"If I am not for myself who is for me? And being for my own self, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?" Hillel
There is hope and indications of a new era of education politics in New York City, starting with Carmen Fariña the new chancellor who courageously speaks about trust as being one of the pillars for change. Cited as one of her six tenets—rigorous instruction, a supportive environment, collaborative teachers, effective leadership, strong family & community ties— building a culture of continuous learning and trust[1] seems to be the most pressing and the most complicated to achieve.
Several years ago as
a consultant working with a school in the South Bronx, I found the lack of
trust alarming. Teachers were nervous and afraid to openly discuss their
professional development needs and deep concerns about the school. As an
instructional mentor working from a socio-cultural and critical pedagogical
lens, I was acutely aware of the need to build trust in order to get the
information that would allow me to appropriately assess the situation and
develop realistic goals, particularly critical for harried teachers charged
with teaching poor, Latino and Black students. Furthermore, I needed to build trust
with the administration in order to help them build capacity around this
important work. No one can argue— trust is critical. The perception of trust
and the practice of trust starts at the very top of an administration and will
inevitably trickle down to the school, the teacher, the students and the
greater community. How can we build and sustain trust in a diverse,
economically polarized context riddled with complex political undercurrents,
high stakes testing and standards transformation linked to teacher evaluations?
What does trust look like and feel like for a critical Latina educator when Latino
students are victim to the systemic across-the-board decline in educational
achievement within our public education system and also suffer from English language
hurdles, assimilation concerns, reduced expectations, and denied access to
educational opportunities that exist for children of greater economic means?[2]
Paulo Freire
suggests that educators must constantly reflect on their pedagogy. There is
growing interest in research on the obstacles to critical pedagogy in
education, in particular. Critical pedagogy is the practice of looking at
education as a tool to liberate oneself and others from social injustice
& oppressive conditions. Freire calls one obstacle false
generosity.[3] False generosity is when a group
of people who are historically seen as pedagogical authorities and hold
leadership positions in the field who for all intents and purposes want to
transform the unjust order but “because of their background they believe that
they must be the executors of the transformation. They talk about the people,
but they do not trust them; and trusting people is the indispensable
precondition for revolutionary change.[4]
Dr. Frank Bonilla,
an educator and scholar who founded the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at
Hunter College, wrote in 1964 “It is also vital and legitimate to fight
poverty not only by spending public funds on the poor but by dedicating part of
such funds to work among the non-poor employers, landlords, educators,
government officials, politicians, labor leaders, and others whom the poor
accept as leaders. Because the poor have the capacity to help themselves
through the exercise of organizational, political, and social skills, they are
to be mobilized and actively incorporated into the planning and execution of
programs for self-help.”[5]
Prioritizing diverse
leadership in the field of education is central to building trust when we
consider the dearth of educators and teacher educators of color. In the
department of education’s latest school staffing survey, 82% identified
themselves as white compared to 50.3% of students who identify as Black,
Hispanic, Asian or other non-white ethnicity.[6]
These numbers are alarming, but why stress diverse leadership and not just push
for a more diverse teacher force? And, what is the role of critical friendships
in building trust?
Dr. Xaé Alicia
Reyes, Professor of Education and Puerto Rican and Latino Studies writes “In
the current climate in the U.S. accountability and high stakes testing are the
driving forces for funding at the k-12 level and in higher education. There is
universal acceptance for the belief that equal access to education is a human
right, but the enforcement of these rights is often disregarded in political
debates. Funding for curriculum development, for academic support for students
and for professional development for staff is contingent on competitive grants
whose continuity is based on performance outcomes. In order to carry out their
missions, schools of education at universities and colleges must secure
funding. These dynamics translate into an ethos of incentives and rewards for
[those] who are most skillful in obtaining funding and producing scholarship
creating a challenge for underprivileged communities in k-12 context and
university faculty from underrepresented groups, namely Blacks and Latinos.”[7]
Structural and
pedagogical change is required if we are to build trust around the vision of
equity in education. If our aim is to address the growing achievement gap and
to ameliorate our service to all students, a shift in praxis at every level of
the organization must take precedence. Talking about diversity, equity, social
justice, access, and language acquisition cannot be just talking points or
content items in a curriculum created by those who are considered pedagogical
authorities but don’t represent the community. Whole systems, from top to
bottom must reflect the real world we live in so that students of color can
begin to identify themselves with scholarship, professionalism and the teaching
profession in particular. Diverse leadership will not only begin to
change the conversation, it will provide higher level salaries for people of
color who are more often than not straddled with economic hardships.
