs and CRP. They describe this model as: (a) A dedication to posing questions that requires consistent and continual learning about self and diverse others; (b) A concerted effort to act on social injustices in teacher education programs and policies; and (c) A dedication to developing critical reflection about course offerings and instructional practices (p. 14). As Fasching-Varner (2013) reminds us, teachers serve as one of the primary socializing forces in students’ lives, and the work of all educators revolves around better understanding of our own racialized, gendered, sexualities and abled identities. Cultural responsiveness needs to be a foundation of teacher education programs in order to provide the opportunity for aspiring teachers to honestly explore, discuss and understand how their belief systems and ways of being and seeing the world may influence their classroom interactions (Chambers 2012). Samuels (2018) studied the responses of in-service teachers on the benefits and challenges of employing culturally responsive instructions and various strategies to facilitate culturally responsive teaching. These included promoting student voice, providing opportunities for students to engage in respectful talk, embracing differentiated instruction, and providing students with choices. However, in real practice, due to lack of time for implementation, apathy became a deterrent to effective CRP. Increasingly, teacher education faculties are told by the state what to teach and how to design their programs. Further, the dominant ideology teaches young people to accept and take

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for granted certain perspectives, and to view questions about issues such as racism and poverty to be impolite (Mette et al. 2016).

5 Transforming a Teacher Preparation Program The first step in the process of transforming our teacher education program started in 2012 with an innovative administrative vision initiated by the Dean of the College of Education that called for transformation of the way educators impact the future of pre-service teachers by implementing intensive clinical experiences, incorporating video technology and focusing on student learning. To begin, a number of initiatives were put in place to respond to the need for development of culturally competent teachers including: (a) elementary online 2 + 1 distance program, (b) culturally responsive curriculum, (c) Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID), (d) yearlong clinical and field placement for all pre-service teachers, and (e) mandatory video technology assessment. (a). Elementary Online 2 + 1 Distance Program. As part of the initiative to reach out to culturally and linguistically diverse population of students, the teacher education program designed a special program to meet the unique needs of preservice teachers who wished to remain in their home communities. While maintaining its clinically intensive, competency-based program, this special program was designed to prepare teachers to improve the academic achievement of K-12 students in their own communities. This program is among the first in the nation to combine intense, clinical experiences with opportunities to dramatically improve effective teaching practices in order to impact student learning. New teacher candidates start working in classrooms in their first semester. They work with mentor teachers and are closely followed by site coordinators as ways to improve the achievement of their students throughout the program. Students receive support and specific feedback aimed at improving their teaching practice. Course work during the program is practical and designed to prepare teacher candidates to provide teaching that impacts student learning. The significance of the program is that it recruits a greater number of pre-service teachers of color who are willing and able to work in rural and urban school districts with predominantly populations of color. The pre-service teachers attend their local community colleges for two years before they are admitted to the program for a one-year intensive clinical experience, in addition to hybrid online pedagogical courses. (b). Culturally Responsive Curriculum. The rigorous curriculum reform that the program initiated included the creation of specific culturally responsive classes in all content areas and grade levels. All courses are required to incorporate differentiation strategies for diverse populations including exceptional (dis)abilities, English Language Learners (ELL), and culturally and diverse students. Specific courses in bilingual education focus on how to teach culturally and linguistically diverse students in pre-K to 12. These courses are designed to prepare pre-service teachers to become culturally responsive practitioners in order to meet the specific needs of

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their culturally and linguistically diverse students. Teacher candidates who wish to pursue certification in specific areas of interest such as Special Education or ELL are encouraged to take additional courses to become certified. The five specialization areas are (1) English as a Second language (ESL). (2) Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID), (3) Technology, (4) Special Education, and (5) Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. (c). Advancement via Individual Determination (AVID) Program. AVID shifts schools to more equitable, student-centered approach with the goal of closing the opportunity gap in preparing all students for college, careers and life (Fitch 2018; McMullen 2017). All pre-service teachers in our program participate in a series of AVID professional development seminars before and during their time in field placement. The focus of this program is to increase college readiness especially for the academic-middle performers who are likely to be first generation college students (Fitch 2018) and underserved populations. AVID’s professional learning benefits both beginning and experienced educators. Educators reevaluate their beliefs and expectations of student potential, and they learn and practice activities that transform classrooms and campuses. Professional development covers all core content areas and all grade levels in topics such as Culturally Relevant Teaching, Academic Language and Literacy, and Digital Teaching and Learning. AVID offers a variety of classroom activities, lesson plans, professional learning videos, and current research relevant to students learning. These tools help educators implement and refine instructional practices. They also help educators provide the key academic and the social supports students need to thrive. Schools can utilize the professional learning modules and materials for in-service training and can access these resources all year-round. (d). Yearlong clinical and field placement for all pre-service teachers. Our pre-service teachers are exposed to a higher quality, and greater frequency of clinical experience. They begin working in classrooms in the first semester and begin student teaching for one full semester. The model of co-teaching with an exceptional mentor teacher ensures each candidate works in partner districts alongside an experienced, handpicked mentor teacher committed to the professional growth of their teacher candidate. Co-teaching involves working together to plan, carry out, evaluate and adjust instruction in whole-group and small-group settings (Rodgers et al. 2018; Guise and Thiessen 2016). (e). Mandatory video technology assessment. Pre-service teachers in this program are required to use digital recording to observe and improve their own instruction. They use the latest available digital technology to capture and review their own instruction. Starting in the first semester, candidates use video footage for evaluation and improvement. Upon admission, all teacher candidates are provided with a digital kit including an iPad, wide-angle lens and microphone to make recording lessons an easy process. All pre-service teachers are required to video record their teaching lessons and use them as a reflective tool for growth. The program provides a database where the video recordings are uploaded for further assessment of pre-service teacher and program evaluation.

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6 Program Renewal and the Way Forward Before 2012, our teacher candidates enrolled at the teacher education program struggled in securing local teaching jobs. Our teacher education program had a reputation of producing knowledgeable teachers in matters of theory, but our graduates were unable to be consistent in putting the theory into practice especially in classrooms with diverse student population. Six years later, our pre-service teachers are in great demand. Most are hired in the schools where they completed their student teaching due in part to greater opportunity to observe students’ teaching during the yearlong period of training, and others are teaching in the communities they want to serve. We understand that six years is not enough time to evaluate the effectiveness of our program in regard to producing teachers with a culturally responsive or culturally sustaining pedagogy disposition. At this point, we are relying more on anecdotal data particularly related to K-12 students’ performance. However, even within this limitation, there are good indicators that this program reform has brought positive changes. The teacher preparation program has transformed from a little-known traditional program to a nationally known program that has received accolades through recognition and awards. Putting more teachers of color into the classroom is a vital way to reduce academic disparities as the US population becomes increasingly diverse (Borrero et al. 2016). Our 2 + 1 program has found an innovative way of placing more teachers of color into K-12 classrooms. Candidates from this program are predominantly people of color working in their own communities. This represents a commitment to bring services to local communities. There is strong belief that such teachers will reduce discriminative practices and provide alternative perspectives on curriculum and pedagogy (Borrero et al 2016). Teachers of color can manage to connect classroom knowledge with community resources as a way of raising “socio-political consciousness” in their students (Ladson-Billing 2014). But most importantly, they are capable to interrupt oppression that continues to plague many institutions (Borrero et al. 2016) and ascribe to politically meaningful practices of teaching (Durden et al. 2016). Without a doubt, this program has purposefully and thoughtfully provided many opportunities for our pre-service teachers to develop dispositions supportive of K-12 students’ academic achievement.

References Allen, A., Hancock, S. D., Starker-Glass, T., & Lewis, C. W. (2017). Mapping culturally relevant pedagogy into teacher education programs: A critical framework. Teacher College Record, 119(1), 1–26. Aronson, B., & Laughter, J. (2016). The theory and practice of culturally relevant education: A synthesis of research across content areas. Review of Educational Research, 86(1), 163–206. Banks, J. A. (2008). An introduction to multicultural education. Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

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Talking the Talk and Walking the Walk: Students’ Experiences in Two Programs to Prepare Leaders for Predominantly Latino Schools Betty Merchant, Encarnacion Garza Jr., Juan Manuel Niño, Karina Vielma, and Hugo Saucedo Abstract This chapter focuses on two programs that prepare school leaders to serve in predominantly Latino schools. The Urban School Leaders Collaborative (USLC) is a Master’s degree cohort program initiated in 2003, now in its tenth cohort. Winter Garden (WG) is an off-campus doctoral program in its fourth cohort that serves a rural region lacking quality graduate programs. Since both programs are committed to preparing school leaders as social justice advocates in linguistically and culturally diverse school contexts, it is important to understand the extent to which graduates are able to maintain a focus on the social justice principles emphasized in these programs. To accomplish this, we draw upon multiple sources of data produced by the 175 USLC and 22 WG graduates (two of whom are co-authors of this chapter) that depict students’ personal and professional transformations in these programs. Data includes: reflective journals, auto-ethnographies, digital stories and culminating documentary film. Using qualitative methods of data analysis and interpretation, we obtain a deeper understanding of the ways in which participation in these programs helped students become social justice advocates, commensurate with the program’s intent. In doing so, our findings contribute significantly to the study of socially just school leadership preparation. Keywords School leader preparation · Social justice · Diversity · Advocacy · Latino students · Critical consciousness B. Merchant (B) · E. Garza Jr. · J. M. Niño · K. Vielma · H. Saucedo The University of Texas At San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, USA e-mail: [email protected] E. Garza Jr. e-mail: [email protected] J. M. Niño e-mail: [email protected] K. Vielma e-mail: [email protected] H. Saucedo e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_9

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1 Introduction Since Ellwood Cubberley’s pioneering work in educational administration in the early 1900s (Cubberley, 1922), the identification and formation of effective school administrators has been a persistent focus of educational researchers, members of the business community, politicians, and policy makers. Implicit in this continuing interest in school leadership is an awareness that schools lie at the epicenter of the societies in which they are located. As such, they are often the institutions that most strongly manifest not only the positive aspects of those societies, but also the upheavals, controversies, and conflicts. Arguably, the increasingly bitter political, social, cultural, religious, and economic divisions that currently characterize the US threaten to undermine the very foundation of our educational system. More than ever, we need competent, socially-just school leaders who can work effectively with diverse populations of students, model ethical and respectful interactions with children and adults, and advocate for the resources they need to be successful. Although the release of A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983) criticized public schools for their inability to raise the achievement scores of students to a level of international competitiveness, the report made virtually no mention of school administrators. Nonetheless, after its publication, school administrators were subjected to increased accountability standards and evaluated according to their ability to raise student scores on state-mandated and/or national achievement tests. In 2001, the No Child Left Behind Act made a more intentional effort to improve educational experiences for disadvantaged students. With this new standards-based educational reform, measurable goals became the norms for school improvement. However, given that states were not meeting the expected goals set in place by NCLB, some provisions implemented the use of a flexibility waiver to mend some of the pressures of NCLB (U.S. Department of Education, 2011). Unfortunately, the flexibility waiver was embedded in teacher and principal evaluation models that utilized standardized tests to assess effectiveness of educators (Amrein-Beardsley, 2008). It was not until 2005 that Educating School Leaders (Levine, 2005) was released. In a scathing assessment of administrator preparation programs, the author concluded: “The findings of this report were very disappointing. Collectively, educational administration programs are the weakest of all the programs at the nation’s education schools” (p. 13). Not surprisingly, this report spurred many subsequent reviews of these preparation programs and recommendations for improvement (Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, Meyerson, & Orr, 2007; Protheroe, 2008; Young, Crow, Murphy, & Ogawa, 2009; Orr & Orphenos, 2010; Young & Crow, 2016). The research on effective preparation programs reflects a significant degree of consensus regarding the core elements of these programs (Davis, Darling-Hammond, LaPointe, Myerson, & Orr, 2005; McCarthy & Forsyth, 2009; Orphanos & Orr, 2014). Components include: effective mentoring, linking theory to practice, meaningful

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internships, reflective journal writing, small group discussion formats, and universitydistrict partnerships. These components are frequently treated as separate elements, each associated with specific courses rather than woven through an entire program. Other studies of educational preparation programs have explored the perceptions of graduates regarding their experiences in their respective programs. Although these studies tend to be cross-sectional in nature and based on survey data (Seong, 2013; Merklin, 2015; Bryant, 2016), a smaller number of studies include follow-up data obtained from graduates after they have completed their programs (Hoyle & Torres, 2008; Fuller, Hollingworth, & An, 2016). There is a need for longitudinal, in-depth, descriptive information provided by students themselves, detailing their experiences in their preparation program, the extent to which these experiences transformed their concept of school leadership, and whether and how these experiences influence their own practice as school leaders after graduating from the program. This chapter addresses these questions by drawing upon our work with two programs that we designed to prepare school leaders to serve in predominantly Latino schools. The first is the Urban School Leaders Collaborative (USLC), a master’s degree cohort program designed to prepare school leaders as social justice advocates. Initiated in 2003, the USLC program has graduated 175 students and is now in its 10th cohort. The second program is the Winter Garden (WG) off-campus doctoral program, begun in 2009, and designed to serve a region often described as an “educational desert” for its lack of access to quality graduate programs, particularly at the doctoral level. One hundred percent of the 22 students from WG cohorts 1, 2, and 3 have earned their degrees, and all 9 students in cohort 4 will graduate in May 2022 (Niño, Garza, & Rodriguez, 2018). Whereas professors and students have presented the history, philosophy and components of the USLC and WG programs at over 100 conferences and in detailed, published work (Garza & Merchant, 2009; Merchant & Garza, 2015; Niño, Garza, & Rodriguez, 2018), less is known about the extent to which graduates of these programs are able to maintain a focus on the social justice principles emphasized in these programs. As such, this chapter focuses on the self-described experiences of the 175 graduates of the USLC and the 22 graduates of WG (a graduate from each program co-authored this chapter), in order to understand whether and how participation in these programs helped them become social justice advocates, commensurate with the program’s intent.

1.1 The Urban School Leaders Collaborative Master’s Program (USLC) The Urban School Leaders Collaborative (USLC) is a unique preparation program that focuses on preparing aspiring school principals to become transformational leaders who can work in diverse, ambiguous, and challenging school contexts (Garza & Merchant, 2009; Merchant & Garza, 2015). Originating in a partnership with San

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Antonio Independent School District (SAISD), now in its seventeenth year, the USLC model has also established partnerships with Edgewood, Harlandale and Southwest Independent School Districts. This new cohort, USLC-South Bexar (USLC-SB), is in its fourth year working to prepare school leaders for small districts in urban settings. The combined features of the USLC are unique. First and foremost, the program is driven by a philosophy of social justice advocacy. The focus of preparation is initially on attitudes and mindsets, and then on skills. Second, it is a truly collaborative partnership with both the school district and university actively involved in applicant selection, course planning, teaching, and evaluation processes. Third, it is a closed cohort model, only for employees of the partnering school district, and leadership preparation is customized to meet the needs of the children enrolled in the district. Fourth, professors engage USLC students in their own schools and communities, co-teach with district personnel, and hold all classes on campuses throughout the school district. And fifth, support continues through a mentoring component well after the students graduate and assume leadership positions (Garza & Merchant, 2009; Merchant & Garza, 2015).

1.2 The Winter Garden Doctoral Program (WG) The Winter Garden program is an off-campus doctoral program that serves four counties in the southwest region of Texas. We decided to offer the doctoral program to the residents of these counties after being requested to do so by concerned educators in this part of the state who expressed a genuine need for this kind of resource (Niño, Garza, & Rodriguez, 2018). The Winter Garden region has historically been labeled as “unserved” since the percentage of the population with a bachelor’s degree or higher ranges from approximately 7 to 15%, compared to the state average of 28% (U.S. Census, 2018). The WG program borrows extensively from the USLC model of preparing educators for social justice leadership. The Ed.D. in Educational Leadership (now Ph.D.) consists of 60 credit hours (51h of coursework and 9h of dissertation). All courses are held at Southwest Texas Junior College-Uvalde Campus. This location is about a two-hour drive for the instructors, but less for most of the students. For the first two cohorts, some courses were initially delivered via tele-presence technology, but currently, all courses are weekend face-to-face meetings. While it may appear to be a satellite program, it differs from the regular on-campus doctoral program in several important ways. The most obvious difference is the student demographics. Thirtyone of the students in this program are Latina/o, five are white and one identifies as biracial. Unlike the on-campus doctoral program, this is truly a closed cohort with a social justice curriculum embedded courses, with all students choosing an emphasis in educational leadership and everyone staying together until the coursework is completed. Lastly, the co-founders of this program serve as the coordinators, mentors, and advisors for all of the students in this program.

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As of this writing, all of the members of Cohorts 1 and 2 have received their Ed.D., all the individuals from Cohort 3 have received their Ph.D. and the members of Cohort 4 (2018–2022) began their coursework in the Fall of 2018. Readings, reflections, class discussions, and assignments helped these doctoral students better understand the convolution of the current schooling process (Niño, Garza, & Rodriguez, 2018).

1.3 Theoretical Framework Teaching and learning in these programs is driven by a constructivist theoretical approach. In a constructivist classroom, students and faculty engage in critical reflection, individually and collectively (Merchant & Garza, 2015). Coupled with constructivist learning theory, the Pedagogy of Collective Critical Consciousness (Garza, 2015) engages master’s and doctoral students deeply in collective learning activities including: shared critical reflection, written autoethnographies, digital life stories, community engagement projects, equity audits, and ultimately, the implementation of praxis (Freire, 1974). As co-constructors of knowledge, students and faculty are both teachers and learners. The central premise of the Pedagogy of Collective Critical Consciousness framework is the importance of engaging students in a continuous cycle of collective learning experiences. The intensity of critical reflection and autoethnography is extremely demanding and requires students to develop a deep understanding of who they are, personally and professionally. It is essential that students be treated with dignity, respect, and empathy as they engage in this education, and that these learning experiences be carried out in a context of trust, which deepens over the course of the program. Students are challenged with high expectations, expected to produce quality work, and exposed to relevant, meaningful, and productive learning experiences. The findings of this study indicate that graduates of the USLC and WG programs have embraced and operationalized the Pedagogy of Collective Critical Consciousness in their own practice. Students have come to understand Freire’s notion of liberation very well, as shared by Justine: I was the person who stayed silent…. I was a person who had chosen the side of the oppressor by not speaking up. Today, I speak. I question. I challenge. I share my knowledge to raise awareness. I am by no means perfect, but I do take action.

The Pedagogy of Collective Critical Consciousness helped students see themselves in the students they serve, “tu eres me otro yo” (Duncan-Andrade & Morrel, 2008). The following concepts help better illustrate the framework for this study:

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1.4 Authentic Relationships The USLC and WG curriculum emphasizes the role of authentic caring as the vehicle for commencing the transformation of schools –focused on the people who do the work on a daily basis. Incidentally, Jensen (2013) stated, “Even if you care a great deal, students may not realize it, so keep in mind that students need to see, hear, and feel the caring” (p. 23). Through ongoing exposure to the work of such researchers as Gloria Ladson-Billings, Angela Valenzuela, and Gary Howard, the idea of “actual caring” permeates students’ professional evolution throughout their program experience.

1.5 Critical Reflection The learning experiences of this program are reflective in nature. Students are challenged to delve into their own lived experiences. They are products of the current system and are now educators in the same system. The reflective piece requires each student to engage in reflection from the initial class meeting until the very last course meeting. Reflecting requires students to share concerns, fears, celebrations, reactions to readings, and anything that they feel compelled to share. Reflection is a simple process. There is only one rule for the exercise of reflection; there is no interactive discussion until all students have shared their individual reflections. After each student has participated, others may react, follow-up or reflect again. Reflection is always conducted at the start of class.

1.6 Social Justice Advocacy Social Justice is an attitude and it captures how awareness is more than just closing the achievement gap between white and minority children (Garza, 2019). The USLC and WG programs develop students’ awareness of oppressive schooling practices as well as the ways in which maintenance of the status quo occurs through socially unjust means. According to McKenzie et al. (2008), “Programs should help prospective leaders develop a commitment at the center of their ethical core to enable these leaders to feel compelled to personally and organizationally uncover and address those practices that continue to propagate racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, and all other abuses of power (pp. 122–123).” The USLC and WG cohorts provide school leaders with the chance to become “architects and builders of a new social order” where hope resides (Jean-Marie, Normore & Brooks, 2009). Graduates of the programs understand that to be silent is to be complicit in maintaining socially unjust hierarchies of power.

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2 Methodology As stated in the introduction, this chapter focuses on examining the extent to which students’ experiences in the USLC and WG cohorts transformed their concept of school leadership, and whether and how these experiences influenced their own practice as school leaders after graduating from the program. To accomplish this, we drew on the extensive data that students generated during and after their participation in these programs. More specifically, data collected for this project were the key learning experiences and continuous assignments in the programs. These included their reflective journals, autoethnographies, course reflections and digital stories. Information from these sources was supplemented by individual interviews and personal testimonials. After we completed all interviews, we analyzed the transcripts with the goal of identifying codes, patterns, and concepts (Saldaña, 2009). Notes were made of themes that were relevant to answering the research question and we supported these themes with powerful quotes and examples from the data. Initial themes were then combined to obtain the overarching themes presented in these findings (Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Pseudonyms were used for the names of the students. Our analysis of the data revealed that graduates of the USLC and WG programs identified three themes that were contiguous with both their experiences in the program and their administrative practice after completing these programs. These were the development of authentic relationships, the practice of critical reflection, and social justice advocacy. These themes are significant in their own right, but when linked together, students reported that these have a powerful influence on their development as educational leaders. In choosing the quotes to illustrate each theme, we selected those that we agreed were representative of the larger body of data analyzed. In addition to the data sources listed above, each USLC cohort completes a documentary film describing their experiences in the program, which they present at the University Council for Educational Administration’s (UCEA) annual convention (Merchant & Garza, 2015). Links to each of these films are available in Appendix A, and we invite readers to conduct their own analyses to determine the extent to which they feel that the material in these films provides confirmatory evidence of the themes we discuss below.

3 Findings (Authors’ note: Our analysis of the themes that emerged from the data is followed by the in-depth personal reflections of two of our co-authors, Drs. Saucedo and Vielma, regarding their experiences as students in the USLC and WG programs respectively.)

