What I Gained My Role As An Educational Leader From These Chapters?

The overall objective of the book is to teach new, and old, leaders to become better leaders. While anyone can benefit from reading this

As a teacher, it is important to know and understand the racial and cultural identities of both yourself, and your students. Knowing about your students’ backgrounds is a great way to make the classroom a safe and welcoming environment. Not all educational settings emit a feeling of safety to its students, and that needs to be changed. In this paper, I will discuss how my racial and cultural identity may be the same and may differ from my students, as well as some ways in which the institution of education can be changed to be more racially and culturally inclusive.

Schools systematically subjugate minority and black students when a school’s enrollment contains a huge racial majority. If students have no exposure to persons of different ethnicities, cultures, races, and religions, then these students will experience culture shock when they confront “other” people. Even in our class, we talk about black and minority students as another group, one that differs from “us.” We think about the inequalities in school systems as problems we need to fix, not as problems that have influenced our thinking and affect us as prospective teachers. For example, a white graduate student with

Personal values, beliefs, and principles are important for individuals to know about themselves. However, when asked the question, “what are your personal values, beliefs, and principles?” The first response is often a laundry list of characteristics with the assumption that those three words are synonymous. From my experience when posed this question the laundry list became long and in retrospect, I began to wonder what the differences were between each of these terms. As a teacher, employee, mother, and Christian knowing these differences and how to answer the question is an important component of determining how I make decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas. Hence, began the investigation of how the terms relate, their meaning and what my answer is to this question. Since my laundry list was quite long for this essay, I will share and explain the top two elements for each category, how they relate to one another and how the knowledge influences tough decisions.

At-Risk Students predicts the likelihood that the respondent will be able to connect with and teach students of all backgrounds and levels.

African Americans are not the only ethnicity group to be singled out with behavior. Racial and ethnic minority students report experiencing low teacher expectations, having less access to educational resources, being placed on lower educational tracks, and being steered toward low-paying employment (Kozol, 1991; Olsen, 2008).This low expectation is causing

Currently, general education classrooms have increasingly become diverse with both disable students and students from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. In order for educators to ensure that they effectively teach these classrooms, meet the needs of each student both successfully and individually, effective research that is based on strategies need to be implemented. The U.S. Department of Education suggest that, the current school-age population is becoming more diverse as time passes, yet, majority of the teachers in these schools are white non-Hispanic women. According to another report by The Condition of Education in 2006, American schools are portraying increased diversity and growth. The report suggested that, forty two percent of students in public schools were ethnic or racial minorities in the year 2003; this increased from twenty two percent since 1972. Owing to these reasons, teachers in these schools are expected to educate a diversified class of students including those that come from diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Teachers are therefore, required to implement a number of key strategies that will ensure that every student in specific classroom feels that he or she belongs there (Worrell, 2010).

A school setting provides opportunities where issues of social justice, oppression, and discrimination can be addressed. According to Bemak and Chung (2009), students of color and economically disadvantaged students are likely to have low academic achievement, in comparison to their White middle class counterparts. These disparities in academic

The notion of inclusion is progressively being accepted as a vital method of learning in our growing school systems. I believe that every student, those with and without exceptionalities, have the right to be included in a general education classroom. Students with learning, social and behavioral exceptionalities or varied abilities deserve the right to be provided with the same opportunities as any other students in the regular general education classroom. The information that I have acquired through my own experiences (in my observations and my classes) have molded my goals as a future teacher. I believe that teaching and education are fundamental in getting students to grow, learn, and flourish;

Research suggests that students of color and economically disadvantaged students are likely to have low academic achievement, in comparison to their White middle class counterparts. Studies show that these disparities are a result of environmental, historical, sociopolitical, sociocultural, and institutional factors, and not necessarily students’ capabilities (Bemak & Chung, 2008). These environmental, sociocultural and sociopolitical factors can result to depression, low self-esteem, and a lack of educational and career opportunities. Thus, counseling professionals in the school settings need to develop advocacy plans to cater for these environmental factors that are barriers to academic, career and personal development (Ratts & Hutchins,

Teaching in racially diverse classrooms often leaves educators feeling uncertain about how to proceed and how to respond to historically marginalized students. There is pressure to acknowledge and accept students of color with different perspectives, to diversify the syllabi, be more aware of classroom dynamics, and pay attention to how students of color experience the learning process.

Not being too harsh or rude to disobedient students or difficult staff members, not treating specific students or staff members better than others for no particular reason, and being respectful to everyone are just a few examples of these values. Simple ones like these are ones that every person should have, whether in authority or not. The sad truth is that many people do not uphold these important values, which is a primary reason why we cannot simply choose anyone for this job. We must have a principal with morals, because if he or she is without them, he or she is less like a principal and more like a

The United States of America is known for being a country filled with people of many different ethnic backgrounds. Likewise, the student population in schools is just as diverse as it continues to grow. Lynch (2015) notes that schools are expected to teach their students “how to synthesize cultural differences into their knowledge base” as this will help “facilitate students’ personal and professional success in a diverse world” (para. 8). Educators must be able to provide for the diverse needs of students and are expected to equip students with skills that can lead to healthy development as it can affect higher levels of student achievement and students have more opportunities of success in their future. Providing students with tools and skills requires an awareness and acceptance of their ethnic identity. Once students have developed self-acceptance about their ethnic identity, they can begin to feel empowered and motivated to do well. Through cultural empowerment, students of color can develop intrinsic motivation and achieve academic success.

expectations for all students can combat marginalization. The schools included in a study by Ragland, Clubine, Constable, Smith, Council of Chief State School Officers and Texas University (2002) set measurable and high goals for all of its students, while minimizing formal categories and labels. This enables faculty and staff to focus on creating educational opportunities for the students and assess areas for improvement in student and teacher performance. Without tracking and labels, the focus is on the individual, where it belongs, regardless of race or socio-economic status”, ( Carbone II,Steven,2010)

Be Attentive: The values that resonate with me include being honest and forthright, saying what you mean but avoid insulting people. Get the job done you were expected to do, that is a value I hold very high. When we look at the political dynamics in Washington, D.C., we note that in the most recent polls the U.S. Congress has achieved an 82 percent negative rating from the American public. Americans value hard work and accomplishments, and in truth neither of those values are apparent in the Congress. That is, only 12 percent of those polled believe that Congress is doing what voters sent them there to do. My values were formed by my father and mother, my older siblings, and also from my closest friends. Finish your assignments with class and competence, treat others the way you wish to be treated, give others the benefit of the doubt before passing judgment these values are from my family and my closest most trusted friends.