Cultural Leadership in Schools for the Deaf: Leadership for Cultural and Language Diversity in the Context of Schools for the Deaf

Abstract

This study examined the variation in cultural competence among leaders in four different residential schools for the Deaf across the United States. The study explored where leaders fell on the cultural continuum, and how this was reflected in the schools in the way each perceived and validated Deaf culture as well as other cultures present in the schools. This qualitative multi-case ethnographic methodology utilized interviews as primary data sources which were video-taped in order to accurately transcribe them and to score concepts and themes for analysis by grounded theory methodology. The findings highlighted the complexities of culture and the ways that administrators embraced or knowingly or unknowingly overlooked the cultures that the students brought to the schools. Finally, the leadership decisions made by administrators were also tied to their own cultural proficiency.