U.S.-Mexico Borderlands Instructional Leadership Reflections

Abstract

ABSTRACT This research contributes to the field of Educational Administration by presenting the instructional leadership practices used by three borderlands school principals to develop Hispanic students' postsecondary navigational capital using community cultural wealth (Yosso, Tara J. 2005. Whose Culture has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth. Race Ethnicity and Education 8, no. 1: 69–91). Whereas, the Hispanic student population in Texas continues to increase, the number of Hispanic school principals has not. According to the Texas Education Agency (TEA 2016–2017), Hispanic students represent 52% of the Texas public schools while Hispanic school principals account for 23% of principals in Texas (TEA 2011–2015). In addition, as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) legislation signed by President Obama on December 10, 2015 takes root in public schools all states are required to conduct educational equity audits. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Education requires that each state provide a state plan to ensure equitable access to excellent educators for all students (DOE 2015). In that case, this study presents culturally relevant leadership recommendations for school principals working on addressing Texas Hispanic students' educational gap by unpacking the instructional leadership strategies used by three borderlands school principals.