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3.1 The Development of Authentic Relationships There is growing concern in urban schools for educators to get to know their students, yet much of what has been recommended has yet to be practiced. We contend that this contributes to the deficit thinking about urban schools—and our urban schoolchildren—that has become an acceptable norm. With that in mind, the USLC and WG professors believe that when teachers and students have an authentic, caring relationship, they will not allow each other to fail (Duncan-Andrade, 2009). The importance of establishing an authentic caring connection with students becomes a nonnegotiable with cohort students as they learn to appreciate the significance of the affective domain. As Jessica (USLC) observed: “Children who didn’t think anyone cared feel the drive to perform their best when they know someone does.” Lisa (USLC) also shared this sentiment, “If a principal can understand how people feel about concerns and problems they are dealing with, then he/she can empower them to make changes in their lives that will enable them to work more productively.” The practice of authentic caring goes beyond student teacher roles and embraces the notion of care through which all individuals feel safe and welcomed: “When we met the professors on the first day of class, I felt comfortable in their presence. They were both warm and welcoming. They made an effort to learn our names and take interest in our lives” (Ashley, USLC graduate). The students believe that the relationships that develop among cohort members are crucial, not only to their personal and professional success, but also to the success and longevity of the USLC and WG programs. Through celebrations of marriages, new jobs, and promotions as well as the trials of divorce, family deaths, and sickness, our cohorts come together to encourage one another: Our professors have been genuine, supportive, and caring. They see our struggles, care enough to ask us directly to verbalize. They allow us the time to verbalize. They listen to us, validate us, and will work with us to help us ease our stress and frustration (Denise, WG).

Students in both the USLC and WG programs learn that building relationships extends beyond the walls of the schools. Through such assignments as the community project and equity audit, USLC students are required to facilitate a community meeting (pláctica) at the home of one of the students’ parents, in which they, as teachers and administrators, and the parents of the children with whom they work, are able to share each other’s perspectives of the schools’ educational policies and practices. As Gloria (USLC) noted, “Bridging relationships between parents and teachers and other school staff provides a basis for more meaningful collaboration (and mutual accountability) so that the school and home work together for the benefit of children.” Robert, another USLC student observed, “Our communities are full of assets; through the pláticas we can start to discover the wealth in them.” Maricela (USLC) emphasised the importance of this project: While I practiced cultural relevancy in the classroom, I also had the opportunity to practice outside the classroom during our community relations project. Our parents shared and

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expressed their feelings about school policies, and any misconceptions they had were clarified. This knowledge was then shared at various campuses with school personnel…. It [cultural relevancy] is also in the data that we gather, the way we present it, and the way we interact with others to create change.

When discussing these community meetings, Javier (USLC) observed: The purpose of the pláctica was to empower our parents and the community. It allowed them to bring up important issues on their time and on their agenda as opposed to school meetings or conferences, where the majority of the time we, or the school, ran the agenda. In this format, it allowed them to speak freely and to talk about things that really, really bother them or that they would like to see done, or things that they would like to see changed. It was very empowering for them and at the same time it was very eye-opening for us. And it was a great learning experience. The pláctica, all in all, was an awesome way to re-learn our parents’ [concerns].

With respect to whether or not students of the programs have been able to translate what they learned about authentic caring into their daily practice in their schools, data analyzed confirms that they have been able to do so. When speaking specifically about how the community project shaped her beliefs about how schools should respond to parents, Maria (USLC) stated: A couple of takeaways from the community project are: One, schools need to do a better job in creating spaces for parents to talk. Authentic spaces for reflection and critique are non-existent in many public schools. If schools truly believe in the power of partnership and accountability, efforts must be made to rethink how we use personnel resources and parent organizations to channel that critical feedback that schools need.

As Evangeline (USLC) noted: “There is no doubt in my mind that teachers play a crucial role in students’ education. What I did not realize, however, is how not caring can have an even greater impact on students.” Nora’s comment illustrates how she connected the notion of authentic caring with her teaching practice: “My students know that my classroom is a safe environment as a result of the [USLC] classes.” As Karen (WG) shared, “Authentic caring that led to unity, trust, and transparency was integrated into the content of the coursework. These foundations also laid the groundwork to delve into challenging issues [in our schools] with integrity.” Sally (WG) provided another example of the ways in which the caring relationships emphasized within the program translated into her professional work, “I know that I am helping my community via the parent workshops I provide, and my volunteer work with the community and various educational programs.” Currently a principal, Mario (WG) shared how the program’s emphasis on caring relationships transferred to his professional life, “As a school leader, I now keep providing access to students, and maintaining high rigor and connections to growth opportunities for students.” Kathy (WG) adds, “More importantly, however, from our experiences is the authentic care from professors that then fosters camaraderie, excellence, and trust with peers. This bleeds into the interactions with institutions, communities, and students.” Joann (USLC) came to realize from her participation in the cohort, the importance of making connections with students. She found that as a teacher, caring made a huge difference in student performance and attitude.

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3.2 The Practice of Critical Reflection For some students in the WG and USLC cohorts, the reflective process initially focuses on their reactions to external events or circumstances; for others, the process begins with a deeply personal examination of self. Regardless of the starting point, the ultimate goal is the recognition of the external and internal factors which shape their values, beliefs, preferences, and biases, and an understanding of how these act as powerful filters for the policies and practices they enact as teachers and administrators. As Ruth (USLC) observed, “Reflection allowed me to not only focus on my strengths, but it also helps me to focus and analyze my weaknesses which helps me better myself both professionally and personally.” David (USLC) observed how the program impacted him: This program helps you learn how to become a better person. It breaks you down emotionally and intellectually, then it builds you back up. USLC teaches you how and when to push, and it teaches you to be patient, so you don’t give up.

As Sally shared, “The core of the USLC is reflection. It’s the chance we get to say how our experiences and what we have learned really changed us. This is invaluable to take back to our staff.” Annette (USLC) shared a similar comment with respect to the process of reflection associated with writing her autoethnography and digital story, “[It] has helped me have a better understanding of me so that I can become a better leader for my students.” For many USLC and WG cohort students, reflection became a powerful tool for confronting assumptions they had, not only about their own classrooms and community, but also about the role of the school principal. In recognizing this, Jose (USLC), observed, “By entering this program, I was joining ‘the dark side,’ but it was a necessary evil, as with the power of the principal, I could fight the battles I never could as a teacher.” Students also reported that the process of reflection had increased their confidence, both personally and professionally. As Andrea (WG) observed, “I am more cognizant of the choices I make in every aspect of my life as I think more critically. Additionally, I am a much stronger person, both intellectually and emotionally.” Diana (WG) shared a similar sentiment, “I try to be a better person on a daily basis and I pay more attention to what I say, how I say things, and my body language. I try to walk the walk.” Similarly, Miranda (WG) expressed how the program helped her find the inner strength to advocate for what’s right: I feel like I’ve always had the feelings, but did not know how to respond to them. I was not sure of myself. I feel this program has given me the courage to speak up for others and to not second guess myself when I am acting on something that I feel is just or right. I believe the program has played a tremendous role in shaping me to the person that I am.

Jesus (USLC) noted the change in practice brought about by reflection: As far as professionally, being a member of the cohort has really taught me just to be more culturally relevant, to push for the kids. Learning is not all about standardized tests, it’s about the kids, the students, showing what they can do, project-based learning, inquiry, let them discuss, lead the way, less of me talking, more of the students.

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Rosemary’s comments were similar: We have learned that we cannot lead others until we truly know ourselves. Reflections have given me the opportunity to share my experiences. As a veteran teacher of 23 years, you would think everything is set in place, and it’s not. What it has done for me is bring everyone else’s experiences together with mine and make a connection so that I can be a better teacher and now a better leader.

In talking about how reflection has transformed her practice, Sophia (USLC) stated, “It has been the most powerful tool and experience for me. It has definitely help me build my emotional self-awareness. As a teacher, I have also incorporated reflection in my own classroom.” Similarly, Vicky (WG) observed, “Reflection was a huge part of the experience that helped me become a better educator as I went back to my hometown to teach the next day.” Juan (WG) provided specific details about the way in which reflection has been transformational for him: This program influences every facet of daily life. The ideas that we are learning offer me a different way of looking at academic situations as well as larger problems that are apparent in society. The program has provided me the reflective space to reevaluate my teaching practices and my leadership approach.

The students in these programs found engaging in critical reflection improved their professional and personal life to enable them to advance opportunities for all students.

3.3 Social Justice Advocacy The theme of social justice advocacy permeates the USLC and WG programs, and is the central mission of both. If authentic relationships and critical reflections are the concepts that elicit critical consciousness, then social justice is the foundation of that consciousness. Social justice readings, class discussions, and projects are all directed toward increasing students’ awareness of the ways in which the policies and practices of educators, administrators, and staff members at all levels of the educational system, unjustly marginalize some students while systematically advantaging others. The focus on social justice in both the USLC and WG programs was an important factor in students’ decisions to enroll in these programs, as indicated by Denise (USLC), “When I heard that the program focused on social justice, my antennae wiggled.” Estelle (USLC) was similarly excited about the opportunity to address social justice issues that were important to her, “As an African American, I grew up living social justice, but that terminology is uncommon outside of conversations with my father. So that really had my interest.” Many of the cohorts’ students’ previous experiences helped them appreciate the value of the program’s social justice focus, as reported by Lorina (WG), I had already come to the realization that schools were tools for assimilation into the mainstream society. My own experiences working in schools awakened me to the notion that education is packaged as a one-size-fits-all, and if it is too little or too big, it is the student’s

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fault. As a female, trying on a garment of a one-size-fits-all, I can say that it feels awful when the garment does not fit. This same concept applied to education can have devastating effects on students.

Cohort members’ personal lived experiences were strongly connected to their commitment to social justice, and their potential for social justice advocacy was evident in their reflections, as evidenced in Danica’s (USLC) statement: “I know the meaning of suffering, and do whatever I can to help end it. Students misbehave in classes because they are dealing with issues no child or adult should have to experience.” USLC and Wintergarden students described three phases with respect to their evolution as social justice advocates: enhanced awareness, increased confidence, and the development of a strong commitment to action for improving the schooling experiences and outcomes of students. Issues related to students’ commitment to serve marginalized children are addressed during deep critical reflection at the beginning of each class and throughout the program. The development of socially just leaders begins with self-awareness and the recognition of one’s own role in perpetuating inequities. Most students in the cohorts have been through a system of schooling in which they became conditioned to continue this oppressive cycle. Their unconscious replication of these repressive policies and practices took many students by surprise, as indicated by Adrianna (USLC), “I was shocked to think that I, too, had unknowingly been a participant in this practice of taking away a student’s culture and heritage.” Graduates of the programs report that they have become hypersensitive to the social injustices and inequalities going on in schools today. This new awareness challenges cohort members to hold themselves accountable for their own actions in an effort to rise above the profile of a leader committed to maintaining the status quo and associated inequities in policy and practice. As Norma (USLC) stated: “My perspective has been widened [about] how the insidious nature of embedded laws provides opportunities to the dominant groups. [This has] broadened my point of view to have a greater respect for others’ life challenges and perspectives.” James (USLC) further evidences this point, “For too long, we have cycled through a period when we fail to hold all stakeholders accountable. Teachers who don’t teach don’t help students learn. Administrators who do not help teachers do not help students learn.” As Jaime (USLC) noted, “As future social justice leaders, it’s first important to learn about ourselves and about our non-negotiables in order to best serve and lead others.” Such awareness can, however, create difficulties when students become sensitized to the unjust practices of their colleagues, as evidenced in Hector’s remarks (USLC): The next day as I welcomed my students into my 11th grade U.S. History class, my mind was abuzz with thoughts of how I was contributing to the failure of many of my students and how I was a tool of the status quo that tracked certain students towards a path of failure…. That was a difficult semester. I found myself not only looking inward but pointing out how my colleagues were contributing to an inequitable system. Needless to say, I was not the most popular coworker.

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Beyond developing an awareness of the inequalities around them, students report developing increased confidence in their ability to rectify the injustices they observe, as indicated in Paul’s (WG) comment, “This program has made me much more conscious about the inequalities that we as educators and leaders participate in. I have also learned that I am able to make a change for the better.” Another WG student, Raul, explained this newly-gained confidence in speaking out against unjust policies and practices: The program taught me to be more self-aware and more active in our quest for social justice. I find myself questioning everything, which is always a good thing. We need to make sure every man, woman, and child is treated with dignity, respect, and equity. I would have to say that I am more vocal in my search for social justice. I try to implement what I have learned in my doctoral courses into my psychology lectures at the college. I want my students to feel that we are all equal, and in working together, we can reach liberation.

In talking about how participation in the program transformed her professional practice, Ann (USLC) highlights her social justice awakening and explains how her growing confidence enabled her to overcome her earlier tendency to maintain silence in the face of injustices: We felt like we held no power on our campus, and we were afraid of losing our jobs. I am certain that I feel much more grounded than I did a few years ago. I know that, by teaching with love and passion, I can make small changes. And if I happen to get into trouble for taking a stand for equity, then I know I am doing my job.

In explaining her increased confidence, Rosalind (USLC) stated that, “The program helped me to stand up for the people who are unable to speak for themselves, especially children who are unable to verbalize their troubles—that’s why I want to be a voice for them.” Mariella (USLC) expressed a similar level of confidence: I never thought of myself as a leader, but after writing the autoethnography and putting together the leadership video, not only did I see and learn that I have been groomed for this since birth, but I enjoy doing it. Being a leader for social justice is very important to me. And I see now that I am definitely on the right path.

Students in both cohorts reported that the enhanced awareness and increased confidence that they developed in their program propelled them to take action on behalf of the students and families with whom they worked. As Trisha (USLC) stated, “Social justice is synonymous with culturally relevant teaching. In turn, this creates an environment where leaders are compelled to spread the expectation that all students will be treated with equity in mind.” Expanding on this point, Joaquin (USLC) explained: The program is unique in that social justice drives the work we do daily. The course work is traditional in that we follow a mandated course schedule like other universities, but we view that coursework through a social justice lens and apply that lens to how we engage students and others we come in contact with.

During their programs, USLC and WG students became increasingly aware of the uncomfortable, difficult, and often solitary nature of social justice work. They understood that their commitment to social justice will be under constant challenge,

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but they also realized that they cannot turn back, as evidenced in Arnetha’s remarks (USLC), spoken on behalf of her cohort: We kind of came to the conclusion that we knew too much to go back… and that kind of stemmed from the fact that administrators go into the position idealistic, and then, all of a sudden, something happens. We couldn’t define it, but we understood that, because there were fourteen of us and we are all working in the same district, there was no way that we could actually stray away from our vision or stray away from what’s right for kids without somebody calling us on it later on down the line. During reflection, and some of the topics that we covered, there was always an opportunity to share what it was we believed in, but there is just no way that we can stray from doing what’s right.

This process can be personally unsettling at times, as shared by Marcus (WG): The program has opened my eyes even more. I tend to notice more, and I am motivated to take action without fear…as long as I am keeping my students’ well-being at the forefront of my decisions. I find myself more frustrated at times in my practice. I want to do so much and often I feel alone, even lonely.

Graduates of the programs understand that to be silent is to be complicit in normalizing the unjust policies and practices of their colleagues. Each story of our graduates exemplifies why awareness for action is key to becoming a social justice educator and leader. For example, Justine (USLC) described her moment of enlightenment: I was the person who stayed silent…. I was a person who had chosen the side of the oppressor by not speaking up. Today, I speak. I question. I challenge. I share my knowledge to raise awareness. I am by no means perfect, but I do take action.

In discussing the ways in which the social justice mindset has influenced her practice, Katy (WG) observed, “I became more critical [about] how things were done around the district and in my own school and classroom. I believe the [program] curriculum lit a new fire under me to create and impact change for the students we served.” As Julian (USLC) stated, “One of the things I’ve learned about being in the cohort is just to challenge everything—think about everything—whether it be laws, status quo, [and] rules, and [to] just wonder why things are the way they are.” Albert (USLC) acknowledged, “The social justice fight will not be a rapid success story, but now is a great time to be in the fight.” Students acknowledge the ongoing nature of the struggle for social justice, as reflected in Arturo’s (WG) comments: It has become even more clear to us that there is inequity, not just like in classroom to classroom, but in like how things are funded, how things are practiced. There are just so many layers to it that we are learning about as we continue to learn more and more in this program…You are just constantly learning new ways to be more equitable and to include more voices to make sure that everyone is heard, and everyone is being treated in an equitable manner at your campus.

Similarly, Lorena (WG) observed: The transformative effects of this program far transcend my experiences as an educator. It has given me a critical lens to examine the systems we participate in every day. Knowing about the complex underlying issues that lead to the current social structures allows me to find ways of improving the educational system for everyone, as we move into the future.

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Awareness is not good enough for true social justice leaders as they are called to confront and challenge inequities on a daily basis. As the students have shared, it is important for our graduates to put into practice what is learned in a social justice leadership program. Their experiences are not just intellectual exercises, but rather, embracing emancipatory practices that will lead to changing systems.

3.4 Co-author’s Personal Reflection: Hugo Saucedo, Ed.D. I have had a lot of time to reflect on the USLC, and its impact on me as an educator. Through my time with the USLC, I discovered that, although my intentions were pure, my methods were perpetuating a myriad of injustices including not valuing students’ cultural identities or their understanding of gender identity and assuming that the educational system as is, was structured to meet their needs. What the USLC helped me understand was that we can not assume anything about our educational system. What I discovered was that our educational system is inequitable at best and outright discriminatory at worst. I was a zombie believing that what I was being fed by my superiors was gospel, and that it was for the best of children. Sure, discussions about how data was predictive and could help us better educate our students made sense, but I should have been questioning the “need” for standardized testing in the first place. What I should have been asking was not clear until my time with the USLC. From my time with the USLC, I learned that social justice was not a quaint idea, but rather, it was a way to give students what they were due. Students are so much more than numbers and statistics. The USLC opened my mind to better understand how I as a lone educator could influence others to ensure students were being heard above the rhetoric. Now, as the principal of an inner-city elementary school, I can practice what I have learned. This began with exploring what the staff and community thought about how their children were being educated. I conducted an equity audit that, overall, gave me hope. We have strong representation from educators who seek to give our students a culturally relevant education and who value those students for who they are, not what label they may bring with them. As the building leader, I know that I have the tools to guide this school to new heights that will not cave into subtractive schooling practices.

3.5 Co-author’s Personal Reflection: Karina Vielma, Ed.D. As an education graduate student at Harvard, I learned about social justice—what it was and what it looked like. Being part of the WG cohort taught me how to live it as an educational leader. Through constant reflection and interaction with educators and educational leaders who enacted social justice practices, I learned to develop my own style for becoming a social justice leader. I assessed the needs for the communities

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that I served and responded accordingly. While enrolled in the WG cohort, I was teaching math at a rural border town high school. There I began interjecting tidbits of social justice into the curriculum, helping students discover how mathematical knowledge could be a part of a greater, more just future. Students responded in many different ways, some enraged at their current situations which helped them take greater ownership for their education. Other students responded with disbelief; they were happy living out their predetermined lives prior to hearing about a different way. Some knew about social justice issues but did not know how to connect them with their math learning. I understood their reactions, because the content of our courses such as Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed pointed to these. Through difficult personal reflections and classroom discussions, my own sentiments and prejudices were uncovered as a social justice leader. Every day and every interaction held the potential to model what social justice looked like. These practices extended to math teachers in our school who looked to me to duplicate lessons I developed for my students as well as other teachers I worked with. Now, as an assistant professor with a joint appointment in the College of Education and Human Development and the College of Engineering at UTSA, I continue to expose socially-unjust practices engrained so much in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields that they are not questioned. Leaning on advocates that support change and are open to new practices has become a practice essential to my work. The professors and cohort colleagues of the WG program are part of this important group that help continue the important work.

4 Discussion In reflecting on the process and outcomes of the USLC and WG leadership preparation programs, the data collected over the past 17years and 11 years, respectively, indicate that students in both programs identify the development of authentic relationships, the practice of critical reflection, and social justice advocacy as critical factors in their evolution as educational leaders. The students’ self-reported data are powerful and certainly argue for the effectiveness of these programs as truly transformative in nature. Of the 175 USLC graduates in the first 9 cohorts, approximately 75 percent are in leadership positions. These confirming findings relate to both the USLC and WG programs. However, in conjunction with writing this chapter, our conversation took a bit of an unexpected turn as focus shifted to the changing nature of the context of one of these programs—the USLC. Our founding partner, SAISD, provided the USLC with unwavering support for 13 of the 17 years of its existence. For the majority of these years, the program was not able to offer any financial support to participants. However, four years ago, the program received the attention and support of a local couple, whose philanthropy enabled future students to receive much appreciated tuition assistance. Coinciding with the timing of this gift was the arrival of a new superintendent in the district. His appointment reflected the business community’s interest in a corporate

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model of school leadership at the school district level, in the appointment of a chief financial officer, with no prior experience as an educator. The new superintendent enjoys the support of prominent business persons in the district. With a generous gift from one of the wealthiest businessmen in the community, the district (at the time this publication was written) has partnered with an elite private university in town to provide paid, year-long internships to students in the administrator preparation program, as well as guaranteed employment in an administrative position in the district upon completion of the program. This program makes no mention of social justice advocacy, and with approximately 20 students graduating from the program each of the past three years, the USLC no longer serves as the preferred pipeline for administrative positions in the district. Nonetheless, we continue to experience a strong demand from teachers in the district, and another cohort from SAISD started the program in January 2019. As both the originators and primary professors in the USLC, we now find ourselves at an interesting and challenging point of development. The question with which we are now confronted is “What happens when the leadership preparation that we provide to students is no longer supported at the same level by the district with which we have had a 15-year partnership?”.

5 Conclusion The research on effective school leadership preparation programs confirms the importance of incorporating school district-university partnerships into program design and delivery, and both the USLC master’s program and WG doctoral program originated in this way. Although the WG program is entering its eleventh year, the support for this program continues to be broad-based, encompassing eight school districts that comprise the communities in the WG portion of the state. Interestingly, the appointment of the new SAISD superintendent coincided with requests from several other area superintendents that we offer the USLC program in their districts. Consequently, we decided to pilot one such cohort, USLC-SB, and the students from this first multi-district cohort graduated from the program in December 2018. Based on the success of this pilot and the findings of the student-generated data we analyzed for this chapter, we decided to recruit a second USLC-SB cohort from these districts which began in Spring 2019. Although five other area school districts partnered with the USLC program, the one constant partner relationship has been with SAISD, and the vast majority of the students have come from this district. Thirteen of the past 17 years of the USLC program testify to its successful partnership through three changes in district leadership, and although graduates of the program continue to be appointed to administrative positions in the district (about 75% of the graduates are in leadership positions), as mentioned previously, the program’s focus now appears to be largely incompatible with current district norms. The extent to which graduates of the USLC program will receive consideration for administrative positions within SAISD is unclear, as is the

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extent to whether we are willing and/or able to align aspects of the program more closely with the district’s current preferences without abandoning the core values and organizing principles of the program. Additional concerns include the realization that most, if not all, of the founding and current core members of the USLC and WG program models will likely retire from the university within the next few years. Although new faculty have been incorporated into the USLC, and we have recruited our graduates to teach in the program to provide additional instructional capacity, it is not clear whether there will be a sufficient number of tenured faculty who will remain at the university to continue refining and offering the program. None of the challenges that we are currently facing with respect to program evolution are unique in and of themselves, but they do represent a distinctive intersection of factors with respect to the continuation of these programs and the success of graduates in achieving the administrative positions they seek. Arguably, now more than ever, our educational system needs programs like the USLC and WG, which emphasize social justice advocacy and collective responsibility, critical self-reflection, and the development and maintenance of authentic relationships. We believe that it is essential to support the preparation of transformative leaders who challenge taken-for-granted assumptions about teaching and learning, interrogate policies and practices that privilege some while disadvantaging others, and create educational systems that support the academic and social growth of all children. The ways in which we move from our current USLC and WG administration preparation models in responding to changes, not only in local school district environments but in the state, national and global environments, will determine the extent to which we are able to maintain the core values of these programs and the commitment to socially just leadership for schools. Acknowledgements Special thanks to Kerry Mckeon and Christopher Flanagan-Gonzales, Doctoral Students and Research Assistants in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at the University of Texas at San Antonio, for their excellent work in coding the data from the community projects, digital stories, and equity audits. This study was supported, in part, with funds provided to Betty Merchant from the Henrietta Frances Zezula Lowak Endowed Distinguished Professor Award.

