Research

School leadership is completely different, yet still similar to classroom teaching. As a new director, I am still learning the ropes of administration, but I know that culturally responsive teaching encompassess the entire school environment, not just the classroom. CRT must not only be promoted, but actively practiced by all school officials in order to ensure a safe and welcoming space. Khalifa, Gooden and Davis (2016) note four specific behaviors of leaders that result in culturally sustaining practices schoolwide:

1. Critical Self-Awareness

   • "Leaders must use their understanding to envision and create a new environment of learning for children in their building who have been marginalized because of race and class. They must be keenly aware of inequitable factors that adversely affect their students’ potential. Likewise, they must be willing to interrogate personal assumptions about race and culture and their impact on the school organization (p. 1281)."

     • • As stated in my previous section, self-awareness in CRT is crucial. While my current school's demographic cannot be described as a marginalized community, the need for critical self-awareness/ consciousness cannot be forgotten. I believe it is critical for our education team to not only recognize the disparities between demographics, but to continually advocate for equity as an institution, as well as modeling this importance for our students and families.

2. Culturally Responsive Curricula & Teacher Preparation

   • "In much the same way that instructional leadership scholarship positions the principal as one who supports the development of teaching effectiveness by managing the instructional program (Leithwood et al., 2004), we argue principals must play a leading role in maintaining cultural responsiveness in their schools. This outcome can be achieved by recruiting and retaining culturally responsive teachers, securing culturally responsive resources and curriculum, mentoring and modeling culturally responsive teaching, or offering professional developments around CRSL (p. 1281)."

     • • It is my obligation to ensure teachers have the support and materials they need to lead culturally responsive classrooms. In addition to diverse toys, books, etc., teachers must be given proper training and preparation in order to facilitate CRT. Furthermore, fostering relationships between staff and leadership allows for a professional learning community that values authenticity, difficult conversations and growth (Schlanger, 2018).

3. Culturally Responsive and Inclusive School Environments

   • "The ability of the school leader to leverage resources to identify and foster a culturally affirming school environment is also paramount (Ainscow, 2005; Riehl, 2000). Racialized suspension gaps, for example, would call for a culturally responsive leader who challenges the status quo by interrogating such exclusionary and marginalizing behaviors. Such leaders would seek to challenge and support teachers who fell into the familiar pattern of disproportionately referring minoritized students to special education or punishing students of color more severely than their White classmates for the same infractions (Skiba, Michael, Nardo, & Peterson, 2002) (p. 1281)."

     • • Creating inclusive spaces is key for leaders, teachers, students and families alike. In order to establish meaningful relationships, we must first build trust. As a teacher, I would build trust with students by making my word as good as gold. If I promised a dance party, it would happen regardless of where we left off in the lesson plan. As a leader, this remains the same. I must always be aware of breaks, needs, successes and frustrations to show that I am always there to support them in the same way that I am there for my students. Establishing trust and fostering relationships with teachers creates an inclusive model that leads to positive school environments and prolific classroom experiences.

4. Engaging Students and Parents in Community Contexts

   • "A fourth layer of culturally responsive leadership, which is most salient in the literature to date, highlights the ability of the school leader to engage students, families, and communities in culturally appropriate ways. For example, the ability of a school leader to understand, address, and even advocate for community-based issues has been discussed by a number of scholars (Khalifa, 2012; Walker, 2009), as well as the role school leaders may play in promoting overlapping school–community contexts, speaking (or at least, honoring) native students’ languages/lexicons, creating structures that accommodate the lives of parents, or even creating school spaces for marginalized student identities and behaviors all speak of this community aspect (p. 1282)."

     • • We have a very diverse school which offers a special advantage to culturally responsive teaching. Not only can we utilize parents through family engagement, but we can enable teachers to use their own cultures to model and amplify the significance of CRT (Kolecki, 2020). One way we have harnessed these strengths is by creating a dual-language program. I cannot speak Spanish, but our teachers are able to execute lesson plans in both languages and can bridge the gap between English Language Learners and English speaking children.

Culturally Responsive Leaders understand that they are the heartbeat of the school and recognize their responsibility to both teachers and students to impart tools that will grant students a high-quality, comprehensive education that will deepen learning, provide relevant application and increase overall well-being. However, I cannot deny that my race, age and privilege create a space in which I recognize that I am not always going to be fully equipped to handle this vast responsibility. In order to accommodate for this, I am always fully transparent with teachers, families and other administrators and will continue to utilize outside resources, such as Overcoming Racism and other DEI efforts to ensure our students receive the education they deserve.

