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2/05 czréTF'ICIDateommrs

LATTICE: STRENGTH IN DIFFERENCE AND RESOURCE FOR ACTION
By

Rana Talat AL-Smadi

A DISSERTATION

Submitted to
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
For the degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

K-12 Administration
Department of Education College

2005

ABSTRACT

LATTICE: STRENGTH IN DIFFERENCE AND RESOURCE FOR'ACTION

By

Rana Al-Smadi

Arguments that all children in American schools have or have not had equal
access to educational opportunities would be difﬁcult to make (N ieto, 2003). It is
undeniable that in recent decades individuals and advocacy groups have had to struggle
against the current to open the doors of the schools to all and to ensure that, once inside,
their students received fair treatment, resources, and support toward achieving
educational outcomes, in another word to ensure social justice in public schools (N ieto,
2003)

The concept of social justice in education refers to a curriculum and social
organization actions that consider values of democracy, fairness, equality, liberty, and
justice when dealing with issues related to environment, gender, race/etlmicity, religion
and beliefs, socioeconomic status, human rights, multiculturalism, and anti-
discrimination (Glass, 2003; Rush, 2004; Sheets, 2003; Shields, 2004). Fostering and
promoting social justice in school settings is essential for students’ academic
performance and achievement, self-esteem, and conﬁdence (Furman & Gruenewald,
2004)

Current literature indicates an essential role of leadership—administrators—on

their students’ morale and performance. This research focuses on a model of

administrators’ professional development, LATTICE, to increase administrators’
awareness and understanding of diversity and multicultural issues.

Common themes were emerged from the analysis of the data. The themes are:

1. Family, community, and church support to promote diversity awareness.

2. Limited experience with diversity in K-12 schooling.

3. Avoidance of diverSity issues in teacher education and the content of
professional development programs.

4. Increasing awareness of diversity and multiculturalism through participation in
LATTICE.

Both subjects reported that LATTICE helped people improVe their own social
knowledge, skills, practices, and assumptions. This process of improvement is achieved
though a series of elements. These include designing a productive dialogue within an
experiential learning, through small and large group discussion, and structured and
unstructured dialogue which help people construct better understanding of each other and
shift their perspectives of miscommunication, and clarify misunderstandings. This
productive learning provides people of a network of communication and relationship so
people could learn from each other what has worked and not worked, so people change
social situations that appeared challengeable through a process of re—framing and action
steps. Such exploration through intensive involvement is effective in helping people

develop a strong foundation for self-reﬂection.

DEDICATION

To my father, Talat Al-Smadi, who taught me that to know is the power to control
our own destiny. To my father who didn’t have the chance to continue his study, and has
believed in me that I can make his dream to be true.

To my mother, Munifeh Al—Smadi, who taught me that to love and forgive is the
power to own people’s hearts. To my mother who took care of me, my husband, and my
three kids during writing this dissertation.

To my husband, Motasim AJ-Sayahien, who taught me that to believe is to act. I
knew from the ﬁrst time I met you that you are exceptional and noble man. I thank you
very much for believing in me and for leaving your work to come with me to continue
my study. Your love and support during the last ﬁve years made the journey less painful.
I thank Allah every day to have you in my life.

i To my kids, Dima, Laith, and Dania. You taught me that to dream is to believe in
our selves. Dima, I look at you and see a beautiful and strong young lady who can make
everything possible. Laith, I look at you and see a handsome and smart young man who
can change thing to better. Dania, I look at you and see a beautiful and determined young

lady who can make dreams true.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This study became real with the help and support of a number of people who
inspired and encouraged me during the last ﬁve years.

I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Susan Printy, the dissertation chair. This
work would have not been possible without your guidance and support. You taught me
that with patience and hard work I could do it.

I would like to thank also Dr. John (Jack) Schwille. Your support and passion to
the international students, and your encouragement helped me to enter new road of
research.

I would like to thank Dr. Christopher Dunbar and Reitumentse Mabokela for
serving in my dissertation committee and for being supportive of my efforts. I appreciate
your inputs in completing of my dissertation.

I would like also to thank the two strong ladies of my study. Thank you very
much for being open and honest to share with all readers your stories, concerns, and
worries. I learned from both of you that leaders could make a real difference in their
organizations.

I would like to thank Sally McClintock and Ann Schneller for their support and
love to all my family and me. Thank you for helping me to adjust in my social and
academic life.

I would like to thank Adnan Al-Shinnaq. You were very close and supportive

ﬁiend for my family. Thank you for being for us when we needed a ﬁend

I would like to thank my close friends Sri Hayati Kama] and Nancy Lubeski for

their support and passion.

I am also grateful for my sisters and brothers and their families to their love,
encouragement, and pray. Your support made me believe that what I am doing is for all
of us. Thank you.

Finally, I would like to thank the Islamic Center and the Muslim Community in

Greater Lansing. Thank you very much for your support and care.

vi'

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I - Introduction .......................................................................... 1
Expanding the landscape of social justice ..................................................... 8
Linking all Types of Teachers for International Cross —Cultural Education ............ 14
Statement of the problem ..................................... L ................................ 17
Importance of the study ........................................................................ 18
Purpose of the study ............................................................................ 19
Research questions .............................................................................. 20
Deﬁnition of terms .............................................................................. 21
Organization of the dissertation ................................................................ 22
Chapter H — Review of literature .............................................................. 23
Diversity and Multiculturalism in American public schools .............................. 23
Social justice is an introduction to the Democracy ......................................... 30
Social justice is a challenge to school leadership ........................................... 37
Enhancing social justice in principal’s professional development

program ........................................................................................... 43
LATTICE is a promising model of professional development to promote principal’s
awareness of diversity issues .................................................................. 47
LATTICE is an introduction to Theory in Action .......................................... 5 9
LATTICE is a Collaborative Learning Community ........................................ 62
Chapter III -Methodology ...................................................................... 68
Design of the study .............................................................................. 69
Participations .................................................................................... 73
Procedures ........................................................................................ 74
Data analysis ..................................................................................... 78
Chapter IV 4 Presenting the two subjects ..................................................... 82
Chapter V — Analysis of the data .............................................................. 159
Chapter VI — Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations. ......................... 173
Appendices ..................................................................................... l 97
List of References .............................................................................. 204

Vii

LIST OF FIGURES

Roberta’s hierarchal ladder of how LATTICE promotes members’ awareness of social
- justice ............................................................................. . ................. 106

Roberta’s conceptual and hierarchical ladder for achieving social justice in their

organizations ....................................................................................... 109
Roberta’s hierarchal ladder of effective leadership ............................................ 113
Catheryn’s hierarchal ladder of how LATTICE promotes members’ awareness of social
justice ............................................................................................... 143
Catheryn’s conceptual and hierarchical ladder for achieving social justice in their
organizations ....................................................................................... 1 50
Catheryn’s hierarchal ladder of effective leadership ......................................... 158

viii

Chapter I

Introduction

When Dima, my four-year old daughter, told me: “You know Morn, color means
nothing,” I was surprised and asked her what she meant by saying this, because as all of
us know, there is red color, blue, green, etc, and they aren’t the same. She then explained,
“In our neighborhood, and in my school, there are different color of people; you will see
white people, black, Chinese, and people who look like me- brown. They are all different
outside because of the color of their skin, but actually they are the same inside. So, Mom,
color means nothing.” Then she added, “It is like shapes. You can see triangle, circle, and
square. They are different but they are just shapes. So, color means nothing.”

I was really happy to hear that my four-year old daughter accepts “other” people
who are different than her without looking at their skin, race, and language. I was also
happy that she addressed such a sensitive issue in a simple way, and accepted difference
as a natural facet of life. While she is still very young and hasn’t yet been affected by the
social and political realities of life in the twentieth century, Dima’s comments reﬂect in a
simple way a philosophical pillar of American democracy, that all men are created equal
(Van Soest & Garcia, 2003).

Arguments that all children in American schools have or have not had equal
access to educational opportunities would be difﬁcult to make (N ieto, 2003). While a
history of social movements to secure equal educational access for all and legislative
action to ensure the same is beyond the scope of this paper, it is undeniable that in recent

decades individuals and advocacy groups have had to struggle against the current to open

the doors of the schools to all and to ensure that, once inside, their students received fair
treatment, resources, and support toward achieving educational outcomes (Nieto, 2003).

