At the intersection of bilingual specialty and leadership: A collective case study of district leadership for emergent bilinguals

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this collective case study, the preparation of Indiana’s emergent bilingual district-level leaders demonstrates how they implement, negotiate, and lead language programs for their students. Most studies on leadership of emergent bilinguals focus on the building principal and not on this distinct district-level role. This district leadership study of bilingual students uses a three-phase approach, including a survey and semistructured interviews. Findings from 11 district-level leaders demonstrate that historic building principals who became district-level leaders have an ascribed status, able to work within an institutional network of symbolic capital, which informed a managerial form of leadership and thus a subtractive view of bilingualism. District-level leaders who moved from teacher-specialist to leader possessed cultural capital, negotiating the needs of emergent bilinguals and their bilingual teachers. The specialist-leader was more likely to have additive orientations toward bilingualism, working through teacher networks while simultaneously working around principals and other administrators. But these additive orientations toward students did not always map onto a heteroglossic performance within their leadership. These dually prepared emergent bilingual leaders invoke the leadership of creativity, resistance, and advocacy—the intersection between leadership and bilingual specialty. Implications for teacher and leadership preparation, research, and related policy are discussed.