TRINITY LEADERSHIP FORUM, Winter 2024

FORUM TRINITY LEADERSHIP

WINTER 2024

ISSUE NO. 1

← Mural created specifically for the McCollum High School Dream

Center, to celebrate and honor emergent bilingual youth, their families, and their roots. Project was led by artist Cassidy Fritts and teacher Natalie Clifford, and included the creativity of 40 students from this community. Completed May and June 2022.

TRINITY LEADERSHIP FORUM Editor Enrique Alemán, Jr., Ph.D Associate Editors Lisa Mendoza Knecht, Ph.D. Vangie Aguilera, Ed.D. Graphic Designer Genevieve Humphreys

CEL MISSION Leadership Development & Professional Services.

The CEL develops and implements educational and professional development opportunities for school and community leaders, including offering seminars and aspiring leadership workshops for members of the San Antonio community.

Publication is published by the Center for Educational Leadership. Trinity’s Center for Educational Leadership provides regular cohortbased convenings, national speakers on critical education issues, as well as targeted learning seminars for continued leadership development.

Since its establishment in 1982, CEL has provided thought leadership, innovative leadership programs, and professional development for school districts.

Praxis-Oriented Research. The CEL facilitates and conducts research that is relevant to educational policy and practice, meaningful to the schools and communities of San Antonio and South Texas, and transformational for schools, communities, and students and their families.

Educational Initiatives & Partnerships. The CEL engages with partners to build leadership pathways across school-community contexts, and leads major educational transformation initiatives with non-profit, policy, research and philanthropic organizations across the P20 continuum.

Convenings & Events. The CEL convenes education and community thought leaders to share ideas, programs and approaches to improving education, and facilitates conversations on increasing educational opportunity, fostering transformational leadership, and promoting community-building and social justice praxis.

SUBMIT TO THE FORUM The CEL invites authors to submit pieces of 1,500-2,000 words on topics related to educational leadership program innovations, educ ational policy, community building, and youth and teacher leadership. Any inquiries may be directed to CEL staff.

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CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP TEAM Enrique Alemán, Jr., Ph.D. Lillian Radford Endowed Professor of Education Director, CEL Director, Trinity Tomorrow’s Leaders Program ealeman@trinity.edu Angela Breidenstein, Ed.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Education abreiden@trinity.edu Evangeline Aguilera, Ed.D. Leadership Coordinator, CEL Executive Director, Trinity School Design Network eaguiler@trinity.edu Lisa Mendoza Knecht, Ph.D. Educational Research Associate, CEL lknecht@trinity.edu Lisa Chavez, M.S. Program Coordinator, CEL lchavez2@trinity.edu

table OF CONTENTS

1 TOWARD AN EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP APPROACH Enrique Alemán, Jr.

2 ENGAGING YOUTH AS SCHOLAR LEADERS Enrique Alemán, Jr. Lisa Mendoza Knecht

3 SOCIAL JUSTICE LEADERSHIP FOR SOUTH TEXAS SCHOOLS Enrique Alemán, Jr. Vangie Aguilera

← Tomorrow’s Leaders Program, Cohort 23 visit to the Texas Capitol, April 2023.

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1 ENRIQUE ALEMÁN, JR.

TOWARD AN EMPOWERING LEADERSHIP APPROACH

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ver the course of more than forty years, the Center for Educational Leadership (CEL) at Trinity University has fostered spaces for thought leadership, developed innovative leadership programs, and conducted professional development for school districts and educational organizations in and around Bexar County. With regular cohort-based conveneings, national speakers on critical education issues, and targeted learning seminars for continued leadership development, CEL programming has been, and will continue to be designed to educate professionals on some of the day’s most pressing issues.

We aim to create programming and spaces that inform leaders, shape educational policy and influence and improve how our partners practice their craft.

During the 2023-24 academic year, we are once again hosting a series of talks, panels and book studies, in addition to sponsoring the Trinity Prize for Excellence in Teaching, where we will honor the best of our member districts’ educators. Our National Speakers Series includes eight nationally renowned scholars, three of whom will be on campus for in-person keynotes and the remaining conducting their lecture via zoom to provide ease of access for working professionals and across regional and national expanse. This year’s theme,

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“Leading in Turbulent Times: Grounding Education in Humanizing and Advocacy Practices’’ encourages dialogue about the ways in which scholars, practitioners and community organizers can work toward systemic transformation at a time when several damaging and undemocratic policy issues are impacting school communities. In addition, we are also sponsoring two book studies and a school leaders seminar series, which are designed to foster small group dialogues across topics related to the cultivating of school culture, improvement science, and the leveraging of educational resources for community change and empowerment. Each of our programs challenge conventional thinking and inspire discussion of alternative strategies for leading in the current socio-political educational environment.

A FREIRIAN CRITICAL PRAXIS FRAMEWORK FOR SOUTH TEXAS

As our CEL team continues to cultivate these spaces and to organize convenings, we are also looking for ways to expand our presence in our community and to share the strategies, programs and initiatives that are making a transformative difference across schools and neighborhoods. So in addition to our continued programming and events, the

CEL is excited to be adding the Trinity Leadership Forum in our next phase of development. These briefs are designed to not only share practice-to-research projects, but to also present initiatives and strategies that educators and educational leaders are currently developing and applying in their school communities. We aim to share ideas that not only improve educational practice for the students and communities that are most disadvantaged by educational systems and policies, but to also showcase the ways in which practitioners are working toward and demanding equity from their schools by empowering youth, teachers and families. In highlighting models of practice, program innovation, and leadership approaches and strategies, we are striving for systemic change and working toward more just educational opportunities. The Trinity Leadership Forum is meant to be a community-building tool that can be used by school and district staff, as well as for action researchers and youth and community leaders, who are seeking to orient themselves to the issues and problems of educational practice that the broader San Antonio community is facing. As a resource, the Trinity Leadership Forum will center the experiences of leaders, and share data from the programs and initiatives that are benefiting schools and empowering the voices that

McCollum High School senior, Daira Garcia, presenting her group’s work on the “Mental Health Challenges of High School Youth,” at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), held in Chicago, Illinois. These particular attendees work and reside in Andalusia, Spain, and Daira is presenting her methodology, research design, and findings in Spanish.