References:

Khalifa MA, Gooden MA, Davis JE. Culturally Responsive School Leadership: A Synthesis of the Literature. Review of Educational Research. 2016;86(4):1272-1311. doi:10.3102/0034654316630383

Kolecki, E. (2020). Culturally proficient leadership in schools. Human Resource Exchange. Retrieved October 23, 2021, from https://www.tasb.org/services/hr-services/hrx/hr-trends/culturally-proficient-leadership-in-schools.aspx.

Schlanger, P. (2018). Exploring equity culturally responsive leaders - MAEC. Center for Education Equity. Retrieved October 23, 2021, from https://maec.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Exploring-Equity-Culturally-Responsive-Leaders.pdf.

Digging Deeper

Becoming a Culturally Responsive Teacher is a lifelong endeavor, and becoming a leader who exemplifies, cultivates and maintains this pedagogy is a duty I do not take lightly. In order to build my own skills, as well as developing the support our teachers and students need, I participated in the following webinars.

Creating Anti-Racist Early Childhood Spaces

This webinar was very informative, especially in regards to early childhood centers. Much of my anti-racism studies have surrounded K-12 schools and it was helpful to hone in on what an explicitly anti-racist early childhood classroom looks like, feels like and acts like. The first thing that popped out to me is that without active anti-racist policies in place, one is participating in passive racism. As Ibram X. Kendi states, “The only way to undo racism is to consistently identify and describe it—and then dismantle it”. This webinar also reiterated the importance of reevaluating my ‘why’ as a white woman. If my decision to be a teacher is rooted in guilt, shame or saviorism, it is crucial to do the heart work before returning to the classroom. The presenters also emphasized discussing race (as opposed to racism) with young children, as it starts critical processing early on and normalizes the topic. Perhaps the piece of advice that stuck out most is that it takes years and years to become a proficient culturally responsive leader, but that does not mean I shouldn’t begin implementing various strategies. We have students in our classrooms now and it is imperative that we create and sustain anti-racist schools.

Building for Equity: School Self-Assessment

Continuous school assessment, in alliance with self-assessment, is a critical aspect of leading through a CRT lens. The above tool allowed me to not only hone in on my own practice, but think critically about what is truly happening within the school. Per my results, there is a lot of work to be done. However, rather than becoming overwhelmed by what we aren't, I developed the following Glows & Grows:

Glows:

1. There are strong relationships present throughout our school. While this is an extremely difficult time to be in early childhood, our teachers and leaders actively focus on maintaining meaningful relationships with each other.

2. We have built social-emotional learning into every aspect of our day and employ several outside opportunities (music, soccer, yoga, arts, etc.) to support students' development and practice key skills in different contexts.

3. We have a very diverse demographic of families from all over the world. We actively engage in conversations with parents to gain cultural knowledge and incorporate toys/ other materials into instruction.

Grows:

1. Educators must be provided with the proper training and tools to effectively do their jobs within this context. Because many of our teachers have little experience, my goal is to provide routine trainings that focus on anti-racist classrooms, positive behavioral management, and culturally relevant teaching strategies.

2. We need to be collecting, analyzing and using data from demographics, conversations, student assessments, and surveys/ interviews to guide decision-making.

3. While we provide diverse classroom materials and toys, students must be engaging in meaningful conversations with each other and teachers to disrupt unjust factors and normalize discussing cultures outside their own.

Teacher Self-Assessment

Before individually meeting with lead teachers, I asked them to complete the above survey and reflect on their instructional strategies and classroom environments. These surveys provided me with valuable insight into how our teachers feel about implementing culturally responsive teaching, as well as guiding my coaching observations. Per the results, these teachers indicate a strong effort of CRT and are actively seeking to enhance their practice daily. The planning/ to do sections will allow me to support them in the specific areas they need.

Pyramid Model Equity Coaching Guide

I chose to use Pyramid Equity Projects's Coaching Guide as an observational/ coaching tool to guide my CRT observations, discussions, and intentions. This comprehensive guide led me to reflect, identify concerns, research resolutions/ trainings, and create effective coaching meetings to develop positive understandings of our students and families.

