CULTIVATING BRAVE SPACE: HOW NETWORKS FORTIFY SCHOOL LEADERS TO ENSURE EQUITABLE ACCESS FOR BLACK YOUTH

Abstract

School leaders regularly receive district mandates with little support or opportunities to engage the community that the policy is meant to serve. In a participatory action research (PAR) project and study, I analyzed how school leaders made decisions and took actions to address the persistent academic opportunity gap between Black students and their White and Asian counterparts. With four school leaders from three San Francisco middle schools, who participated as Co-Practitioner Researchers in an equity-centered professional learning community (EC-PLC), we had regular meetings over three cycles of inquiry. We co-developed a brave space that included pedagogy of care and authentic space for vulnerability, trust, and reflection. We planned, co-facilitated, and gathered data from Student and Family Wisdom Circles using Community Learning Exchange (CLE) methodologies. In each school, the staff met with Black students and parents to hear how Black students and families experienced schooling. School leaders used evidence from each cycle of inquiry to inform subsequent actions and gained confidence in their ability to be equity leaders. Findings indicate that transformative, culturally responsive leaders need a brave space with outside facilitation in order to authentically reflect on their power and privilege and build racial literacy, take risks, and make sustainable change. When leaders ask questions of constituents with the intent to build relationships, strengthen community, and deepen understanding, school leaders' beliefs and actions shift (Guajardo et al., 2016; Khalifa, 2018). The framework for culturally responsive school leadership that resulted from our work is a support for school leaders interested in changing their practices as social justice leaders.