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are often left out of the decision-making and policy conversations that occur in the halls of the Texas Legislature. We understand leadership to manifest itself in many different forms. The professionals who lead school districts and school campuses, as well as directors who develop and implement programming, are significant educational leaders to understand. However we do not want to neglect the myriad ways in which youth, teachers, family members, and community residents also enact, define and apply their leadership approaches.

When Brazilian educator and philosopher, Paolo Freire, first introduced his concept of praxis, he described it as a pedagogical tool that promotes critical dialogue, reflection, and action as a form of empowerment and liberation (Freire, 2018). According to Freire, authentic liberation is the process of humanization and “the action and reflection of men and women upon their world in order to transform it” (Freire, 2018, p. 79). In working with the most disempowered segments of Brazilian society, Freire sought to foster collective action, community dialogue and a radical transformation of the systems that oppressed generations of youth, families and neighborhoods. In creating and publishing the Trinity Leadership Forum, Forum we are challenging ourselves to cultivate a Freirian forum and to share examples of praxis and humanizing education that have the potential to (re)shape the educational landscape in which we live and work.

It is when educators and educational leaders enact praxis by reflecting about and actively disrupting and challenging inequitable and unjust structures that educational transformation and student and community empowerment can be more fully realized (Freire, 2018).

Deep systemic inequities exist across San Antonio communities, not only across educational contexts, but also in health, housing, criminal justice, employment and transportation, among other areas of society. We refuse to think that something cannot, and should not, be done to disrupt the historical 6

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oppression that has kept generations of San Antonians and South Texans in poverty and segregated communities.

The Trinity Leadership Forum seeks to facilitate discussions that some may deem uncomfortable or divisive. By leading conversations that challenge the persistent inequities that impact students and families across San Antonio, we hope to foster conversations that span across educational institutions and educational levels, and inside the school and across higher education campuses, and also in the community spaces, homes, and nonprofit organizations that make up so much of what our community has to offer. In doing so, the CEL is striving to be an organization that brings practitioners, researchers, organizers, educators, and youth and community leaders together to share and learn about the praxis that is happening in South Texas schools and communities.

A NEW NORMAL WE WANT TO BE A PART OF

Many pundits and media prognosticators are prone to use the term “the new normal” when describing how the country and the world are contending with the ongoing aftermath of the COVID pandemic or the contentiousness of our national and state political milieu. As is the case in many other communities across the U.S and the world, San Antonio and Bexar County school leaders, students and community residents are struggling as they navigate forward. Our teachers and educational leaders continue to provide the essential elements of a functioning democracy - caring and learning spaces for youth, o p p o r t u n i t i e s fo r g row t h , a n d communities where families and students can work toward empowerment. As they strive to survive and cope with the severe strain that the pandemic had on our economic, educational and health systems, the

impact on families and youth is real and has not ceased. This is not a “new normal” that anyone should be comfortable living with.

What we do know as scholars, educators and active members of our San Antonio community is that we want to be part of a “new normal” that challenges the policies and movements that are attempting to destabilize communities and divest in public education. We know that school closures in several local school districts are - and will be into the future - impacting community stability. These clo sures will exacerbate the unequal educational opportunity of thousands of San Antonio youth and impact the lives of their teachers and families. We also know this phenomenon is closely connected to the inequitable and inadequate funding of schools, and that efforts by some policymakers to further weaken the school finance system is a concerted effort to defund public schools. Lack of adequate funding is also making it harder to attract and retain our educators and educational leaders, who are leaving the profession in droves. The banning of histories and literature that is representative of the majority of Texas school students and families is also a movement being led by a few powerful policymakers. In negating the experiences and perspectives of Black, Brown, Indigenous and LGBTQIA+ youth, their efforts at “whitewashing” history and denying uncomfortable historical truths hurts all Texas students.

The push to ban books in K-12 has now entered the realm of higher education with the anti-DEI and so-called anti- CRT mandates thus continuing the weakening of our K-16 systems of public and higher education. Finally, but certainly not least, is the need for mental health support services for our students, families and school professionals.

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Trinity Youth Scholars students attended Trinity Professor, Dr. Norma E. Cantú’s undergraduate class and chatted with her after sitting in on one of her lectures.

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The CEL co-sponsored the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Rodriguez vs. San Antonio landmark U.S. Supreme Court case. Held at Edgewood ISD, the event included speaker Patricia Rodriguez, daughter of one of the original plaintiffs.

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What examples and approaches to educational leadership foster e d u c a t i o n a l e m p o we r m e n t , especially in school communities and with youth and families wh o h ave h i s t o r i c a l l y b e e n disadvantaged?

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ogether with the threat of gun violence and lacking school safety measures, this is a priority that is perhaps the most shameful of all our public policies that has remained ignored by state officials.

