Increasing School Leader Diversity in a Social Justice Context: Revisiting Strategies for Leadership Preparation Programs

ABSTRACT

To meet the needs of an increasingly diverse student population, leadership preparation programs must tackle the mutually-reinforcing goals of increasing the development of leaders from under-represented populations and cultivating culturally responsive leadership. This paper adds to the discussion of how best to improve leadership preparation by drawing on the literature related to equity in the leadership pipeline, and social justice and culturally responsive leadership frameworks, to examine one university-based leadership preparation program, highlighting the program’s recent external partnership focused on increasing Black and Latinx administrators across the state and improving school leaders’ cultural responsiveness.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The leadership program awards a preliminary administrative credential to those candidates who elect to complete the requriements for the credential. While not all sectors require such a credential, it is a requirement in many public school districts to hold a principal position as well as many higher-level district positions. All of the school of education’s credential programs meet the state requirements as specified by the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC).