Culturally Relevant Leadership and Community Engagement: Principal Perceptions of the National Educational Leadership Preparation Standards and Their Preparation

• In Event: Leadership Preparation Partnerships, Pedagogy, and Outcomes

Abstract

With the adoption of new building leadership standards, preparation programs will be replacing the Educational Leadership Constituent Council (ELCC) standards with the National Educational Leadership Preparation (NELP) standards. The standards reframe the critical knowledge and skills for beginning school leaders. A new focus has been placed on candidates’ ability to demonstrate both cultural responsiveness and external leadership. Arguably, we hold that these newly delineated standards place a special emphasis on a candidate’s ability to engage diverse communities. This study investigates the perceptions of principals of how well they feel their preparation programs have equipped them for culturally responsive leadership and community engagement as defined by the new standards. Participants were purposefully sampled from the Appalachian region of the U.S.

Authors

• Joseph Sarsfield, Ohio University

• Charles L. Lowery, Ohio University

• Michael E. Hess, Ohio University

• Chetanath Gautam, Delaware State University