In the coming months, we hope to utilize the Trinity Leadership Forum as an outlet for recognizing and sharing the ways that youth, educators and educational leaders are building community and creating spaces for dialogue and empowerment to happen from the ground up. The struggle for empowerment of our most challenged communities has not ceased. There are many educators and educational leaders, along with parent and youth leaders, who are actively working toward and applying methods meant to provide equal educational op portunities, especially to vulnerable students and communities. Building community with the educators, educational leaders, community residents and youth is central to our approach.

Therefore, the CEL will utilize these guiding questions in not only developing programming, but also in publishing the Trinity Leadership Forum: Forum :

Trinity Tomorrow’s Leaders cohort members discussing educational policy with Texas State Senator José Menendez of San Antonio, during the cohort’s visit to the Texas State Capitol.

In what ways can our schools, and the policies and programs that we develop and implement, be more humanizing and transformative?

Our goal is to be a conduit for critical dialogues and a convener of all those who wish to be part of a conversation that fosters community and builds a “new normal” that is inclusive, humanizing, and empowering. We invite you to be part of it.

REFERENCES

Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed: 50th anniversary edition (4th edition). New York: Bloomsbury Academic Press.

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2 ENRIQUE ALEMÁN, JR. AND LISA MENDOZA KNECHT

ENGAGING YOUTH AS SCHOLAR LEADERS

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I am a lot more confident now when it comes to speaking up in front of a lot of people because [of my experience at AERA in] Chicago. We had to present in front of a bunch of people. So when I came back and one of the teachers was like, ‘Hey, you can present in front of the class.’ I was like, ‘Okay, sure.’ But if it was ‘last year me,’ I would’ve been like, ‘No way. You can ask someone else or something. I’m not going to present in front of all those, in front of all those kids.’ But going to Chicago and having to tell a lot of people about my project really made me more confident.

McCollum High School sophomore student

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uring the 2021-22 school year, the Trinity Youth Scholars (TYS) program was initiated between a team of university researchers and a local high school. The goal of the partnership is to engage youth in community-based research projects that will increase their civic engagement and prepare them for their transition to college. Conceptualized and implemented as a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project, TYS also seeks to understand how a culturally responsive curriculum can shape critical consciousness by engaging youth in community-based research projects that they design. Consisting of after school sessions, university and city field trips, guest speakers, and faculty and college student mentors, the partnership is now

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in its third year of operation at McCollum High School. Located in Harlandale ISD, the southside school district has a student enrollment of approximately 12,000 students, and is 97.9% Latina/o/x and 85.4% economically disadvantaged, 100% of students receive free lunch.

The high school mirrors the district’s student population in terms of student demographics.

YPAR AS A PATHWAY TO HIGHER EDUCATION

Schools in San Antonio are historical remnants of segregation, and continue to operate in under-resourced and inequitable systems, especially on the city’s westside and southside (Cardenas, 1997). It is for this specific reason that the TYS partnership sought to

partner with teachers and youth from these neighborhoods and communities.

Seeking to provide an innovative way to combat student disengagement, the partnership is community-based and youth-centric in its pedagogical and curricular approach. By shaping and developing the critical consciousness of youth, the after-school program also inculcates youth with an awareness of college and higher educational pathways.

Scholars note that YPAR is a critical strategy for youth development, youth-based policy making, community organizing and education (Cammarota & Fine, 2008). This approach centers youth voices and lived experiences, and youth development is enacted through social and emotional development.

As students engage in research, they develop understandings of their social

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world and are well positioned to inform educational practice and create change in their community (Caraballo, et al., 2017).

YPAR also offers teachers the opportunity to broaden their understanding of curriculum and pedagogy for historically marginalized students, whose voices and lived experiences are often left out of traditional curriculum and pedagogical practices (Caraballo, et al., 2017). During TYS sessions and embedded in student activities, youth are encouraged to speak and write in the languages in which they are most comfortable, and to express their perspectives on the various educational, community and social issues that are impacting their lives.

YPAR is also a research process where youth learn how to study problems and find solutions to them (Cammarato and Fine, 2008). It is research for action where students work as a collective, engaging in continuous dis-

Trinity University campus visit, Spring 2023

cussion and reflections with each other about problems they identify as critical.

Over the first two years of the program, students have completed projects related to immigration, school culture, funding for college, racism, LGBTQIA+ discrimination, and mental health for high school students. A graduating senior who participated in TYS for two years stated:

While recognizing the importance of leadership programs for future school leaders and administrators, the CEL is also striving to learn more about teacher and student leadership as they engage in YPAR. Therefore, TYS is an example of how the CEL is expanding its practice and research surrounding teacher and student leadership (Wenner & Campbell, 2017; Mitra, 2006, 2008). By centering the voices and ideas of youth, in collaboration with teachers who are committed to their academic, social and critical consciousness development, TYS is attempting to cultivate forms of youth and teacher leadership that are present in schools.

I really liked having the whole experience of feeling that you have people who support you, and people who speak the same language as you. And [I liked] being able to talk about what matters to you, or talk about how you feel about different [social justice] issues. And it was one of the best experiences that I had during my time at the school.

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TYS Youth Researchers Presenting at AERA in Chicago, Illinois

LESSONS LEARNED IN OUR FIRST TWO YEARS

TYS conducts after school sessions and facilitates activities on Tuesdays and Fridays at McCollum High School.

Several field trips have been organized, including two visits to Trinity University and participation in the Cesar Chavez March in downtown San Antonio. Our guest speakers have included City Councilwoman Terri Castillo, Harlandale ISD Director of Counseling, Mr. Brian Jacklich, and Trinity University Professor of Spanish, Dr. Rita Uriquijo-Ruiz. During our first visit to the university, youth presented their final research projects to the group and took a guided tour of the campus.

