Achieving Inclusion, Equity, and Excellence Through Transformative Leadership

• In Event: Meeting the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goal 4 of Inclusive and Equitable Quality Education: What Does Research Say?

Abstract

Objective: This presentation will share a body of research that demonstrates how leaders drawing from transformative leadership theory (TLT) have modified their goals, learning environments, and pedagogies to achieve more equitable outcomes for all students. It will show how foregrounding inclusion and equity leads to higher academic achievement, as well as high quality education.

Perspectives/Theoretical Frameworks: In 1991, asserting that America’s schools were in a “period of confusion,” Quantz et al. posited that “only the concept of transformative leadership appears to provide an appropriate direction” (p. 101). Since then, research into transformative leadership theory, and clarification of its values, tenets, and strategies, seems to have corroborated their statement, not only in America, but throughout the world (van Oord, 2013). This presentation will provide a brief overview of transformative leadership theory (Burns, 1978; Shields, 2016; Weiner, 2003). It will highlight Johnson’s 2008 finding that “what separates successful leaders from unsuccessful ones is their mental models or meaning structures” and hence will show that rejecting racism, homophobia, deficit thinking, challenging implicit bias, systemic discrimination etc. makes a difference in schools.

Modes of Inquiry: Mertens (2010), describing transformative mixed methods research, states “The fundamental principles of the transformative axiological assumption are enhancement of social justice, furtherance of human rights, and respect for cultural norms” (p. 470). This paper draws on a body of transformative research conducted over 30 years that includes interviews with principals, corroborating surveys with teachers, school and classroom observations, and an analysis of test scores and school district data.

Results/Warrants: Over the years, we have found that when schools are inclusive, rejecting blame, and ensuring students are respected and heard, they are better able to concentrate on academic work and both learning and test scores improve. When one school, for example, focused on this principle, their scores moved from 65% of students meeting or exceeding standards (with a 71% white student population) to five years later having 82% of a now majority-minority population having achieved success (Bieneman, 2011). Another school in a different country, plagued by white flight and gang fights, was slated for closure when less than 30% of students were considered academically successful; however, the principal and staff turned the school around so that achievement doubled in the first year and attendance went from 50 to 80%. We have also found, that when TLT’s second principle is addressed, and school leaders balance private and public good, democracy is strengthened. Hence, schools that have developed strong partnerships with their community and addressed both local and global issues have increased attendance and support. Examples of these findings will be shared in the presentation.

Scientific or scholarly significance
This paper demonstrates one way to ensure that inclusive and equitable education leads to student success. It also determines that ways to achieve equity may be different in different contexts, but that all approaches foreground values as opposed to processes. Thus, working with other researchers who also take a transformative approach, appears to provide a solid way forward.

Author

• Carolyn M. Shields, Wayne State University
  Presenting Author