Appendix A Links to Cohort Documentaries. Cohort 1: https://youtu.be/Q35YHBoAA6o Cohort 3: https://youtu.be/rg9jbJbAmQ4 Cohort 4: https://youtu.be/wxgE1GHS9pI Cohort 5: https://youtu.be/oe_AF3_xMRs Cohort 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ygtmz6tNQ8&feature=youtu.be Cohort 7: https://youtu.be/P22ZiSLGy8g.

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Implications of Research Findings for Policy and Practice

Intercultural Competencies of New Principals Tackling Challenges Related to Leading a Culturally and Linguistically Diverse School Anne Julia Köster

Abstract With the help of a reanalysis of four selected case studies that were originally edited by Michael Cowie (2011), evolving challenges for new principals at culturally and linguistically diverse schools in Australia (Wildy & Clarke in Cowie 2011), Canada (Purvey & Webber in Cowie 2011), East-Timor (Macpherson in Cowie 2011) and South Africa (Mentz in Cowie 2011) are examined. Also, their ways of applying their intercultural competencies when tackling these challenges are studied. To do so, the Intercultural Competence model of Jürgen Bolten (2006, 2012) is used as a conceptual framework, and the qualitative content analysis suggested by Philip Mayring (2015) serves as a methodological tool. The analysis shows that all four new principals required an increased level of role distance, empathy, flexibility, open-mindedness and ambiguity tolerance to be eligible for the leadership position and to succeed in their new jobs. These essential components of Intercultural Competence should thus be fostered in educational leadership training programs for principal preparation in culturally and linguistically diverse school contexts. Keywords Intercultural competencies · Cultural and linguistic diversity · Schools in post-colonial contexts · New principals As a new principal working with culturally and linguistically diverse student populations presents great challenges. To address their students’ educational needs appropriately, professionally and effectively, new school leaders require an elevated level of Intercultural Competences. Bolten (2012) suggests that interculturally competent individuals possess increased levels of role distance, empathy, flexibility, openmindedness and ambiguity tolerance. In the following it is revised what it implies for new school principals to be interculturally competent. To do so, already existing data is reanalyzed with the help of Bolten’s framework of Intercultural Competence (2006, 2012). The selected data were originally edited and published by Cowie (2011) in his book New primary leaders: International perspectives. It consists of a total of twelve A. J. Köster (B) European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (O.), Germany e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_10

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cases with personal accounts of newly appointed school leaders. For the presented study, four cases of new principals in culturally and linguistically diverse primary schools in Australia (Wildy & Clarke as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 19–30), Canada (Purvey & Webber as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 80–97), East-Timor (Macpherson as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 101–111) and South Africa (Mentz as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 126–139) were selected.

1 Purpose and Research Questions The purpose of this reanalysis of the four cases is to explore the benefits of Intercultural Competencies (as defined by Bolten, 2006, 2012) of new principals, who are facing challenges when addressing the educational needs of culturally and linguistically diverse student populations. The following research questions guide this analysis: 1. Which kind of challenges did four newly appointed principals face in their culturally and linguistically diverse elementary schools located in Australia, Canada, East-Timor and South Africa? 2. How did they apply their Intercultural Competencies—such as role distance, empathy, flexibility, open-mindedness and ambiguity tolerance—when tackling these challenges?

2 Theoretical Framework The set of competencies that school principals require to successfully tackle challenges related to their professional role and job position have been subject of numerous researches (Blaydes, 2004, Ross & Cozzens, 2016, Fullan & Boyle, 2014). Research about crucial competencies for new principals is much more reduced (Daresh & Alexander, 2016, Rooney, 2000). To actively address cultural and linguistic diversity as new educational leaders in schools is crucial for successfully complying with human rights obligations. This implies to ensure available (financially and physically), accessible (in terms of infrastructure), acceptable (with regards to the educational quality) and adaptable (to diverse student needs and contexts) education (4A-education, Tomasevski, 2001). It also means to provide an “inclusive and equitable quality education” (SDG 4, UN, 2015) to all, and, more specifically, to guarantee the “equal access to all levels of education […] for […] indigenous people” (SDG 4.5, ibid.) amongst many other culturally and linguistically diverse students.

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2.1 Considering Place, People and Self Cowie (2011) presents cases of new principals in twelve different countries across the globe and compares their accounts to determine three competencies to be crucial for tackling challenges when assuming the position at first (ibid., pp. 210–216): the ability to address the place, the people in the school and the self. The ability to address the place implies to be able to create a strong place identity of a new principal, which is composed of physical insideness (knowing the context of the school), social insideness (feeling connected to the local community of the school) and autobiographical insideness (knowing where you are from and who you are). The ability to address people in the school implies to be able to maneuver through complex social relationships. In order to successfully address bureaucratic issues, role demarcations, hierarchies, power differences, established statuses and complex interactions between staff members, a crucial task of new school principals is to create a climate as well as structures that would enhance and maintain distributed leadership among the entire schools’ staff. The ability to address the self implies for new school leaders to be able to regulate their own emotions. A crucial part of self-regulation is to anticipate one’s own strong feelings and to re-configure them beforehand in order to be objective in a difficult situation. New principals require a sense of self-efficacy and self-belief to develop their new professional identity that enables them to successfully maneuver through their complex job.

2.2 Cultural Proficiency Lindsey et al. (2019) point out that principals in diverse schools need to have Cultural Proficiency, which they define as a set of competencies that educational leaders possess and further develop while they and their organizations are going through a paradigmatic shift in their attitude and way of addressing cultural and linguistic diversity (ibid., pp. 5–6). They suggest four different approaches to build Cultural Competence among school principals: The approach to overcome the barriers to individual and organizational change towards Cultural Proficiency; the approach to establish underlying core values of Cultural Proficiency as guiding principles for individual behavior and organizational culture; the approach to continuously make productive as well as unproductive policies, strategies, practices and behavior related to Cultural Proficiency explicit and visible through verbal description and the approach to incorporate behavioral standards for continuous planning, practicing and measuring individual and organizational change processes towards Cultural Proficiency (ibid.).

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2.3 Intercultural Competence The German interculturalist Jürgen Bolten developed his own model of what he calls Intercultural Competence (2006, 2012). He argues, that the fourth approach of Lindsey et al. (2019)—to establish an organization wide set of culturally proficient individual behavior—can only be successfully implemented in an organization, if all involved individuals have the necessary dispositions to be able to act in a culturally proficient way. In order to measure and potentially foster these abilities among organizational leaders as well as among all staff members, they need to be precisely defined at first. Thus, he elaborated a theoretically as well as empirically informed detailed description of all skills that a culturally proficient individual needs to possess (see Fig. 1 for more details) (Bolten, 2012). Herwartz-Emden et al. (2010) have a wider definition of (self-)reflexivity than Bolten. They understand it as a (self-)reflective process in which interculturally competent individuals in interactions are aware of their own and the others’ dependencies on structurally and socially conditioned power asymmetries. They also acknowledge the existence of an area of tension between cultural dependency and cultural relativity and the impact of everyone’s specific cultural and individual affiliations as

Fig. 1 Bolten’s model of Intercultural Competence (Bolten, 2012, p. 111–114; see also Praxmarer, 2014, p. 16; Schmid & Wilk, 2014)

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well as group-based and individual resources on their current standing in a determined local social context (ibid.).

2.4 Five Key Elements of Intercultural Competence While empirically testing his overall set of defined attributes of interculturally competent individuals, Bolten determined the following five aspects of individual and social intercultural competencies as being most crucial to enable someone to efficiently manage cultural and linguistic diversity in interpersonal relations in organizations and to further develop these organizations’ cultural proficiencies (Bolten, 2006, 2012): Role distance, empathy, flexibility, open-mindedness and ambiguity tolerance. Role distance refers to someone’s individual ability to critically reflect on and question one’s own behavior, positioning and role in a diverse context. It also facilitates the understanding of differences between individuals with cultures and languages that vary from the own background. An elevated role distance contributes to an increased control of one’s own behavior in a diverse group, which is necessary to not discriminate against anybody and to avoid conflicts. Empathy describes the own ability to imagine and think about a given situation from the perspective of another person with a culturally and linguistically different background. This ability is important to anticipate reactions of others to the own behavior and could lead to more appropriate behavior. Flexibility is someone’s individual ability to easily adapt to another person, situation or context that is culturally and linguistically diverse and unknown at first. Highly flexible individuals quickly manage to understand, and they agilely integrate themselves and accommodate their behavior to new organizational settings, social rules, cultural conventions and power hierarchies in a determined work team, organization or community. This disposition is crucial in a multicultural context as it facilitates intercultural dialogue and the acceptance of someone new in an established group. Openness refers to the ability of individuals to actively and respectfully interact with those who have other cultures and speak other languages than themselves. They are curious to learn from others about their worldviews. Openness is the basis for being able to acknowledge, accept and positively value the existence of diversity in society. It facilitates personal contact with diverse others and it fosters mutual understanding. Ambiguity tolerance is the ability to withstand uncertainties and contradictions in a diverse setting. Based on fundamental differences, those contradictions are very likely to occur when individuals interact with each other without prior experiences with members of the respective other cultures and languages. To be able to openly, patiently and constructively handle uncertainties is a crucial precondition for initiating an exchange and for building functional intercultural relationships (ibid.). Bolten (2006, 2012) initially designed his model of Intercultural Competence for international work teams in global companies. However, it has been proven to be

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suitable for its application in the field of educational research (Henze, 2018; Dalipi, 2018; Brase, 2018; Spaniel-Weise, 2018).

3 Methods and Data Sources In the presented study Bolten’s understanding of Intercultural Competence is used as theoretical framework to analyze the dispositions of recently appointed school leaders in culturally and linguistically diverse educational contexts. A focus is put on exploring the five mentioned essential components of intercultural competence (according to Bolten, 2012: Role distance, empathy, flexibility, openness and ambiguity tolerance) among each of the four selected new principals in multicultural and plurilingual schools in Australia (Wildy & Clarke as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 19– 30), Canada (Purvey & Webber as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 80–97), East-Timor (Macpherson as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 101–111) and South Africa (Mentz as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 126–139). The table below briefly summarizes the four selected cases (Table 1). The criteria for choosing the four out of a total of twelve cases from Cowie’s book called New primary leaders: International perspectives (2011) were that the schools had to be located in post-colonial contexts and that natives had to be among the students. In this study, the four selected personal accounts of the new principals in Australia, Canada, East-Timor and South Africa were reanalyzed. The qualitative content analysis method according to Philip Mayring (2015) was used to conduct the reevaluation of the data with regards to the two research questions. First of all, the five analytical categories for the qualitative content analysis of the selected texts were determined according to Bolten’s model of Intercultural Competence (2006, 2012): role distance, empathy, flexibility, open-mindedness and ambiguity tolerance. Then, the text of the four selected cases was coded with the help of these analytical categories. Afterwards, the content of those text extracts that Table 1 List of selected cases (Cowie, 2011) Case 1: Australia

Case 2: Canada

Case 3: East-Timor

Case 4: South Africa

John, married, 2 children, white

Tsutsweye, Shuswap, 1 child

Paulino, Mambai, married, 3 children

Cedric, grew up in Port-Elizabeth, black

Remote aboriginal community (Wadjari), 303 km to next town

Remote reserve community (Secwepemc), 50 km to next town

Remote community with access by foot, no electricity, 7 km to next town

Small suburb of Port-Elizabeth, Afrikaans speaking community

11 staff, 61 students, but 15–20 attend per day, great majority is aboriginal

19 staff, 58 students (48 live on the reserve), great majority is first nation

5 staff, 50 students, they all belong to the local ethnic group (Mambai)

18 teaching staff, 582 students, mix of Afrikaans & isiXhosa speakers

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belong to the same analytical category, were interpreted to determine the intercultural competences of the four new principals. In the end, the results of the qualitative text interpretation were grouped by case and by research question.

4 Results At first, demographic data of the new principals from Australia, Canada, East Timor and South Africa is summarized. Then, their challenges with regard to diversity are briefly described to answer the first research question for the four cases. In the end, for each of the five main skills that constitute Intercultural Competence, there is an example given to illustrate the respective level of the principals’ Intercultural Competence.

4.1 Case 1: Australia 4.1.1

A Principal in a Remote Aboriginal School Striving for Functional Relations

The first story about a new principal took place in Western Australia. John Anderson (his name and also the following names of new principals were copied from the original publication, see Cowie, 2011) shared his experiences as new principal with Wildy and Clarke (as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 19–30). The school is located in a village of the Pia Wadjari community. This is an isolated Aboriginal settlement that regained their territory in 1993. Its population varies between 20 and 300 persons, there is an elevated unemployment rate and a lack of financial resources. The remote location of the community is a reason for the scarcity of drinking water and food, which is only available 303 km away (ibid.). Challenges related to diversity (question 1). John never mentioned that addressing cultural and linguistic diversity was among the main concerns of being a principal at the remote aboriginal school. Instead he stated to be most challenged by keeping track with the immense workload. He exemplified that he had to address issues concerning the students and their attendance, health, behavior, learning and interpersonal relations. He took care of matters regarding the teachers and their professional development as well as the parents and their missing interest in the school and their children’s well-being. The community kept him busy, for example with lacking financial resources. He also had to tackle the demands deriving from the education system, like bureaucratic accountability (Wildy & Clarke as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 25–26). Apart from pointing out these challenges, he shared one particular incident that touches the topic of aborigines. In his second year as a principal he took a married couple on board to work as teachers in the school. Whereas the woman was a

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supportive and dedicated teacher that was liked by the students, team and the community, her husband was the opposite. He divided the team by dominating discussions and blocking any of their ideas, which resulted in two staff members taking stress leave. He also gained unpopularity among the students by insulting them and created discontent in the community by openly stating that he disliked aborigines. After John’s personal conversation with him didn’t result in a changed behavior, he managed, with the support of the school district administration, to relocate him and his wife (ibid., pp 27–28). Application of Intercultural Competences (question 2). “I had been to New Zealand and Malaysia. [Then my wife and I] signed up for Australian Volunteers International and [went] to Botswana [to teach. After three other jobs] in the remote inland of Western Australia, we moved [here], and this was my start as a principal… Families move around a fair bit. [Their kids] might go to another school, but mostly they don’t bother. I go round regularly and talk to the parents. I think it is the responsibility of families to get an education for their children. We offer it to them, but we can’t make them come to school. We can ensure our programs are engaging, stimulating and relevant.” (ibid., pp. 19–30). John’s statement demonstrates his elevated level of flexibility and ambiguity tolerance. John’s biggest strength is his own and his families’ flexibility. After having been with them in different parts of Australia and Botswana, they moved to the Wadjari settlement even though they did not know the communities’ culture. Also, he had no former experiences as a principal. He didn’t mention any difficulties with adapting to the new context and community, which indicates his own and his families’ elevated adaptability. John had already a high level of ambiguity tolerance when he started the position and he even increased it over time. He had to accept that the community had a different idea of what education should constitute and that, through their cultural lenses, formal school education had a different value to them than to himself. He wished for a higher attendance rate, so he created more incentives for the children to join classes. With regards to his role distance, the data showed that he quickly adapted to the communities’ idea of the schools’ function within the community and its members’ educational needs. Also, he critically reflected on his own role and behavior and those of the community members. However, John did not seem to have participated in community events. By doing so, he might have reached an even deeper level of understanding of them. Also, by creating stronger relationships between the school and the community he could have contributed even more to closing the cultural gap between the aboriginals and non-aboriginals. His level of empathy was average when he started, and it increased later. For example, he showed understanding for the community by not entering their houses to avoid being perceived as invasive. He also tolerated that aboriginal students miss school because of funerals or other cultural reasons. By openly expressing his worries about the students’ health and their access to nutrition, he proved his grown empathy.

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He also showed to be open-minded, because he mentioned that he values harmonious relationships the most and that he has put a lot of effort into getting to know the community and their needs. He did so by actively approaching them in public and by asking them about their opinions (ibid.).

4.2 Case 2: Canada 4.2.1

A Socially Engaged Native Principal in a School in a Reserve

The school community of the second case is located in British Columbia, Canada (Purvey & Webber as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 80–97). The principal’s name, Tsutsweye, is the Shuswap word for ‘butterfly’ which she used as a pseudonym. She identifies as native and grew up as a Shuswap, but off reserve. The band school is located in a First Nation community called Skeetchestn. Created in 1877, this reserve community is under the administration of the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council. The locals, the Secwepemc people, speak the native language Secwepmectsin. Tsutsweye became a principal at the so called Quiq’wi’elst (Blackstone) School, which was created in 1996 (ibid.). Challenges related to diversity (question 1). As a Shuswap principal serving a community of the same native origin, Tsutsweye entered the school in Skeetchestn as somebody collectively known as part of her family that lives in the reserve. She understood that students take community issues (such as substance abuse or domestic violence) to the classroom. Thus, her approach was to address these matters and to support the students and their families, because for her, the socio-emotional wellbeing is a precondition for students to achieve academic goals. Therefore, the principal created safe spaces to acknowledge their students’ experiences and to encourage dialogue. She also managed projects to deepen the community’s cohesion. A priority for her was building cooperative relationships between her and all the other educational actors, such as government representatives, social workers and teachers (Purvey & Webber as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 90–91). To promote the Scewepmectsin language and the Shuswap culture within the school, Tsutsweye designed projects, often in cooperation with partners such as the First Nations Education Steering Committee and the First Nations and Inuit Youth Training Program. Once, she collaborated with an aboriginal language initiative to bring elders together to integrate culturally and linguistically relevant elements in the curriculum (ibid., p. 87). Application of Intercultural Competences (question 2). “My culture is Shuswap…I was the second high school graduate in my extended family…I have aspirations for a doctorate… [They] knew my extended family…Relationship building is already started when they can identify you with somebody they know…I wanted to make a difference with the kids, but I had to take a few steps into the community to do that. Domestic violence was growing. There was increased substance abuse and other problems…what goes on in the community has a direct impact on my

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students, they bring it up to the school. To be better informed on social issues and diversity is a huge advantage. Going into leadership with [a] clear understanding of yourself makes it easier.” (ibid., pp. 80–97). This statement of Tsutsweye touches her increased level of empathy and her effort of developing her role distance. Her empathy was outstanding because she put a lot of effort into understanding the community that she belongs to. She addressed their issues by organizing projects and by building trustworthy personal relationships. For her, the role distance was already an asset when commencing her job as principal and she improved it over time. Even though she is of the same ethnic origin than her students, her lifestyle is different to theirs. Thus, Tsutsweye clearly switched between her role as a native community member and her role as a professional who pursues her outstanding academic goals. She flexibly took over the role as a school principal, however it took her over a year to adapt to it and its responsibilities. Also, it didn’t require much flexibility of her as she attends to the needs of a native community that Tsutsweye is a part of. She showed her open-mindedness by accepting and standing in an unjudgmental and supportive way with the students, her own extended family members and the local community, no matter what kind of situation they are in. Tsutsweye mentioned, that she realized during her first year as a new principal that she had to further improve her ambiguity tolerance. Even though she exemplified how she handled uncertainties as an undergraduate, graduate student, teacher and principal, she also admitted that she required external support and coaching in order to be able to overcome self-doubts and contradictions in her daily work (ibid.).

4.3 Case 3: East-Timor 4.3.1

A Participatory School Leader in an Independent Remote Community

The case of Paulino de Carralho (male) takes place in Aikua Rinkua, East-Timor (Macpherson as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 101–111). The mountain village is only reachable by foot, so it is geographically challenging to deliver any kind of supplies or materials to the locals’ homes and the school. Also, there is no electricity or heating. And as there are no laptops, administrative issues of the school were addressed on paper. Teachers and students use textbooks and made notes on the blackboard and on paper. The school has a dirt floor, brick walls, a roof as well as tables and chairs for everybody, but no ceilings, windows or doors. The Aiku Rinkau Primary School was found in 2007 as an independent school for the village community, but with the permission and financial support of the Alieu District Education Office and the national Ministry of Education in Dili (capital city). The school counted with four grades and classrooms at the time of the data collection.

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All together 50 students attended. The staff consisted of Paulino as principal and four teachers (ibid.). Challenges related to diversity (question 1). Paulino became the first principal of the Aiku Rinkau Primary School after its foundation. He settled there some years before because he had to flee and seek a safe place after the Indonesians left EastTimor in 1999 and militia groups destroyed various communities, such as his families’ in nearby Manututo and Aileu. Thus, as a member of the community where the school is located, he strongly identified with them, their history, place and issues, and he was very involved in serving them. For him it was most important as a school leader to be independent and not to let politics interfere with the school. To avoid this, he and his team developed the curriculum in cooperation with the community that met their specific educational needs (Macpherson as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 101–111). Besides issues such as limited teacher preparation and low educational quality, Paulino identified the multilingual nature of the post-colonial and post-conflict context of East-Timor as the greatest educational challenge to be tackled in his country at macro level and in his school at micro level. For him, this implies to be aware of ethnic and linguistic tensions, to recognize each individuals’ basic right to education in their mother tongue and to develop a commonly owned positioning of the school in this complex setting where, on the one hand Portuguese and Tetun became the official languages when the country was found in 2002 (after its independence from Portugal in 1975, its occupation by Indonesia from 1976 to 1999 and the transition period administered by the UN). On the other hand, however, because of the countries’ history, also Bahasa Indonesian and English are used as working languages. As Portuguese was recently re-introduced as basic language for education in East-Timor, most new textbooks, educational policies and official administrative matters are in Portuguese instead of in Bahasa Indonesian. But many educators are neither literate in Portuguese nor motivated to learn, use and teach the language (ibid., pp 101–102). The members of the community of Aikua Rinkua, including the schools’ students, belong to the second largest ethnic group in East-Timor (after the Tetum Dili people). They call themselves the Mambai people and they speak their language, Mambai, among each other at home. However, teachers at Paulino’s school use mainly textbooks in Portuguese and their direct instructions in the school are also in Portuguese. But they provide additional explanations in Tetun, which is highly appreciated by the community. English classes are not available at the school, but in the close by town of Alieu (ibid., p. 105). Application of Intercultural Competences (question 2). “I was invited to build a new school in my home village. I could not say no to my people… Our remote school makes us all feel very proud…I lead as a local person…My approach is being a good example to our community. This means not being involved in cock fighting or gambling, …communicating effectively about the schools’ activities… [and] delegating responsibilities to colleagues…When they make mistakes, it is important to speak with them, …but softly so they are not embarrassed and my relationship with them is not affected… [I have] a team and community leadership role. [The school]

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…is my family… Excellent relationships with the community... [is] the best insurance against politics… Our school is our independence.” (Macpherson as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 101–111). This statement of Paulino demonstrates especially his elevated level of empathy and open-mindedness. As he himself experienced and suffered from the turbulent times before the country’s independence in 2002, he deeply related to the social, cultural, psychological and economic issues of his community and students. His empathy towards them was his greatest asset that he brought with him when starting his job as a principal. He also seemed to have been especially open-minded about learning from other school principals and sharing best practices. He valued the level of qualification and knowledge of all of his staff members, and, at the same time, he encouraged them to improve their practices by providing them with friendly feedback and opportunities for further qualification. Because of his democratic and participatory leadership style and active involvement of the staff and the local community in the development of the curriculum, he proved to be particularly open about their viewpoints and needs. Paulino critically reflected his role as an educational leader in his own community. He sees himself as someone who sets a good example and acts in favor of their interests and well-being. As he is from the same community, for him not much role distance was required in order to understand them and establish functional relationships. Paulino adapted flexibly and with ease to his new role, especially thanks to the support of other school principals from the region and the superintendent. He also creatively handled unforeseen situations, such as inviting parents to help with managing the food from the School Feeding Program in order to generate more transparency and a wider understanding of the processes about the food distribution. He withstood ambiguities, for example related to the unsure improvement of the schools’ infrastructure. He wished for electricity, laptops and teaching material to be available and for proper sanitation facilities and streets that would permit children from other nearby communities to access the school with more ease. Besides the many scarcities he strived for improving the educational quality of the school and continued his work with a lot of enthusiasm. Other ambiguities that Paulino learned to handle derived from the disbalance between political requirements and the need for school autonomy, for instance with regards to the curriculum and language(s) of instruction (ibid.).