Last year, as part of our second visit to Trinity’s campus, youth attend-

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Youth group analyzing data on their “Mental Health for High School Youth” project

TYS Group with Trinity Professor Dr. Rita Urquijo-Ruiz

ed a “U.S. Latinx Experience” course taught by Murchison Distinguished Professor of Humanities, Dr. Norma E. Cantú, where they participated in discussion with Trinity undergraduate students. The campus visit concluded with a college student panel made up of undergraduates, most of whom are first-generation, Latina/o/x students.

Also in our second year, TYS was one of sixteen youth research teams awarded a competitive American Educational Research Association (AERA), Youth Teams in Education Research (YTER) grant. As the premiere national and international research association, AERA and the YTER initiative brought high school students together to present their research projects in an electronic poster session alongside other youth

teams from across the U.S., Canada and Spain. The TYS team, which included six high school youth students, two McCollum teachers and one Trinity undergraduate mentor, showcased youth research findings during the April 2023 annual AERA meeting that was held in Chicago, Illinois.

Finally, as part of our ongoing desire to learn from our research on youth development and partnership building, the TYS Trinity team interviewed youth who participated in the program in the first two years. In asking the youth to share their experiences with participating in the partnership and to reflect about the process of conducting their research projects, we learned several key lessons.

THREE KEY LESSONS 1.

Youth consistently identify and understand critical social issues that impact their lives. lives In each of the first two years, we facilitated discussions and activities that enabled youth to choose their topics of research. As stated prior, topics included understanding the impact and effects of mental health on high school youth, combatting racism, critiquing a lack of access to college, and telling the stories of immigration that many of our students have experience with. One student, a senior who was struck by the differences in infrastructure he noticed when participating in the Cesar Chavez March across downtown San Antonio explained how his topic of studying neighborhood sidewalks seemed insignificant at first in comparison to his peers’ topics. However, attending the march helped him realize the importance of his topic as it addressed inequities in infrastructure investments within his community. He chose his topic, “Because I feel like it relates to me, because [walking on the sidewalk is] a daily routine of me going to school and then going back home…But then when we went downtown and I started comparing [the differences in infrastructure], taking pictures [of the differences], I was like, ‘Naw, this is a big topic.’” His topic, and the topics of the group, led to critical discussions on city resources, systemic inequities in various communities, and the importance of providing spaces for youth to question and explore their own interests.

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Youth spaces for processing, unpacking and dialoguing are important for developing critical consciousness. Students shared how TYS provided them with a space to discuss topics that were important and relevant to them and their communities. A space to discuss and deconstruct topics that were important to them, without the fear of being judged or censored, emerged frequently from our interviews. One student shared, “At first, I was kind of nervous because I was going to meet more people, but then I saw that when I could express what I was feeling or [talk about] the things that were happening in my topic [and I felt more comfortable]. Everybody else was saying what they think about it, and everybody was really honest. I really felt like it was a place where I could be and say the truth without being judged. So I feel like that’s a safe space.”

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Youth cite mental health resources as a top priority and significant topic that they and many of their peers are contending with. Youth expressed a need for dialogue with regard to mental health services and discussed how adults’ responses towards these needs were not always positive. One student explained, “By talking about mental health, because I feel like because of this pandemic we had or have, a lot of people really didn’t support their kids or believe them because they were like, ‘We’re fine. We’re just living in a pandemic.’ But no, people actually go through mental illness, and we need to talk more about that, more stuff about that.” Youth stressed the need and importance for more opportunities to discuss mental health issues within the school day without the fear of stigma or minimization of their feelings and experiences. They expressed a need for more mental health resources and for strategies that they could apply and practice. Dialoguing with teachers and their families was another finding that emerged frequently with youth.

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GROWING AND SUSTAINING YOUTHCENTRIC PARTNERSHIPS

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The truth is, [my participation in TYS has given me] opportunities that I have to meet people who perhaps think the same as me or think differently than me, but are still professionals in what they do. And that inspiration that they give us through getting to know them, in how we can be more confident, more capable of doing what we feel. In other words, that they tell us: ‘Follow your dreams,’ that they continue to motivate us every day, that they do not stop motivating us.

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The TYS team continues to learn with and from our youth participants, and to work with teacher leader, Ms. Natalie Clifford. Partnerships - if created as authentic and mutually-beneficial - are difficult to sustain and grow (Delgado Bernal & Alemán, 2016; Rodriguez, 2019). As we continue planning and implementing programming in our third year, sustainability and growth are challenges that we are continuously contending with. Ten seniors graduated from last year’s cohort, thus the recruitment and onboarding of new students who are interested in this work is high on our list of priorities. We are also aiming to incorporate more college mentors at our site, two of whom are recent McCollum high school graduates and who are now returning as college mentors. We added a second teacher fellow, Ms. Jonlivia Martinez, to help support our original teacher partner, a move that will assist us in sustaining and building on the success of our curricular advancements. Additionally, we are increasing the number of guest speakers for the various weekly workshop sessions so that students have a better understanding of the research process.

With all of our successes, we are also aware that weekly TYS sessions at the school site do not always provide enough time to collaborate and that authentic and sustainable university-school partnerships require consistent planning and time to reflect, revise and enact. There is no fixed timeframe for effectively facilitating discussions on complex issues and for building rapport and trust with students and a school community that is challenged by systemic inequities outside the control of its local leaders. Cultivating spaces and coordinating learning sessions that promote deep and authentic dialogue takes consistent attention and continuous efforts at relationship building.

