Gauging Administrators' Perceptions About Their Ability to Lead Demographically Diverse Schools: Developing an Inclusionary Model

• In Event: Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Change in a Democratic Society: Following the Lead of Theory and Leadership Style

Abstract

Schools are becoming increasingly demographically diverse. Leaders for such schools must demonstrate not only an ability to improve performance but address the organizational implications. A learning community of diverse school participants requires school leaders to respond to inevitable cultural conflicts and face resistance in transforming organizational factors. Principals leading demographically diverse schools play an important role in shaping the dynamics occurring in these contexts (Thomas, 2008). Be that as it may, researchers set out to (a) develop a scale to measure leaders’ perceptions of conditions within demographically changing contexts and (b) examine the influence of ethnicity and experience on leader perceptions over aspects related to inclusion.

Authors

• Jean Madsen, Texas A&M University

• Mario Sergio Torres, Texas A&M University

• Jessica Yue, Texas A&M University

• Qian Cao, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Melissa Y. Ji, Texas A&M University - College Station

• Lixia Qin, Texas A&M University - College Station