Exploring the praxis of collective and reciprocal mentorship: leadership preparation through the Urban School Leaders Collaborative

ABSTRACT

This article examines a unique pedagogical approach imbedded with collective learning experiences that engages students in a continuous cycle of mentorship. The research design is guided by two closely aligned methodologies, narrative inquiry and testimonios. Narrative inquiry lends itself for the ‘study of experiences as story’. A testimonio is an oral account, a verbal journey of the participant’s life. Testimonios/narratives of students are drawn from multiple sources, including verbal reflection, journals, autoethnographies, mentor interviews, and personal interactions. As an instructor in the Urban School Leaders Collaborative, a program that leads to a Master of Education degree in educational leadership and principal certification, I am a facilitator of dialogue, a mentor and a mentee, learner and teacher. As a collective, we take part in deep collective critical reflection informed by a pedagogy of collective critical consciousness to fashion relationships of authenticity, equity, and reciprocity.

KEYWORDS:

• Authenticity
• collective
• mentorship
• reciprocity
• relationship
• reflection
• Urban School Leaders Collaborative

Acknowledgments

Dr. Scribner was one of my first professors in my doctoral program at the University of Texas at Austin. It was a great honor to receive a mentoring award that is named in honor of my own mentor. More than my sincere appreciation, I want to pay homage to my mentor, colleague and friend: Con todo cariño, muchas gracias mi amigo.

I also want to acknowledge my students. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and growing with me. I appreciate that we have collectively created a safe space where we can learn together.

I want to thank Dr. Carol A. Mullen (Guest Editor) for the invaluable feedback, suggestions, and edits on several versions of my paper.

Author’s note

All program students agreed to share their documents as part of a longitudinal database upon which this article draws.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Encarnación Garza

Dr. Garza is a Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies. His major emphasis in teaching is the preparation of future school principals and superintendents that will serve primarily minority children. His research is focused on the preparation of school leaders who serve in schools with predominately minority student populations. His experiences as a K-12 educator (teacher, counselor, principal, and superintendent) provide him with heuristic knowledge that is critical to his research. As a scholar-practitioner whose scholarship employs a critical theory perspective, his research is focused on four themes: 1) the study of minority student success rooted in critical pedagogy, 2) the preparation of principals as leaders for social justice, 3) the exploration of school district/university partnerships with respect to preparing principals as social justice advocates, and 4) international study of successful school principalship with the International Successful School Principals Project (ISSPP). Dr. Garza is coordinator of the nationally recognized Urban School Leaders Collaborative, which received the 2013 UCEA Exemplary Educational Leadership Preparation Program Award.