As part of our twice-weekly sessions,

we attempt to implement planning meetings with teachers where we have opportunities to debrief, reflect and brainstorm with each other - but this remains difficult in the course of already busy and overscheduled teacher and mentor lives.

Regardless of the challenges, our work thus far is indicating that creating spaces for youth to collectively address issues that directly impact their lives is resulting in youth development, youth organizing, self-efficacy and community action. Youth are aspiring to college, and they are articulating a desire for spaces where their voices are centered. Our co-created curriculum is fluid; however, it is also responsible and relevant to the youth from this community. The TYS team will continue to chronicle this university-school partnership journey as we attempt to understand the phenomenon of critical conscious development and educational empowerment across K-12 and higher educational contexts. Our research with youth in this community is helping us understand how YPAR infused in youth-led community-based partnerships can be an example of how student engagement with youth can impact and change a school and afterschool community. One of the TYS graduating seniors from last year perhaps stated it best when they responded to a question about their participation:

AERA Annual Conference

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Cesar Chavez March, San Antonio

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Trinity Youth Scholars End of Year 2023 Celebration

in Chicago, Illinois

REFERENCES

Caraballo, L., Lozenski, B. D., Lyiscott, J. J., & Morrell, E. (2017). YPAR and critical epistemologies:Rethinking education research. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 311-336.

Cardenas, J. A. (1997). Texas School Finance Reform: An IDRA Perspective. IDRA, 5835 Callaghan, Suite 350, San Antonio, TX 78228-1190.

Cammarota, J., & Fine, M. (2008). Youth participatory action research. Revolutionizing education: Youthparticipatory action research in motion, 1-12.

Delgado Bernal, D. & Alemán, E., Jr. (2016). Transforming educational pathways for Chicana/o students: A critical race feminista praxis. Teachers College Press.

Mitra, D. L. (2008). Amplifying student voice. Educational Leadership, 66(3), 20-25.

Mitra, D. (2006). Increasing student voice and moving toward youth leadership. The prevention researcher, 13(1), 7-10.

Rodriguez, L. F. (2019). Community-based participatory research: Testimonios from Chicana/o studies. University of Arizona Press.

Wenner, J. A., & Campbell, T. (2017). The theoretical and empirical basis of teacher leadership: A review of the literature. Review of educational research, 87(1), 134-171.

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3 ENRIQUE ALEMÁN, JR. AND VANGIE AGUILERA

SOCIAL JUSTICE LEADERSHIP FOR SOUTH TEXAS SCHOOLS

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he Trinity Tomorrow’s Leaders (TTL) Program is the university’s graduate program in educational leadership.

Designed to deliver thirty-six credit hours of master’s coursework, the program also includes individualized leadership coaching for our cohort members and additional preparation for the state of Texas principal certification. The TTL program is accelerated (coursework over the span of 14 months in 4 consecutive semesters) and rigorous, and the majority of our faculty are practicing school and district leaders. Whether our graduates enter the field of school leadership and become principals or assistant principals, begin as an instructional coach, take on a role as a central office administrator, or whether they choose to continue to serve as a teacher

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leader, our primary goal is to prepare the next generation of educational leaders who work for transformational change and enact authentic community empowerment approaches. As we develop the knowledge, habits and mindset of a school leader with our students, we are also preparing them to create equitable classroom environments, and to engage families, community members and youth with care and humanity. Since 2021, our cohort members have come from 8 school districts and 5 charter management organizations from across Bexar County, 78 % have been women, and 72% identify as leaders of color. Over these last two most recent cohorts, 41% of our graduates already serve in school administration positions.

Despite our longstanding success in preparing school leaders, the TTL

TTL program has been undertaking a series of program evaluation activities as we seek to (re)imagine and (re)define the program’s purpose, its goals, and its impact on the San Antonio and South Texas educational landscape. Our (re) imaging has included the updating and resequencing of curricula, integration of applied student learning experiences, and implementation of individualized coaching that prepares our graduates to both: • disrupt and dismantle practices that result in inequitable outcomes for the students with and for whom they work; and, • identify, create and apply leadership strategies that support learning and build upon the assets that all students and communities possess, but that are not always leveraged or utilized.

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s we revise our coursework and refine our internship requirements, we are also asking our students to wrestle with and reflect on questions of practice and the application of social justice concepts in their own leadership practice. As we’ve revised our program, our students have also prompted us to think about real-world applications of what can sometimes be theory-heavy class discussions and assignments. They have prompted us to ask and reflect upon:

How does one learn how to disrupt and dismantle systems of inequity, while also simultaneously building community and enacting asset-based practices?

devalued, therefore our framework requires leaders to first recognize the systemic injustices that students and families face while they (re)imagine schooling and apply practices and strategies that are asset-based, culturally responsive and humanizing. We maintain that aspiring school leaders must be able to both disrupt and build simultaneously. Our task is to work with our graduate students, to prepare them to stay in the struggle as they build inclusive and equitable schools.

In the following sections, we share curricular and experiential learning strategies that have begun to be implemented in hopes of building upon our school leadership preparation for social justice.

Leaders of inclusive and equitable schools do not leave room for students to be disregarded, neglected or

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Mr. José López, of Paseo Boricua, during community presentation

← Cohort members with Dr. Jonathan Rosa, Stanford University (front left)

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CURRICULUM COURSE TOPICS

AUTHORS, READINGS & FILMS

Equity-Minded and Humanizing Leadership Practices

Alemán, E., Jr. (Producer), Alemán, E., Jr. & Luna, R. (Writers), & Luna, R. (Director).

(2014). Stolen Education [Documentary, feature]. San Francisco, CA: Video Project.