Furthermore, diversity in leadership will over time change our perception of
who we believe to be achievers in society and who is not.
An expanded meaning
of a Critical Friendship across race, class, ethnicity, religion and gender is
crucial as we consider diverse leadership in education. A critical friend is a
powerful idea. A critical friend comes closest to a true friend friendship
because it’s a successful marrying of unconditional support and unconditional
critique.[8] The role of the critical friend in the
broader sense is to be a trusted person who will ask provocative questions and
offer helpful critiques.[9] Critical Friendship
with diversity and equity in mind includes behaviors that Francis Kendall
defines as an ally. An ally is making a commitment to the critical friendship
across race, class, religion or gender with the intent of advocating for and
operationalizing a commitment to equity and social justice. Allies, according to
Kendall publicly and privately align themselves with underrepresented and/or
targeted groups and respond to their needs. They are also equally committed to
exploring through ongoing dialogue what it means to have privilege or not in
our society. Allies advocate for this person and for organizational change in
collaboration and individually amongst their own peers of equal status. Allies
make a commitment to open doors that have historically been closed to people of
color, poor people or those who have been marginalized in the field.[10]
In order to access
leadership opportunities, those who are in positions of power need to expand
their understanding of how to recruit and retain diverse leadership talent.
Diverse leadership talent will come in unexpected ways because diverse leaders
will often come with unconventional resumes and demeanors that might have been
developed over time to withstand socio-political obstacles or might be attached
to their particular culture, religion or background. These leaders may come off
as hardened, independent or too ‘critical’ of systems thinking. They might be
bold and passionate about equity from the start because, who knows more about
poverty or oppressive conditions than those who have experienced it themselves?
Diverse leaders will often speak from the heart and struggle to control
emotionalism because they are not talking about the future of other people’s
children but the future of their own children. Since these are the very
things we want to leverage from these leaders in order to navigate the complex
terrain of transformational shifts in education—passion, innovation,
independence, and out of the box thinking—critical friendships with a diversity
and equity lens is necessary.
Critical Friends are
the folks on the ‘inside’ who advocate and support new diverse leaders while
they begin to develop trusting relationships on their own. Critical Friends
offer trust first and at the very start of the relationship because the risk
involved coming into a status quo system as a change agent is much greater than
for the ally. Critical Friends make sure new diverse leaders are given
appropriate titles and compensation and not be expected to ‘demonstrate’ their
worth if they have already demonstrated scholarship, experience and/or
credentials in other related domains. It is important we honor the level of
professionalism in the field and not expect people to continuously start over
each time there is a transition. Imagine a doctor with ten years’ experience returning
to a resident status at a new hospital? This point is particularly
poignant for people of color because people of color and those who belong to
marginalized groups are historically given non-leadership positions until they
‘prove’ themselves and build trust while their white/privileged counterparts
get positions of leadership at the start because of association with
professional and/or personal networks. Even so, new diverse leaders will need
time to grow and acclimate themselves within the position and learn the ropes
without the fear of losing the job. Consequently, critical friends with
equity and diversity in mind are part of the process of empowering and
advocating for the person and the role they play within the organization for an
extended period of time, if not indefinitely.