Step 1: Observations

Following the guide, I observed each classroom for a period of 30 minutes and provided my reflections. As a whole, we are developing CRT strategies, but the data indicates we need to continue to build these skills to ensure we are amplifying cultural strengths rather than passively providing multicultural toys. I also would like to see deeper conversations between children and teachers. Many times the teachers missed the opportunity to broaden horizons by facilitating a discussion between peers. Instead, teachers simply answered questions their way, denying students agency in their learning. I also noticed that teachers are assigning gendered toys/activities based on assumptions rather than child behaviors or interests. However, as I mentioned above, each classroom has truly developed as a family, and those meaningful relationships are evident. Still, as culturally responsive teachers, it is vital that we utilize these relationships and provide rich activities so that our students discover themselves, their cultures and the world around them.

Step 2: Issue Identification

*adapted from page 8 of the coaching guide

Classroom 1 (infant/ toddler):

• Equity issue: family engagement & communication

• Online resources that support the need for focus:

  • • Building Partnerships with Families

    • Family Engagement Resource Catalog

    • Home/School Connections

• Initial thoughts about culturally responsive practices that might address the concern:

  • • parent conversation logs, weekly newsletters, shared decision-making meetings, survey intake, etc.

Classroom 2 (preschool 2 yrs - 3 yrs):

• Equity issue: meaningful questions, conversations & feedback

• Online resources that support the need for focus:

  • • Interactions with Dual Language Learners

    • Responsive Interactions

    • "Thick" Conversations

• Initial thoughts about culturally responsive practices that might address the concern:

  • • probing question prompts, timers, pronunciation/ labels, comprehensive feedback loops, etc.

Classroom 3 (PreK):

• Equity issue: meaningful materials & language representation

• Online resources that support the need for focus:

  • • Schedules and routines

    • Reading Your Way to CRT

    • Inclusivity Through the Arts

    • "Thick" Conversations

• Initial thoughts about culturally responsive practices that might address the concern:

  • • intentional use of diverse materials, conversation starters, guest speakers, parent engagement, dual language learner support, etc.

Step 3: Resource Review

As I reflected on how to best support my teachers and their instruction, I wanted to be intentional about the resources I provide. Part of being a culturally responsive leader is ensuring that the materials are appropriate and effective. Most of my teachers do not have formal teaching experience, so it is important to be cognizant of that and use their strengths to fill in gaps, rather than focusing on what they are not yet doing. It is also vital to ensure they have the time and resources, such as a working computer, to access videos, websites, and coaching feedback. The websites I chose not only address our focus, but are easy to access and contain manageable content. Teachers are free to use the computer in the office to complete their resource review and any additional research they would like while I cover their class.

Step 4: Coaching Meeting & Feedback

After my own thorough self-reflection and research, I set up a meeting with each teacher to praise and plan. This was my first coaching meeting and I truly believe the research and preparation I completed for this project resulted in productive meetings for all. The teachers were very receptive to feedback and I learned as much from them as I hope they did from me.

We began by discussing what is going well in each room and celebrating that success. We then discussed the importance of CRT and brainstormed ways that the data from our observation, as well as self-assessments, could be used to enhance instruction and amplify cultural assets. I asked what problems they were facing and then shared my experience from both formal observations and general experiences. We then discussed target outcomes, reviewed resources and created action steps to focus on. In order to gain a deeper understanding, I asked questions such as, "how did you feel when...?, tell me about _____ strategy, what would happen if____, and how did ____ respond" (Ferro et al., 2017, p. 14).

For our next meeting, I will complete a similar observation to see how I can continue to support them in their culturally responsive practice. However, I would like to improve my own coaching for the next meeting by streamlining my own intentions and taking better notes.

References:

Ferro, J., Fox, L., Binder, D. P., & von der Embse, M. (2017, November). Pyramid Model Equity Coaching Guide. Pyramid Equity Project. Retrieved October 22, 2021, from https://challengingbehavior.cbcs.usf.edu/docs/Equity-Coaching-Guide.pdf.

Reference Sheets

In addition to choosing resources based on need, each teacher was given a handout of Culturally Responsive Teaching Strategies and Questions to Promote Children's Thinking in Learning Centers to hang up and reference as needed.

There is no better way to study, analyze, plan and implement a topic than to teach it. The meticulous self-examination, research, more self-examination, observation, reflection, planning and actions developed my understanding and execution of culturally responsive teaching practices more than I expected. My biggest takeaway is that being a culturally responsive leader is not very different from being a culturally responsive teacher. Building trust, fostering relationships, being authentic, knowing your limits and working as a team with the collective goal of happy, healthy and thriving families are at the center of both positions and the root of why we do the heart and hard work that we do.