4.4 Case 4: South Africa 4.4.1

Leading an Ethnically Mixed and Conflicted Suburban School

The study case of South Africa took place in Schauderville, a suburb of PortElizabeth, located in the Eastern Cape province, where the first-time principal Cedric

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Matroos grew up (Mentz as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 126–139). This coastal city belongs to the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality which has about 1.3 million inhabitants. It was established by the British people in the 1820s, but it was settled many years before by native people. Schauderville is a neither notably rich nor poor suburb. The English medium Frank Joubert Primary School school is located in a black Afrikaans speaking community that has to cope with an elevated abuse of drugs and alcohol as well as with a crime rate slightly above the South African average. Other nearby suburbs in the north and east have townships populated by black indigenous isiXhosa speakers, which is the second biggest South African native group after the Zulus (ibid.). Challenges related to diversity (question 1). South Africa has eleven official languages. With almost 22.7%, isiZulu is the most spoken language, followed by isiXhosa (16%), Afrikaans (13.5%) and English (9.6%). However, English is mostly used by the government and in the media (CIA, 2018). In South Africa children have a constitutional right to an education in their mother tongue if feasible, however in practice the predominant language of instruction in most schools of the country is either Afrikaans or English. AmaXhosa students are taught in black township schools from grade 1 through 3 in their native language and then in grade 4 it is switched to English. As these native students often are not ready for such a rapid change, they show lower results from grade 4 onwards compared to non-native students (Mentz as cited in Cowie, 2011, pp. 126–139). In the interview, Cedric addressed the discontent of the Afrikaans speaking local families (who traditionally sent their children to this school because they preferred them to take English classes) about the influx of amaXhosas from less affluent neighboring townships. Those amaXhosa parents who are able to afford it, sent their children to the English medium school to facilitate their transfer to an English high school afterwards. Cedric felt sorry for both, the Afrikaans and isiXhosa speakers because in his school they had no access to education in either of their mother tongues. To change that, he wanted to recover an earlier structure of a 50/50 ratio of teaching in Afrikaans and English. At the same time, he encouraged the amaXhosa people to send their children back to the schools in their townships with three years of education in their native language. However, he anticipated obstacles. There was a lack of financial support from the Afrikaans parents to establish a dual-language structure in the school. Also, as the amaXhosa parents refused to enroll their children in the township schools (to avoid future educational disadvantages of their children) and as the department of education didn’t reinforce them to participate in education in their native language (isiXhosa), they continued to attend his English speaking school (ibid., pp. 132–133, 136). Application of Intercultural Competences (question 2). “My approach to leadership is that…everyone must follow and be aware of the rules…The Xhosa people from the western and eastern suburbs come to pay the annual school fees early, and you accept them, because it is fair that first come should be first served. Some local [Afrikaans speaking] parents are not comfortable with that. I also feel uncomfortable about that, but if the local parents don’t react to the advertisements, I can’t do anything about that. I have taken measures to engage with the parents and the community by

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giving them the opportunity to exercise their language rights…I feel upset about the children not being taught in their mother tongue, but the parents prefer their children take English.” (ibid., pp. 126–139). This statement of Cederic shows especially his great role distance and ambiguity tolerance. As he was very aware of his role and sphere of action, he successfully and professionally controlled his behavior with parents, for example by allowing amaXhosa parents to enroll their children in the school according to the first-come-first-serveprinciple. He also proved his elevated role distance towards the teachers when he set clear rules and asked his team to respect them. Furthermore, he showed his ability to adequately control and adapt his own behavior, when he remained diplomatic, even though there were great tensions between the members of the school governing body. Cedric tolerated ambiguities that evolved from interactions with the superintendent and the department of education, despite his great frustration about the lack of resources assigned by them to the school, the inefficiency of their work and their missing support. He truly understood the interests of all schools’ actors, especially the Afrikaans and isiXhosa speaking parents. Having to address ethnic tensions and interest conflicts made him improve his empathy and mediation skills. Cedric was pushed into becoming a teacher by his father and it took him about a year to adapt to the work reality in the teaching profession. Then he flexibly adjusted himself to the changed position at the school (from teacher to principal) over the course of about a year. However, it was challenging for him at first to leave most of his teaching behind. He made clear that he was open and accepting about the parents’ decisions to enroll their children in his English medium school, even though English was not their mother tongue. When he assumed the position as principal his open-mindedness was put to test, then he improved it over time (ibid.)

5 Summary of the Results 5.1 Question 1: Challenges of New Principals Due to Diversity Table 2 summarizes the diversity issues of the four principals related to the place, people and self and provides a basis for a cross-case comparison. The challenges that the four newly appointed school principals had to tackle did not directly evolve from the multiethnic and plurilingual nature of their student populations, but more indirectly from contextual issues of the school communities (case 1 and 2) and the structures of the school systems (case 3 and 4). They had to address complex issues related to the diverse school context that were difficult for them to anticipate and thus, they could not prepare themselves beforehand. Instead, they had to be able to spontaneously develop contextualized solutions for the challenges that

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Table 2 Overview of the diversity challenges that the four new principals faced Challenges to address the place

Challenges to address people

Challenges to address the self

Case 1: Australia, John

Low rate of student attendance, missing motivation to participate in school

Disrespectful staff Difference between member who intoxicated own and community the work climate values regarding formal education

Case 2: Canada, Tsutsweye

Missing culturally and linguistically relevant curriculum and practice

Students are mentally and psychologically affected by community

Difficulties to balance job, private life and community

Case 3: E.-Timor, Paulino

Tight scope of educational policies that challenged the schools’ autonomy

Diverse expectations within the local community of the provided education

Contrasts between own visions (e.g. infrastructure) and reality (few resources)

Case 4: S. Africa, Cedric

Pressure to comply with policies (access to education and language of instruction)

Contradicting interests of parents from different ethnic groups in a tense social setting

Remain professional despite internal frustration about lacking action of administrators

were often interlinked and, hence, simultaneously related to the place, to the people in the school and to the self. The place matters because contextual factors such as legal, political and administrative regulations (see case 3 and 4) as well as the local communities’ well-being, culture, values and expectations of formal school education (see case 1 and 2) shape the basic conditions of schools and its diverse students. The schools’ contexts impact the level of the schools’ leaders’ autonomies and the educational needs of the students. In the case of East-Timor and South Africa, both new principals emphasized the fact that they felt restrained in their leadership by administrative regulations and pressured to comply with these norms. John (Australia) and Tsutsweye (Canada) on the contrary did not mention to be particularly restricted by regulatory frameworks. In their cases, contextual issues related to the locals were of greatest concern to them, like elaborating curricula that fit the communities’ needs and cultures. These two elements—institutionalized rules and local cultures—create an area of tension that leads to contrasting and not always reconcilable interests of the involved actors. In all four cases the principals were in a sandwich position where they had to mediate between systems’ requirements, educational needs of the locals and the abilities of the schools’ staff. The people matter because individual and collective issues of the students and the schools’ staff, of the local community and the school district administration impact the learning conditions of the students (see case 2), the work culture of the staff (see case 1) and the general climate within the school (see case 3) and the larger school community (see case 4).

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The individual disruptive behavior of one discriminatory teacher (case 1) and of one inactive school district administrator (case 4) clearly contributed to toxic relationships and destructive work climates. It required sensitive relationship building, patient mediation and elevated conflict solution skills by the principals. John was in the position of power, thus he initiated the transfer of the teacher to another school. As Cedric was subordinated to the school district administrator, he had to find a way to auto-regulate his personal frustration about the administrator’s inactivity. Tsutsweye and Paulino showed that being members of the local communities, identifying with their ethnic and cultural identity, and being able to communicate in the mother tongues of the locals has a significant positive impact on the quality and profundity of the connection between the school and the community. In both cases, these trustful relationships legitimized their positions not only as school leaders but also as community leaders. They successfully managed to create a collaborate work climate among the school staff and they involved the community in the design of the curriculum (case 2) and programs (case 3). Through their democratic leadership styles and their community-based projects they impacted the lives of the students and their’ families, and, they also brought the community closer together. For principals to lead their teams and their students to success, not only but especially in culturally and linguistically diverse school communities, functional interpersonal relationships are key. In each of the four cases the principals followed their very own approach to create and cultivate such positive relations. While John built alliances with the school district administration and the teaching staff to make the discriminatory teacher leave, Cedric actively involved himself as a patient, neutral and professional mediator in the school council to find compromises. Tsutsweye invested a lot of extra time to carefully listen to the students, to involve the community in educational processes and to apply for funding. Paulino’s approach was to make everything that happened in the school transparent to the community and to value all the members of the school community for their abilities. These examples show that building relationships as a principal is a highly individual process that depends on the personalities of the leaders and their approaches to leadership, but also on the individual and collective characteristics of all the other persons in the school community. The self matters because to auto-regulate themselves and to assume and shape their new professional roles as principals was especially challenging for the four new leaders because of the highly complex contextual conditions and interpersonal relationships in the culturally and linguistically diverse communities. Issues of self-regulation had to do with managing their own time, resources (case 2), expectations and visions (case 3). Both principals showed great dedication while getting involved in leading their schools and in contributing to the communities’ well-being and cultural preservation. For Tsutsweye this was challenging because she had to sacrifice time for her child and for her own academic development. Thus, her self-regulatory process involved finding a healthier work-life balance. Paulino had to learn how to manage his expectations and frustrations when things turned out differently than expected. His issue of self-regulation implied understanding

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what he could change (the curriculum) and what he had to accept as it was (the assigned resources). The others had to address cultural and linguistic differences between themselves and the community (case 1) and between the different families that enrolled their children in the school (case 4). Differing value systems of members of a diverse school community had led in both cases to an increase in intercultural tensions. To be able to mediate in such situations, John and Cedric, had to learn about their own cultural conditioning. They overcame their ethnocentric views, increased their empathy and developed a neutral professional role as school leaders. John, identifying as white Australian, entered the aboriginal community with only a handful of other white people. One of his greatest challenge was to position himself with regards to the communities’ different values related to formal school education. Cedric is also black and Afrikaans speaking, like about half of the student population at his school. As he had worked at the same school as a teacher before becoming a principal there, he was already familiar with the school and the intercultural tensions between the families. Thus, he did not stick out as much as John. His process of self-regulation involved developing a professional, diplomatic attitude, fairness and neutrality. In each case, even though the settings and the four principals’ personalities were quite different, addressing the self and developing a clear role as school leader was the basis for their standing within the school community and their potential impact on those involved in educational processes.

5.2 Question 2: Applying Intercultural Competencies An already existing level of role distance, empathy, flexibility, open-mindedness and ambiguity tolerance was crucial for each of the four to be appointed and to successfully assume their roles as a first-time school principals in such culturally and linguistically diverse contexts. By addressing diversity issues on the job, they improved their Intercultural Competencies over time. Table 3 summarizes the results of the coding process. The scale of the principals’ Intercultural Competencies ranges from 0 (none), 1 (a bit) and 2 (average) to 3 (elevated) and 4 (maximum). The first number indicates their competency level when they started their job and the second number (after the - >) shows their competency level at the point of the data collection, about a year after their appointments. Comparing the development of the different aspects of Intercultural Competencies of the four new principals, it sticks out that everybody started their position with some elevated skills and improved others over time. Besides these five aspects of Intercultural Competencies, the four principals also needed other additional specific abilities (as listed below in Table 4) to tackle the before mentioned challenges (see Table 2 above) that they were facing due to the culturally and linguistically diverse nature of their schools’ contexts.

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Table 3 Level of key abilities of Intercultural Competence at the beginning of the new position and in the moment of data collection (Cowie, 2011) Aspects of Intercultural Competence

Case 1: Australia (John)

Case 2: Canada (Tsutsweye)

Case 3: East-Timor (Paulino)

Case 4: South Africa (Cedric) 4

Role distance

3

2−>4

1−>2

Empathy

2−>3

4

4

3−>4

Flexibility

4

2−>3

2−>3

1−>2

Open-mindedness

3

3

3−>4

2−>3

Ambiguity tolerance 3 − > 4

2–>3

2–>3

4

TOTAL

13 – > 17

12 – > 16

14 – > 17

15 – > 17

Table 4 Overview of the specific skills of the four principals to address diversity challenges Competencies to address the place

Competencies to address people

Competencies to address the self

Case 1: Australia, John

Creativity, Open-mindedness, Communication

Negotiation skills, Strategic planning, Sense of fairness

Ambiguity tolerance, Role distance, Multi-perspectivity

Case 2: Canada, Tsutsweye

Cooperation, Net-working, Democratic leadership

Empathy, Helpfulness, Caring attitude

Stress resilience, Time management, Ability to say ‘no’

Case 3: E.-Timor, Paulino

Innovative thinking, Public spirit, Persuasiveness, Listening skills, Resistance when under Transparency pressure

Realistic assessment, Stamina, Creativity

Case 4: S. Africa, Cedric

Ambiguity tolerance, Flexibility, Adaptability

Professionalism, Empathy, Conflict solution

Role distance, Diplomatic skills, Conflict ability

6 Scholarly Significance The analysis of the challenges that new principals on four different continents faced, provides insights into the complex nature of culturally and linguistically diverse school contexts and fosters the awareness of the impact that this diversity has on schools as well as on educational, improvement and leadership processes. It showed that individuals of different cultures have different ideas about the role and contents of formal education; and that structural elements of school systems—like policies, administrative regulations, curricular frameworks, textbooks and educational standards—are oftentimes designed only through the lens of mainstream culture, leaving out other cultures. The study encourages educational actors to be more conscious about how their own actions might lead to deepening cultural and linguistic gaps and to critically evaluate the cultural and linguistic relevance of their practice for everyone in the

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community. It emphasizes the importance for new principals to consider the place, the people and the self when assuming their leadership position in a diverse context. Furthermore, the study enables a deeper understanding of the skills that potential first-time school principals need to possess to successfully assume leadership positions in such diverse schools. It argues for adding Intercultural Competence trainings to teacher education and school leadership programs. This study also represents an initial point for researchers in the field of intercultural education to develop an Intercultural school leadership competence model for new principals and quantitative indicators for its measurement. Assessment results could inform strategies for recruiting suitable teachers for a diverse school and for intercultural staff development.

References Blaydes, J. (2004). Survival skills for the principalship. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Bolten, J. (2006). Interkulturelle Kompetenz. In L. R. Tsvasman (Ed.), Das große Lexikon Medien und Kommunikation (pp. 163–166). Würzburg, Germany: Ergon-Verlag. Bolten, J. (2012). Interkulturelle Kompetenz. Erfurt, Germany: Landeszentrale für politische Bildung Thüringen. Brase, N. (2018). Interkulturelle Kompetenz als pädagogische Schlüsselqualifikation der Erwachsenenbildung. Kaiserslautern, Germany: Distance and Independent Studies Center (DISC). Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) (2018). The World Factbook—South Africa. Washington D.C.: CIA. Cowie, M. (Ed.). (2011). New primary leaders: International perspectives. Continuum International: London & New York. Dalipi, M. (2018). Face als Orientierung pädagogischen Handelns im Hochschulbereich dargestellt am Beispiel Spanien. Berlin, Germany: Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Daresh, J. C., & Alexander, L. (2016). Beginning the principalship. A practical guide for new school leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Fullan, M., & Boyle, A. (2014). Big-city school reforms. New York: Teachers College Press, Toronto: Ontario Principals’ Council. Henze, J. (2018). Theorie-Inseln und Praxis-Camps: Horizonte der Interkulturellen Kompetenzdiskussion. In E. Rößler (Ed.), Wilhelm, Alexander und wir: Einheit von Lehre und Forschung im Fremdsprachenunterricht an Hochschulen. Dokumentation der 29. Arbeitstagung des AKS 2016. Bochum, Germany: AKS-Verlag. Herwartz-Emden, L., Schurt, V., & Waburg, W. (2010). Aufwachsen in heterogenen Sozialisationskontexten. Zur Bedeutung einer geschlechtergerechten interkulturellen Pädagogik. Wiesbaden, Germany: VS Verlag. Lindsey, R. B., Nuri-Robins, K., Terrell, R. D., & Lindsey, D. B. (2019). Cultural proficiency: A manual for school leaders (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin. Macpherson, R. (2011). ‘Our school is our independence’: A novice school director’s perspective on school leadership and post-conflict reconstruction in East-Timor. In M. Cowie (Ed.), New primary leaders: International perspectives (pp. 101–111). London & New York: Continuum International. Mayring, P. (2015). Qualitative Inhaltsanalyse: Grundlagen und Techniken (12th ed.). Weinheim, Germany: Beltz Verlag.

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Mentz, K. (2011). Life in the principalship during challenging times: A new south african principal’s perspective. In M. Cowie (Ed.), New primary leaders: International perspectives (pp. 127–139). London & New York: Continuum International. Praxmarer, P. (2014). Intercultural (Communication) Competence- Script and Study Materials. Switzerland: Universita della Svissera italiana. Purvey, D., & Webber, C. (2011). ‘Something greater was happening’: A novice principal reflects on creating change through building community relationships. In M. Cowie (Ed.), New primary leaders: International perspectives (pp. 80–96). London & New York: Continuum International. Rooney, J. (2000). Survival skills for the new principal. Educational Leadership, 58(1), 77–78. Ross, D. J., & Cozzens, J. A. (2016). The principalship: Essential core competencies for instructional leadership and its impact on school climate. Journal of Education and Training, 4(9), 162–176. Schmid, S., & Wilk, V. (2014). Interkulturelle Kompetenz. Jena, Germany: IntercultureTV. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QLZ1ImRl6I&feature=youtu.be. Spaniel-Weise, D. (2018). Europäische Mehrsprachigkeit, bilinguales Lernen und Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Berlin, Germany: Frank & Timme Verlag für wissenschaftliche Literatur. Tomasevski, K. (2001). Human rights obligations: Making education available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. Stockholm, Sweden: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency. United Nations—General Assembly. (2015). Transforming our world: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. New York: UNO. Wildy, H., & Clarke, S. (2011). At the Edge of the Silent Centre: An Australian Principal’s Reflections on Leading an Isolated School. In M. Cowie (Ed.), New primary leaders: International perspectives (pp. 19–29). London & New York: Continuum International.

Language-in-Education Policies in a New Immigration Country: Enabling and Disabling Local Leadership in a Multilingual School in Italy Carla Paciotto, Enrico Castelli Gattinara, and Daniela Mainardi

Abstract This chapter illustrates the multilayered relationship between macro and micro Language Education Policies (LEPs) for immigrant students in Italy—a new European immigration country (Azzolini, 2011)—by presenting the results of a preliminary investigation of a long-standing Italian as a Second Language (ISL) program in an experimental middle school in Rome. The study examines local contexts of program creation vis-à-vis supranational and state policies regulating the education of Italian immigrant students. Employing a critical sociocultural framework (Johnson, 2013; Levinson, Sutton, & Winstead, 2009) and a scalar analysis approach (Blommaert, 2010, 2015) to LEP research (Hult, 2010, 2015; Wortham, 2012), local and national LEP texts, along with teacher and student interview data, show a non-linear relationship between local enactments and macro-level LEPs. Scalar analysis uncovered the ways local leaders made sense of current and past practices, unveiling the interconnectedness of local enactors’ appropriation, interpretation, and resistance to state mandates. School leaders also based LEPs on local needs and experiences, showing ontogenetic LEP processes (Hurdus & Lasagabaster, 2018) in the absence of comprehensive state policies. The study presents an example of how school leaders can be creative policy agents supporting language minority students and how scalar analysis can strengthen education policy research focused on vulnerable student populations. Keywords Language policy · Immigrant students · Scalar analysis · Macro policy · Micro policy · School leaders · Local leadership · Second language acquisition · Appropriation C. Paciotto (B) Western Illinois University, Moline, IL 61265, USA e-mail: [email protected] E. C. Gattinara · D. Mainardi Istituto Comprensivo Via delle Carine - Scuola Media Statale Giuseppe Mazzini, Rome, Italy e-mail: [email protected] D. Mainardi e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_11

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1 Introduction The work presented in this chapter is based on the assumption that “our decisions about language policies in education matter to the survival of democracy itself” (Tollefson, 2013, p. 309). Language Education Policies (LEPs) are an influential conduit of ideological and political stances and manifest themselves in educational practices that can undermine or sustain immigrant students’ language and educational rights, academic achievement, and, ultimately, social wellbeing. Under these assumptions, LEP research and theoretical orientations have been concerned with explaining the complex mechanisms of LEP making and implementation processes with the ultimate objective of identifying how policies and practices can (or cannot) effectively support the educational rights of language minority students and, in turn, their success as students. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) reports have consistently showed that in most of the 36 OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries—which include Canada, the United States, China, and most European countries—immigrant children who are not native speakers of the school language of instruction lag behind in mathematics and reading proficiency in comparison to native speakers (Christensen & Stanat, 2007). According to PISA, the aforementioned factor is the strongest determinant of academic achievement (OECD, 2012), even after controlling for socioeconomic variables. Non-native speakers of the school language benefit from well-developed and sustained instructional support when acquiring the second language skills necessary to successfully master academic content (Christensen & Stanat, 2007). Scholars warn that second language instruction should not be viewed as the panacea for closing the achievement gap, as immigrant students’ “sense of belonging at school, their satisfaction with life, their level of schoolwork-related anxiety and their motivation to achieve” (OECD, 2018) are crucial factors that influence their ability to overcome academic difficulties. Collier’s and Thomas’ (1997, 2009) Prism Model for Bilingual Learners explains how second language learning processes are crucially influenced by sociocultural and affective contexts and (Collier, 1995) and, ultimately, impact academic success. However, in spite of forty years of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research producing evidence-based principles and guidelines for effective SL programming, there is a persistent gap between LEPs and what SLA research recommends (Cummins, 2013). In light of these observed trends, this chapter is concerned with understanding how LEPs were developed and sustained at an “experimental” middle school in Rome, Italy that positions itself as “A School that Loves Differences” with an overt pluralistic mission and a well-established Italian as a Second Language (ISL) program. In the last 25 years, Italy has reversed its traditional role as an emigration country (Portera, 2007) toward becoming a central gateway for European and non-European immigration (Strozza, 2012), and a Mediterranean port of entry for the epochal refugee migration resulting from wars, ethnic cleansing, drought, and poverty from mainly African and Middle Eastern nations. Such migration flows have dramatically

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impacted the ethnic composition of Italian society and school demographics. As an emerging “superdiverse” (Vertotec, 2007) country with a ten-fold increase in the number of ISL learners in the last two decades, Italy offers an ideal opportunity to critically analyze a case of recent LEP making. Conceiving policy as a sociocultural practice and discourse (Liddicoat, 2013), this study employs scalar analysis to dissect sociolinguistic data (Blommaert, 2007) as a means to “to capture multiple levels and directions of influence” (Mortimer, 2015, p. 59). This approach reveals how such influences intersect with the creation and implementation of policies. Scalar analysis uncovered the ways in which local education leaders made sense of current and past educational programs and practices and showed the complexity and interconnectedness between enactors’ appropriation of and resistance to Italian state educational mandates, which also underscored ontogenetic LEP processes (Hurdus & Lasagabaster, 2018) in the absence of a comprehensive and funded state LEP. This study shows how LEP research framed by epistemologies and methods based on sociocultural theories and scalar analysis can contribute to the discussion of how state and localities can move toward providing an equalized distribution of cultural and educational capital to immigrant and refugee children in superdiverse countries at a time of epochal international sociopolitical and economic upheaval and geographic displacement. It also raises questions of how a state can mitigate the tensions between general school autonomy mandates, educational innovation laws, schools’ and teachers’ autonomy and leadership, while creating a comprehensive and sound LEP mandate for all schools.

