A Principal's Experience: Redefining Student Success

• In Event: 68.061 - Roundtable Session 30
  In Roundtable Session: 68.061-11 - Innovation, Agency, and Normalization: Curriculum Studies in the 21st Century

Abstract

This autoethnography is informed by the self- analysis, and critique of my leadership experiences as a “privileged insider” and former school principal. As a principal, I had to live with the contradictions and duality of, using test scores as an indicator of student academic success. In that case, my daily philosophical dilemma and personal dichotomy as a school principal in Texas was finding the balance between culturally responsive leadership practices and the rigid Texas accountability system. This autoethnography is a self-narrative of the nodal moments—the moments central to teaching and learning to teach—that I have identified as examples of the three organizational practices: (a) culturally responsive teaching practices, (b) teacher self-efficacy, and (c) sustained academic improvement.

Author

• Lourdes Viloria, Texas A&M International University