Being "Savvy": Using Frame Analysis to Examine How Urban Superintendents Lead for Equity

• In Event: 61.048 - Reframing That Opens Space for Social Justice Leadership

Abstract

As the day-to-day leaders of a school district, superintendents oversee budgetary and other district operations, help give practical meaning to federal and state policy, and play an important role in “framing” – or strategically communicating – policy messages to stakeholder groups. Superintendents seem to be well-positioned to implement policies that better serve groups of historically marginalized students. This qualitative multi-case study seeks to critically analyze how urban district superintendents utilize strategic communication to legitimize and gain support for equity-based policies. The results of this study may contribute to a clearer view of the ways in which superintendents make decisions for (or against) equity positions and how they might legitimize their choices within a sometimes ethically ambiguous and dilemma-laden leadership environment.

Author

• James C Coviello, Saint Joseph's University