1.1 Theoretical Frameworks Critical sociocultural theories, TimeSpace scales, and LEP. While early LEP research primarily focused on macro-level and top-down policy processes assuming a direct causality and unidirectional influence from state policies to local enactments (Corson, 1999; Menken & García, 2010), influential ethnographic LEP studies have been crucial in unveiling a recurrent mismatch between macro LEP policies and micro enactments and thus have widened the research interest toward a fuller understanding of local implementation processes (Hornberger & Johnson, 2007; Johnson & Freeman, 2010; Shohamy, 2006). Much of this research has framed LEP inquiry within a critical sociocultural perspective, where “the way to unpack policy is to see it as a kind of social practice, specifically, a practice of power. … conceptualiz[ing] the entire policy process as a complex set of interdependent sociocultural practices” (Levison et al. 2009, pp. 767–768). In this theoretical perspective, the focus on local LEP practices has been fundamental in unmasking coercive LEPs, unveiling how implementational spaces that support linguistic rights of minoritized students can be opened and closed not only by macro-level policies but also by local actors (e.g., administrators, teachers, parents). Importantly, teachers have been identified as de facto policymakers who hold the

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power to appropriate policy mandates in unpredictable ways within their classrooms, often positioning themselves as “unauthorized” agents of change (Levinson et al. 2009). This work has revealed tensions and frequent power struggles between local enactments and institutional constraints, which also demonstrate how microlevel/local policy enactors can become active LEP agents who appropriate, interpret, and resist top-down laws and regulations. As macro-level contextual factors and realities impact the actions of local policy agents, at the same time, personal experiences, ideologies, attitudes, and belief systems (McCarty, 2011) have been identified as driving local agents toward unexpected directions. While LEP research with a sociocultural framing has brought to surface the complexity of the interaction between state policies and local enactments, this has fundamentally been based on the assumption that macro-micro LP interactions represent a binary process where state policies ultimately exert key influence and constraint on local enactments and individual agency, which then primarily interacts with and reacts to macro-level forces. Recently, this assumption has been critiqued as “an essentialist, linear or binary modeling of top-down versus bottomup influences” (McEntee-Atalianis, 2016, p. 187) with limited interpretive power for the unpacking of increasingly complex micro-macro interactions in superdiverse contexts. Macro-micro framework and heuristics might limit the unveiling of the complexity of how “agency” is developed and how LEP process, assumed linear macro-micro movements, can impinge on our ability to see how the process can take other directions. The focus then shifts to the contextualization processes of LEP through the notion of scale originally developed in the field of historical and social geography and applied to the study of sociolinguistic phenomena (Blommaert, 2010). When policy is conceived as discourse, this scale construct offers a productive lens for language policy research. Specifically, the idea of sociolinguistic scales implies a bi-dimensional spatiotemporal nature of meaning-making processes (e.g., local and translocal, micro and macro, personal and collective) where different levels of context are indexed in the same discourse to produce meaningful and comprehensible communication. Blommaert (2010) explains how we produce meaning when interacting socially by scaling our discourse: Social events and processes move and develop on a continuum of layered scales, with the strictly local (micro) and the global (macro) as its extremes and several intermediary scales (e.g., the level of the state) in between… we see the interaction between the different scales as a core feature of understanding such events… The capacity to achieve understanding in communication is the capacity to lift momentary instances of interaction to the level of common meanings, and the two directions of indexicality (presupposing—the retrieval of available meanings—and entailing—the production of new meanings (Silverstein, 2006a) are at the heart of such processes. (pp. 32–33)

In this perspective, a text provides traceable and analyzable (semiotic) signs that might indicate multiple co-existing contextual influences and the same (policy) discourse can be produced by indexing different scales—that is, texts make reference to different contexts to explain how policy functions in a particular locale and what forces shape it. It follows that the traditionally oppositional micro-macro LEP

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interaction is re-conceptualized in a way that allows us to reimagine local policies and practices as influenced by various scale levels without presupposing that one level is more relevant than another. In other words, it avoids the presumption that macro LEPs ultimately exert the highest level of influence on local enactments. In LEP inquiry, “scalar metaphors unveil the way social processes and practices are framed, especially in hierarchical ways” (Canagarajah & De Costa, 2016, p. 3) and can “enable distinctions about power, agency, authority, and validity” (Blommaert, 2015, p. 110) in a more exact and layered manner. Scales allow for the analysis of how LEP is contextualized by speakers, providing the possibility of identifying contextual constraints and authorizations across a continuum of intermediate scales where the micro and macro scale levels constitute the opposite ends. Canagarajah and De Costa (2016) underline that researchers are interested not so much in scales per se, rather in how participants in the sociolinguistic event engage in scaling practices and how their discourse gives authority and power to some scales over others. The process of scaling then becomes the central point of inquiry whereby scaling practices in discourse are transformed into policy practice. This approach to the analysis of scaling practices, in turn, unveils policymaking processes as “a way of combining attention to space, time and power in contextualization, and the heterogeneity of resources in making sense of policy as it is appropriated” (p. 60). Other scholars highlight the notion of scales as a means to identify how local LEPs might be created as a solution to contingent issues that may or may not find any reflection on a macro level policy. Hurdus and Lasagabaster (2018) provide examples in which national policies are insufficient, merely symbolic, or are not responding to the needs of the local context. In this case, they “advance an ontogenetic alternative” (Hurdus & Lasagabaster, 2018, p. 3) for LEP making where, when faced with a dilemma, “the agent calls on resources that facilitate its successful resolution, and in doing so, takes part in the policy-making process” (Hurdus & Lasagabaster, 2018, pp. 3–4). When these resources do not index top-down macro level policy mandates, this does not necessarily indicate that higher level institutions have left open implementation spaces for creative local enactments, but that local agents might have created those spaces independently by using their own resources and talents. From this perspective, the ontogenetic alternative eliminates the “distinction between policy-making and policy implementation/appropriation” processes (Hurdus & Lasagabaster, 2018, p. 3) as they are both taking place at the local site. While this perspective strengthens the possibility of identifying how local individual agency can originate LEPs, Wortham (2012) and Wortham and Rhodes (2012) provide further insight on how scales allow us to view local agency development as highly complex processes. Instead of conceiving of the individual agent as the primary engine of local change, they point at the fact that, “such action is always mediated through collective artifacts” (p. 29). Individual agency is more realistically a product of “joint action” and “emergent patterns, however, are more often accomplished by groups” (Wortham & Rhodes, 2012, p. 79), so that “individual action, interactional patterns, ontogenetic and community trajectories are all constrained by processes at longer and broader temporal and spatial scales” (p. 130).

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While earlier discussion of LEP was focused on how agents negotiated, appropriated, and contested macro level policies, the scalar perspective shifts the main inquiry to how policy agents and institutions practice contextualization of their policies and practices and appropriate, negotiate, and contest scales. Such scalar activity can be viewed in itself as “a category of practice that is sensitive to the way social agents invoke context strategically for their interests” (Canagarajah & De Costa, 2016, p. 4). Canagarajah and De Costa (2016) explain that scaling practices become the center of inquiry, which now focuses on “how scales are renegotiated, co-constructed, and taken up in diverse competing social groups and institutions. Such an orientation also involves treating scales as a process rather than a product” (p. 3). LEP inquiry then is reconceptualized as scalar analysis in order to more aptly capture the multiple factors and agents that influence policymaking and what authority and power centers are mobilized by participants to make sense of, explain, and authorize their policies and practices. The ultimate purpose of such work is to strengthen our ability to understand how LEP can serve minoritized children “more as an instrument of empowerment and less as an instrument of power” (Mortimer, 2015, pp. 58–59).

2 Method: Toward a Scalar Analysis of Local LEP Processes in Italy Framed by critical sociocultural theories and the notion of sociolinguistic scales, the research approach and method were based on the assumption that qualitative and ethnographic methods for the study of LEP enactments are essential for capturing the multilayered reality of language policies in educational contexts and the processes of “creation, interpretation and appropriation of language policy development” (Johnson, 2010a, b p. 74). Nexus analysis, defined as the collection of social actions in a specific LEP context and where “all of our actions (and discourses) are constructed out of complex interweaving of semiotic materials in multiple modes” (Scollon, 2008, p. 236), was employed as a way to systematize scalar analysis in an LEP nexus of practice (Hult, 2015, p. 218). Hult (2015) describes three types of intersecting discourse that can be mapped within a nexus of practice and can guide nexus analysis: (1) historical body, (2) discourses in place, and (3) interaction order. The “historical body” discourse highlights human agency (personal scale) and offers insight into how the individual scale connects to language policy processes (p. 223) where personal “experiences, skills, and beliefs held by individuals might relate to how a policy action unfolds” (p. 223). The “discourses in place” point at conceptual and material contexts that connect the local social policy action to a wider policy, ideological, or institutional realm (p. 224) that can also be identified through intertextual analysis of policy texts (Johnson, 2015). The “interaction order” component of the overarching approach focuses on speech observed in contexts as “a kind of bridge between the individual (historical body) and the societal (discourse in place) scales

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… to determine how individuals co-construct opportunities for certain discourses to be foregrounded or backgrounded in relation to a policy action” (p. 225). This exploratory qualitative study investigated the processes of contextualization of a long-standing ISL program in a public middle school in Rome during the school years 2013–2014 and 2014–2015. The school provided ISL support to immigrant students as an integral and sustained component of the school program since the 1990s. The middle school (6–8th grade) was working under the auspices of a 1974 law (DPR 419/1974) that designated the “experimental” nature of the program in the 1990s and established that the state would provide the school with additional funds for teachers dedicated to “alfabetizzazione” (literacy development) in Italian as L2 (i.e., second language) and paired to regular content area teachers. These teachers were commonly called “doppio” (double) teachers. Within the LEP nexus of practice study, the analysis on historical body discourse focused on secondary data sources such as school policy texts, documents, archival data, and curricular materials that were collected from the school website and from participants. In addition, discourses-in-place were collected and analyzed in the form of in-depth audiotaped interviews of participants. Thirteen teachers (seven regular content-area teachers and six double ISL teachers) were interviewed along with eleven ISL students and the parent coordinator of the Parent Council.

2.1 The Site of the Study National demographic context. The latest Italian census (ISTAT, 2013a) reported a total of four million immigrants—7% of the total population—with a ten-fold increase since the beginning of the 1990s and a triplication of its numbers during the last decade (Paterno & Gabrielli, 2014). In 2013, the National Institute for Statistics (ISTAT, 2013b) recorded a 171% increase of families with at least one “foreign” member between 2001 and 2012. The most recent demographic report (ISTAT, 2017a) showed a further increase in the total number of European and non-European residents with just over 5 million in total. According to the 2011 census, more than half (53%) of the immigrants came from Europe, specifically from the European Union (27%) and roughly one out of four from Central Eastern European countries (25.3%). The second largest group (21%) came from Africa, predominantly from Northern Africa (14.4%), followed by 18% originating from Asian countries and 8.2% with Central and South American origins. Specifically, the first ten European and non-European countries to be represented among immigrant communities were Romania, Albania, Morocco, China, Ukraine, Moldova, Philippines, India, Peru, and Poland. In the last few years, Italy has played a central role as a Mediterranean port of entry for the dramatic and epochal refugee migration resulting from wars, ethnic cleansing, drought and poverty from mainly African and Middle Eastern nations. ISTAT has registered an increase in requests of political asylum and international protection up to 34% of all resident permit applications—a historic number, where

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almost half of the asylum seekers come from Nigeria, Pakistan and Gambia (ISTAT, 2017b). The rapid increase of immigrants in Italy has impacted the ethnic composition of the school population. A mere 0.3% of immigrants were present in the 1992– 1993 academic year. The proportion of immigrant school children grew to 7.9% by 2010–2011 (Paterno & Gabrielli, 2014), and in 2013–2014 were recorded at 9.5%. Reflecting the general settlement trend, most immigrant students attend public schools in North and Central Italy where, in some schools, 50% of the students are immigrants. Recent statistics show that the majority of so-called “foreign” students are now Italian-born. In the year 2014–2015, 55.3% of all “foreign” students were Italian-born and up to 84.8% in preschool (Santagati & Ongini, 2016), while newcomers were found in higher concentrations in high school. The site. Located in central Rome, the Giuseppe Mazzini Experimental Middle School has a long history of inclusive and innovative educational approaches for diverse student populations. Founded as a night school for adults in 1870, it was transformed into a school for non-hearing students and a middle school for mainstream students until 1975. In 1976, the school initiated a partial experimentation that “included the integration of deaf and hearing students in art education, technical education, and physical education classes” (https://www.istitutoviadellecarine. gov.it/la-scuola/la-storia/). The experimental program was implemented on the basis of a Presidential Decree (DPR 419/1974) that supported the creation of innovative programs addressing the unique needs of local student populations and the creation of instructional “flexible models.” In 1985–1986 the Faculty Council—constituted by the principal and all the faculty—decided to move to a full inclusion model where five deaf students were going to be integrated in every middle school general education classroom. One of the central features of the model included a team of double teachers (i.e., co-teachers) whose primary role was to support deaf children in specific content areas (i.e., language arts, math, science, art, consumer science, physical education), providing comprehensible content instruction in ISL for 24 out of 30 total hours of instruction per week, alternating between push-in and pull-out approaches. A second area of experimentation emerged with the increasing arrival of immigrant students in the Italian schools. During the 1992–1993 school year, the Faculty Council formally introduced the experimental ISL program, which featured specifically designed instruction for the efficient teaching of immigrant students within mainstream classrooms. Following the structure of the program for deaf students, five immigrant ISL students were placed in each classroom. These students were paired with four double teachers, one per major content-area, for almost half (13 h out of 30) of the total instructional time in core content areas (i.e., language arts, math, science, art, consumer science). In 1996, the Italian government officially recognized the program, sealing its designation as an experimental school with a specific Ministerial Decree which fulfilled the requirements of the 1974 law for educational experimentation (DPR 419/74, Title I) and guaranteed funds for the hiring of the double teachers on a yearly basis at the request of the principal.

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Table 1 2006–2018 School and national enrollment of immigrant students A.Y.

Total school enrollment

Total immigrant students

Total immigrant students (%)

National enrollment immigrant students (%)

2006–2007

390

53

13.6

5.6

2010–2011

465

61

13.1

7.9

2011–2012

516

77

14.9

8.4

2012–2013

522

79

15.1

8.9

2013–2014

568

92

16.2

9.0

2014–2015

546

99

18.1

9.2

2015–2016

534

71

13.3

9.2

2016–2017

473

52

11

9.4

2017–2018

445

60

13.5

–

At the time of the study (i.e., the 2014–2015 school year), the school enrolled a total of 546 students from 6th to 8th grade, with 99 (18%) immigrant students, among whom 9% lived in foster homes and 10% were international adoptees with Italian citizenship. A longitudinal view of the school enrollment (Table 1) shows that the enrollment of immigrant students has been constant and consistent in the last decade. Of the students listed as immigrant, 45 were placed in the ISL program. The immigrant students in the school, ISL and non–ISL students, belonged to 35 different nationalities; Chinese, Filipino, and Peruvian were the most frequently represented. In 2014–2015, the ISL students were assigned to two 6th–8th grade sections, in a total of six classrooms attended by an average of 25–28 students. Following the typical Italian school organization, students stayed together as a class for the three years of middle school and were typically taught by the same content teachers for three consecutive years.

3 Italian LEPs for Immigrant Children: An Unmet Promise In general, Italian state LEPs for immigrant students can be divided in three phases, which reflect a certain continuity of intents through the decades: 1982–1989, recognition of free basic education as a constitutional right for all students; 1989– 2002, intercultural education for social inclusion; and 2005–2016, intercultural education through linguistic integration and development.

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3.1 Phase One (1982–1989)—Free Public Education as Constitutional Right Italy’s state LEP directed to immigrant students began to be formulated in the early 1980s (DPR 722/1982), as a response to the European Economic Community directive 77/486 (1977) regulating the movement of European immigrants across member states. Following the EEC guidelines, Italian schools would adapt instruction to the immigrant children’s specific needs, including native language and cultural teaching carried out in collaboration and agreements with their countries of origin (as an afterschool activity). This policy then expanded these rights to non-ECC immigrants and their children (Law 943/1986). A landmark in the history of Italian educational policies, the law required the individual regional administrations to provide Italian language and culture classes “to favor their integration in the Italian community,” while also protecting students’ native language and culture (Law 943/1986, art. 9, para. II and IV), as part of their rights to “maintain their cultural identity, education, and housing.” The Ministerial Circular (CM) 301 of September 8, 1989, was the first document fully dedicated to the educational rights of the “stranieri” (foreigners). This established the framework for providing equal educational services to immigrant students. The document introduced a pluralistic perspective that validated cultural diversity and fostered cooperation among ethnically different peoples, placing the legislative authority of the state as general guidance for the regional, provincial, and municipal agencies and local schools. The document stresses the need for locally devised projects and enumerates antecedent general educational legislation that already permitted the experimentation of innovative and ad hoc approaches (Presidential Decree DPR 419/1974) through “flexible models” to be adapted to different local realities. In spite of the pluralistic thrust of the document, the text also embraced a strong deficit perspective where lack of knowledge of Italian language and culture were consistently considered “problems” to be overcome in a one-directional way through Italian teaching and learning. The “straniero” (foreign) term was introduced here as a problematic catch-all term consistently used in subsequent state documents to designate students with an immigrant or refugee background. The term has unfortunately become the commonly and pervasively used label for both non-Italian and Italian-born immigrants, and is mirrored in Italian nationality and naturalization laws. The laws establish that children born on Italian soil from non-Italian parents acquire the citizenship of the parents (ius sanguinis) and are not entitled to Italian citizenship (ius soli) until they turn eighteen and can apply for Italian naturalization. While “straniero” referred to the lack of Italian citizenship, this designation introduced an enduring perspective of otherness for immigrant students in relation to their Italian peers; a vernacular that only in recent years has been challenged through bill proposals designed to modify the ius sanguinis law. Such attempts have failed thus far.

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3.2 Phase Two: (1990–2002)—Intercultural Education as Accoglienza (Welcoming) The second LEP phase strongly builds its mandate and guidelines on cultural and social integration through the principles of Intercultural Education (IE), interpreted by various Ministerial Circulars (CM 205/1990; CM 73/1994) and general immigration laws (Law 40/6, 1998; Legislative Decree 286/25, 1998; DPR 394/1999; Law 189/2002). The CM 205/1990 introduced and developed for the first time the idea of IE that would remain constant in future Italian regulations and guidelines for immigrant students (Ongini, 2016) as fundamental ideological and instructional approaches and principles. IE is viewed as the most potent instructional tool to prevent racism and stereotyping in school and in society. Fundamentally, it promotes and supports a two-way process of mutual understanding and interaction between Italian and immigrant students. Italian language acquisition is included in the documents as central to the integration of immigrant children in Italian society and school. The acquisition of the Italian language becomes increasingly central to this mission as a growing amount of attention, practical details, and resources are devoted to it. The document indicates that, “Ongoing school experiences are showing that alternating in-class periods with out-of-class periods for application and language laboratory only for immigrant students have been very fruitful” (CM 20, July 22, 1990), delineating some basic traits of pull-out instructional models for Italian language development support. In spite of the IE perspective and its anti-segregationist approach to student placements, the instructional guidelines continued to betray a deficit perspective toward immigrant students by suggesting a fundamentally remedial instructional approach based on assimilationist perspectives aimed at resolving immigrant students’ linguistic and cultural “problem” through learning Italian language and culture. In addition, the guidelines still showed little awareness of second language acquisition theories and processes. More specifically, “full immersion” in Italian was suggested as the effective strategy for learning Italian as L2 and for effective socialization and integration—a notion perhaps borrowed from the foreign language instruction approaches of the times. At the same time, individual plans of instruction for immigrant children across different content areas were suggested along with anti-segregationist placement limits of ISL students in one classroom. Guidelines call for professional development of ISL teachers, but the conceptualization of second language instruction is still unstructured, general, and vaguely construed. Once more, greater emphasis was placed on “packets” of hours for Italian language development in the form of short-term laboratories for newcomers.

