School leadership envisions sociocultural competence: a case study of one private dual language bilingual education school in Central America

ABSTRACT

Multiple conceptualizations of sociocultural competence, coupled with the elevation of issues related to social justice and the promotion of equitable practices in DLBE programs has, unsurprisingly, raised urgent questions of practice for school leaders . School administrators in DLBE programs need guidance and examples of how to implement school-wide systems that support the development of sociocultural competence. In this case study, three social justice-oriented school leaders from the U.S. at one private international DLBE school in Central America talk about how they conceptualize and work to enact programs that support the development of sociocultural competence for students at their school. Qualitative analyses of interviews show that leaders’ notions of sociocultural competence are intricately linked with why they want their students to be socioculturally competent. Findings highlight specific ways leaders conceive of and organize sociocultural learning opportunities in order to nurture social and emotional selves and help students to use sociocultural competence they develop to operate in the world in peaceful, equitable, and socially responsible ways.

KEYWORDS:

• Dual language bilingual education
• educational leadership
• sociocultural competence
• social justice
• Central America

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Brigham Young University through a David O. McKay School of Education Research Grant

Disclosure statement

This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for research with Human Subjects at my institution and has been performed in such a way as to be consistent with essential ethical standards. All human subjects gave their informed consent prior to their participation in the research, and adequate steps were taken to protect all identifying information and to ensure participants’ confidentiality. The authors report no financial conflict of interest.

Notes

¹ All names are pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the David O. McKay School of Education, Brigham Young University [McKay School of Education Research Grant].