More recently, some in the educational arena have begun to champion the value
of diversity. In some cases, this might be related to the unavoidable truth that student
populations in America are becoming increasingly more multicultural and pluralistic.
Thus, students have the right to retain their cultural identities and, if they wish to do so,
the system shouldn’t insist that students “melt” into the mainstream culture, but permit
them to maintain their own identities within a structure of democratic empowerment and
social freedom (Entwistle, 2000). In other cases, advocacy for diversity and
multicultural approaches to education might be the result of an appreciation for multiple
viewpoints as a pathway to better outcomes (Nieto, 1992, 2003; Thomas & Collier,
2003). Some educators connect a valuing of diversity to the core of democracy and to
promoting social justice through supporting equality, liberty, and ﬁeedOm for all
(Shields, 2004). The current accountability environment of the nation’s schools has
resulted, in large part, because, even where diverse students have access to schooling,
they have experienced unequal outcomes (Urrieta, 2004).

The increase in student diversity has coincided with decreased student
performance and achievement (Cooper, 2003). The causes of unequal student outcomes
are open to debate. One argument is that the increase in native minority and immigrant
students, who presumably are less capable, results in lower achievement scores at the
aggregate (Entwistle, 2000). Another is that the quality of teachers has decreased and
that there are insufﬁcient teachers certiﬁed to deal with situations related to diversity,

such as English as second language (Cooper, 2003; Kennedy, 1991). Also, in some

schools unequal distribution of ﬁnancing and other material resources is a contributing
factor (Cooper, 2003). During the past decades, the educational system has failed to
accommodate all students’ backgrounds and, consequently, has created unequal
conditions for student learning resulting in unequal educational outcomes among students
of different backgrounds. Moreover, school faculties are primarily comprised of white,
middle-class, and monolingual English speaking teachers and administrators, who are not
familiar with students’ diversity and have little experience with it (Marshall, 2004; Nieto,
2003; Taylor & Whittaker, 2003). These conditions caused, during the past decades, the
educational system to fail to include all students’ backgrounds, teach all students in a
high quality of instruction, create equal conditions for student learning needs, and
equalize educational outcomes among students of different backgrounds (N ieto, 2003;
Pang et al., 1991).

What diversity means in school populations has changed signiﬁcantly from just a
focus on race and ethnicity. Diversity in American public schools also involves religion,
language, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic background, and physical and
mental capability (Levine, 2003; Pang et al., 1991; Shields, 2004). As a result of
relatively recent ways of deﬁning diversity, several philosophical arguments relating to
diversity have emerged. Some claim that racial prejudice and discrimination are a part of
the past and that American is becoming a homogeneous society (Urrieta, 2004).
Proponents of this perspective argue that diversity will destroy the American society;
these ideas are based on a myth that difference and multiculturalism may divide the
American society and undercut its unity. These arguments of “universalism” (Gupta,

2001) maintain that America is already a united (Schlesinger, 1991), coherent society,

and that providing the means for students to keep their diverse identities may serve to
separate people and provide them little contact with the mainstream culture.

These arguments ignore the reality that the American society has been always
deeply divided by race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and class (Van Soest & Garcia, 2003).
The “universalists” ﬁght against those who discuss the “politics of difference” (Gupta,
2001), which highlights the rights that democracy guarantees for diverse individuals
(Gupta, 2001; Lee, 2004). There is a tension between “politics of universalism” that call
for equal treatment of all individuals and “politics of difference” which call for
recognition of difference among people (Gupta, 2001).

The former suggests treating all individuals the same without recognizing the
particularity of each identity, and it views the whole nation as coherent and united. The
latter acknowledges one’s particularity and identiﬁes the color problem, for example, as
an issue that indeed means something and continues to be problematic. It views
difference as something that should be celebrated and recognized. The politics of
difference is shaped by attitudes and knowledge of other cultures. These create the
conditions and circumstances to behave with acceptance and understanding.

The United States abounds in human resources with a vast potential for
development, and these human resources should be highly valued, with a focus upon the
development of values, skills, knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes. This is important in
society which has moved to sharing in global education, which prides itself on millions of
immigrants, and which has enabled people to-become productive contributors to a global
community, as well as to a country community. Therefore, focusing on politics of

difference became a pressing need for more development, justice, and democracy

(Macgillioray, 2000) especially, with a critical examination of the current public schools
realities, which manifests that race and discrimination are still big problems in the United
States society (Urrieta, 2004).