Freire, P. (2018). Pedagogy of the oppressed. Bloomsbury publishing USA. Khalifa, M. A., Gooden, M. A., & Davis, J. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature. Review of educational research, 86(4), 1272-1311.

Radd, S. I., Generett, G. G., Gooden, M. A., & Theoharis, G. (2021). Five Practices for Equity-Focused School Leadership. ASCD.

San Antonio’s Westside and the Struggle for Texas School Finance Equity

Alemán, E., Jr. (2013). Intersecting Educational Finance, Politics, and Law with Racism: A Critical Race Case Analysis. In Handbook of research on educational leadership for equity and diversity (pp. 552-578). Routledge.

Cardenas, J. A. (1997). Texas School Finance Reform: An IDRA Perspective. IDRA, 5835 Callaghan, Suite 350, San Antonio, TX 78228-1190.

Leveraging Community Cultural Wealth

Delgado Bernal, D., & Alemán, E., Jr. (2017). Transforming Educational Pathways for Chicana/o Students: A Critical Race Feminista Praxis. New York: Teachers College Press.

Valenzuela, A. (2010). Subtractive schooling: US-Mexican youth and the politics of caring. State University of New York Press.

Yosso, T. J. (2005). Whose culture has capital? A critical race theory discussion of community cultural wealth. Race ethnicity and education, 8(1), 69-91.

Combating Deficit Thinking and Microaggressions as a School Leader

Ford, D. Y. (2014). Segregation and the underrepresentation of Blacks and Hispanics in gifted education: Social inequality and deficit paradigms. Roeper Review, 36(3), 143-154.

Kohli, R., & Solórzano, D. G. (2012). Teachers, please learn our names!: Racial microagressions and the K-12 classroom. Race Ethnicity and Education, 15(4), 441-462.

School Leaders as Policy Advocates

Darling-Hammond, L. (2007). The flat earth and education: How America’s commitment to equity will determine our future. Educational Researcher, 36(6), 318-334.

DuVernay, A. (2016). 13th. A Netflix Original Documentary. Sherman Oaks, CA: Kandoo Films.

IDRA, Legislative Priorities (2021). Breaking the School to Prison and School to Deportation Pipelines to Create Safe and Welcoming Pathways for All Students. https://www.idra.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Breaking-the-School-to-PrisonPipeline-2021.pdf

Culturally Responsive and Anti-Racist Practices

Douglass Horsford, S. (2014). When race enters the room: Improving leadership and learning through racial literacy. Theory Into Practice, 53(2), 123-130.

Ladson-Billings, G. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in US schools. Educational researcher, 35(7), 3-12.

Simmons, D. (2019). How to be an anti-racist educator. ASCD Education Update, 61(10).

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Table 1: A sample of major social justice topics and authors/ readings/films used in the curriculum

CRITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND EQUITY LEADERSHIP FOR SAN ANTONIO SCHOOLS

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Members of the School Funding Policy Project team meeting with a legislative staffer

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Community walk participants chance meeting with Illinois Lieutenant Governor, Juliana Stratton

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The theoretical foundations guiding the TTL program are social justice and equity-focused leadership frameworks (Capper et al., 2006, Khalifa, 2020; Radd et al., 2021). We utilize conceptual tools such as critical consciousness (El-Amin et al, 2017) and community cultural wealth leadership (Freire, 2018; Yosso, 2005), racial literacy for educational leaders (Douglass Horsford, 2014), and the enacting of anti-racist strategies (Simmons, 2019), as foundational to our revised coursework. Assignments and internship experiences are conducted with an understanding that educational leadership should be a humanizing and radical care practice (Rivera-McCutchen, 2021) that when implemented with, and not for, students, families and teachers, can be transformational. Disrupting norms and structures that have historically perpetuated inequalities in schools and districts, we challenge our students to also create and enact practices that are culturally responsive and that nurture organizational cultures that result in high expectations and students success, (Khalifa, 2020).

In revisiting our curriculum, course sequencing, and course assignments, we’ve also sought to (re)imagine the program as a social justice graduate program that specifically prepares educators to take on the challenges of urban school leadership in the greater San Antonio community.

Our curriculum emphasizes social justice concepts and intentionally includes readings from authors, books, and films from producers and directors that have recently been banned by the Texas Legislature.

Students are challenged to reflect deeply on their positionality and to consider how their role as an educator and aspiring school leader could perpetuate or dismantle systemic practices that result in inequities in education.

A systems thinking approach is utilized to encourage students to examine educational organizations as a whole and explore the concepts of equity-centered leadership, community building, social justice and policy research. In addition to our course content, internship experiences and course assignments, the TTL program has also introduced community leadership and policy advocacy as two other components to the preparation of our students. The following two examples represent the ways in which we have introduced experiential learning opportunities that extend students’ thinking and expand their strategies for engaging with historically marginalized communities as well as the policy process.

Cohort 23 members with Dr. Gloria Ladson-Billings (center) at the AERA Annual Meeting

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COMMUNITY WALK AND PLÁTICA IN CHICAGO

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ur most recent cohort had the opportunity to attend the 2023 American Educational Research Association (AERA) annual meeting in Chicago, Illinois. Attending sessions on leading for social justice and cultivating school culture, along with others on organizational change, educational policy, and teacher retention, the cohort members were required to complete critical self reflections on the sessions they attended and to discuss the impact that these sessions made on their own leadership philosophies. The group also participated in an off-site community-school visit to Paseo Boricua in Chicago’s Humboldt Park community. The Community as a Campus model of education and the notion of Community as Intellectual Space (CIS) were the primary areas of research and practice that were discussed during their school-community visit. Led by educational scholars, Dr. Jonathan Rosa of Stanford University, and Dr. Laura Ruth Johnson of Northern Illinois University, the community tour included a presentation of education and health care programs and LGBTQ initiatives, a visit to a youth employment center, discussion and viewing of community murals, art installations and museum, a panel discussion of housing initiatives and developments, and a visit to the National Museum of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture. The community walk was led by a long standing activist and educator, José E. López, a leader in developing their community’s praxis to theory and community and social empowerment initiatives. He specifically addressed the health inequities challenging Chicago’s Greater Humboldt Park communities.

