Supporting Latinx Leadership Through Culturally Affirming Coaching

• In Event: Leadership at the Intersections: Navigating Identity, Representation, and Equity in Educational Leadership

Abstract

Coaching is a promising strategy to support leaders, and there is growing evidence indicating that Latinx leaders mobilize their cultural assets to improve bilingual education. Our study builds on this literature using Latinx/Chicanx feminist theory to center a Mexican-American leader in a bilingual school who engaged in coaching pláticas to reflect and grow. Findings show evidence of shifts the Latina leader as she unpacked how her cultural assets and challenging personal experiences influence her leadership. We also identify the coaching plática practices that supported these shifts. Our study offers implications for designing culturally-affirming coaching for Latinx leaders working to advance bilingual education goals and challenge the persisting monolingual and hegemonic paradigms that characterize U.S. schooling.

Authors

• Sandra Natalia Gutiérrez, University of Maryland

• Astrid Sierra, Metropolitan State University of Denver

• Melinda E. Martin-Beltran, University of Maryland