Leading urban school teachers of Black and Brown students during social injustice and the pandemic

ABSTRACTThis case study illustrates how leadership for learning and cultural competence could be used as theories of action during times of disruption to lead and transform urban teachers’ sense of self, sense of others, and motivation for change. The case study focuses on educators from a large urban charter school whose response to the pandemic and the social justice movements was using a year-long professional development to provide continuous support and foster a growth mindset among educators. Self-evaluation on the cultural proficiency scale showed that the principal and thirty teachers differed in their levels of proficiency. The principal and six teachers with middle and high levels of proficiency were then interviewed to probe their personal interpretations of the connections among their cultural competence, their awareness of structural inequities, and the ways this awareness might have impacted how they teach Black and Brown students in their classrooms. Regardless of where they were on the scale, Black and White educators benefited from self-reflections and group dialogue about how they value, model, and practice cultural proficiency with their Black and Brown students. These findings have implications for urban public charter school leadership during times of continued change and uncertainty.KEYWORDS: Urban leadership; change leadership; social justice; culturally responsive leadershipcharter schools Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationNotes on contributorsNicole PattersonNicole Patterson is a new doctorate who just graduated from the Interdisciplinary Doctor of Education Program for Educational Leaders at the Saint Joseph’s University. Nicole is also a school principal with a passion for equity, cultural competence, structural inequities, and effective teaching practices for Black and Brown students. As a first generation Black woman doctor of education, she pledges to continuously take a knee and use cultural competence in her role as an instructional leader and a human being to change the trajectory of those coming behind her.Aubrey H. WangAubrey H. Wang is a professor of educational leadership at the Saint Joseph’s University. She loves working with educational leaders because she feels alive when she helps leaders find the genuine in themselves and become the leaders of their own lives and of others. Aubrey is fascinated by the intersection of applied research and leadership development. Her current research focuses on using applied critical theory and values-in-action practice vignettes to illustrate intersectionality and transformative leadership.