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In my teacher preparation program 25 years ago, the focus was primarily on curriculum, assessment and instruction; we had only one class that dealt with special education. Entering into a diverse classroom my first year, I felt ill-equipped to provide and an equity-centered experience for all of my students. Educators are not adequately prepared in their preparation programs to successfully facilitate critical discussions targeting race relations (Davila, 2011; Ladson-Billings, 2000). Therefore, the onus is on higher education to weave culturally-relevant methodology, pedagogy and instructional practices that meet the needs of all students.

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With the overall teaching force consisting of mainly white, affluent, female teachers, it is imperative that the system of education diversifies all levels of education so that all students have the ability to identify racially and culturally with the adults who work with them. Nationally, minority students make up 40.7
percent of the public school population. Although many schools (both urban and
rural) are increasingly made up of a majority of black and Latino students, black and Latino teachers represent only about 14.6 percent of the teaching workforce. The successful recruitment and retention of effective teachers of color at
struggling schools may prove to be a powerful tool in creating a stable workforce and thereby increase student achievement.  (Bireda & Chait, 2011).

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In my 25 years of experience as an educator and administrator, creating bridges of communication and participation with community stakeholders (parents, guardians, and families) has ,by far, done more to create a unified message to students that schools and families must work together to educate the whole child. It is the responsibility of the school leader to cultivate and nurture these relationships, and it is the leader's responsibility to make this an essential part of the school culture. “Moments of inclusion” can occur when traditionally marginalized parents successfully participate, advocate, or negotiate with authorities at the school site (e.g., administrators, teachers). However, in many instances the school still possesses the power to practice exclusion or to impede parents’ utilization of their cultural capital or their voice. All parents, then, bring some bargaining chips to the table, but the school maintains the power to include or exclude their presence or input (Abrams & Gibbs, 2002). By far, the exclusion of community stakeholders has impeded important progress. Much of this is attributed to fear and the lack resources available to administrators and teachers.  Educators can lack vision about how to engage families in meaningful ways because they have not been taught how to develop inclusive partnerships in leadership preparation programs, nor has inclusive partnership building been modeled to them in practice (Cooper, 2010).

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Everyday anti-racism considers how individuals combat racism in their everyday lives and lived contexts (Young & Laible, 2000.) The ultimate goal of anti-racism is to understand white racial dominance, understand how it works and to dismantle institutionalized racism (Aquino, 2016; Pollock, 2008, , DiAnglelo, 2011). While this subject is uncomfortable for white people, especially for those who deem themselves as "colorblind" or not a part of the problem, we cannot be polite anymore; we have to learn how to live with discomfort.

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Theoharis (2007) asserts in his definition of social justice leadership that principals make issues of race, class, gender, disability, sexual orientation, and other historically and currently marginalizing conditions in the United States central to their advocacy, leadership practice, and vision (p. 223). Educational leaders must have the courage to broach the conversation of race, economic injustice, and systemic exclusionary practices. Furthermore, social justice leaders must allow for conversations and productive problem solving to become the norm. Horsford & Clark (2015) establish that dialogue is the foundation for building race consciousness and a fundamental way to build consciousness across all dimensions of diversity (p. 70).

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Are you racist? 'No' isn't a good enough answer - Marlon James | Comment is Free

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Coming to terms with whiteness, understanding privilege, accepting responsibility for what has happened in history, and creating alliances that support equity and justice for all people are all possible solutions to the ongoing problem of racism in the United States.

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Bad White People | Travis Jones | TEDxCharlotte

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Activism has many forms and leadership in schools that is representative to all students is of paramount importance. Maintaining the status quo simply is unacceptable at this point in our nation's history, especially with the rising tide of nationalism since the most recent election. Not only do social justice leaders have to be a beacon for all students, they have be leaders for learning, designers of communities of practice and creators of curriculum that recognizes the contributions of people of color, women, and other traditionally marginalized groups.  A socially just education requires leaders to practice moral outrage at the persistence of homelessness, hunger, poverty, which are not going away but worsening. It requires educational communities to defend and extend principals of human dignity, community, and realization of democratic process; to reinvent a sense of commitment to the public as a social good; and to restructure market models to limited speres, which improve social relations and conditions of learning (Gerwirtz, 1998).

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Cultural Workers and Transformative Leaders

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Cultural Workers and Transformative Leaders

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As a leaders, I believe that we must infiltrate ourselves into the community, allowing our actions to represent our beliefs and the people we serve. A cultural worker is an educator who validates and draws upon knowledge that is critical, multicultural and interdisciplinary; recognizing cultural capital among culturally and linguistically diverse students and families; forges collaborative relationships with school community members; and shares leadership while forming relationships with those who hold a similar vision of equality and inclusiveness. Transformative educational leaders maintain political clarity, demonstrate courage, and take risks to advance social justice (Cooper, 2009a).

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"He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it."
-Martin Luther King, Jr.

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Educational leaders must reflect upon and confront the deficit-based thinking of teachers, parents, staff, students and themselves. Deficit mindset thinking explains and justifies outcome inequalities—
standardized test scores or levels of educational attainment, for example—by referring to "deficiencies" within disenfranchised individuals and communities (Brandon, 2003; Valencia, 1997a; Weiner, 2003; Yosso, 2005). Simultaneously, and of equal importance, deficit mindset thinking discounts sociopolitical context, such as the systemic conditions (racism, economic injustice, and so on) that grant
some people greater social, political, and economic access, such as that to high-quality schooling, than others (Brandon, 2003; Dudley-Marling, 2007; Gorski, 2008; Hamovitch, 1996).