Leadership Preparation to Influence Culture, Language, and Heritage: A Case Study of Schools for the Deaf

• In Event: 16.057 - Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: 16.057-17 - Leadership for Social Justice: Preparing Culturally Competent School Leaders

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the current status of school leaders in schools for the deaf, how they address diversity, and what implications for leadership preparation programs (specifically in the areas of culture and language attitudes, values and beliefs) have for current and aspiring school leaders within this context. The traditional hearing-centric bias of schooling marginalizes deaf students who respond better to more visually-based ways of learning and communicating. The paper argues for the need to prepare school leaders to ensure that schools meet the need of the language and cultural diversity in the deaf student population, but has relevance and application for other minority educational systems and groups that have been traditionally marginalized and underrepresented.

Authors

• Catherine Ann O'Brien, Gallaudet University

• Kerry Kathleen Robinson, University of Tennessee Knoxville

• Marlon Kuntze, Gallaudet University