Investment in education is recognized as human resources development,
development not only on the economic side, but on the social and political sides as well.
Therefore, there has been a new level of educational awareness worldwide, about the
importance of the quality of education, for the development and progress of national
economies and also for the development of the individuals. Quality of education refers to
many ambitious ideas for improving and reforming the educational system that leads to-
excellence in education. Among other elements, quality of education necessitates
updating curricula to implement cmricular standards (Kennedy, 1991), educating teachers
to demonstrate subject matter competency and help students meet standards and pass tests
(Schuhnan, 1987), developing administrators’ professional development to help teachers
embrace a belief that students from all backgrounds can learn and create policies and
procedures to ensure students’ need (Marshall, 2004; Shields, 2004). Quality education
also demands enhancing social justice in schools to help prepare students for a
competitive and diverse society, as a need for facing the current challenges that the
educational system is facing in schools’ settings (Hill, 2003; Mercado, 2001). This
research is interested in the need for administrators to promote social justice in schools,
which harmonizes with the philosophy of education as education for individuals and
social, economic, and.political development.

The concept of social justice in education refers to a curriculum and social

organization actions that consider values of democracy, fairness, equality, liberty, and

justice when dealing with issues related to environment, gender, race/ethnicity, religion
and beliefs, socioeconomic status, human rights, multiculturalism, and anti-
discrimination (Glass, 2003; Rush, 2004; Sheets, 2003; Shields, 2004). Fostering and
promoting social justice in school settings is essential for students’ academic
performance and achievement, self-esteem, and conﬁdence (F urman & Gruenewald,,
2004). Recent research points out that promoting social justice in schools could positively
lead to higher quality of school outcomes (Furman &Gruenewald, 2004; Sheets, 2004;
Shields, 2004).

Furthermore, there is a well-developed and growing body of literature addressing
the role of school administrators to create a just and supportive learning environment.
Administrators play a critical role in creating a curriculum that is culturally relevant to
the students’ backgrounds and in developing appropriate instructional methods (Marshall,
. 2002, 2004; Shields, 2004). Given the narrow range of school inputs of teachers and
administrators pointed to earlier (i.e., white, middle-class), school administrators need to
learn to value difference as a strength and resource to be used in curriculum and
instruction, ultimately to increase school effectiveness and students outcomes. School
administrators play an extremely critical role in increasing achievement by providing
conditions and resources to support teachers in their continuous teaching and learning,
and by analyzing school policies and practices that devalue the backgrounds of some
students. More speciﬁcally, school administrators in their leadership position should
improve the curriculum, and build a safe environment and a uniﬁed body of students

where difference is celebrated rather than a deﬁcit to be mediated. Powerful leadership

involves challenging people’s beliefs and values, changing their traditional beliefs and
values to form and accept new realities (Riehl, 2004; Shields, 2004).

Administrators’ professional development programs are a widely accepted
method to accomplish administrators’ change and development (Kochan et al., 2002).
These programs are based on a collaborative relationship to enhance. a life long
development. Recently, one of the highest priorities of administrators’ professional
development programs is the accountability education reform for ensuring learning and
teaching all students. Afﬁrming diversity became a valuable resource to achieve this
reform. Valuing all students in the curriculum, textbooks, instructional pedagogies, and
school policies and practices are some of the strategies on which school administrators
need to focus to increase students’ performance (Marshall, 2004, Shields, 2004).

Unfortunately, reviewing the existing literature of administrators curriculum and
professional development has illuminated the view that administrators" education
curriculum reﬂects insufﬁcient skills, knowledge and training with the way to deal with
diversity areas and issues (Genevieve, 1998; Henze, 2000; Rush, 2004). Even more, “it is -
well documented that as often as administrators meet, they seldom discuss students
learning issues; instead, they focus almost exclusively on procedural or political matters”
(Onick, 2003, p. 42). The administrators’ professional development programs don’t oﬁen
require ongoing opportunities for their participants to examine their beliefs, and
acknowledge and overcome their biases. Many of these programs reﬂect the values,
cultures, and norms of educators who don’t have many experiences in dealing with
diverse issues, and whose culture is different than their students. Therefore, the growing

diversity found within public schools necessitates that administrators hold the

responsibilities for the academic, emotional, and physical success of all students (Darder,

1991).

