What Are Students Learning in an Equity-centered Educational Leadership Program?

• In Event: Critical & Equity-Oriented Leadership Preparation

Abstract

This paper shares collaborative faculty efforts to revise their department’s leadership preparation programs (ELPPs) toward explicitly equity-centered, culturally responsive aims. This yearlong revision process led to the selection of a pilot cohort of educators from our urban district partner. As part of larger efforts to evaluate the program revisions, this study asks: What are students learning in an explicitly equity-centered, culturally responsive ELPP? The analysis takes a fine-grained approach to students’ proximal learning trajectories by examining the coursework of three focal students. One emergent finding is that asset-oriented perspectives arose as a compelling frame for all three focal students, as they described—in various ways— growing commitments to empowering the voices of young people, staff, families, and communities.

Author

• Carla Finkelstein, Towson University