“Start by Listening to Their Stories”: Storying the Ascent of Male School Leaders of Color Through Co-Autoethnography

• In Event: Voices of Racially Diverse Educational Leaders

Abstract

In this participatory project, we bring together rising male leaders of color, doctoral students and university faculty for inquiry. Through collaborative autoethnography, we examine the stories and interpersonal discourses of rising, male leaders of color in an urban school district to inform the organizational, programmatic and policy conditions needed to construct racially just systems of leadership development. Using Yosso’s community cultural wealth framework, we uncover the assets male leaders of color bring to leadership and how universities and districts can be responsive to these strengths to recruit, prepare, and retain school leaders. Specifically, we illuminate how aspirational, familial, social, and navigational capital have buoyed these men of color in leadership pursuits while they have encountered institutional obstacles.

Authors

• Donna Volpe, Ramsey Board of Education

• Vinicio Quinteros, Newark Public Schools

• Desmond L. Durham, Montclair State University

• Jose Diaz, Newark Public Schools

• Shanna D. Anderson, Montclair State University

• Rachel Garver, Montclair State University