Expanding the Landscape of Social Justice:
Social Justice as Introduction to Higher School Quality

Dima’s short story speaks to the values of social justice, but putting those values
into action in schools is challenging. The role of educators isn’t only to talk ethically in
school (Brown, 2004; Leh, 2003), but importantly to see that the institutional structure
and processes of the school system are themselves reﬂections of a system of justice and
care, in other word to act ethically (Sapon- Shevin, 2003). Doing this requires that
educators be culturally sensitive and embrace a belief about their students’ intelligence,
ability, character, and potential. This also requires that educators need to build
relationships with their students and better understand to their racial, cultural, ethnical,
and class backgrounds (Darder, 1991). Finally, educators need to believe that all students
from different backgrounds can be competitive and ﬁmctional in a democratic society— “
a society that will fairly reward hard work and the demonstration of valuable educational
knowledge with socioeconomic mobilit)?’ (Cooper, 2003, p. 103).

Pounder (2002) argues that public schools in American society have failed to act
and educate ethically all types of students. She states, “the students who are affected most
are typically from marginalized groups (e. g., students of color, students with disabilities,
low-income students, girls, and gay/lesbian students.” (p. 270) Therefore, if schools and
the educational system work for improving the lives of these disadvantaged groups, they

need to act ethically to promote social justice.

To act ethically, school settings need to conceptualize and expose students to
ethical principles and ethical arguments, and encourage the incorporation of ethical
learning in the curriculum of the classrooms. To help students to begin making
intercultural sensitivity assessments that enable them to engage on interventions that meet
the values of democracy and citizen rights. Shields (2004) mentions that:

To create just and caring schools. . .educators will talk with students about various

lived experiences — about what it means to be poor, what it was like to live in a

reﬁigee camp, what racism feels; like in their experiences. Such curriculum means

that educators will help students explore difﬁcult subjects in safe, sensitive, and

respectful environment (p. 40).

This approach of exposing students to difﬁcult and sensitive issues would beneﬁt
both students as individuals, and school as a set of inputs that contribute to make schoOl
more effective. Though societies expect education in the absolute to be the major driving .
force in social and economic progress, education can’t achieve this objective unless
educators become major agents in this transfonnative and reform movement of school
organizational learning (Argyris & Schdn, 1974, 1978). Awareness of issues such as
human rights and social justice have theoretically and empirically a meaningful inﬂuence
on individuals and societal progress (Furman & Gruenewald, 2004; Kennedy, 1991;
Marshall, 2004). A

The prime objective of educational reform is to enhance student achievement by
improving schooling quality and school effectiveness, increasing the relevance of
education to current needs and future challenges, and facing the country in the global

context in the 21St century. Today’s children live in an interdependent and rapidly

changing world. They need to cope with the economic, political, and social systems that
are getting increasingly more complicated, and they need to develop comfort with the
increasing cultural pluralism of the country. I conceptualize this need in terms of
forward-looking, all -embracing human, social, cultural, and spiritual values,
accompanied by a responsible understanding of relevant global issues (Glass, 2003;
Sheets, 2003; Shields, 2004; Snauwaert, 2003; Williams, 2003). Upgrading educational
quality requires creating a learning environment that develops values, skills, attitudes and
behaviors required for living a meaningful and productive life in an increasingly complex
and rapidly changing global world.

Of course, this requires leading learning and teaching processes to create
awareness, foster understanding, and appreciate the inter-dependent and interactive
nature of a contemporary world and global issues related to human rights. Human rights
include issues that are related to poverty, language minority, special needs, gender, and
sex orientation (Marshall, 2004). Furthermore, human rights embed also issues related to
environmental degradation, ecological imbalance, social and economic inequities, diverse
values and beliefs of different communities, respect of the other, and the need to be
sympathetically understood, appraised, and resolved with justice, equanimity, and
humanity (Marshall, 2004; Sheets, .2004; Shields, 2004).

