Culturally and Linguistically Responsive Leadership: Examining a Professional Learning Program

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 5
  In Roundtable Session: Social Justice Praxis

Abstract

This paper examines how school leaders understand and implement culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogy (CLRP) in one school district in Los Angeles, California. CLRP is “a pedagogy that empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically by using cultural and historical referents to convey knowledge, to impart skills, and to change attitudes” (Ladson-Billings, 1994, p. 13). This project involves a multi-year professional learning program, designed by the authors, to support schools in acknowledging, identifying, analyzing, and resolving issues of equity and marginalizing practices through a lens of cultural and linguistic responsiveness. In this study, our preliminary findings show that while teachers’ and leaders’ understandings of CLRP increased, their implementation of CLRP with regards to discipline, instruction, and policy varied.

Authors

• Alison Karin Munzer, University of California - Los Angeles

• Tonikiaa Orange, University of California - Los Angeles