Kathryn Bell McKenzie

From the Field: A Proposal for Educating Leaders for Social Justice

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to suggest the structure and content of an educational leadership program whose aim is to prepare principals for social justice work. Research Design: The authors have conceptualized foundational components for a comprehensive principalship program focused on social justice. They assert that educational leaders for social justice must have three goals at the forefront of their efforts: (a) They must raise the academic achievement of all the students in their school, that is, high test scores do matter; (b) they must prepare their students to live as critical citizens in society; and (c) both of these goals can only be achieved when leaders assign students to inclusive, heterogeneous classrooms that provide all students access to a rich and engaging curriculum. The components addressed for this social justice—oriented principalship preparation program include (a) how students should be selected for such a program and (b) an outline of the knowledge and content for educating social justice leaders. The importance of induction/praxis after students graduate from these programs is discussed. Conclusions: The aim of this article is to provoke a discussion in the field and spark faculty to engage in ongoing conversations and thinking about their own programs and to imagine new avenues for future research in this area. Faculty also can use these suggestions as a guide to assess their efforts and to bolster program quality, sensitive to the unique needs and schooling contexts of their particular students.

Equity Traps: A Useful Construct for Preparing Principals to Lead Schools That Are Successful With Racially Diverse Students

The concept of equity traps evolved from a qualitative study that revealed the conscious and unconscious thinking patterns and behaviors that trap teachers, administrators, and others, preventing them from creating schools that are equitable, particularly for students of color. Although the results of this original study exposed these equity traps, merely exposing the traps is not sufficient. Hence, the purpose of this article is to offer a useful, pragmatic construct to professors in educational administration departments to help them prepare their principal candidates to be able not only to identify these equity traps but also to understand them and be able to implement strategies to avoid or eliminate these traps. Therefore, the authors clearly define the four equity traps—the deficit view, racial erasure, employment and avoidance of the gaze, and paralogic beliefs and behaviors—and offer practical, successful strategies to avoid or free educators from these traps.

Teacher Resistance to Improvement of Schools with Diverse Students.

Two university researchers who have considerable practitioner and research experience in urban schools conducted an interventionist action research project in collaboration with the professional staff of a diverse urban elementary school. The goal was to collaborate with the administration, faculty and staff in an average urban elementary school to improve the academic success of all students and all student groups regardless of the race, ethnicity and family income of the students and their families. While analyses of the school’s state accountability data indicated that there was some improvement in the academic success of the school’s diverse students, particularly among the lowest scoring student group, problems that arose in this process led the researchers to identify four themes of resistance to school change. These were ‘externals are the cause of low achievement and achievement gaps’, ‘accountability systems are destructive to my teaching’, ‘suggesting change is critique’ and ‘we are not leaders’. Following a description of the themes, implications and recommendations are briefly discussed.

‘Sometimes I feel like the problems started with desegregation’: exploring Black superintendent perspectives on desegregation policy

This paper is drawn from a larger qualitative study that explores the perspectives of eight retired Black school superintendents who personally experienced segregated schools as students and subsequent desegregation efforts as administrators. Unlike much of the mainstream literature that extols the virtues of desegregation for Black children, their accounts tell a very different story. Their reflections suggest that although they ‘got what they fought for,’ they ‘lost what they had’ and that many of the problems attributed to Black education today ‘started with desegregation.’ This study adds to the growing literature that interrogates the widely accepted assumptions that desegregation resulted in significant educational progress for Black children. Further, the perspectives of Black superintendents, which are often missing or forgotten in education research, can help inform our understanding of race‐conscious education policies and the role they play in promoting and/or realizing racial equality and social justice in education.

Resisting Social Justice in Leadership Preparation Programs: Mechanisms that Subvert.

It is well documented that the achievement gap between affluent students and economically disadvantaged students and between White students and students of color continues to widen. In addition to these achievement gaps, marginalizing practices are often imbedded in the structures of schooling. These challenges require educational leadership programs that effectively prepare school principals who can meet our most pressing school challenges and who, in particular, strive for social justice ends; however, the literature on leadership for social justice provides no clear consensus on what an entire educational leadership program oriented toward social justice would include. This study attempts to fill the gap in the literature by critically examining a curriculum and instruction leadership program that has social justice embedded into the programs core practices. Specifically we ask the following questions: What critical elements underlie programs that prepare professionals for social justice in fields outside of educational leadership? What can we learn from these programs in support of educational leadership programs whose aim is to prepare leaders for social justice? What possible resistance was faced by these programs, and what can we learn from these experiences that can inform our practice of preparing educational leaders for social justice? There were several key findings that range from how students were selected into the program to the way in which faculty worked with each other in their teaching responsibility. The paper concludes with implications and recommendations for principal-preparation programs.