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3.3 Phase Three: (2005–2016)—Intercultural Education and Linguistic Integration In 1999, the law of School Autonomy was approved (DPR 275) as the result of the introduction of a new constitutional article (Constitutional Law, 2001, Art. 117) determining an epochal decentralization of political and administrative powers to the 20 regional administrations that brought a radical transformation of the department of education agencies (Scala, 2015). The Ministry of Education could mandate only general principles and regulations to the schools, leaving to the regional, provincial, and municipal governing bodies to identify and direct funds and resources toward educational programs based on specific and unique local needs determined by the single school, so that “the single school becomes a holder of vast powers, also including administrative powers” (Scala, 2015). In terms of LEPs, this meant a fragmentation of initiatives and interventions that has yet to be resolved. The abovementioned shortcoming was reflected in reports published between 2006 and 2014 by the Ministry of Education (CNPI, 2006; Ministero dell’Educazione, 2007; Camera dei Deputati, 2011; MIUR, 2014) on the state of education for immigrant students—a project that was launched for the purpose of informing future programming for immigrant students. The documents provided a snapshot of educational realities for immigrant students and outlined what was needed in order to make improvements to the quality of educational opportunities for this particular population. The reports documented a general disparity of services for ISL students across the country. These inequities were due to the lack of unified policies at the state, regional, provincial and school levels. Notwithstanding a few exceptions, the overarching message pointed to many persistent areas of neglect and, in general, inadequate academic programming. In this respect, it appeared that the autonomy of the school played as a double-edged sword as local school leadership and their faculty councils have the autonomy to decide about ISL services according to their needs. Their action also depended on local and often limited and temporary funding from local, municipal, or regional sources. Poignantly, the 2007 document underlined the risk of a “localization of [educational] rights” as each school uses its discretional power to develop and manage programs for ISL students. The most recent guiding document (MIUR, 2014) provides ten recommendations for ISL education. Some of the recommendations include or reiterate (a) the need to follow sound placement of immigrant students, (b) adaptation of school programs and evaluation systems, (c) support for the learning of Italian as an academic language, and (d) valuing language diversity through optional native language classes. Other recommendations related to the wider context of parentschool interaction, teacher training for intercultural education, anti-segregationist placements, and school choice. While these themes and guidelines have been present in state directives for the education of immigrant students over the past fifteen years (CM 24/2006; CM 807/2008; CM 2/2010; CM 4233/2014), the document presents a first-time and more complex articulation of L2 instruction under the assumption that,

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“Italian as L2 has to be the focus of instructional action.” The distinction between SLA levels, conversational and academic language across the four skills, is articulated in a CM for the first time. In addition, L1is defined as an “important resource for cognitive and affective development.” The Reform Law 107 of July 13, 2015 (Law 107/2015) includes ISL education, reiterating the need for local educational agencies to implement programs for ISL students. However, in the last five years, a new constraint has been applied to all governmental agencies: educational initiatives cannot cause additional financial burden to the national finances, which also means that local administrators cannot request personnel beyond what is needed to cover basic positions. As language education policy has had no clear and systematic top-down mandate, more than ever, the programming is in the hands of local leadership that can only acquire funds from local sources. Due to the economic crisis, these monies have been diminishing and, generally, tend to be used as emergency and temporary support in the form of limited and remedial ISL instruction.

4 Findings and Analysis 4.1 Discourses in Place: “A School that Loves Differences” As Local LEP Documents published on the school website evoke its history of program innovation and its inclusive mission (https://www.istitutoviadellecarine.gov.it/), privileging its unique and long-time innovative tradition and the leadership abilities of its teachers and administrators. Starting in the 1870 as a night school for adult education, the school evolved into a middle school for deaf and non-deaf children until 1975 when the integration project for deaf students began. The documents (https://www.istitutov iadellecarine.gov.it/didattica/sperimentazione-sordi/) highlight its distinctiveness as the “only Italian school that presents in its educational programming experimental classrooms with the inclusion of deaf students (Experimental Classrooms with Inclusion of Deaf Children, DM 59/85)” with the Ministerial Decree’s recognition of its status as an experimental school. The experimental program for deaf children was identified as the foundation of the ISL program for immigrant children as “its particular history has played an important role in terms of the birth and the nature of the experimentation first for non-hearing students and then for foreign [immigrant] students” (https://istitutoviad ellecarine.gov.it/la-scuola/la-storia/). The creation of the ISL program at the end of the 1980s was also the result of “the willingness and professionalism of the teachers, able to relate to students with verbal communication difficulties, [that] later on, also addressed the needs of a new group of students: the immigrant students” (POF, 2014–2015, p. 35). Even though it is not specified in the documents, the Ministerial Decree went beyond a symbolic recognition of the innovative nature of the program

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since it guaranteed continuous financial support for the hiring of the co-teachers. Its invocation in many online documents can be viewed as a strategic policymaking practice that stresses the symbolic legitimization of the program, but also underscores the importance of its financial support. Referring to the scalar analysis framework, the documents anchor the program implementation on other important scales. First, “the presence of boys and girls from all over the world gives the Mazzini school a strong multiethnic identity” and provides a demographic imperative that connects the school to the reality of global migrations. Then, the unique identifier that accompanies the school’s name, “A School That Loves Differences,” amounts to a strong statement of the ideological and pedagogical character of the school. The school’s online introductory pages articulate its pluralistic character, explaining how “primary goals of the school have always been studying, integration, and the recognition of diversity as an element of enrichment for the individual and collective growth based on respect for all.” This recalls, intertextually, a conceptual and moral scale level (i.e., integration and recognition of diversity) that connects with the larger national policy discourse around the education of immigrant students. Following the law of the autonomy, every Italian school is mandated to produce and publish its own policy document, the POF/PTOF (Educational Offering Plan/Triennial POF), which complements the state-mandated curriculum. The POF/PTOF “represents the educational and instructional action plan of the school,” its “identity card”, where “the unique characteristics of the school are illustrated, along with its cultural-pedagogic inspiration and the programming of curricular, extracurricular, instructional and organizational activities” (Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione, 2006). At the Mazzini school, POFs from various academic years (https://www.istitutoviadellecarine.gov.it/didattica/pianodellofferta-formativa/) described the ISL program as an integral part of the school mission. For example, the 2014–2015 POF contextualized the ISL program as part of the greater “School that loves differences” project, not as an add-on to the mainstream school programs and activities specifically designed for immigrant students. It was described as a tool for the larger mission of intercultural integration, welcoming (accoglienza), and literacy development of the whole school, as “is included and finds its raison d’être within a much wider intercultural integration project whose objectives are: diversity awareness experienced in terms of reciprocal understanding; valuing of diversity; promotion of mutual respect; promotion of self-esteem; dropout reduction” (p. 47). The program was not primarily framed by Italian acquisition for academic achievement goals. Rather, the SLA goals were also thought of as a fundamental part of the larger process of intercultural and social integration curriculum. From a scalar analysis perspective, the POFs made sense of the LEP policies through general learning theories related to language development and intercultural integration, effective interpersonal communication, and moral/ethical scales that indexed a greater social wellbeing of all the students. There is no direct reference to national educational policies, even though there is an echo of intercultural and inclusive education discourse found in state documents.

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In general, the texts provide a very important documentation of what has contributed to the creation of local LEPs from the point of view of the implementers. The documents mobilize different centers of authority and power to explain its programs from local to state scales—history and traditions, state law and decrees, demographic reality, teacher willingness and ideologies—recalling Blommaert’s (2010) idea of policentricity where (p. 39), “authority emanates from real or perceived ‘centres’, to which people orient when they produce an indexical trajectory in semiosis. … ‘super-addressee’: complexes of norms and perceived appropriateness criteria, in effect the larger social and cultural body of authority into which we insert our immediate practices vis-à-vis our immediate addressees” (p. 39). The school’s unique programs and mission were contextualized by local, global, and conceptual scale levels that seemed to make such programming and mission legitimate and relevant, placing them on the same hierarchical level with external sources of policymaking in terms of authority and power.

4.2 Historical Body—Transformative Teacher Agency Featured in newspaper articles and TV programs, the school won awards for its innovative projects. These materials pointed to a perceived exceptionality of the program, which the same teachers explained in various ways. Interviewed about their professional history at the school, many content area teachers in the ISL program at the time of the study had been assigned first to the double teacher position—considered an entry position due to the fact that the national school system has no official ISL teacher positions. When a position transfer was possible, they stayed in the ISL program as content area teachers supported by new double teachers. This included the current coordinator who had been teaching at the school since 2000. The coordinator explained the beliefs as the basis of the ISL program that made the program and school stand out. “The fundamental principle [that guides] the relationship with the immigrant students arriving here is affectivity” [T3]. The coordinator articulated a second language learning theory based on affectivity and socio-emotional wellbeing as the core of effective SLA. In this sense, the theoretical foundations serve as motivation for genuine communication between the minority and majority language groups (Italian and ISL speakers). He spoke of the program’s exceptionality and the uniqueness of the local perspective as catalysts of affectivity; that is, the program did something “that is usually overlooked or is not considered part of the school dimension,” but is “a very efficient mechanism” for both second language learning and learning in general. The coordinator explained an affective filter hypothesis for L2 learning, as “the affective wellbeing allows [students] to progress on any level. … Our pledge/challenge is to ensure [that immigrant students] internalize [language structures] through affectivity… which is a very efficient mechanism. This works for all language learning.”

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The positive impact of this pedagogy of care seemed evident in the poignant description of an eighth-grade student of his school experience that highlighted the multifaceted work of the teachers, [S1]: I’m feeling good [in the program] because, in addition to the fact that [teachers] treat me well, I have started to socialize more with my classmates … and I think it would be very difficult without these [ISL] classes. I would need to go to another school [to an afterschool ISL program] … in my country, I didn’t pay much attention to school … the teachers seemed always mad … here the teachers try to understand us and … here, for the teachers, we are children … they are more affectionate.

According to the coordinator, the focus on positive affective interactions between teacher and student produced a transformative effect also on the teacher as “the way one teaches also changes.” This was especially confirmed by other teachers, both content area and double teachers, that had been in the school for a short time and had come from other schools. There was a general enthusiasm about the school’s vision. As one new double teacher said, “I really think that this school is fantastic from the point of view of the goals it’s striving for. In my opinion, it is very important. Every school should adopt the approach of this school.” The explanation for the attention that media were paying to the school was explained by a veteran teacher in the following way: “They even talked about it on a TV program on a national channel … they talked about the Mazzini as a school of integration, where it works. … it actually works here, because there is care” [T9]. Most of the teachers did not necessarily present a theoretical contextualization of the program, but used their personal past and present teaching experiences in other schools to gauge the innovating and exceptional nature of the Mazzini school approach. One teacher explained how the programming provided an integrated vision for the whole school or classrooms that transcended the specific technical ISL support program, [T10]: In the other school … there was absolutely no framework and no technical support. Everything was left to the initiative of the single teacher … and there was nothing, no specific project for immigrant students. There were only many micro-projects, but not focused on the specific needs of the immigrant students. … [it was] a negative experience … Here, first of all, there is a tradition, a time-tested experience, therefore there is … a support, a crossdisciplinary approach … And then there are ample opportunities in the specific projects where immigrant students are included.

She then highlighted the value of the program based on the general attitudes and expectations of teachers toward immigrant students and the relationships among teachers that work as a team, [T10]: The projects are not specific for the immigrant students … that might create a ghetto or constantly lower the [instructional] levels, the content, the expectations … the difference is really qualitative … there really is a synergy among classes, among teachers. Perhaps because of the long tradition of the experimentation … one never feels alone when working. Here, one always works in unison with the others.

This was a strong statement of the multiple advantages and rewards brought by the program and the school to the teachers. Other teachers focused more specifically

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on the role and the impact of having a double teacher supporting the content-area teacher, [T9]: I have to say that this school has more resources in comparison to the other schools, specifically in economic terms … Really, this year I feel particularly privileged, because I have an assistant. I can share … the effort with a person [double teacher] who takes care more specifically of the individual cases.

Different teachers indexed various reasons for the exceptionality of the school, indicating once again a “polycentric body” of evaluative authority; that is, the program resulted from a concerted effort of different sources moved by local creativity in a “joint action” (Blommaert, 2010). The participants in this educational experience seem to converge in the way they made sense of the program. In turn, this collective sense of purpose impacted their willingness and ability to work as a team whilst supporting students in an ethics of care. What was clear is that the vision espoused in the school policy documents portrayed the importance of the social-emotional dimension of language learning, propelling local enactors of language policy beyond a mere theoretical stance, which was translated into specific and multilayered educational actions. The teachers designed specific activities that involved the ISL students in active and purposeful interactions with the Italian peers that facilitated student bonding at the beginning of the school year. These activities were aimed at ensuring that communication among the students entering middle school was based on the willingness to get to know each other, rather than merely rotating around the school’s ordinary academic activities of the traditional classroom. These activities followed the principle of accoglienza (welcoming), which was prominent in all of the state normative texts related to immigrant students’ school integration since the early policy phases, and referred to “overcoming the models of ‘separation’ and ‘assimilation’ through the model of ‘integration’, which means welcoming immigrants in the host country as individuals characterized by a cultural uniqueness” (CM 73, March 2nd, 1994). The Mazzini school appropriated this principle in a creative way. As the coordinator explained, “We invented the welcoming days, first of all, to create a strong classroom group and make sure [the immigrant children] feel welcomed by a community that they often fear. We organize these three days of accoglienza. In this way, the moment of entry into the school is not immediately about lessons, textbooks, and notebooks” [T3]. As part of the first week of school welcoming, 6th graders participated in an Orienteering Camp that facilitated student interaction and collaboration in engaging activities. In 7th grade, the whole class participated in a three-day sailing camp. In the 8th grade, students participate in cicloturismo (i.e., bicycle-tourism). Funds were provided by the Parent Council to families that could not afford the cost of the trips. In addition to classroom level activities, the entire school participated in the “Happy Island” week eloquently described by a teacher, [T4]: The school has a beautiful tradition. At the beginning [of the school year], the first four days are focused on welcoming all students and they do the Happy Island …. … [they organize] trips around the neighborhood, explorations of the school … it’s a really beautiful

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initiative. It is the first time in my teaching experience that I see such a way to welcome students, all students: immigrants and non-immigrants. We work on integration every day.

The goal of integration and inclusiveness as an all-encompassing feature across all the programs, including ISL, was also manifested by how the ISL student support was organized. The double teachers worked on two major levels: with the individual students in the classroom, supporting the main teacher; and, in a pull-out fashion, whenever necessary. The program presented a flexible planning and instructional model that combined push-in and pull-out approaches that appeared to be very efficient in terms of meeting the needs of the students for the particular learning unit. The interviews and observation of the double teachers showed that there was no set time for taking students out of the classroom. The students were part of the mainstream classroom and, in the core content hours, were supported by the double teachers who pulled them out only when “it was needed.” The decision to pull ISL students out of the classroom, in most cases, was made in a coordinated and collaborative way by the content teacher and the double teacher, typically based on ongoing informal assessment of the needs of the students and the level of difficulty of the material presented in class. In the case of a language arts class, while regular instruction focused on advanced syntactic analysis, the content area teacher provided the double teacher with the learning objectives for pulling out the students, [T4]: The double teacher is fundamental … when she goes out [pulls out the students] I give her guidelines. So, for example, I say, ‘We have worked on the analysis of the clause with the whole class … [the ISL students] can only work on the difference between the coordinate and subordinate or the principal and subordinate [clauses]. So, please, go out and make them practice and see to what extent they have comprehended this’… the double teacher has this function of integrating, supporting me in this very delicate work. … there is not a lot of time for them to practice [in class] … the double teacher has to follow this work step by step because I cannot do it in class.

The above statement was buttressed in the following way: [T8]: the programming [of ISL instruction] is quite flexible … [the main teacher and I] have chosen everything together, we have made decisions together. This doesn’t mean that [the main teacher] didn’t give me guidelines, but she always asked for my opinion, … Also, all the questions included in the assessments, we have decided all together and it’s all been very smooth.

The two teachers decided what particular support the ISL students needed within a particular instructional unit according to each student level in a collaborative and flexible way. It was a balancing act that was possible due to such a flexibility, as well constant collaboration between the two teachers. The two teachers’ aim was not to water down the content for the ISL students. Rather, they maintained high standards and academic expectations for the entire class. The ISL students’ academic and general wellbeing was seen as a responsibility of all the teachers, whilst the double teachers supported all the core content areas. The flexible format of the double teacher intervention was viewed not only as an ideal combination of ISL approaches, but also as a tool to avoid segregation among Italian and non-Italian students as much as possible. One double teacher was very

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proud of the fact that he and the content teacher worked to support the ISL students in the classroom, “we’ve been able not to pull them out of the classroom. And I consider this … a success … I consider this positive. Because, in my opinion the students … their sensitivity perceives the fact of being pulled out … of feeling different. … working together in the classroom together, with the others, is preferable” [T9]. The flexibility of the ISL program was contextualized through what was perceived as an efficient instructional organization for SLA and also anti-segregationist ideologies that were reflected by the school-wide integration activities. Again, teachers pointed at local creativity as unique appropriation of the accoglienza ideal—a prominent goal in state policy guidelines. Teachers also clearly emphasized the uniqueness of the ISL program features that were not found in any other school as a clear sign of LEP ontogenesis in the absence of state directives and based on teachers’ own tradition and experiences accumulated throughout the years.

4.3 Fighting Top-Down Constraints: Parents and Teachers as LEP Policy Agents From 2008 to 2016, the Mazzini school found itself in a paradoxical situation with its programming trapped in the midst of conflicting laws. In an attempt to cut or contain “expenses”, the Ministry of Education, starting in 2008, undermined the placement of the double teachers for both the deaf and the ISL program by denying the financial support that had been granted under the educational law for experimental programs. Given this law was still in force, as a reaction to the top-down defunding of the program and with the support of the administration and the teachers, every year, a team of parents carried out a legal action against the Ministry of Education and the Provincial Office of Education for breaching the ministerial decree’s authorization. From 2008 to 2016, a group of parents raised funds to cover legal expenses for an appeal to the Regional Administrative Tribunal (TAR in Italian) to reinstate the double teachers. The principal had requested the double teachers and had sent a further request to the Provincial School Office. At the beginning of the year, the teachers had not been not assigned to the school, but the aforementioned auspices did not respond. Parents were alerted about the situation by the teachers and started organizing the appeal, collecting parents’ signatures and funds to pay for the legal expenses. The parent president of the School Council at that time explained that, “some parents said, ‘my kid is not in that program, but I am giving you 50 Euro’ … there have been teachers that have contributed as well, this mean that they are the first to believe in [the programs] … we were able [to file the appeal] not because of me, but because this is the spirit of this school.” A teacher retold the course of the events, “I was told that there had been an appeal to the TAR by the parents, to make sure that the [ISL] teaching could be reinstated … parents had complained” [T9]. A document published on the school website in 2014 explained what had happened in these terms, “In the years from 2008 to 2014, the Ministry, due to the policy of

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the containment of the public expenditure, tried to eliminate the double teachers. However, it did not succeed thanks to the mobilization of parents that, every year, appealed to the TAR that has always agreed with the school.” Teachers and parents highlighted how the action to reverse the governmental cut of funds was taken up by many parents, describing their efforts as the main force of a joint effort. The head of the parent council had a spearheading role making sure that parents were informed about the appeal, money was collected, and all the bureaucratic process for the appeal was followed. She proudly stated, referring to the process of working as a group to win the appeal and their victory, “Now, we have the classrooms granted forever. … [this level participation] should be in all schools.” In her retelling of the multi-year appeal action and the victory, what ultimately prevailed was the mission of the school and the willingness of parents, teachers, and administrators to battle the inconsistencies, and the indifference of the state educational agencies. She explained that the Mazzini, located at the center of Rome’s traffic and tourist area, was not a neighborhood school. Rather, it was a choice school that was selected for its programming by mostly Italian parents that wanted their children to attend a multicultural school and by parents of deaf or immigrant children who were familiar with the school’s mission. While the parents were behind the appeal (i.e., in the spirit of the school mission) and the buy-in from parents and teachers was perceived as the driving force, analyses of TAR documents, namely the 1996 education experimentation decree and the 2013 Ministerial Circular (MIUR, CM 10, March 21, 2013), identified the school principal as a central local arbiter with the legal power to decide about and request the double teachers. According to the TAR, the 2013 CM stated that, “particular attention should be reserved to disadvantaged situations linked to specific local contexts … for areas … with a relevant number of students with non-Italian citizenship” (TAR, 2014). The sentence highlighted that when the school did not receive the double teachers it had requested, the principal’s second “request… sent by the school administrator to the School Provincial Office on 17 July 2013 remained without a reply” (TAR, 2014). Therefore, the Ministry of Education was found guilty of “erroneous application of regulatory provisions of general scope” (TAR, 2014) emanated by the same authority. In the fall of 2014, the TAR gave a definitive ruling on the case that established that the Ministry of Education had to provide the financial support for the double teachers for an unspecified period of time. The TAR naturally employed state normative and legal scales to contextualize its ultimate decision, determining there was a “misuse of power due to contradiction among provisions and disparity of treatment” (TAR, 2013, p. 9). Quite poignantly, the TAR provided additional guidelines on the matter, “the Ministry of Education, that has adopted the 1996 Decree revokes the experimentation for the immigrant students at the school, but then it must provide guidelines on the modality for the integration of the 10% of the immigrant population in this school, or it has to calibrate differently the distribution of the teaching personnel allocated to the experimental program keeping in mind the directions it itself issued and that are based textually on the elimination of the hardship relative to local situations where a relevant number of immigrant students is present” (pp. 9–10). The Administrative Tribunal unequivocally spelled out the contradictions of the Ministry’s own regulations and

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the lack of clear guidance for the implementation of policies aimed at addressing the school’s needs.

