Culturally Responsive Leadership

Abstract

Culturally responsive leadership, derived from the concept of culturally responsive pedagogy, involves those leadership philosophies, practices, and policies that create inclusive schooling environments for students and families from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds. Common practices include emphasizing high expectations for student achievement; incorporating the history, values, and cultural knowledge of students’ home communities in the school curriculum; working to develop a critical consciousness among both students and faculty to challenge inequities in the larger society; and creating organizational structures at the school and district level that empower students and parents from diverse racial and ethnic communities. Similar terms used to describe this approach to leadership include culturally proficient leadership, culturally relevant leadership, culture-based leadership, cultural competency, multicultural leadership, and leadership for diversity. Although there are subtle differences in how authors and researchers employ these different terms, in general these approaches encourage teacher leaders, school principals, and district-level leaders to “lead for diversity” and work with teachers, parents, and the larger community to develop curriculum frameworks, pedagogical practices, and organizational structures and routines that are consistent with the cultural orientations of ethnically diverse students and their families. While much of the investigation of culturally responsive practices has focused on classroom teaching, recent efforts have applied a culturally responsive framework to school leadership. In general, these studies characterize culturally responsive school leaders as those who emphasize high expectations for student academic achievement, exhibit an ethic of care, promote inclusive instructional practices, and develop organizational structures that empower parents and the larger community in the life of the school. Culturally responsive leadership often overlaps with “leadership for social justice” approaches, a term that has been prevalent in the US educational literature and focuses on improving the educational experiences and outcomes for all students, particularly those who have been traditionally marginalized in schools. While this bibliography incorporates some sources that focus on socially just leadership, it emphasizes those school leadership theories and practices that respond to issues of ethnicity, culture, language, and race.