Analyzing Culturally Responsive Practices of Successful Principals in the United States, Norway, and Cyprus

• In Event: Responsively Engaging Students

Abstract

This paper aims to explore how successful leadership for diversity is defined and negotiated in seven culturally diverse schools in Norway, the USA, and Cyprus. The theoretical framework of culturally responsive leadership (Ladson-Billings 1995a; 1995b; Johnson, 2006) was used to reanalyze multi-perspective case study data from semi-structured individual and focus group interviews with teachers, parents, students, and the principals themselves collected as part of the International Successful School Principalship Project (ISSPP). Findings indicated accountability mandates (US) as well as pressures for immigrant students to succeed in the mainstream (Norway and Cyprus) influenced how principals implemented culturally responsive practices.

Authors

• Lauri Johnson, Boston College

• Jorunn Moller, University of Oslo

• Petros A. Pashiardis, The Open University of Cyprus