5 Discussion and Conclusions The Mazzini case study presents many insights related to leadership practices that are necessary in order to provide educational equality in linguistically and culturally diverse schools. The school leaders unveiled how the pedagogical practices that could provide a successful accoglienza (welcoming and integration) of ISL students were predicated on more than teaching the second language. The accoglienza was founded on a pedagogy of care that was a declared trademark and mission of the school since its creation. While teaching ISL was central to the program, it was a component of a larger socio-educational and intercultural school project and programming that was immediately clear to the new content and double teachers. Second language teaching and learning were expected to be based on meaningful and positive interaction among all students, avoiding and preventing social segregation and isolation of ISL students. The program leaders emphasized the central factor found in Collier’s and Thomas’ (1997, 2009) Prism Model driving second language acquisition: positive and supportive sociocultural interactions within the classroom and school. Teacher discourses emphasized, first of all, personal and group ethics and pedagogical beliefs centered on the general social and educational well-being of the student as the main forces that could respond to local demographic changes and new educational contexts in an effective and just way. The Mazzini school leaders enacted theoretical and ethical stances supporting student integration through specific classroom and school-wide activities as a staple component of the school programming. Starting the school year with out-of-the-classroom activities focused on students’ social bonding was an example of such programming. There was a synergy of action among teachers and coordinators that confirmed how sustained educational policies and practices result from collective efforts (Wortham and Rhodes, 2012). An abundance of SLA literature (Dove & Honigsfeld, 2010; Delli Caprini, 2008) shows the importance of collaboration between the mainstream teacher and second language teachers, as well as the promise of co-teaching practices in second language teaching. In the case of the Mazzini school, collaboration and autonomy of teaching and planning of the two-teacher units, core content teacher and double teacher, seemed to work well to address the needs of individual ISL student. The ISL instructional structure had been created by the local leadership with virtually no guidance from macro and meso administrative levels, beyond general national curriculum guidelines or, most recently, the European framework for language development. With the support of the school ISL coordinator, the content and double teachers collaborated on the creation of individualized instructional plans for each ISL student and employed a flexible teaching model that alternated pull-out and push-in approaches and individual and group instruction, according to the evolving needs of each student. In regards to English as a Second Language programs in North

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America, Dive and Honigsfeld (2010) found evidence that “when teachers engage in collaborative practices, they experience a reduction in isolation, enjoy more occasions to share their expertise, and appreciate the opportunity to shape the way the ESL program operates in their schools” (p. 3). At the Mazzini school, the core content and double teachers were able to capitalize on the opportunities for collaboration the ISL program made available to them and felt a professional motivation and satisfaction they had not experienced in other school sites. The study also showed the complexity of the interplay between micro, meso, and micro policy levels that cannot be reduced to a binary and unidirectional interaction between local and national policies (McEntee-Atalianis, 2016). In a moment of national economic crisis, governmental budget restrictions were used to supersede educational laws but, remarkably, school and parents joined forces and successfully invoked the power of the law to ensure the state financing of the double teachers. Such process illustrated how implementational spaces can stay open due to school stakeholders’ collective awareness and synergic action. Although joint action in educational policies is clearly central, the idea of one single leader as arbiter with unique powers within the local context proposed Johnson and Johnson (2015) also seems to stand true. Johnson and Johnson offer the image of the funnel to “illustrate that while policy decisions are socially negotiated between multiple actors within and across levels, at some point, there is one language policy arbiter who has singular power with regard to how a policy is interpreted and appropriated and all subsequent decisions in the policy process must funnel through them” (p. 226). At the Mazzini school, after the hard-won TAR victory that provided the school indefinite legal rights to funding for its programs, in 2016, the new school principal decided not to request the double teachers (program coordinator, personal communication, June 2018). The school website acknowledged this new reality without providing any reason or justification. As a consequence, currently, there are no double teachers supporting core content ISL faculty. While this surprising shift necessitates further research to be contextualized, what seems clear is that the lack of a well-funded and mandated national LEP legislation can make local and exceptional initiatives vulnerable to both internal/micro and external/macro-meso level leadership actions, as shifts in macro state policies and also local administrative leaders could easily disrupt years of fruitful teacher-led educational innovation. Consequently, there is a need for normalizing and promoting LEP initiatives on a larger scale through adequate and well-designed policies supported by a steady budget halting unsystematic actions where local school administrators can ask for instructional support based on their own sense of urgency and based on temporary “fixes”, short-term emergency projects funded by limited local budgets that are also difficult to track and assess empirically. Despite the successful integration of immigrant students in schools is an important policy goal in Italy and in most OECD countries (OECD, 2012, p. 89), few of those countries are mandating effective programming catering to the educational and second language needs of these students (Christiansen & Stanat, 2007). Subsequently, while “a country’s success in integrating immigrant students is a key measure of its education system’s quality and equity, and also sheds light on the efficacy of its

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broader social policies” (OECD, 2012, p. 89), the lack of serious governmental action toward this end in most nations easily undermines successful initiatives created by enlightened and hard-working educators and, ultimately, perpetuates the educational and social marginalization of immigrant children and their families.

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Johnson, D. C. (2013). Positioning the language policy arbiter: Governamentality and footing in the school district of Philadelphia. In J. W. Tollefson (Ed.), Language policies in education: Critical issues (pp. 116–136). New York: Routledge. Johnson, D. C. (2015). Intertextuality and language policy. In F. M. Hult & D. C. Johnson (Eds.), Research methods in language policy and planning: A practical guide (pp. 166–180). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwell. Johnson, D. C., & Freeman, R. (2010). Appropriating language policy on the local level: Working the spaces for bilingual education. In K. Menken & O. García (Eds.), Negotiating language policies in schools: Educators as policymakers (pp. 13–31). London: Routledge. Johnson, D. C., & Johnson, E. J. (2015). Power and agency in language policy appropriation. Language Policy, 14(3), 221–243. ISTAT. (2013a). Gli stranieri al 15° Censimento della popolazione. 15mo Censimento della popolazione e abitazione. Istituto Nazionale di Statistica. Retrieved from http://www.istat.it/it/files/ 2013/12/Notadiffusione_stranieri20122013.pdf. ISTAT. (2013b). La popolazione straniera residente in Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Statistica. Retrieved from http://www.istat.it/it/archivio/96694. ISTAT (2017a). 13 dati dal rapporto dell’ISTAT sull’Italia. Istituto Nazionale di Statistica. Retrieved from https://www.istat.it/it/files//2013/10/Rapporto_annuale_2017_Ilpost.pdf. ISTAT (2017b). Cittadini non comunitari: presenza, nuovi ingressi e acquisizioni di cittadinanza. Istituto Nazionale di Statistica. Retrieved from https://www.istat.it/it/archivio/204296. Levinson, B. A. U., Sutton, M., & Winstead, T. (2009). Education policy as a practice of power: Theoretical tools, ethnographic methods, democratic options. Educational Policy, 23(6), 767–795. Liddicoat, A. J. (2013). Language-in-education policies: The discursive construction of intercultural relations. Clevendon: Multilingual Matters. McCarty, T. (Ed.). (2011). Ethnography and language policy. New York: Routledge. McEntee-Atalianis, L. (2016). A network model of language policy and planning: The United Nations as a case study. Language Problems and Language Planning, 40(2), 187–217. Menken, K., & García, O. (2010). Negotiating language policies in schools: Educators as policymakers. New York: Routledge. Mortimer, K. S. (2015). Producing change and stability: A scalar analysis of Paraguayan bilingual education policy implementation. Linguistics and Education, 34, 58–69. OECD. (2012). Education at a glance 2012 OECD indicators: OECD indicators. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/eag-2012-en. OECD. (2018). The resilience of students with an immigrant background: Factors that shape wellbeing. Paris: OECD Publishing. Retrieved from https://read.oecdilibrary.org/education/the-resili ence-of-students-with-an-immigrantbackground_9789264292093-en#page1. Ongini, V. (2016). Il quadro normativo nazionale. Un percorso di venticinque anni. In M. Santagati & V. Ongini (Eds.), Alunni con cittadinanza non italiana: La scuola multiculturale nei contesti locali. Rapporto nazionale A.S. 2014/2015. Quaderni ISMU, 1/2016 (pp. 181–184). Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universitá e della Ricerca (MIUR). Retrieved from http://www.istruzione.it/ allegati/2016/Rapporto-Miur-Ismu-2014_15.pdf. Paterno, A., & Gabrielli, G. (2014). Two years later: Assimilation process of children of immigrants in Italy. Journal of Population Research, 31(1), 29–50. Portera, A. (2007). Pedagogia Interculturale in Italia e in Europa. Aspetti Espistemologici e Didattici. Milano: Vita & Pensiero. Santagati, M., & Ongini, V. (2016). (Eds.) Alunni con cittadinanza non Italiana. La scuola multiculturale nei contesti locali. Rapporto Nazionale A.S. 2014/2015. Quaderni ISMU, 1/2016. Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Universitá e della Ricerca (MIUR). Fondazione ISMU: Milano. Retrieved from http://www.cestim.it/argomenti/06scuola/miur_rapporti_alunni_cittadinanza_non_italian/ 2016-Rapporto_alunni_cittadinanza_non_italiana_2014_15.pdf. Scala, S. (2015). La riforma dell’organizzazione del governo e dei ministeri. In L. Nardella (Ed.), Scuola. Tra riforme e problematiche gestionali. Roma: Editoriale BM Italiana s.r.l.

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Scollon, R. (2008). Discourse itineraries: Nine processes of resemiotization. In V. Bhatia, J. Flowerdew, & R. H. Jones (Eds.), Advances in discourse studies (pp. 233–244). Taylor & Francis. Shohamy, E. (2006). Language policy: Hidden agendas and new approaches. London: Routledge. Strozza, S. (2010). International migration in Europe in the first decade of the 21st century.Rivista Italiana di Economia, Demografia e Statistica, 64(3), 7–43. Tollefson, J. W. (2013). Language policies in education: Critical issues (2nd ed.). Routledge. Vertotec, S. (2007). Super-diversity and its implications. Ethnic & Racial Studies, 30(6), 1024–1054. Wortham, S. (2012). Introduction to the special issue: Beyond macro and micro in the linguistic anthropology of education. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 43(2), 128–137. Wortham, S., & Rhodes, C. (2012). The production of relevant scales: Social identification of migrants during rapid demographic change in one American town. Applied Linguistics Review, 3(1), 75–99.

Policy Texts Camera Dei Deputati. (2011). Indagine conoscitiva sulle problematiche connesse all’accoglienza degli alunni con cittadinanza non italiana nel sistema scolastico italiano. Commissione VII. Cultura, Scienza e Istruzione. Retrieved from https://www.giuntiscuola.it/sesamo/magazine/art icoli/intercultura/indagine-sulleproblematiche-connesse-all-accoglienza-degli-alunni-con-cittad inanza-non-italiana/. CM301/1989: Circolare Ministeriale, September 8, 1989. Inserimento degli stranieri nellascuola dell’obbligo: promozione e coordinamento delle iniziative per l’esercizio del diritto allo studio. Retrieved from http://www.edscuola.it/archivio/norme/circolari/cm301_89.html. CM205/1990: Circolare Ministeriale, July 26, 1990. La scuola dell’obbligo e gli alunni stranieri. L’educazione interculturale. Retrieved from http://www.edscuola.it/archivio/norme/circolari/ cm205_90.html. CM122/1992: Circolare Ministeriale, April 28, 1992. Pronuncia del CNPI di propria iniziativa sull’educazione interculturale nella scuola. Retrieved from http://www.edscuola.it/archivio/ norme/circolari/cm122_92.html. CM73/1994: Circolare Ministeriale, March 2, 1994. Dialogo interculturale e convivenza democratica: l’impegno progettuale della scuola. Retrieved from http://www.edscuola.it/archivio/ norme/circolari/cm073_94.html. CM4233/2014: Circolare Ministeriale, February 19, 2014. Linee guida per l’accoglienza e l’integrazione degli alunni stranieri. Retrieved from http://www.istruzione.it/archivio/web/min istero/focus190214.html. CNPI. (2006). Problematiche interculturali: Pronuncia del Consiglio Nazionale della Pubblica Istruzione. Ministero dell’Istruzione, Università e Ricerca. Retrieved from https://www.edscuola. it/archivio/norme/varie/cnpi_191205i.pdf. Constitutional Law. (2001). Legge Costituzionale, October 18, 2001, n. 3. Modifiche al titolo V della parte seconda della Costituzione. Retrieved from http://www.parlamento.it/parlam/leggi/ 01003lc.htm. DL 297/1994. Decreto Legislativo, April 16, 1994. Formazione scolastica dei figli di cittadini comunitari residenti in Italia. Retrieved from http://archivio.pubblica.istruzione.it/comitato_mus ica_new/normativa/allegati/dlgs16044.pdf. DL286/1998: Decreto Legislativo, July 25, 1998. Testo unico delle disposizioni concernenti la disciplina dell’immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero. Retrieved from https:// www.esteri.it/mae/normative/normativa_consolare/visti/d_lgs_25_luglio_1998_n286.pdf. DPR419/1974: Decreto del Presidente della Repubblica, May 31, 1974. Sperimentazione e ricerca educativa, aggiornamento culturale e professionale ed istituzione dei relative istituti. Retrieved from http://www.edscuola.it/archivio/norme/decreti/dpr419_74.pdf.

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DPR722/1982: Decreto del Presidente della Repubblica, September 10, 1982. Attuazione della direttiva (CEE) n. 77/486 relativa alla formazione scolastica dei figli dei lavoratori migranti. Retrieved from https://www.edscuola.it/archivio/norme/decreti/dpr722_82.html. DPR394/1999: Decreto del Presidente della Repubblica, August 31, 1999. Disposizioni in materia di istruzione diritto allo studio e professioni—Art. 45 (Iscrizione scolastica). Retrieved from https://www.esteri.it/mae/normative/normativa_consolare/visti/dpr_394_1999.pdf. EEC 77/486 1977: European Economic Community. Council Directive of 25 July 1977 on the Education of the Children of Migrant Workers. Official Journal of the European Communities. Brussels. Retrieved from http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX: 31977L0486&from=EN. Law 943/1986: Law, December 30, 1986. Norme in materia di collocamento e di trattamento dei lavoratori extracomunitari immigrati e contro le immigrazioni clandestine. Retrieved from https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/1987/01/12/086U0943/sg. Law 40/1988: Law, March 6, 1998. Disciplina dell’immigrazione e norme sulla condizione dello straniero. Retrieved from http://www.camera.it/parlam/leggi/98040l.htm. Law 189/2002: Law, July 30, 2002. Modifica alla normativa in materia di immigrazione e di asilo. Retrieved from http://www.parlamento.it/parlam/leggi/02189l.htm. Law 107/2015: La Buona Scuola. Retrieved from http://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2015/07/15/ 15G00122/sg. MIUR. (2014). Diversi da chi? Un vademecum per l’integrazione. Osservatorio Nazionale per l’Integrazione degli Alunni Stranieri e per l’Intercultura. Ministero dell’Istruzione, Università e Ricerca. Retrieved from www.istruzione.it/allegati/2015/cs090915_all2.docx. Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione. (2006). Piano dell’offerta formativa. Retrieved from https:// archivio.pubblica.istruzione.it/argomenti/autonomia/pof/default.shtml. Ministro della Pubblica Istruzione. (2007). La via italiana per la scuola interculturale e l’integrazione degli alunni stranieri. Osservatorio nazionale per l’integrazione degli alunni stranieri e per l’educazione interculturale. Retrieved from https://archivio.pubblica.istruzione.it/ news/2007/allegati/pubblicazione_intercultura.pdf.

Conclusion

Components of Linguistically and Culturally Responsive School Leadership Jami Royal Berry, Sylvia Robertson, and Melanie Brooks

This volume builds upon emergent understandings about educational leadership around the globe to continue to develop and refine our understanding of what effective leadership means in the context of ever-changing transnational school contexts. Given the fluid nature of demographics in the modern educational landscape, the need to better understand how school leaders contribute to the overall quality of education that students of diversity experience is of paramount importance; especially if we, as a collective society, are to engender models for education that promote more equitable outcomes for all students. Yet, the challenges for school leaders are not to be minimized. Evidence from the field, and within this book, suggests that leaders play an even more crucial role in contexts that are inherently challenging (Leithwood & Riehl, 2003). Nevertheless, some have suggested that effective leaders engage in certain core practices and possess key traits that are transferable across contexts and cultures; that is, whilst effective school leaders are culturally responsive, their leadership transcends contextual realities (Gurr, 2014). Still others attest that only certain types of leadership are appropriate for multi-ethnic contexts (Blair, 2002).

J. R. Berry University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia e-mail: [email protected] S. Robertson Centre of Educational Leadership & Administration College of Education, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] M. Brooks (B) Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_12

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In this volume, the authors challenge us by addressing a variety of leadership issues in a range of diverse contexts. In this way, they provide insight into linguistically and culturally responsive leadership practice. Four recurring themes arise from their work: The relational nature of leadership; leading from a values base; contextually driven leadership practices; and knowledge and understanding of self at all stages of career.

1 The Relational Nature of Leadership Leadership involves a complex range of relationships, often interconnected and influenced by the wider political, social and environmental context. Wise and Slater describe how one participant “made explicit connections between the everyday circumstances she faced at work and broader social and political realities that help to define the macro context” (p. 15). She acknowledged that what happened inside the school gate was largely influenced by the macro context and that she had to be aware of these realities and their impact on the school community. In Chisolm’s case study, we read how the school leaders built relationships to gain acceptance and trust from their island community. Again, these participants had to engage widely with the needs of the community as a whole to gain trust and acceptance. Martin et al. identify the importance of maintaining communication with parents and building respectful relationships through careful listening. By understanding the needs of their students and families within and beyond the immediate context of their schools, these school leaders found it was possible to develop a curriculum that was reflective of what the community wanted. Paciotto et al. draw attention to the importance of an ethic of care underpinning relationships. In their chapter, both affectivity and socio-emotional wellbeing were at the core of effective second language learning. Merchant et al. also allude to caring as an element of teacher preparation programs where students were exposed to the work of researchers as Gloria Ladson-Billings, Angela Valenzuela, and Gary Howard. The students identified the importance of caring and commented on the necessity of it for student learning and relationships but also for interactions with institutions and communities. Importantly, in these teacher preparation programmes, teachers/professors modelled caring for their students. One student commented “authentic caring that led to unity, trust, and transparency was integrated into the content of the coursework. These foundations also laid the groundwork to delve into challenging issues [in our schools] with integrity” (p. 15). The perception of the students was that authentic caring ‘bled through’ every aspect of the institution. Their experience of this infiltrated personal thinking and practice, frequently causing the participants to question norms and values about teaching and learning in culturally diverse contexts.

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Merchant et al. identify, “the practice of authentic caring goes beyond student teacher roles and embraces the notion of care through which all individuals feel safe and welcomed” (pp. 12–13). The students in this chapter recalled the welcome they received from their professors saying they felt comfortable and validated in their presence. The importance of welcoming was also addressed by Paciotto et al. with reference to the principle of accoglienza (welcoming/reception). In this case study, specific activities were designed to enable new arrivals to engage in the socioemotional dimension of language learning and to facilitate student bonding. The ultimate goal was one of integration and inclusiveness. Inclusion was important for both staff and students as Wise and Slater found when researching cultural change. They noted that their principal participant spent time at the beginning of the change process “creating structures and relationships that fostered greater inclusivity amongst the staff” (p. 17). As Merchant et al. found in their case study; unity, trust and transparency emerging from an ethic of care, enabled school leaders who aspired to socially just leadership, to successfully steward linguistically and culturally diverse schools. The next section delves further into what it means to lead from a values base.

2 Leading from a Values Base Throughout the chapters, there is a focus on the moral aspects of leadership practice. Whether this translates into respecting and affirming indigenous identities, preparing teachers to be transformative leaders, or acting as advocates for those in need, there is commonality in the desire to question practice and challenge societal norms.

2.1 Transformative Leadership In their chapter, Merchant et al. argue that it is essential to support the preparation of transformative leaders. They describe transformative leaders as those who challenge “taken-for-granted assumptions about teaching and learning, interrogate policies and practices that privilege some while disadvantaging others, and create educational systems that support the academic and social growth of all children” (pp. 29–30). Moyi et al. also identify the importance of questioning taken-for-granted assumptions about teaching and learning. These authors remind us of the work of Shields (2010) who sees critical evaluation as a fundamental task of educators. Educators should ask questions about the aims, structure, and content of education and identify who is successful in our systems as well as those that are marginalised. Chisolm continues this theme arguing that understanding leadership from a critical theory perspective enables school leaders to use their influence “to challenge and address the disparities within education systems and societies” (p. 8). One of the participants in the case study of Merchant et al. articulated how this thinking had worked for her saying the program had provided her with “a critical lens to examine the systems we participate

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in every day. Knowing about the complex underlying issues that lead to the current social structures allows me to find ways of improving the educational system for everyone, as we move into the future” (p. 24). Another student said, “The program taught me to be more self-aware and more active in our quest for social justice. I find myself questioning everything, which is always a good thing” (p. 21). As the students undertook this questioning process they began to define a sense of moral purpose.

2.2 Moral Purpose Leading with moral purpose was at the heart of Johnson’s participants’ leadership practice. The case study participants saw that leadership “is essentially an ethical undertaking”(p. 920). In other cases reported in this volume, the participants describe what drives their sense of moral purpose. One described the most fulfilling part of her role expressing that “she wanted to break cycles of violence, abuse, and poverty. She talked of empowering others and teaching them to do the same” (Wise & Slater, p. 19). Another referred to a sense of calling saying, “There was a calling for me to give back because I had so many people that along the way pushed me and reached out to me and did not allow me to fall through the cracks…that I felt a need to pay it forward” (p. 20). Koster refers to a participant as showing her open-mindedness by “accepting and standing in a non-judgmental and supportive way with the students, her own extended family members and the local community, no matter what kind of situation they are in” (p. 17). Another participant in this study noted that “when he assumed the position as principal his open-mindedness was put to test, then he improved it over time” (p. 24). The participants felt a sense of vocation and their leadership was guided and often transformed by acting on moral purpose. Students in the teacher preparation program referred to by Merchant et al. talked about how their study and work was driven by values pertaining to social justice. One said the coursework was viewed through a social justice lens and then as students they were able to “apply that lens to how we engage students and others we come in contact with” (p. 22). Another referred to the importance of collegiality and accountability saying, “We understood that, because there were fourteen of us and we are all working in the same district, there was no way that we could actually stray away from our vision or stray away from what’s right for kids without somebody calling us on it later on down the line” (pp. 22–23). Another student shared his passion for social justice, saying, “The social justice fight will not be a rapid success story, but now is a great time to be in the fight” (p. 24). These participants felt a sense of professional responsibility in that they saw themselves as accountable in front of their peers.

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2.3 Respecting and Affirming Indigenous Identities One way of expressing moral purpose and leading from a value base evident in the case studies was the need to respect and affirm indigenous identities. Martin et al. state, “If students do not get culturally relevant education, they can develop “oppositional identities” that reject schools as places for “becoming white” and that devalue their indigenous identities” (p. 23). Martin et al. also emphasise the importance of teachers taking time to get to know their students and not make assumptions. One student said “Don’t pigeonhole me and say I’m a First Nations person and this is exactly who I should be and this is what my values should be” (p. 25). It became evident from the interviews Martin et al. conducted that it was important to affirm students’ identities “by getting to know what experiences and knowledge they bring to school from their homes and communities” (p. 24). They identified acknowledging and valuing the experiences, language and cultures the students brought to their learning as being of paramount importance in building successful learning relationships. One teacher preparation program influenced the attitudes of students towards inequalities as during the program the students learned to identify inequities in funding and practice (Merchant et al.). One student said, “I was shocked to think that I, too, had unknowingly been a participant in this practice of taking away a student’s culture and heritage” (p. 20). Another commented, “I know that, by teaching with love and passion, I can make small changes. And if I happen to get into trouble for taking a stand for equity, then I know I am doing my job” (p. 21). The program Maina et al. evaluate recruits a large number of pre-service teachers of color. These authors argue that putting more teachers of color into the program is a vital way to reduce academic disparities. Candidates work in their local communities where it was hoped they could “reduce discriminatory practices and provide alternative perspectives on curriculum and pedagogy” (pp. 13–14) in order to best meet the needs of their culturally and linguistically diverse students. Chisolm’s case study provides an interesting insight into leadership when ‘two white women from North America’ make efforts to “bridge the cultural gap and gain acceptance among the island community” (p. 16). As leaders, they had to overcome their personal ‘barriers to access’ and “navigate socio-political and cultural spaces of the Belizean community” (p. 23). It was through the determination, adopting citizenship, and the moral purpose of their role in enhancing access to secondary education that they eventually became respected. The importance of leading from a values base is summed up by Okilwa when he says “The ultimate goal of all school initiatives and efforts should be to provide students with opportunities to engage fully in a quality education and, in turn, pursue their goals and aspirations unencumbered by societal inequities” (p. 30). For the participants in these studies that very often meant interrogating personal values and questioning societal norms.

