Bradley W. Carpenter

Examining Race-Related Silences Interrogating the Education of Tomorrow’s Educational Leaders

The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the inclusion of race-related conversations within educational leadership preparation programs. We consider how students and professors within one preparation program conceptualize the ways in which conversations pertaining to race are present and/or missing within their courses. Specifically, we assess how both entities contribute to the silences that often obstruct conversations pertaining to race. Our findings further support the works of researchers who believe the field of education leadership must revisit the conceptual understandings of conversations and the pedagogical tools used to address issues of race within the classroom.

The implicated advocate: the discursive construction of the democratic practices of school principals in the USA

Changes in the public service sector during the last stages of the twentieth century contributed to an international reconfiguration of state-centric governance. Supported by the discourses of individualism, marketization, national governance, and competition, this (re)shaping of governance presents a specific dilemma for the political identity of educational leaders. In response to the troubling lack of international scholarship focused on the political role of educational leaders, this article provides insight into the ways in which the political identity of school leaders within the USA is influenced by dominant discourses. The understandings highlight the ways in which educational leaders are expected to realize their roles as resolute implementers of state policy, while also being directed to act as deliberative advocates within the jurisdiction of educational policy making. We believe that these competing discourses have altered the identity of educational leaders into what we have labeled as the implicated advocate. The purpose of this article is to provide the field of the politics of educational with a concept that may expose the double bind that is experienced by the educational leaders.

The influence of values and policy vocabularies on understandings of leadership effectiveness

During the past two decades, shifting discourses have significantly altered professional expectations for educational leaders. Driven by a globalized reconfiguration of the values defining educational purpose, definitions of effective leadership, processes for evaluating them, and the very boundaries of educational policy have narrowed and distilled. Specifically, policy vocabularies focused around marketization and choice, management and surveillance, and performativity and accountability have permeated federal and state educational policies in the USA. This article considers the inscription of these policy vocabularies within the Obama/Duncan Administration’s Blueprint for Reform: The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Blueprint) and Race to the Top (R2T), paying specific attention to the evaluation of public school leaders and determinations of their effectiveness. Utilizing critical discourse analysis, we examined federal and state education policy and highlight how dominant policy discourses have created new parameters for educational leadership along with narrowed conceptualizations of the evaluation of public school principals at state and local levels. Based on our findings, we argue that today, more than ever before, scholars must draw attention to the ways in which the values that traditionally shaped education policy are being displaced by globalized neoliberal discourses.

The Complexities of Realizing Community: Assistant Principals as Community Leaders in Persistently Low-Achieving Schools

Meaningful community involvement has been linked to enhancements in student achievement and quality of educational experiences. Assistant principals are positioned to build effective partnerships yet remain understudied in the leadership preparation field. This qualitative study investigated how assistant principals (N = 9) serving historically marginalized populations conceptualized and realized community leadership amidst prescriptive measures embedded within the Title I School Improvement Grant. This study highlights how the collective conceptualization of community leadership is complex and deserving of additional consideration. Findings indicate that school leaders desire more effective and sustainable partnerships, yet policies and knowledge gaps present unique challenges to change efforts.

“If I Don’t Use the Word, I Shouldn’t Have to Hear it”: The Surfacing of Racial Tensions in a Leadership Preparation Classroom

This case outlines a dilemma encountered by an assistant professor and graduate teaching assistant teaching within an educational leadership preparation program. The case offers a detailed illustration of a race-related conflict occurring in a course focused on preparing school leaders to address issues of social justice within diverse settings. Addressing race-related issues within the classroom are of the utmost importance for today’s leadership preparation programs, as the influx of traditionally marginalized populations within public schools continues to rapidly increase. Implications for the development of school leaders include the purposeful examination of issues related to race, diversity, social justice, positionality, and the facilitation of critically-oriented conversations.

Guidance Matters A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Race-Related Policy Vocabularies Shaping Leadership Preparation

Despite the federal government’s historical effort to ensure educational equity via policies targeting issues critical to U.S. urban cities, a transformation has taken place in the discourses shaping educational policy solutions. While policies targeting educational equity have not completely vanquished, they have been largely re-written by discourses of efficiency and accountability. Informed by Hajer’s notion of policy vocabularies, this article highlights how the written inscription of equity-related discourses within documents used to guide leadership preparation may shape the ways in which programs consider the construction of curricula focused on issues related to equity.

Family Involvement at the Secondary Level: Learning from Texas Borderland Schools.

The purpose of this study is to provide an understanding of how successful secondary schools located along the Texas-Mexico border, particularly those enrolling predominantly Latino students, have supported high achievement among their student population and promoted parental involvement. The roles and perspectives of parents and school community members in the family-school relationship are examined through a secondary data analysis, as we explore how different views affect both the definitions of, as well as reasons for, involvement.

Examining the Social Justice Identity of Assistant Principals in Persistently Low-Achieving Schools

In the context of high-stakes accountability, education-related policy efforts have aimed to address the improvement of persistently low-achieving (PLA) schools via turnaround reform strategies. Such strategies provide opportunities for educational leaders to influence the process; however, limited research examining the role of the assistant principal (AP) exists. This study explored the role of social justice identities of 12 APs in schools labeled as PLA in an urban, Midwestern city. Despite the policy pressures associated with turnaround reform strategies, APs leveraged their social justice identities to create innovative changes in culture and practice within schools. Although all APs perceived themselves as an ally, the extent of the orientation, and whether it leads toward emancipatory education, remains a question.

Legislative Advocacy for High Quality Leadership Preparation: Perspectives and Implications for Teaching and Learning Educational Leadership.

This article interrogates the value of leadership preparation programs connecting academic and political spheres as endorsed in the 2008 revised ISLLC Standards. Specifically, a number of exemplar teaching and learning practices are shared that led to the planning and implementation of legislative advocacy projects for educational leadership professors and students in Washington, DC. Major findings include that although many educators are not adequately prepared nor encouraged to participate in policy making at the state or national levels, purposeful efforts to engage educators in legislative advocacy projects results in positive outcomes for professors, students, and policymakers alike.

Teacher Migration: Extension and Application of the Population Ecology Model to Explore Teacher Transfers in a Reform Environment:

This article assesses the association between the Title I School Improvement Grant (SIG) program’s personnel replacement policy and teacher employment patterns within an urban school district. Hannan and Freeman’s population ecology model allowed the authors to consider schools within districts as individual organizations nested within a larger organization. The data are drawn from employment records of 2,470 teachers who worked in 19 high schools in a single school district from 2006 to 2011. The personnel replacement policy of the Title I SIG program appears to have reinforced, and in some cases intensified, existing patterns of teacher selection, retention, and migration.