Foreword: The Need for Shifts In Mindsets And Leadership Roles In PK-20 Schools And Communities: Challenges And Opportunities

Let us frame the preface to this edition from a few lenses that might help in drawing practical implications for each contribution by the authors. First, the current cycles of ignorance and vicious war against schools and the academy should not be ignored especially by those who have continued to mislead through hypnotizing rhetoric that might lead people to believe that equity and social justice are on the top of their agendas. Second, the contemporary realities around us provide ample testimony that the much-needed change has been hampered by complicity, silence, and often resistance to change by those who enact passive roles in social and educational institutions. Third, narrowing the leadership gap is a fundamental prerequisite for combating racism and achieving equity and social justice in schools and beyond. More importantly, the paradigm shifts should be measured against informed and courageous actions, rather than words, that contribute to the meaningful and desired change of the status quo and its beneficiaries

Foreword: Under Attack And Counter Voices For Social Justice

As the voices of ignorance continue to attack democracy and social justice, we will continue to serve as a platform to counter those perspectives through the Center for Leadership, Equity and Research (CLEAR). Activism, anti-racism, and advocacy for the oppressed will continue to be the mission. We embrace Critical Race Methodology and Praxis that remain the driving epistemologies for the stories, research genres, authentic narratives, and counterstories of those who have been largely marginalized, racialized, and underrepresented

Introduction to the Special Issue

To illustrate the commitment of the Center for Leadership, Equity and Research, we came together to develop a theme for this special issue of the Journal for Leadership, Equity, and Research (JLER)..

Introduction To The Special Edition On Latina/o/x Postsecondary Education

This second special edition, like the first issue examining PreK-12 schooling, brings together diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives, including empirical qualitative and quantitative manuscripts centering Latina/o/x experiences and interrogating organizational practices. The campus contexts include a mix of community college and comprehensive public and research-intensive public and private institutions across the U.S. with historically white institutional designations and Hispanic serving institutional designations

The Chicana/o/x Promise: Testimonios of Educational Empowerment through the Enactment of La Facultad among First-Generation College Students

This article explores how Chicana/o/x[i] first-generation college students navigate through the educational realm that is built upon coloniality. Drawing on four testimonios, we show how multiplicative forms of marginalization to which Chicana/o/x college students are subject inform their academic trajectory and empowerment. The article focuses on four main sources of oppression—class (capitalism), familial immigrant documentation status (racist nativism), disability (ableism), and sexuality (heteronormativity)—and how Chicana/o/x students turn them into sources of self- and community- empowerment.  Employing Chicana feminist perspectives and intersectional approaches further allows us to reveal sociopolitical and cultural processes that limits Chicana/o/x students’ access to resources and opportunities and how these processes inform the ways in which these individuals proactively achieve and represent the Chicana/o/x Promiseof hope, resistance, and success.

Introduction To The Special Edition On Latina/o/x Prek-12 Education

Listening to Latina/o/x Voices: Maximizing Opportunities and Minimizing Obstacles in Distinct Educational Context

Perceptions Of Inequality As Racial Projects: Uncovering Ethnoracial And Gendered Patterns Among First-generation College-going Asian American Students

Through a Racial Formation Framework, this article explores how Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese American first-generation college students at a large research university perceive inequality in the United States. Drawing on 129 interviews, our findings suggest that students operate under a Racial Formation Inequality Spectrum in which they conceptualize contemporary racial projects through distinct structural-to-cultural explanations. Korean American students in this sample deploy a cultural understanding of inequality embedded within structural frames, while Chinese and Vietnamese American students employ more structural perspectives integrating critiques of cultural explanations. We also find that gender shapes these factors, as most women respondents are more likely than men to view inequality from a structural lens and utilize more sophisticated conceptualizations where they critique purely cultural explanations. Ultimately, we argue that the discourse about perceptions of inequality can serve as a form of racial projects. The results of this research shed light on how social locations such as ethnorace and gender contribute to divergent understandings of inequality in the United States as described by Asian American college students. The findings have direct implications for student sense of belonging and success in higher education contexts

Applying A Stem Engagement Framework To Examine Short-Term Retention Of Latinx And Other Underrepresented Groups In An Undergraduate Stem Scholar Program

Studying STEM Intervention Program (SIP) retention, particularly what distinguishes those students who remain in the program from those that leave, may be a key to better understand how to keep students on track towards STEM degree completion. This study focuses on the participation of Latinx and other underrepresented racial/ethnic minoritized (URM) groups in a STEM intervention and support program. Applying London, Rosenthal, Levy, and Lobel’s (2011) STEM Engagement Framework on five cohorts of participants in a SIP, this study found that maintaining higher levels of scientific identity was related to program retention. Therefore, intentionally designing programs that address systemic inequities and celebrate and affirm minoritized groups’ experiences can facilitate adjustment and success. Moreover, women-identified participants were also more likely to remain in the SIP relative to their men-identified counterparts. For practitioners and institutions alike, these results indicate the need to create and implement support programs for women in STEM that go beyond the traditional components of academic support

Structuring educational opportunity: Variations in urban school success among racial minority youth.

This comparative case study draws upon data collected in interviews, focus groups and observations with eighty high school students: 26 Latinos, 27 African Americans, and 27 Asian American students. All of these students attended the same California high school located in an urban area. Many of these students were enrolled in school-within-a-school academic programs; however, some were not. This exploratory case study suggests the importance of unraveling the intricate processes in the school that structure social and academic success instead of marginalization and disengagement among minority youth. It begins to explain why and how successful minority students manage to escape the unequal structures of urban schooling. This dissertation reveals that while schools replicate existing social and economic inequality present in larger society and culture, many racial minority youth reject the outcome of academic failure. It offers stark insight into how a supportive academic institution within a school structures opportunities for racial minority youth while understanding the need to establish safe learning environments where these students acquire real goals, expectations, and tangible pathways for success. The participating racial minority student populations did not represent static and monolithic entities; rather, many variations existed between racial and ethnic students groups as well as within them. This dissertation emphasizes these differences and assesses how the school context serves to reflect, produce, and mediate engagement, ethnic identity, school ideology and race relations among minority students. Although the school context becomes key in understanding minority school success, student adaptation and academic engagement remain uneven among racial groups. The majority of students greatly benefit from key institutional factors within the school and their reactions and interpretations of college and career goals differ. Socioeconomic status and gender play pivotal roles in the daily lives of students. Hence, we must remain critical of larger historical and structural forces that impact youths' schooling experiences and subsequent perceptions of the opportunity structure. This comparative case study calls for an in-depth elaboration of the theoretical link between cultural-ecological explanations and institutional explanations.Ph.D.EducationEducational sociologyEthnic studiesSocial SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/132106/2/9959733.pd

From Truancy and Alienation to School Fluency and Graduation: Increasing Student Engagement by Bridging Institutions

This Policy Brief explores how a community-based truancy prevention program mediates against absenteeism, truancy, and dropping out and positively transforms the lives of Black and Latino youth. Findings suggest that community–school partnerships are critical in the quest to combat truancy and the alarming dropout rate among urban youth. This study shows how committed individuals can work to engage and empower low-income urban youth who are disengaged from school. Extensive interviews and observations with Latino and Black youth demonstrate how the intervention program mediates against social and academic failure. Using grounded theory, this case study explores four student- identified dimensions that impact his (re)engagement with school:(a) the importance of space that promotes peer relations, (b) incentive structures within programs,(c) the need for social networks, and (d) youth advocacy as a mechanism for institutional accountability. Implications for combating truancy, reducing dropout, and promoting student engagement are discussed