Emotional abuse of students of color: the hidden inhumanity in our schools

Illuminating and understanding the emotional abuse inflicted on many students of color is a necessity in creating conditions for their school success. However, this topic is rarely discussed among educators and those preparing educators. However, from the author’s recent experiences conducting research in racially diverse schools as well as her nearly 30 years working in such schools, it is apparent that some teachers, consciously or unconsciously, act in ways toward their students that constitute abuse, i.e. the infliction of narcissistic injuries. The possible sequelae of these injuries may have deleterious effects on the future academic, emotional and physical health of the students.

Home-Town Values and High Accountability: A Texas Recipe for Districtwide Success in an Urban School District

This article reports the findings from a case study of urban school district effectiveness taken from a larger, multistate study. The case study district, Galena Park Independent School District in Galena Park, Texas, was chosen for inclusion in the study based on quantitative analysis of student achievement data in Texas. An education production function model was used to compare how well school districts actually performed to how well the model predicted they would perform given a certain level of resources. Qualitative data were gathered through extensive fieldwork in the school district and were analyzed using codes based on a theoretical framework of district effectiveness developed a priori by the research team. Key findings reveal how the political, administrative, and professional systems in Galena Park were brought into coherent alignment to support district reform efforts. A finding of particular importance was the productive coexistence of both professional and administrative accountability within the same school district. This locally developed recipe combined both home-town values and high accountability into a culture in which reform designed to raise achievement for all students and to reduce historic achievement gaps could grow and thrive.

Concluding reflections on “Leadership for learning in the context of social justice

Purpose – The purpose of the paper is to reflect on and respond to the papers contained in this Special Issue of Journal of Educational Administration.Design/methodology/approach – A commentary is provided for each of the nine articles in the Special Issue.Findings – The papers in the Special Issue constitute a substantial and important contribution toward incorporating international perspectives into an existing research discourse on educational leadership for social justice. One of the immediate challenges that will need to be addressed is how to systematically work against the hegemony of Western thought and colonialism that infiltrates all our discourses, even those that generate scholarship such as that found in this Special Issue.Originality/value – The paper reflects on the current Special Issue, and provides directions for future research.

The Equity Road: Five Examples of Successful Reform in Urban Schools and Districts

The equity road. That is the path upon which the authors in this special issue have chosen to walk. Each of them is deeply committed to an equitable education for every student, regardless of the student’s background. They are especially committed to a high quality education for African American and Latino=a students and for students from low income homes. They are committed to schools of excellence for all students, regardless of race, ethnicity, disability, home culture, gender, culture, home language, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status. They are also committed to Caucasian students whose parents are well-paid professionals. They are committed to an equitable and excellent education for all students. Nonetheless, this group of scholars—and their articles in this special issue of JESPAR—are mainly concerned about the three largest groups of students that the U.S. educational system has too often failed to serve well: African Americans, Latina=os, and those from low income families. Unfortunately, many scholars, policymakers, and educators and a large portion of the general public continue to have a deficit attitude (Valencia, 2010) toward the low performance of students of color and students from low income homes. For example, Payne (2005) provided a clear example of this deficit view that locates the responsibility for school failure on the student, their parents, home culture, their race or ethnicity, neighborhood, home language, or socioeconomic status. By contrast, the scholars in this issue believe that the primary responsibility for providing both excellence and equity in schooling belongs to education scholars, policy makers, and educators. As Ron Edmonds (1979) stated,

King Elementary: A New Principal Plans How to Transform a Diverse Urban School.

This case addresses a typical context faced by a new urban principal. Under the former principal, the school had several years of average academic success. Consequently, the superintendent appointed the new principal to significantly improve the success of the highly diverse elementary school. Although the new principal has been well trained and has had experience under a successful principal, she understands that her challenges are formidable. In response, she has been building trust and relationships with the staff, teachers, and parents, but now she must develop a yearlong improvement plan, as must the students who use this case in their coursework.