Transformative Leadership in Practice: Leading with the Modern School Community

Abstract

The demographic composition of the United States population continues to change, becoming increasingly more diverse. But, unfortunately, the U.S. education system too often fails to reach all students. Historically marginalized students from groups based on race, ethnicity, class, gender, language, ability, and/or sexual orientation are routinely excluded from the mainstream school community. Since the backgrounds and interests of these students typically do not match the dominant ideologies and norms of the perceived authoritative group, their needs have largely been ignored by educational institutions (Bartlett & Garcia, 2011; Lee, 2005; Valenzuela, 1999). Therefore, it is vital that educational institutions become more flexible and inclusive. Some contemporary charter schools have aimed to do just this. They are innovative and progressive. In these schools, with the greater flexibility, leaders in charter schools are able to play important roles in shifting conventional and bureaucratic public schooling to a more organic and supportive school community that includes our increasingly diverse student population. This 18-month critical ethnographic study at Millennium High School, a small, urban, non-profit charter public school located in the Southwest United States is an example of the transformative leadership framework merging with tempered radicalism and power-with structures to develop and sustain a modern school community. I draw from 27 interviews and over 80 hours of observations, including traditional and participant observations, to develop and support my argument. My results indicate, since leadership still plays an important role in shifting educational consciousness, the contemporary transformative leader develops and sustains a larger educational community by acknowledging the importance of transformative leadership practices, tempered radicalism, and the modern school community.