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The tour concluded with a discussion and reflection with the school principal along with a student panel from Dr. Pedro Albizu Campus High School. Our cohort members witnessed the ways in which student voices are centered and strategies that this community’s leaders have implemented as opportunities for authentic dialogue. Summed up in the reflections of our students, they shared how the community walk experience influenced and (re)shaped their perspectives on leadership for social justice and prompted a (re)thinking of inclusion and centering of community voices. One cohort member stated:

The biggest connection I will incorporate into my leadership style is to listen to the student voices. When we decide the work is about and for them, we need to include them into the conversation. We have to be visible and interact to make an impact, talk about the things that matter to them. [One panelist] reminded me that we must show up to work alongside our students, bridging the gap between the work and the research.

Another cohort member shared how participating in the walk prompted them to think differently about their

own approach to engagement with their community. The cohort member stated:

I would like to take the time to engage with my community about their values, beliefs and needs. It’s critical to have this conversation so that we can communicate about our experiences and expectations in relation to them.

We cannot expect to keep doing the same thing and expect different results, we have to be willing to adjust our way of thinking and doing things to meet our students where they are and to foster change.

Another cohort member described how an

elected official happened to be walking in the neighborhood when Mr. López recognized her and struck up a conversation.

The cohort member recalled:

One aspect I can apply to my leadership practice is to always meet people where they are at. We can not expect our families to reach out to us, if we don’t show that we care about their concrete needs. When walking through the Paseo neighborhood we were lucky enough to run into the Lieutenant Governor [of Illinois].

She explained how important it is as a leader for her to reach out to her constituents. People knew who she

was, and it was amazing to see how they looked up to her.

Our students left with a deeper understanding of the possibilities for student growth when community and cultural wealth are at the forefront of school design. This session, and the AERA experience, built on the program’s efforts to extend and build on the mindsets of our students and to guide them toward a perspective that works toward the transforming of their own school and community, and the developing of strategies for enacting educational justice.

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Meeting with Texas State Representative and Member of the Public Education Committee, James Talerico

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A “DAY ON THE HILL” AT THE TEXAS LEGISLATURE

Educational leaders are well-situated and have the responsibility to influence the policymaking process not only at the building, central office, or university administrative level, but also at the state policymaking level. Whether they are leaders on a school campus, in the superintendent’s office, as a student organizer or in a community organization, they play an integral role in fighting for social justice transformation in the policy arena. Because educational policy is value-laden, historical, constantly evolving, and contextual, the ways in which we prepare our students to take an advocacy approach to educational policy is critical. Thus, as our students continue to define their role as policy actors during the program, we are striving to give them opportunities to apply advocacy approaches and strategies for leadership in the policy arena.

The second example of curricular revision and application of social justice concepts involved the program’s “Educational Law and Policy” course. Redesigned as an introduction to educational policymaking, analysis and advocacy processes, coursework encourages our students to examine the major policy actors that influence policymaking, as well as prepares them to identify and discuss how the policy environment, issues of power and implementation, and various methods of policy analysis influence, affect, and determine educational policy. Our readings and discussions prompted cohort members to examine the effects that educational policies have on all students, especially those who are currently and have historically been marginalized in this nation and in the state 20

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of Texas. Although the majority of readings focused on the K-12 arena, we also discussed policies, actors, and the environment that affects higher education.

Along with core content on defining the policy role of educational leaders, we also asked our students to understand educational policy by contextualizing the history of education in Texas, and also by framing the intersections of policy, law and race. Fundamentally, the cohort was challenged to humanize policy and its effects on students, families, teachers and communities. What does this policy decision mean to your campus? How have you seen these state mandates impact or influence decision making in your school community? In what ways does educational policy hinder or support a teacher’s ability to teach? The biggest change to the curriculum was in its requirement that group projects be field-based experiences. Group policy projects required students to conduct an analysis, prepare a brief, and to then present their findings and recommendations to Texas legislators and/or legislative staff during a “Day on the Hill ‘’ at the Texas State Capitol.

Students learned to track a bill, understand its fiscal implications, and to read educational statute.

Groups identified key members of the education committees, and monitored news services and other online sources (including policy think tanks, interest groups, and legislators) that were key to understanding the arguments being made about their particular policy issue.

Policy projects on school funding, bilingual education, and mental health services for K12 students were among the briefs they shared with legis lator s an d legis lative staff. For most of our cohort, engaging with policy work had never been part of their training. Many

had trepidation about presenting recommendations to staffers and elected officials. After completing our legislative briefing experience, we asked the cohort to reflect on their experience and to consider the following questions: What impact did completing this project and presenting to legislators and legislative staff have on your advocacy perspective? How do you reflect on the role of educational leaders in the current political climate in Texas?

Reflections from cohort memb e r s a b o u t t h e i r ex p e r i e n c e i n Austin spoke directly to a change in their mindset. The project challenged them, but they were proud a n d t h a n kfu l t h a t t h ey h a d a n opportunity to participate. One cohort member stated:

I had to stretch outside my comfort zone, and I’m glad I did. I have learned so many things about myself, others, and the world around me.

