Introduction
Schools around the world experience a wide range of issues which have significant impact in the manner in which schools are run and the overall performance of both students and teachers. How a school integrates approaches to deal with such issues in their teaching curriculum determines their impact in school management.
While these issues are of diverse nature and magnitude, it is important to appreciate the fact that issues of cultural diversity further complicate school issues in terms of how to cope with emerging consequences. Multicultural education is therefore essential in ensuring that key objectives of the school are obtained without cultural biasness or discrimination (Banks & McGee, 2010).
This paper addresses the issue of school leadership and how it relates with multicultural education in the society. To achieve this task, it covers several topics including the significance of the issue, solutions, challenges and expected benefits.
Multicultural Education
According to Banks and McGee, multicultural education is an idea, process and reform movement that allows inclusion of a wider spectrum of identification. In their 2010 research, they affirm that multicultural education acknowledges the fact that all students have the right to learn in any school without discrimination that may be based on gender, race, social class or any social characteristics (Banks & McGee, 2010).
As such, all students ought to have equal freedom and chances even when they are defined by different social characteristics. It has been noted that both girls and boys score highly in science and mathematics while in lower grades, a trend that usually changes as they progress.
Why should this be the case? Do teachers have a hand in such cases? Multicultural education underscores the fact that equal measure of attention is to be given to students in order to eliminate disparity in achievements especially in institutions which admit multicultural students.
Throughout history, some teachers and educationists have been accused of favoring a particular class of students or pupils based on these cultural characteristics. While human beings appreciate the existence of cultural diversity and unique identity, there is every need for all stakeholders in education to embrace this by incorporating every aspect of human culture.
By discriminating learners based on their cultural orientation, it is easy for such victims to lose the morale to study and realize their dreams. Needless to say, a number of students lag behind in class performance as a result of being discriminated by their teachers (Banks & McGee, 2010).
Others have dropped out of school because of being over punished by tutors who do so as away of expressing their dissatisfaction with their cultural orientation.
Besides promoting equality among students, there are countless advantages of having a system which embraces multicultural diversity. For instance, issues of unrest and bullying mainly arise in learning institutions because of racial discrimination or other forms of segregation.
Cultural equality allows students and teachers to embrace their differences through diverse learning approaches and management styles that create the best atmosphere for culture and education to thrive (Zembylas & Lasonos, 2010). Although this realization is possible and tasking, school leadership has a major role to play.
Leaders have to be culturally competent in order to have a diverse approach in education that encompasses all dimensions of culture like skin color, race and language. Inclusion of these multicultural families is equally imperative in enhancing a school atmosphere that recognizes several perspectives with unlimited democracy and experiences.
School leadership
School leadership plays a pivotal role in the overall running of any school or educational institutions in the society. In addressing school leadership, it is important to ask whether a school can fully function without school leaders or not. It is more evident that school leadership is necessary in all spheres of its operations.
For this reason, school leadership is arguably a major issue affecting many schools in the United States and in other parts of the World. By integrating culture and education, there is no doubt that all school leaders have a very important role in ensuring equality in all facets of school management and learning (Bakken & Smith, 2011).
Role of school leadership
School leaders perform different roles depending factors like the size of the school, location and management structures. Generally, school leaders are mandated to facilitate shared vision within the school community (Zembylas & Lasonos, 2010).
This is important in setting the performance pace and direction of the school. In this facilitation process, school leaders are supposed to have an inclusive and pluralistic approach that recognizes diverse cultures which make up the school community.
Another important role of school leadership is sustaining of school culture for the purpose of creating a conducive learning and teaching environment for learners and educationists respectively (Bakken & Smith, 2011).
This ensures that that different members of the school community and treated with dignity without any form of discrimination that could be based on cultural characteristics like race, language, gender and social class among others.
The management part of the school also plays a crucial role in school leadership. It ensures that the learning environment is efficient, safe and effective for productive learning. In so doing, leaders guarantee that the school achieves its set objectives with a lot of ease by incorporating efforts and contributions of every member of the school community without cultural discrimination.
Since a school is a community, its leadership is further charged with the responsibility of augmenting collaboration between the school and the surrounding community members (Bakken & Smith, 2011). This allows proper cultural integration in the overall running of the school.
Through fair actions and integrity, school leaders remain key players in the management of the institution. In this capacity, they promote good governance, cultural diversity and integration and impartiality.
Solutions to school leadership and multicultural education
In any learning set-up, it is important for leaders to be prepared to work with students from diverse cultures who may have challenges that cut across the board. For instance, some may have varying beliefs and unique ways of expressing their culture while in school.
What should the school administrators do? In addressing multicultural diversity, leaders must change their thinking and action in order to prepare students on how to deal with their colleagues from other cultural backgrounds (Banks & McGee, 2010). They need to develop a vision for the school that would holistically accommodate students and school employees from all cultures.
Additionally, school leaders need to involve other personnel in planning and setting of strategies that are achievable. This promotes inclusivity of views from other cultural backgrounds as away of ensuring a collective ethic plan in the school’s strategic plan.
Hiring of school personal is equally essential in augmenting multicultural leadership in education. This is because of the immense impact which employees like teachers have on students from minority cultural background. Teachers should receive training on how to impact learners in various ways like behavioral, academic performance and cultural growth.
This has to be addressed in a manner in which the school management recruits, hires and trains its personnel through workshops and evaluation criteria. Available materials like teaching curriculum and resources should also address cultural differences and appreciate this variation in social backgrounds (Zembylas & Lasonos, 2010).
Learners ought to be taught how to embrace each other’s differences in promoting a healthy learning environment. Lastly, the leadership of any school must have mechanisms in place to address the needs of students hailing from minority cultural backgrounds. This could be done through counseling in order to ignite the spirit of belonging among all learners.
Challenges and beneficiaries
The above solutions are practical and achievable in the sense that they address the issue of school leadership and cultural diversity from a holistic perspective, appreciating cultural differences. It further involves all members of the school community including teachers, administrators and students regardless of their cultural differences (Zembylas & Lasonos, 2010).
In implementing these solutions, the challenge would be creating a balance between inferior and superior cultural groups in the school. This would involve a slow approach of training and counseling to allow learners and educationists to appreciate cultural diversity.
A culturally responsive and sensitive school leadership benefits every member of the school community including administrators, teachers, learners and parents who constitute to the larger learning community. However, based on the role of schools in impacting students with knowledge and academic power, learners are considered to be the greatest beneficiaries.
It makes learning meaningful by acknowledging cultural differences and needs of students (Bakken & Smith, 2011). Teachers also have to incorporate teaching methodologies which recognize the existence of the students from different cultural background.
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it is evident that multicultural education is essential in allowing everybody to have access to education regardless of their cultural orientation. In achieving this target, school leadership has to fully exercise administrative and management roles that augment this system of education. Above all, academic excellence can only be realized among all learners when cultural diversity is upheld.
References
Bakken, J., & Smith, B. (2011). A Blueprint for Developing Culturally Proficient/ Responsive School Administrators in Special Education. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal, 9 (1), 33-46.
Banks, J., & McGee, C. (2010). Multicultural Education: Issues and Perspectives (7th Ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons.
Zembylas, M., & Lasonos, S. (2010). Leadership styles and multicultural education approaches: an exploration of their relationship. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 13 (2), 163–183.