Culture, Curriculum, and Context: The Role of School Leaders as "Outsiders" in a "Postcolonial" Belize

• In Event: 43.042 - Reexamining Teacher Efficacy and Politicized Curriculums Through Postcolonial and Decolonizing Lenses

Abstract

Objectives
In this paper we present a qualitative case study that investigated the role of two school leaders, both White women from North America, in providing equity and access to secondary schooling on a remote island in the developing nation of Belize. The study reports their efforts to provide the students of Social Justice Academy (SJA) with not only access to the national curriculum, but ‘windows of opportunities’ that allow students to civically engage in the nation’s economy (Author, 2017).

Theoretical Framework
The original analysis was based on a crosswalk of Liethwood and Reihl’s (2005) Four Core Practices of Successful School Leadership (setting direction, developing people, improving the instructional program, and refining and aligning the organization) and Kose’s (2009) Transformational Leadership for Social Justice (visionary leader, learning leader, structural leader, cultural leader, and political leader). In re-examining the school leaders’ efforts, we drew upon the work of post-colonial theorist Franz Fanon (1963) who explored the effects and adverse impact of British and French colonialism among many African and Latin American (Havana, Mexico, and Brazil) nations (Author, 2017).

Methods and Data Sources
Established by the International School Leadership Development Network (ISLDN), the following set of interview protocols were adhered to: individual semi-structured interviews with educators, student focus group, classroom observations, and document analysis. were conducted. Participant groups consisted of the former school principal (retired) and two of the three school founders who comprise the school’s leadership team, school counselor, three classroom teachers, and a 10-member student focus group. All data was subject to triangulation.

Results
Findings from this case study revealed a shared vision, connecting the school to a wider school community, and aligning resources as leadership practices having the greatest impact on providing access to secondary schooling—both the formal Belizean curriculum, as well as an informal Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum. While the STEM curriculum is designed to prepare students with the knowledge and skills required to fully participate in the economy, it reinforces the creation of a national industry of “rest and relation” for business people from more industrialized nations in the name of tourism (Fanon, 1963, p. 153). Essentially, this created a conundrum: The positive is that the youth now had opportunities to immediately participate in entrepreneurship, however, this also signified limited expectation and opportunity for tertiary and higher education. In this regard school leaders worked within an institutional structure that intentionally prepared youth to participate in their community while also exposing racial and class inequities. This research thus revealed how the school leaders, as ‘outsiders’, endeavored to de-colonize the context of learning and science instruction within an educational system deeply rooted in British colonialism.

Scholarly Significance
This research is significant because the authors: 1) apply and extend Westernized models for examining school leadership to the developing nation of Belize; and 2) investigate and conceptualize the work of school leaders in developing nations utilizing post-colonial theory. However, since this is a stand-alone case study, findings are specific to this context and, therefore, cannot be generalized. (502)

Authors

• Dr. Lorenda Chisolm, University at Buffalo - SUNY

• Noemi Waight, University at Buffalo - SUNY