Expanding a Multidimensional View of Equity: Reimagining Futures for Principal Decisions and Practice around Student Identity

• In Event: Re/Visioning Leadership for Critical and Transformative Changes in Schools

Abstract

This qualitative study examines how secondary principals navigate equity-oriented leadership, with particular attention to tensions surrounding identity. Drawing on a multidimensional equity framework, this study describes how six Title I principals in California make equity decisions amid community resistance and institutional constraints. While participants express strong commitments to inclusion, identity-affirming efforts are often enacted through legal compliance or procedural changes rather than structural transformation. These principals rely on policy to mediate adult discomfort and avoid backlash, highlighting the moral and political complexity of equity work in contested environments. Implications for this work include rethinking how principal preparation, district policy, and leadership support structures can better equip school leaders to advance identity-based equity efforts beyond procedural compliance.

Authors

• Jasper Lucas, University of California - San Diego

• Joni Kolman, California State University - San Marcos