The Impact of Beginning a Leadership Preparation Program With Racial Autobiographies

• In Event: Racial Autobiography as a Catalyst for Antiracist Leadership Identity

Abstract

Purpose. This study addresses the question, “How did beginning a two-year leadership preparation program with racial autobiographies impact candidates’ individual and collective learning?”

Theoretical framework. This study is guided by two complementary conceptual frameworks: critical race theory (CRT) (Parker & Villalpando, 2007) and Capper, et al.’s (2006) framework for preparing social justice school leaders. The first three tenets of CRT are relevant in our analysis of racial autobiographies in a leadership preparation program: 1) centrality of race/racism and its intersections with other forms of subordination, 2) challenge to dominant ideology, and 3) commitment to social justice. This lens allows us to interpret how centering racial(-ized) identity and experiences shifts the learning of candidates to challenge institutionalized oppression.
Capper et al.’s framework argues for the use of curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment in educational leadership programs so that leaders can gain critical consciousness, skills, and knowledge to lead socially just schools. We heed two dimensions of the framework: 1) prepare educators with skills to create and lead antiracist schools, and 2) implement assignments that promote reflective analysis. Racial autobiographies allowed for self-reflection and an opportunity to practice difficult dialogue about race and racism.

Methods and Data sources. We use participatory action research (Anderson et al., 2007) to analyze our practice as university faculty instructors of leadership preparation. Specifically, we are interested in the phenomenon of racial autobiography use in the case of a leadership preparation program that is a tight partnership between our university and two local school districts (Creswell, 2013; Yin, 2014). Study participants include 40 leadership preparation candidates across the two districts (90% BIPOC) and their four instructors (including two of the authors of this paper). All participants gave a racial autobiography at the outset of the program, first the instructors, followed by the leadership candidates. We analyze two data sources: 1) candidates’ formal class reflections at program outset (following the presentation of racial autobiographies) and then at program completion (capstone presentations, final reflection papers), and 2) program exit interviews conducted by the authors with one another’s graduates.

Results. Candidates reported in work artifacts and interviews that the racial autobiography experience was transformative, contributing to:
A bond among the cohorts;
A sense of trust with the instructors, including across race lines (i.e., positively impacting candidates of color’s impression of White instructors);
The centering of the role of identity as a crucial aspect of leadership;
An increased awareness of the impact of White supremacy across the diversity of participants, especially pertaining to the existence of Colorism and Anti-Blackness across racial lines.

Scholarly significance of the work. This study has implications for scholarship and practice. Our findings suggest that racial autobiography can be a key tool in future leaders’ conceptions of leadership and their work to build antiracist schools, substantively changing how candidates approach and dialogue problems of practice. As such, this piece heeds Ishimaru’s and Galloway’s (2020) call to develop alternative theories of change that will compel organizational shifts.

Authors

• Jennifer Goldstein, California State University - Fullerton

• Maritza Lozano, California State University - Fullerton

• Estela Zarate, Loyola Marymount University