Leading With the School Community: Contemporary Transformative Leadership in Action

• In Event: 34.067 - WITHDRAWN: Dismantling Hierarchies in a "Post-Truth" Era: Reenvisioning Equitable Educational Opportunities in International School Contexts

Abstract

The demographic composition of the United States population continues to change, becoming increasingly more diverse. Unfortunately, the U.S. education system too often fails to reach school stakeholders from historically marginalized groups based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, language, ability, and/or sexual orientation. In order to attend to the needs of an increasingly diverse population, instead of an administrative control over the school community, contemporary educational leaders must challenge traditional conceptions of leadership embedded within district “unspoken” policies by using alternative, transformative practices to form a sustainable school community. This paper, which draws from a critical ethnographic study located in a southwest urban charter high school, examines the use of transformative practices as a mechanism to revitalize educational leadership through equity-based, community-oriented practices (Foster, 1986; Foster, 1989; Shields, 2010a, 2010b). More specifically, these contemporary school leaders apply the transformative framework by viewing the school as a community where all community members, including administrators, faculty, staff, students, parent/guardians, and other neighborhood stakeholders, are actively involved and empowered to engage in and shape the educational processes (Freire, 1970; Furman, 2004). The paper concludes with a call to action for school leaders to reverse historical marginalization, challenge top-down, traditional school leadership practices, and legitimize the voices of the entire school community.

Foster, W. (1986). Paradigms and promises. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

Foster, W. (1989). The administrator as a transformative intellectual. Peabody Journal of Education, 66(3), 5-18.

Shields, C. M. (2010a). Leadership: Transformative. International Encyclopedia of Education, 5, 26-33.

Shields, C. M. (2010b). Transformative leadership: Working for equity in diverse contexts. Educational Administration Quarterly, 46(4), 558-589.

Author

• Linsay DeMartino, Illinois State University