Culturally Responsive Leadership Practices During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Addressing the Literacy Skills of Emergent Multilingual Learners in Secondary Schools

This research study aims to better understand educational administrators’ decision-making experiences supporting Emergent Multilingual Learners (EMLs) in their literacy skills during the COVID-19 pandemic. United States public schools at the K-12 level are becoming more racially and socio-economically diverse. Considering changing national demographics, one in four children are from an immigrant family and come from a home where another language besides English is spoken. Emergent Multilingual Learners tend to underachieve in comparison with fluent English-speaking classmates on tests of English literacy. Culturally responsive leadership is important to attend to the increasingly ethnically and linguistically diverse student populations. It builds on culturally responsive pedagogy by broadening the understanding and moving beyond the classroom to the larger school context and decision making in schools. There is literature around equity and cultural responsiveness, however, there is a dearth of research regarding culturally responsive leadership practices of educational administrators during the COVID-19 pandemic to address literacy needs of EMLs. The research question is: How have educational administrators used culturally responsive leadership practices during the COVID-19 pandemic to address the literacy skills of EMLs in secondary schools? The two sub questions are: (a) What strategies did educational administrators use to demonstrate culturally responsive leadership practices during COVID? (b) What opportunities or challenges did educational administrators encounter? And how did they address them? The theoretical framework that underpins this study is culturally responsive leadership, sensemaking theory, and multiliteracies and EMLs. This qualitative research study interviewed middle school and high school principals and assistant principals in three school districts in Virginia. To recruit the administrators, purposeful sampling was used. Varying criteria was used such as gender, number of years of teaching and leadership experience, and ethnic background. Through conducting semi-structured tiered interviews, I was able to follow-up, refine, and extend the research study. Semi-structured interviews via Zoom and in-person were conducted and each participant was asked the same set of open-ended questions created based on the research questions. All interviews were audio recorded and transcribed. Data was organized through coding and thematic analysis. Object inquiry was also used as a data collection source. Object inquiry was another type of data collection where participants brought a visual or tangible object that represents a profound experience that illustrated culturally responsive leadership during the pandemic. The findings described the strategies, opportunities, and challenges administrators encountered while leading their schools. Administrators practiced ongoing reflection by focusing on the needs of students. They also focused on creating and sustaining a culturally responsive and inclusive school environment for their students to grow and thrive. In instructional settings, using all language domains and academic discourse was strongly encouraged and scaffolded. Modeling and connecting with the school community also reflected the ways they supported their staff and students.

Author

• Lee, Vivian

Identifier

hdl:1920/14456

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:MARS:1920/14456