Getting educators to the point where they dig deeply to know, understand, and
then conceptualize the deﬁnition of what is called social justice is a critical step. Once
committed, they often try to put this issue on the top of their agendas for discussion.
Without such advocacy, educators continue ignoring and removing discourse about

difference. This ignorance means:

10

We are rejecting huge chunks of some students’ lives, denying them the
opportunity to become an integral part of the community of difference. And this is
true not just for ethnicity, but also for such characteristics as religion, class,
socioeconomic status, and gender orientation (Shields, 2004, p. 40).

This ignorance has a negative inﬂuence on student’s performance. (Glass, 2003;

Williams, 2003) .

The counter argument is that attention to social justice has a positive effect on
school effectiveness. Today, educators are being asked to promote higher students’
academic performance and a higher standard especially in subject-matter courses A
(Kennedy, 1991; Schulrnan, 1987); also educators’ roles are also evolving because of the
dramatic changes evident in the student body of schools. Exceptional students with
special needs, students who do not speak a common language, students from single-
parent families, students who are from low- income backgrounds, and students who are
from different backgrounds of religion, culture, and race. While there is a tremendous call
for awareness of such issues in schools, there is uneven evidence of the impact of social
justice orientations on students’ performance (Bhargava & et al., 1999; Keller, 2001; Van
Soest & Garcia, 2003). Literature often reports that students from low-income and
minority backgrounds achieve less than their peers in school, have a higher rate of
dropout, and have low graduation rate (Bencivenga & Elias, 2003; Wade, 2004).
Furthermore, these students manifest their feelings of the current schools’ ignorance of
their backgrounds as obstacles for higher performance. 3

Research and common sense support the notion that improving school leadership

holds a great potential in helping schools improve students academic performance, A

ll

particularly in schools with the large population of low-income and minority families
(Furman & Gruenewald, 2004; Marshall, 2002,2004; Rush, 2004; Sheets, 2004).
Furthermore, there is a well-developed and growing body of literature addressing the
relationship of achievement by students from diverse groups and school administrators
(Shields, 2004; Marshall, 2002, 2004). School administrators need to value difference as
_ a resource to be used in curriculum and instruction. Speciﬁcally, school administrators in
their leadership position can help to improve the curriculum and build a safe environment
and a uniﬁed body of students where difference is celebrated rather than a deﬁcit to be
mediated.

Just as schools and student bodies have changed, so has the role of administrators.
To meet the requirements for improvement and the challenges that schools currently face,
administrators need to have the skills and knowledge as instructional leaders and change
facilitators. Adrrrinistrators in schools where most of their student population is from
students at risk or disadvantaged students have to manifest higher awareness of ethical
issues to improve the quality of decision-making, staff professional development, and
school practices regarding these issues that contribute to improve student learning
(Sparks, 2000). Unfortunately, in reviewing the related literature of the inﬂuence of their
minority students, the ﬁndings show that administrators lack the knowledge and the skill
of how to handle such issues in their schools or districts (Henze, 2000; Marshall, 2004;
Shields, 2004; Sparks, 2000). Critical research ﬁnds that administrators’ deﬁcit thinking
causes them to make biased judgments of students’ intelligence, ability, and behavior that

are rooted in racial, cultural, and class based stereotypes (Cooper, 2003).

12

Many suggest that the administrators’ lack of information about ﬁrnctioning in
social situations that are related to diversity and multiculturalism is related to the poor
administration preparation programs (Henze, 2000; Marshall, 2002; 2004; Sheets, 2004;
Sparks, 2000). Administrators’ preparation programs don’t show an interest in diversity
areas and the administrators themselves in these programs don’t like to discuss such
issues that often lead to fear and anger. Therefore, there are increasingly heavy demands
placed on school administrators’ professional development to strengthen their ability to
become more effective leaders (Henze, 2000; Sparks, 2000), particularly, how
professional development can help school leaders foster minority students’ academic
performance.

Professional development requires a commitment from all the personnel who
work with students in schools for a higher performance and achievement (Bencivenga &
Elias, 2003; Brody & Davidson, 1998; Clark, 2003; Protheroe, 2004; Waston et al.,
1998). Realizing that improving student performance doesn’t come easily, a collaborative
effort between administrators and other educators can begin a new administrative
initiative. This initiative is based upon the research on leadership, staff development,
decision-making, and change of practices and is committed to school improvement.
Therefore, administrators are asked to be involved in professional development to
promote life-long learners in a continuously increasing diversity.

