Embedded Files
leadership & identity
My identity as a Leader for Social Justice has evolved significantly over the year. Through new learning, experiences, and praxis in social justice, I have emerged as a person highly sensitive to the subtlety of inequity and marginalization inherent in educational and political practices. This is partly due to the fact that my lived experience as a minority in this country has informed me, through the social justice lens, the consequences and trauma of systemic othering. However, these experiences and feelings lacked the words and the voice to help me understand what was happening to me. What I needed was to hear and see how leaders of color have named their oppression and mobilized themselves and others to combat it. Through seminal readings such as “The Miner’s Canary”, I learned how much of my own identity was forged from my unconscious acceptance of internalized racism which allowed me to cope with the racist hierarchy of society. I learned from activists such as bell hooks who eloquently articulated her marginalization which gave me the language to voice my own. In other works, I was taught to examine my identity as it is tied to my positionality. These and other experiences have helped me to take stalk in the power rooted in my identity. As I become a leader for social justice, I must become more in tune with my identity, to listen to my being as it navigates a world that is full of oppressive forces that try to tear me from belonging to a society that is appreciative of all individuality and humanity.
My set of leadership skills and knowledge has also evolved tremendously alongside my identity. I have grown a new set of skills to take on a leadership role that builds on others belonging. During PLI, I was exposed to the educational philosophy that undergird the school system which I was not aware of even though I have been teaching for a reasonably long time. In particular, the democratic principle in education championed by John Dewey helped me to conceptualize the purpose of school on a level that gives new meaning to the institution of which I am a part. This understanding helped me to see the importance of schooling anew, and motivated me to work harder to bring about the result from this radical purpose. It made me realize that the civic health of our society is closely related to the democratization of our educational institution. It helped me make sense of the recent social movements and civil unrest as corollary to the democracy not taught or sought in classrooms. For that reason, it makes me want to double down on making sure that my leadership work has to involve and manifest the participation of all stakeholders. This approach in itself requires a different skill set and orientation. This too is something that I have been able to elevate during the PLI program. Now leadership skill involves building consensus, empowering the marginalized, and promoting equity-centered solutions. In my leadership projects and others, I was able to put these goals in the forefront as I emulated the temperament and tenacity of other social justice leaders and teachers.
leadership success & challenges
One of the biggest successes in my leadership journey is to have met and have known allies and co-conspirators in the work to disrupt social inequity. This is a success because these individuals provide the moral boost that gets me through adversity when the work becomes difficult. They give me a sense of camaraderie and a sense of shared responsibility in the work that ties deeply to my own conviction. They provide me the critical hope that this work will get done, that it will be impactful even when I don’t see it first hand. In addition, they provide support to help me with the work that I sometimes cannot do on my own. This could mean providing insight or expertise to a problem that I am working on. It could also mean collaborating with me in projects that require a partnership.
Another success in my leadership journey is being able to do social justice work in different capacities outside of the classroom. This year, I worked as a College and Career Readiness coach which puts me in the position to support the school community outside of the classroom. In this capacity, I was able to lead different projects that allowed me to see the inner working of the school system. This is a success for me because it broadened my experience and skill sets in the service of the community. As such, it provided me with opportunities to address equity issues that are not restricted to just the classroom. In this capacity, I was able to contribute my voice in the development of school policy that affects students school wide. In doing so, I believe I was able to extend my impact on social justice to more students than if I were to be a classroom teacher.
On the flip side, one of the challenges of my leadership journey is confronting resistance to social justice work. Unfortunately, this resistance comes from all levels of education, particularly those who are positioned to best make the changes. These are the people whose role in education is to serve all children but who, by one reason or another, perpetuate the cycle of marginalization of students who need education the most. These are teachers and school leaders who wantonly continue the path of education like it is “business as usual”, who neglects the basic needs of marginalized students to be affirmed and humanized. What is worse, these are the people who, when shown the malignance of their practice, turned their back to making changes if not becoming overtly defiant. These individuals pose the greatest setback to my leadership journey because they are my colleagues, coming from my ranks and/or are my superiors. Their intransigence to the work for equity creates a type of inertia that hampers the momentum and stops progress in its track.
leadership plan
The next steps in my leadership journey would take me deeper into the school structure and organization. I want to work on other aspects of school organization and operation to see how social justice lens can help alleviate the inequity rampant in the school system. In particular, I want to take part in the operational practice such as master scheduling, programming, and budgeting. These responsibilities have a wide ranging impact on the day-to-day operation of the school as well as the outcome of student learning. My long term next step is to be able to run a school in the position of an administrator. This is a long term next step because I still need to learn more about running a school before I am confident enough to try on this position. As the ultimate leader of the school community, the position of administrator would allow me to shape the vision and outcome of the school in the way that best aligns with social justice. In the meantime, I will continue to influence the equitable outcome for all students in my current capacity to the best of my ability.
The leadership standards that I would like more experience with is CAPE 3C: School Climate. This is because I have very little experience working on this standard/skill in my current capacity. In addition, I understand the importance of having a positive school climate in a school community. It requires much work on the parts of all stakeholders, in particular the leaders of the school. This aspect of school is important because it supports the proliferation of every other measurement in school. When there is a high degree of positive school climate, it will lay the foundation for higher student achievement, staff retention, parent engagement, student participation, etc. As such, I want to learn what to institute as a leader in order to promote a positive school climate and setting in motion other achievement results to occur.
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