Culturally Responsive School Leadership and Community Activism

• In Event: Culturally Responsive School Leadership: Empirical Research and Theoretical Advances

Abstract

While culturally responsive leadership affirms all cultures, racial tensions and inequities continue to thwart the academic progress of students of color, marginalize families, and contribute to the lack of educational resources, political representation and power. Our research on Black educational communities in Toronto, London, and Detroit discusses how race informs reform agendas, community activism, and change.
As a transnational phenomena, Black-focused educational programs in global locales reflect a historical tradition of educational self-sufficiency in Black communities that links diasporic cultural knowledge with ties to a reimagined African homeland. Parents, educators, and community activists in Toronto and London have advocated for the needs of Black students and proved resourceful in developing new educational sites when government schools proved insufficient. These efforts have led to essential community-building in often hostile educational environments. Many Black Detroiters in the U.S. draw upon cultural norms and racial consciousness to engage in educational activism, yet have experienced less success as they face enduring political and educational barriers while striving to combat school closures, financial and governance takeover, and abysmal achievement scores in a city deeply affected by poverty, mismanagement, population loss, and controversial state policies.
This session aims to spark discussion about: the salience of racial politics in urban education; the role Black families and community activists play in holding formal authority figures accountable for culturally relevant educational leadership; the ways that activism might advance democracy and equity; and how educational leaders might infuse racial awareness, critique and coalition building into their leadership efforts.

Authors

• Camille M. Wilson, University of Michigan

• Lauri Johnson, Boston College