Doing it for Culturally Responsive School Leadership: Utilizing Reflexivity from Preparation to Practice

Abstract

To collectively engage future administrators in reforming culturally responsive practices that have been traditionally understood from socially just approaches, principal preparation programs must embed curricula that is utilized beyond the classroom. In this article, I reflect on the rap group Migos’ popularized phrase “do it for the culture” and contend that doing it for culturally responsive leadership will carry out actions that benefit the shared culture of teaching and learning that represents all teachers and students equitably. A consistent idea that permeates within the field is that a course(s) will prescribe the adequate tools on what to do instead of how to be cultural responsible. Utilizing the role of reflexivity, this case study offered six themes that stemmed from session discussions. The themes that arose were: (1) Interpretations of Cultural Responsiveness, (2) Culturally responsive is what you are not what you do, (3) Self-identity is recognized, (4) Learned the community diversity, (5) Celebrate all, and (6) Practice by disruption. The personal reflections illuminate the significance of relationships between the faculty researcher, future administrators, communities, the effortless disposition of the insider-researcher, and the intricacy of developing the narrative research that promotes culturally responsiveness.