Another cohort member described the impact that it made as an applied activity. They stated:

The thing that I found most impactful was having that dialogue with somebody in person [at the Capitol], and not just having it in theory. I felt like we were actually doing the work.

Finally, two other cohort members reminisced about this new experience and marveled at how their perspective had changed. They were not as fearful about participating with the policy process anymore and they credited the experience with helping them to see this side of the process. The first stated:

For me, going into the [legislative] office was really cool.

It’s like any new experience

that you’ve never had, it was like a realm I’ve never stepped into, a realm I didn’t think I could step into which is really crazy because it’s education [and I’m an experienced teacher].

And the second cohort member reflected:

Visiting the Capitol was a really… it was a once in lifetime experience for me. Or at least, I don’t want it to be a once-in-a-lifetime because now I’ve gone and done it once, and I can go and do it again.

So I guess it was actually a firstin-a-lifetime kind of experience.

Cohort 23 organizing their teams for their legislative staff visits at the Texas Capitol

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I actually felt like it really…that [this experience] filled my cup.

I think you don’t necessarily see that the hard that you do is making a direct impact, but I felt that the work that we put in at the Capitol, just like talking to different people, trying to make a little bit of change, it just felt like it made an impact. Whether it does or does not turn into anything, it felt like just having those conversations [with legislative staffers and representatives], makes an impact.

I went home and told my family, as well as my work family, about that experience and about how we need to go out there [and be engaged with the policy process].

We need to start advocating for changes because we have voices.

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As documented in the students’ reflections regarding their participation in “Day on the Hill,” many of our cohort members spoke about raising their level of engagement in the policy process, that up until this experience, they had not been involved with understanding policy and the importance of voicing their perspective. One cohort member spoke of her change in mindset:

Cohort 23 discussing the policy process and strategies for advocacy with Dr. Chole Latham Sikes, Deputy Director of Policy for the Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA)

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Another cohort member described his motivation to keep honing his skills, and wanting to see that the project that he and his colleagues completed would be addressed by the staffers he met. He stated: The policy class for me was life-changing…Going to Austin, some of those things I just would have never done [as a teacher]. I wouldn’t have known how to do that [to present a policy research project and advocate for change]. I wouldn’t have experienced that.

And I’ve learned that I can make change. I did follow-up with every person [legislator and legislative staffer] that I met when I got back home. I have all of their cards, and sent them brief notes of our discussion along with a digital copy of the handout. This day was busy and a great learning experience.

CONTINUING TO (RE)IMAGINE THE APPLICATION OF SOCIAL JUSTICE LEADERSHIP

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Our findings indicate that overwhelmingly students are specifically seeking opportunities to experience social justice leadership in action. It is not enough to refer them to “how to” approaches to leadership void of any actual field-based experiences where they interact with those in positions of influence, authority and decision-making in schools.

Our (re)imagined curriculum embeds standards into every course along with opportunities to interact with stakeholders at all levels in the learning continuum.

They recognize the value of communication centered on the people who are most impacted

by their decisions, namely students. The transformational piece is where they begin to see themselves as the real change makers, persons of influence and strong leaders for equitable and inclusive schools.

The Trinity Tomorrow’s Leaders Program has a long history of excellence and success, but as we engage in self-study, evaluation and reflection it is important that we continue to (re)imagine what we can be and how we should prepare future school leaders. How should we engage our San Antonio and Bexar County community in the preparation of school leaders? Given all that schools and communities have been dealing with socially, politically and financially, how could we best serve our school partners in preparing and educating the school leadership pipeline? Our colleagues in other leadership preparation programs, locally and across the state, have all been challenged with an evolving higher education and K12 environment just as we have, so our questions and self studies came at an opportune time of our program’s history. In San Antonio, we prepare our students to work, live and lead in a community that is majority-Brown, where schools have been historically and systemically under-resourced (Alemán, 2007; Cardenas, 1997), at a time when key policymakers are divesting in public education (Despart, 2023) and educators and educational leaders are feeling devalued for their work (see Charles Butt Foundation, 2022).

So our purpose is clear: we aim to prepare school leaders to advocate, to lead as instructional leaders, and to strategically disrupt the systems and structures that have been layered upon our school communities generation after generation.

Cohort 23 graduation picture, December 2023

REFERENCES

Caraballo, L., Lozenski, B. D., Lyiscott, J. J., & Morrell, E. (2017). YPAR and critical epistemologies:Rethinking education research. Review of Research in Education, 41(1), 311-336.

Cardenas, J. A. (1997). Texas School Finance Reform: An IDRA Perspective. IDRA, 5835 Callaghan, Suite 350, San Antonio, TX 78228-1190.

Cammarota, J., & Fine, M. (2008). Youth participatory action research. Revolutionizing education: Youthparticipatory action research in motion, 1-12.

Delgado Bernal, D. & Alemán, E., Jr. (2016). Transforming educational pathways for Chicana/o students: A critical race feminista praxis. Teachers College Press.

Mitra, D. L. (2008). Amplifying student voice. Educational Leadership, 66(3), 20-25.

Mitra, D. (2006). Increasing student voice and moving toward youth leadership. The prevention researcher, 13(1), 7-10.

Rodriguez, L. F. (2019). Community-based participatory research: Testimonios from Chicana/o studies. University of Arizona Press.

Wenner, J. A., & Campbell, T. (2017). The theoretical and empirical basis of teacher leadership: A review of the literature. Review of educational research, 87(1), 134-171.

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Department of Education Trinity University One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212-7200