Floyd D. Beachum

Culturally Relevant Leadership for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Urban Schools

The issues and struggles facing school principals today seem daunting, especially for urban school principals. Educational leaders in the United States encounter serious challenges, much like their counterparts in other nations as they struggle to deal with greater external problems like overcrowding, grinding poverty, and problematic politics that impede the mission of their schools. We proffer in this chapter that a commitment to educational equity and excellence cannot occur without principals acknowledging and understanding the importance of culturally relevant leadership. Culturally relevant leadership involves a school leader: (1) understanding the importance of diversity and the recognition of different social identities (race, class, gender, ability status, religious orientation, etc.) (Harro B, The cycle of socialization. In Adams M, Blumenfield WJ, Castaneda R, Hackman HW, Peters ML, Zuniga X (eds) Readings for diversity and social justice: an anthology on racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, heterosexism, ableism, and classism. Routledge, New York, pp. 79–82, 2000) and (2) utilizing such knowledge in every practice conflating this with notions of cultural collision and collusion (Beachum FD, McCray CR, Leadership in the eye of the storm: challenges at the intersection of urban schools, cultural collusion, and no child left behind. Multicultural Learning and Teaching, 3(2), 2008, Available: http://www.mltonline.org/current-articles/mlt-3-2/beachum-mccray.pdf), while also (3) constantly reflecting on these practices for continuous improvement and enhancement.

Countering plutocracies: increasing autonomy and accountability through culturally relevant leadership

In urban school districts across the USA there are mandates to implement zero tolerance policies. As this occurs, there is an increasing number of students, specifically students of colour, who are being jettisoned out of the educative process. When school principals have little autonomy regarding how they handle disciplinary infractions within their schools, it becomes relatively easy for them to opt out of making tough decision. The authors assert that Culturally Relevant Leadership is a framework that, if applied correctly, can help school leaders reduce the multiple school suspensions and expulsions that are occurring among students of colour.

Administering Successful Multicultural Special Education Programs

In schools across the nation, several strategies have proven to yield positive outcomes for multicultural students, especially those with special needs. For example, the responsiveness to intervention program (RTI) was implemented to aid English language learners in California (Boswell, 2005). The RTI program was fueled by the notion that even after implementing the best practices in schools a lot still deserved to be done. Students needed more intervention. Hence, in addition to existing interventions, fourth- and fifth-grade students still struggling spent an extra 45min of instruction with a speech and language pathologist or resource specialist over a nine-week period. As a result of this intervention, these students gained more than a years growth in reading (Boswell, 2005). Furthermore, after the first year of the program, only 4 of the 63 participating students were referred for special education services. According to Boswell, in 2005, this program received the Golden Bell Award by the California School Board Association. In addition to programs like RTI, another intervention is administering effective mentoring and tutoring programs. Mentor programs have proven to be very successful in decreasing absenteeism and increasing academic achievement in students. Gensemer (2000) noted that peer mentor programs in elementary schools can increase the use of critical thinking skills, improve interpersonal skills, and increase the use of conflict resolution skills. Students learning from each other have proved to be very successful. Barone and Taylor (1996) contended that cross-cultural tutoring enhances students’ self-esteem, academic learning time, and sense of responsibility.