Leading Equity in Complex Systems

• In Event: 79.014 - Leveraging Collaborative Strength to Develop District Racial Equity Leadership

Abstract

This paper describes the Leading for Equity (LFE) framework, a conceptual framework to support the leadership development of district leaders committed to leading equity-centered systems change as an approach to addressing long-standing racial, economic, and academic disparities in schools. The LFE framework is the foundation of the curriculum for a leadership fellowship—the Racial Equity Leadership Network (RELN)—that builds the capacity of district superintendents and executive staff across the South. The curriculum is being implemented over an 18-month learning arc and cycle of inquiry.

The LFE framework is a trans-disciplinary approach to support leaders to expand their habits of mind and practice when making decisions and taking action to affect equity-centered systems change. The LFE framework draws from studies on structural racialization (powell, 2006); the growing field of anthro-complexity (Snowden, 2007); complexity leadership theory (Uhl-Bien, 2006); and human-centered design (Gordon et al., 2016).

The LFE framework applies research on design principles, systems change, and complexity theory to the concept of racial equity. Integrating these concepts illustrates that, if racial oppression is a set of practices, cultural norms, and institutional arrangements that create and maintain racialized outcomes in society, leaders for racial equity can view their school districts as complex adaptive systems. These systems are operating within a set of conditions and norms that are constantly evolving and interacting with the local, socio-political environment (powell, 2010). Thus, policies and practice to create greater educational equity in complex adaptive systems must move from universal solutions to iterative processes derived from interactions and feedback between all stakeholders. This requires leaders to understand their context and act accordingly.
In practice, the LFE framework and the curriculum based on the framework, support leaders to identify different types of systems (ordered, complex, chaos) defined by the relationship between cause and effect (Snowden, 2005). The LFE framework helps leaders to apply the appropriate mode of inquiry for addressing a challenge in that type of system. Premised on the idea that solutions in complex systems are unknown, leaders learn to apply liberatory design principles—empathy, team co-design, problem defining, prototyping and testing, reflection and iteration—to learn workable solutions to effectively solve equity challenges. Leaders learn that equity-centered leadership development is informed by systemic oppression, that change in complex systems is non-linear, and how to use non-hierarchical approaches to decision-making, design, and action.

Underpinning the LFE framework is the recognition that the world can no longer wait for de-contextualized linear solutions, or live with the predictable consequences of current reductive thinking for catalyzing and influencing equity-centered systems change. A framework that can support this shift, and research to document cases of leadership change, can provide new models for leadership mindsets and actions that lead to improved academic and co-academic outcomes for students of color. This learning would be of tremendous value to the field of both practice and research.

Author

• Victor Carey, National Equity Project