Many organizations
focus on attracting a diverse group of employees, but then struggle with
retaining the right talent. Organizations with a highly diverse workforce that
do not pay attention to an inclusive environment are likely to be more
dysfunctional than organizations without a diverse staff. Research suggests
that the answer lies not so much in policies and procedures as in the mindset
of leaders in creating a culture that is inclusive.[11] If
we are honest with ourselves the model of leadership has been largely based on
white protestant males. Therefore, as people from different backgrounds break
through barriers, we must consider if they are being asked to play within the
traditional frame or being given the full chance to effect change as
leaders.[12] Critical friends play an integral role in developing and retaining
diverse leaders in order for substantial change in practice and mindsets to
take place.
The National Urban
Fellows (NUF) convened a series of national and regional leadership diversity
summits during its 40th anniversary year, with the goal of shifting the
national leadership paradigm to include leadership models found in diverse
communities, to embrace collective approaches and to define a new institutional
diversity standard. The Research Center for Leadership in Action at NYU Wagner
is working closely with NUF to develop knowledge and research on diverse
leadership. The following are seven relevant findings[13] that summarize their
work and underscore the need to develop critical friendships in the field of
education that advocate for and support diverse leadership:
- We need more empirical work to
unpack how diversity impacts the organization and its members
- There is no one size that fits all
approach so diversity requires more leadership rather than management
solutions
- Scholars agree that there needs to
be more commitment from leadership and with more holistic approaches
- There is a need to equip people
and organizations. Nurturing people without looking at the organization is
not enough.
- Diversity is not about race but is
a testament to adaptability and other competencies required in a more
complex, changing environment
- Most gains or progress in
diversity are in the workforce, not in leadership
- There is much less research and
evidence about leaders of color in the not-for-profit sector than in the
public and private sector
This is an exciting
time for educators across the country as we feel a growing sense of urgency
around equity in education and especially in New York City. As we move ahead we
need to take the time to think deeply about how we can build trust in the education
community and advocate for structures and behaviors that will support the
development of diverse leadership. If we look at recent trends, we will see an
emphasis on preventative measures to address the persistent inequalities in
education such as the need to invest in early education. Similarly, we should
take a critical look at the other end of the spectrum where we find talented
educational leaders from diverse and marginalize backgrounds that are equally
at risk. We need to recruit, retain and support these professionals if we are
going to address equity in education at the structural and pedagogical level.
[1] Superville, D.
(2014) New York City Chancellor Carmen Farina Forges a New Schooling
Era, Education Week
[2] Statement of
Need, Diversity Leadership Institute
[3] Duncan-Andrade
& Morrell (2008) The Art of Critical Pedagogy: Possibilities for Moving
from Theory to Practice in Urban Schools.
[4] Freire, P
(1970) Pedagogy of the Oppressed (p.94-95)
[5] Bonilla, R.
(1964) Rational for a Culturally Based Program of Action for Against Poverty
Among New York Puerto Ricans
[6] Klein, R.
(2014) A Majority of Students Entering School This Year are Minorities While
Most Teachers are Still White. Huffington Post.
[7] Reyes, X.A.
(2010) Educational Equity and Access as Universal Human Rights: Effects on
Teacher Education in the U.S., International Online Journal of Educational
Sciences 2 (1), 1-20
[8] MacBeth, J.
(2002)The Role and Value of a Critical Friend. No Quick Fixes: Perspectives on
School in Difficulty, Chapter 9
[9] Costa, A.
& Kallick, B. (1993) Through the Lens of a Critical Friend. Educational
Leadership 51 (2)
[10] Kendall, F.
(2003) How to Be an Alley if You Are a Person of Privilege.
[11] Janakiraman, M
(2011) Inclusive Leadership: Critical for a Competitive Advantage. Berlitz
Cultural Insights Series
[12] Banks, K.H.
(2010) Race Matters: Deconstructing Race and Identity. Diversity Leadership in
Psychology Today
[13] (2011) Leadership, Diversity and Inclusions: Insights from
Scholarship. Research Center for Leadership in Action
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