System-Level Supports and Conditions

• In Event: Growing and Sustaining Equity-Centered Leaders: Reimagining Professional Learning and Coaching

Abstract

The realities of leading within a complex school system can both pose great opportunities for collaboration as well as many obstacles to change, especially when working to advance equity also requires institutional, policy-level changes. We will present findings from two case studies of two of the District’s Equity PD Pathways that showcase the systemic opportunities and challenges that school leaders face as they engage in professional development to support equity leadership in schools.

The first case study explores the PD factors that contribute to principal retention, sustainability, and effectiveness of equity work within their schools. Data from 22 interviews of school leaders involved in one Equity PD Pathway, triangulated with artifacts, field notes, and memos were analyzed to identify recurring themes across the cohort collectively and individually. The second case study explores organizational dynamics impacting school leaders’ efforts to prioritize equity work in their buildings. This case study traced another Equity PD Pathway and 20 school leaders’ experiences with these learnings by analyzing data across their interviews, observations of PD sessions, artifact analysis, and dialogic engagement to examine how engaging in professional learning about equity work in a network impacted leaders’ approach to improving equity in their buildings.

Findings from both case studies can be understood through the theoretical frameworks of culturally responsive school leadership (Khalifa et al., 2018), theory of racialized organizations (Ray, 2019), and theory of social networks (Mohrman et al., 2003).

School leaders saw themselves as culturally responsive school leaders who attempt to uphold their personal and institutional commitments to equity but sense similar work is not integrated into or in conflict with central office initiatives, leading them to feel as if they do this work on their own. This is supported by the conception of racialized decoupling of formal commitments to equity from policies that reinforce racial hierarchies in Ray’s theory of racialized organizations Ray, 2019).

Though the equity pathways are welcomed by many of the study participants as an opportunity to learn from one another, the broader culture of distrust and lack of psychological safety (Edmonson, 1999) bred from the lack of institutional support for equity work, high organizational turnover, and potential for professional risk or retribution limit how openly leaders engage in this space, or how willing they are to be vulnerable

School leaders need to feel sustained in order to contribute to their long term effectiveness, resilience, and success. Sustainability includes having the space to process their burgeoning conceptions of self in addition to their identities as school leaders, the ability to nurture relationships during PD days, the ability to participate in differentiated professional learning that deeply connects to a variety of real-world needs, and the reduction of stress and burnout associated with school leadership in order to take the necessary risks to advance equity in our schools.

These findings have implications for how system leaders need to work together to understand and rebuild the culture of trust surrounding its calls for equity work, ensure coherence, and create sustainable learning structures.

Authors

• Megan MacDonald, University of Pennsylvania

• Lauren Overton, University of Pennsylvania