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3 Contextually Driven Leadership Practices This volume also emphasizes the importance and value of culturally relevant leadership that engages all education stakeholders, both within and beyond the schoolhouse. Given that student populations are diversifying, it is imperative that school leaders recognize, understand, and integrate student and communities’ “cultural funds of knowledge” to create culturally responsive and socially just schools (Moyi, Ylimaki, Hardie, & Dou, p. 22). Scholars throughout this book maintain this assertion, no matter their research focus. In Moyi, Ylimaki, Hardie, and Dou’s chapter, leader and student relationships were theorized from a Bourdieusian perspective. They focused on the “relationship between the school and the community in terms of how leaders mediate between diverse students’ cultural capital and habitus and the common culture of schools in democratic societies” (p. 19). Their research emphasized the cruciality of leaders working as mediators to quell, and potentially reverse, the reproduction of hegemonic social structures. Similarly, Okilwa’s research study on inclusive school leadership practices in Texas emphasized the importance of principal advocacy, teaching and learning, and collaborative partnerships. Okilwa explained how principals travelled to meet families helped to build these relationships, “Going to the parents’ residences expressed understanding, care, concern, and a commitment on the part of the school, which thus cemented a strong relationship with the families” (p. 24). Similarly, Wise and Slater discussed the importance of tapping into community knowledge as a way to make sure that decisions were culturally responsive. Wise and Slater explained, When asked how decisions were made in regard to Briggs High School, and in regard to ELs specifically, Henry described a complex network of collaborative decision-making bodies on campus. There was an EL Task Force, a Leadership Team, a Site Advisory Cabinet, and a Site Relationship Council, all composed of diverse groups of individuals including administrators, counsellors, department chairs, union reps, and EL leads from across campus. They represented different perspectives to provide Henry with the most diverse and inclusive governing body possible.

Koster included the importance of student voice, stating, “The principal created safe spaces to acknowledge their students’ experiences and to encourage dialogue. She also managed projects to deepen the community’s cohesion.” The complexities of diverse school contexts emphasised the need for principals to develop intercultural competencies and empathy. Merchant, Garza, Niño, Vielma, and Saucedo’s chapter reified this theme, emphasising relationship building as a way to be culturally responsive. In their chapter, district and university partnerships were essential to developing culturally relevant and socially just school leaders. Gloria, a participant in the study, stated, “Bridging relationships between parents and teachers and other school staff provides a basis for more meaningful collaboration (and mutual accountability) so that the school and homework together for the benefit of children” (p. 13). Lastly, Chisolm’s study of school leaders in Belize showed how leveraging community resources helped build productive relationships with families. This supported school leaders to bridge cultural gaps and gain acceptance. Chisolm states, “Beyond

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the local island community, vital partnerships were created at the regional and international levels that, through time, donation of materials and supplies, as well as fiscal support helped to offset costs associated with student tuition. This shared level of accountability created a ‘shift’ in the culture and mind-set around school leadership for social justice and access to education” (p. 22). Thus, school leaders who were culturally relevant listened to student voice, engaged with families and wider communities, and leveraged these and other resources to improve their schools.

3.1 Focus on Teaching and Learning Culturally relevant leaders also focused on quality teaching and learning. In Okilwa’s study, principals placed student at the centre of the school experience, “With everything we’re doing—the bottom line is what is best for the kid, and trying to figure that out” (p. 19). It was essential that principals hired teachers that fit well with school expectations. Okilwa writes, “Connolly [the school principal] successfully sought teachers with ‘previous experience working with children from other countries and with refugees’” (p. 21). The goal for principal Connolly was clear, all school initiatives and efforts should not lose sight of the ultimate goal, which is educating all students. Effective leadership is needed to maintain a student-centred environment (Louis, Leithwood, Wahlstrom, & Anderson, 2010). Refugee students, in particular, savour the opportunity of being in school—an opportunity that was denied them due to conflict, persecution, or natural disaster in their homeland (McBrien, 2005). Refugee students and their parents know fully well that, in their new homeland, the ticket to social mobility is a good education. Therefore, ensuring a positive classroom environment that is centred on learning is critical. Placing the right teachers in every classroom is an important first step. This means strategically pairing students with teachers whose backgrounds, experiences, and skill sets are compatible with refugee students. That is, having the right teacher for the task is a fundamental part of creating a positive learning environment” (p. 26). Okilwa’s study indicates the importance of school leaders being advocates, doing what is best for the students, hiring teachers with foreign language backgrounds, and employing collaborative approaches to decision-making. Martin’s participants “reiterated that teaching methods that provide intrinsic motivation, and actively engage Indigenous students in their learning, work better than having students sit passively reading and memorizing textbooks or lectures.” Similarly, Koster’s team “developed the curriculum in cooperation with the community and met their specific educational needs” (p. 18). Paciotto’s research discussed meeting marginalized students’ needs through a flexible teaching format. The flexible format of double teaching was “an ideal combination of ISL approaches” and also worked as a “tool to avoid segregation among Italian and non-Italian students as much as possible.” One teacher stated, “We’ve been able not to pull them [students] out of the classroom…I consider this positive…working together in the classroom together, with the others, is preferable”

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(p. 30). These culturally relevant leaders paid close attention to the teaching and learning environments of their schools, and adapted them as needed.

3.2 Focus on Practice and Relationships Culturally relevant school leaders also discussed how leadership practices improved relationships and school-wide outcomes. Merchant, Garza, Niño, Vielma, and Saucedo found leaders who actively engaged with community and allowed for “entrepreneurial strategies such as marketing to neighbouring schools for students, strategic interventions to improve student outcomes, adaptability to changing circumstances, building trust and relationships to bring people together around a common purpose of providing quality education, and transformative leadership practices aimed at equity and social justice,” resulted in positive outcomes (p. 9). Maina and Zaier researched a program where aspiring school teachers were allowed to stay in their communities. Maina and Zaier write, “Our pre-service teachers are exposed to a higher quality, and greater frequency of clinical experience. They begin working in classrooms in the first semester and begin student teaching for one full semester. The model of co-teaching with an exceptional mentor teacher ensures each candidate works in partner districts alongside an experienced, handpicked mentor teacher committed to the professional growth of their teacher candidate. Co-teaching involves working together to plan, carry out, evaluate and adjust instruction in whole-group and small-group settings.” This planned mentoring experience provided aspiring teachers classroom experience with the support of expert teachers. Teachers lived in the communities where they worked, resulting in stronger relationships. For Paciotto, in response to a policy that reduced funds for dual classroom instruction, parents organized and advocated for a reversal of this policy through the court system: The head of the parent council had a spearheading role making sure that parents were informed about the appeal, money was collected, and all the bureaucratic process for the appeal was followed. She proudly stated, referring to the process of working as a group to win the appeal and their victory, ‘Now, we have the classrooms granted forever … [this level of participation] should be in all schools.’ In her retelling of the multi-year appeal action and the victory, what ultimately prevailed was the mission of the school and the willingness of parents, teachers, and administrators to battle the inconsistencies, and the indifference of the state educational agencies” (p. 35).

In this case, parent advocacy overturned an unjust policy that perpetuated “the educational and social marginalization of immigrant children and their families, undermining the few initiatives created by enlightened and hard-working educators” (p. 37). Without a strong connection to the school, parents would not have been able to advocate with such effectiveness.

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4 Knowledge & Understanding of Self at All Stages of Career 4.1 Reflection/Reflexivity Throughout the chapters in this volume, the importance of holding an understanding of self throughout one’s career was echoed by multiple interviewees and authors, especially as it relates to reflection and reflexivity, complex social identities, and life experience. The works touched upon self-understanding and building authentic relationships as the foundation of holding a deeper awareness of the contextual factors impacting the work of leaders. In considering how best to begin the process of knowing oneself, several of Merchant’s interviewees highlighted the impact of self-reflection on creating a more positive structure for their work as well as enabling them to grow on a personal level. For instance, Ruth (p. 16) (USLC) observed, “Reflection allowed me to not only focus on my strengths, but it also helps me to focus and analyze my weaknesses which helps me better myself both professionally and personally.” In talking about self reflection, Sophia (p. 17) echoed Ruth’s sentiment on the value of being a reflective practitioner and extended it stating that reflection “…. has been the most powerful tool and experience for me. It has definitely helped me build my emotional self-awareness.” This level of reflective practice enabled the educators interviewed to better navigate the complex social climates where their schools were situated and also better positioned them to create equitable learning environments for their staff and students. Interviewees additionally highlighted the value of embracing the contexts of the communities they served, especially as doing so connected to them better understanding the inequities in their own schools. Moyi et al. (p. 22) effectively summarized this stating, “…we argue that school leaders also have the responsibility to recognize, understand and integrate the cultural funds of knowledge of the community they serve into their school practices. Such recognition begins with consciousness and reflexivity as well as an awareness of the inequalities and differing logics of practice in schools.” This speaks to the importance of leaders looking inwardly to work from a place of knowledge of self and then leveraging this understanding to navigate the complex environments and social constructs in which their schools exist.

4.2 Complex Social Identities While many of the chapters focused in part on the broader societal factors impacting school leaders, others emphasized the complex social identities of the leaders themselves as having an enormous influence on their practice. For instance, Johnson et al. interviewed educators who discussed at length how navigating their own complex cultural identities included a constant balance between authentically acknowledging

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who they were and simultaneously working to present themselves in a manner that would enable them to work effectively in their school settings. Salma N.’s story as a Muslim woman leader in London highlighted this challenge. She shared that while she purposely wore Salwar Kamez (traditional Punjabi dress) every day, she did not cover her head because doing so might ostracize other religious communities (p. 918). Mohammed’s story added to this construct by discussing how he navigated his own challenges over time and how his journey helped him to better understand the cultural complexities facing his own students. In speaking of his story, he shared, “We had a British passport, we had citizenship so you maybe could argue that we were British but people didn’t believe that we were. And to be fair when I was in primary school I probably didn’t think I was either. I probably think my sole loyalties in my head were probably to Pakistan” (p. 918). He went onto state that as an adult, he did see himself as British as well as a cultural member of other groups. Both of these anecdotes illustrate the balance between understanding and holding onto one’s culture while also working to lead those from other ethnic and religious groups effectively. They additionally offer a glimpse into the internal and external complexities facing leaders in today’s multiethnic and multiracial school settings and into the value that bringing one’s life experience to the work of school leadership holds.

4.3 Life Experience Several of the chapters discussed the importance of bringing and understanding one’s own experience to the work of leading multiethnic and multiracial schools. Johnson et al. offered, “A common refrain across the interviews was how these school leaders used their own life experiences to identify with their students and their families from diverse backgrounds and expose them to new experiences that expanded their horizons” (p. 912). Koster (p. 19), provided further support of this as one of her interviewees shared, “I lead as a local person… My approach is being a good example to our community.” These leaders worked to create relationships with their community members through sharing their own life history as a building block and then extending and sustaining the relationships by being members of the communities in which they served, striving to understand the complexities of their communities comprehensively, or both. The authors also highlighted how building these relationships was not always a simple process. For instance, Wise/Slater (p. 16) shared, “One of the site principals who participated in the study described intentionally avoiding topics, at least in the short-term, that may have been perceived as being politically charged or divisive, opting in favor of building trusting relationships among the staff as a necessary prerequisite to such conversations.” Using this approach to leadership enabled the leaders highlighted throughout this volume to build authentic relationships as the foundation of their work in schools and thus, be stronger leaders for social justice. As Merchant (p. 18) posits, “If authentic relationships and critical reflections are the concepts that elicit critical consciousness, then social justice is the foundation

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of that consciousness.” And, if one’s critical consciousness is at the center of his or her leadership work, more equitable schools will most certainly follow.

5 Conclusion Collectively, these themes go some way towards addressing the need to understand the role of leaders in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts. The cases described here provide insight into the challenge of effective leadership in diverse and continually changing educational settings. Engaging with these insights, we can begin to address the gap in collective understanding of how school leaders can help to foster learning contexts that, as Veenis said earlier, “draw upon the inherent strengths, attributes and cultural backgrounds of diverse school populations”. A volume such as this is rich in detail and while not attempting to generalise findings to everyone in leadership, there is hope that the stories shared here may resonate with others. There are a number of implications for further research, policy, preparation, and practice regarding leadership of linguistically and culturally diverse schools.

5.1 Implications for Research The chapter by Moyi et al. combines the theory of Bourdieu with a moral leadership framework to create a new lens for the exploration of educational leadership in diverse multilingual contexts. This lens allows researchers to delve deeper into the relationships between students and teachers and leaders to provide insight into culturally responsive leadership. Chisolm also emphasises the importance of culturally responsive research for all countries. She argues that “it is imperative educational researchers apply culturally contextual understandings of teaching and learning to the role of school leaders’ (p. 24). Johnson also addresses the need for more culturally sensitive research “which emphasizes leaders’ values and social identities, particularly in cross national contexts” (p. 921). She encourages further study of values-led leadership to “reveal richer portraits of their [leaders] day-to-day interactions with teachers, parents, and students” (p. 920). The implications for research evident in this volume are that there is a need to address context but also to discover the values and identities of the people that are at work in these contexts in order to provide insight into culturally responsive leadership practice.

5.2 Implications for Policy and Preparation Paciotto et al. provide a critical sociocultural framework and undertake a scalar analysis approach to discover the complexity of interrelationships between policy

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and context in multilingual environments. They argue for the necessity of qualitative research approaches to capture the multi-layered reality of language policies in educational contexts. Policy, like leadership must be analysed within the context it is situated. This is important if we are to achieve “an equalized distribution of cultural and educational capital to immigrant and refugee children in super diverse countries” (p. 5). Furthermore, as the authors in this volume indicate, qualitative research is also needed to provide insight into the complexity of school leadership in other countries, to understand the educational needs of indigenous peoples, and to evaluate teacher leadership and preparation programs. There are implications for teacher/leader preparation in this volume. This is most evident in the call for more culturally responsive teaching and leadership practices. Maina and Zaier draw attention to the need for pre-service teachers to develop not only competencies but also the dispositions required to work in culturally diverse K-12 classrooms. In their program, to work towards this, content knowledge was combined with equity pedagogy. Merchant et al. also go beyond content knowledge to address personal and professional transformation in order to help students become social justice advocates. Reflective practices were a vital aspect of this program. Martin et al. also emphasise the importance of using culturally relevant pedagogy and curriculum when working with indigenous populations. To achieve this, teacher preparation programs must teach students to embrace other worldviews—ways of being and knowing—that might exist beyond the pre-service teacher’s world.

5.3 Implications for Culturally Responsive Leadership Practice Beginning with leadership preparation, Merchant et al. found that the students in their programs identified the development of authentic relationships, the practice of critical reflection, and social justice advocacy as critical factors in their evolution as educational leaders. The importance of relationships, critical reflection and advocacy are also evident in the case studies of more experienced leaders. Opportunities to share experience, to question practice and to interrogate values were identified as important at all stages of career. While important for leaders in all contexts, these opportunities were especially embraced by those working in culturally and linguistically diverse contexts as ongoing reflection enabled them to better understand both their school contexts and the biases they brought into the leadership of those schools. As Rosemary (Merchant, p. 17) shared, We have learned that we cannot lead others until we truly know ourselves. Reflections have given me the opportunity to share my experiences. As a veteran teacher of 23 years, you would think everything is set in place, and it’s not. What it has done for me is to bring everyone else’s experiences together with mine and make a connection so that I can be a better teacher and now a better leader.

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It is our hope that this extensive collection of works representing multiple contexts and constructs has enabled readers to gain new understandings into culturally and linguistically diverse schools while simultaneously reflecting on how their own lens impacts their practice as educators. As this reflective acquisition of knowledge becomes more pervasive, school leaders and those who prepare them will, undoubtedly, be better positioned to more effectively guide the ever-changing organizations they are charged to lead.

References Blair, M. (2002). Effective school leadership: The multi-ethnic context. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 23(2), 179–191. Gurr, D. (2014). Successful school leadership across contexts and cultures. Leading and Managing, 20(2), 75–88. Leithwood, K., & Riehl, C. (2003). What we know about successful school leadership. Nottingham, UK: National College for School Leadership. Louis, K., Leithwood, K., Wahlstrom, K., & Anderson, S. (2010). Learning from leadership: Investigating the links to improved student learning. New York: Wallace Foundation. McBrien, J. L. (2005). Educational needs and barriers for refugee students in the United States: A review of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 75(3), 329–364. Shields, C. M. (2010). Transformative leadership: Working for equity in diverse contexts. Educational Administration Quarterly, 46(4), 558–589. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1177/001316 1X10375609.

Epilogue: A Metaphoric Approach to Leading Diversity in Schools Ross Notman

The role of the school leader has undergone fundamental change throughout the last century in response to social change and school reform movements. Beck & Murphy (1993) captured these changes in their metaphorical descriptions of progressive role expectations of the school principal: values broker (1920s), scientific manager (1930s), democratic leader (1940s), theory-guided administrator (1950s), bureaucratic executive (1960s), humanistic facilitator (1970s) and instructional leader (1980s). The changing nature of the principalship in the 1990s centred on an ideologically driven change from the principal as leading professional to a more managerial role as an educational chief executive. After two decades of the 21st century and an increasingly diverse student population, a growing need for contextual sensitivity on the part of the school leader has occasioned a further metaphorical progression in the extant literature and research on educational leadership, that of the contextually responsive leader. This is summarised by Hallinger (2018) in his identification of six contexts that impact on schools: three contexts of general influence: economic, socio-cultural and political, and three additional contexts of direct impact on schools and their leaders: personal, community and institutional. The complex contexts in which school leaders operate have been well articulated in the range of chapters in this book. The interdependence between educational leadership, language, culture and policy making is evident. In this regard, it is possible to view this symbiotic relationship through an ecological lens on a contextually responsive role, where leaders may be caught between the ‘micro’ world of students and their family/community, and the ‘macro’ world of educational agencies, government policies, and society’s educational values and expectations (Notman, 2014). Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the expectations placed on schools and their leaders R. Notman (B) University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand e-mail: [email protected] © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020 J. C. Veenis et al. (eds.), Multiculturalism and Multilingualism at the Crossroads of School Leadership, Policy Implications of Research in Education 11, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54750-9_13

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that they will provide a positive learning environment in which to receive students of refugee families as a world-wide displacement of people continues. The context of resettlement for refugee students and their families represent challenges for school leaders as settlers undergo changes in social and cultural identity against a backdrop of geographic relocation. Leaders are particularly aware that the parents are also in need of in-country language acquisition, and practical skills for self-sufficiency in support of their children’s learning e.g. assisting English language acquisition to enable parents to sit and pass their drivers’ licence test. Two common contextual threads underline this book’s chapters. The first focuses on the theme of social justice. Lee (2007) provides a relevant definition that encapsulates many of the discourses considered pivotal by scholars when describing social justice: Social justice involves promoting access and equity to ensure full participation in the life of a society, particularly for those who have been systematically excluded on the basis of race/ethnicity, gender, age, physical or mental disability, education, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, or other characteristics of background or group membership. Social justice is based on a belief that all people have a right to equitable treatment, support for their human rights, and fair allocation of societal resources (p. 1)

A second concept centres on a high needs school environment which acknowledges social and economic disadvantage for families within the school community: “Schools serving low SES [socioeconomic status] families can find themselves in an ‘iron circle’ that begins with the family’s impoverished economic conditions that may involve unemployment, cultural, racial and/or linguistic factors, immigration….” (Mulford et al., 2008, p. 462). Given the impetus for action in the book’s chapters on these dual themes, it is no surprise that there are also calls in the literature for leadership professional development that enables school leaders to have greater contextual awareness and understanding of their school community and its constituents, and to support culturally relevant pedagogies to meet students’ learning needs. The imperative for such change in school leader preparation has been gathering global momentum. This is reflected in a range of international case studies emanating from the International School Leadership Development Network project (Murakami, Gurr, & Notman, 2019) and in individual countries such as New Zealand. In the latter instance, the Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand (2018) has developed nine capabilities as part of an Educational Leadership Capability Framework. Two capabilities are germane to this discussion: • Ensuring culturally responsive practice and understanding of New Zealand’s cultural heritage, using Te Tiriti o Waitangi [Treaty of Waitangi] as the foundation. • Contributing to the development and wellbeing of education beyond their organisation [this includes local communities]. A third capability refers to the demonstration of moral purpose, optimism, agency and resilience. This capability also embodies a key expectation of school leaders in general that they will look to exert positive influence on barriers to student learning

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beyond the school gate. And so another metaphor begins to emerge of the school leader as an agent for social justice by advocating on behalf of sections of society whose voices are not always heard. The thrust here is for identification of needs, followed by action to address such needs, whether that be in situ, or in national or international educational settings. In an earlier New Zealand book of school and early childhood case studies about leading for social justice in high-needs contexts, the editors offer a concluding provocation that equally applies to this international edition: “This book comes with the hope of triggering a call for action that focuses our attention on the humanity within leadership, and what it means to lead in socially just ways, for socially just outcomes for every student” (Morrison, Notman, & McNae, 2017, p. 172).

References Beck, L. G., & Murphy, J. (1993). Understanding the principalship: Metaphorical theme 1920s– 1990s. New York: Teachers College Press. Education Council of Aotearoa New Zealand. (2018). Educational leadership capability framework. Wellington, NZ: Education Council. Hallinger, P. (2018). Bringing context out of the shadow. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 46(1), 5–24. Lee, C. C. (2007). Social justice: A moral imperative for counsellors. Alexandria, VA: American Counselling Association. Morrison, M., Notman, R., & McNae, R. (2017). Transcending the personal and political: Provocations. In R. McNae, M. Morrison, & R. Notman (Eds.), Educational leadership in Aotearoa New Zealand: Issues of context and social justice. Wellington, NZ: NZCER Press. Mulford, B., Kendall, D., Ewington, J., Edmunds, B., Kendall, L., & Silins, H. (2008). Successful principalship of high-performance in high-poverty communities. Journal of Educational Administration, 46(4), 461–480. Murakami, E., Gurr, D., & Notman, R. (Eds.). (2019). Educational leadership, culture, and success in high-need schools. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing. Notman, R. (2014). The interplay of values. In C. M. Branson & S. J. Gross (Eds.), Handbook of ethical educational leadership (pp. 176–194). New York: Routledge.

Ross Notman works as an educational leadership consultant. He was formerly Professor in Education at the University of Otago and Director of the Centre for Educational Leadership & Administration.