Knowing the content and the context in administrators’ professional development
of multicultural areas is something “scary” (Sparks, 2000). These professional 3
development programs are mostly designed as lectures to be given by experts.

Participants in these programs don’t have the opportunities to dialogue, discuss, and

13

exchange ideas. Furthermore, these programs don’t support participants with strategies
and tools to deal with multiculturalism (Bredeson, 1999; Kochan, 2002; Marshall, 2004;
Rush, 2004).

Questions ﬁ'om people of education ask, what are the elements for a successful
professional development? (Bencivenga & Elias, 2003; Marshall, 2002, 2004) How can
administrators learn to value and teach about diversity in their schools or districts? The
researcher will attempt to extend these questions beyond an information-only focus. This
research will describe a unique example of administrators’ professional development
program that works for enhancing social justice in schools by promoting administrators’

awareness, knowledge, and involvement in multicultural environments (Papanantasiou &

Conway, 2002).

Linking all Types of Teachers for International Cross ~Cultural Education

Linking All Types of Teachers for International Cross-Cultural Education
(LATTICE) is a unique professional development educational program that encourages
administrators to revisit their practices and assumptions about social issues in schools,
and supports them to foster more social justice in their schools and districts. LATTICE
encourages its participants to reﬂect on their different perspectives, knowledge, beliefs,
and stereotypes about other cultures, races, ethnicities, and religions, and allows them to
rethink their hidden assumptions to a goal of a change or modiﬁcation to promote social
justice in schools. LATTICE takes the form of collaborative learning communities to

enhance its goals and objective of making a difference in American public schools.

14

Collaborative learning community (CLC) is an example of professional
development that refers to a group of people who share common interests and goals
(Wald, 2000). They meet to discuss and solve problems that they face in their work
environment. CLC is a cyclic process of reﬂection, discussion, collaboration, and change.
Using more than one method of learning, LATTICE as CLC adopts dialogue in small
group and large group discussion and reﬂection to understand and solve multicultural
clashes and problems.

With the rapid transformation and development in the technology, the world
became a small village in the global view. Schools with this rapid transformation will
reach out to the communities that surround them, to bring into the classrooms experiences
and resources of people from different cultural, racial, religious and socio-economic
groups. The American schools are characterized by a large increased number of students
from different backgrounds. By utilizing community resources, schools can connect
youth to world far beyond the schoolyard. However, when compared to the utilization of
community resources for connecting students to communities far beyond their school
settings; LATTICE is a exceptional model.

LATTICE is a group of American graduate students, teachers, administrators, and
graduate international students who have the same dream and motivation of having
multicultural communities in respected, acceptable, appreciated, and caring societies in
this global world. LATTICE’ mission is to promote. social awareness in United States
schools through the professional development of leaders, teachers, and prospective ones.

The mission of LATTICE is to assure a global perspective in K-12 classrooms.

With members and friends from 55 countries, LATTICE members work together to

15

highlight their awareness, sensitivity and understanding of global issues including ethnic,
cultural and religious diversity. The LATTICE network supports international learning in
order that children of today can be effective participants in the world of tomorrow
(LATTICE. Available at: http://wwwlatticeworldong/I

LATTICE was developed as a non-proﬁt national-intemational education
partnership organization. Under the leadership of Sally McClintock, a former principal,
LATTICE in 1995 began to focus its energies on teachers and administrators’ need and
set out to establish a program of in service professional development that would
concentrate on diversity, race, ethnicity, gender, and other multicultural global issues.
These who established LATTICE have committed themselves to serve the American
schools, especially in Michigan that is known for its multicultural population. Societal
changes and concerns have stimulated pressures on schools and those who lead them; the
concern of (NCLB), and concern of reducing the racial achievement gap at American
schools, and the growing number of students- age population from marginalized group,
are some of the motivations that create LATTICE as educational organization. This new
professional development model centers learning activities on a conscious equity agenda.

During the past ten years, this learning organization has engaged participants from
55 countries to enhance social justice in public schools. LATTICE program includes
educational, communicative, musical, food, art and other activities promoting the of
understanding of diversity and multiculturalism by offering monthly sessions during the
whole school year to discuss diversity and multiculturalism, and by providing courses of

information and guidance to construct a new understanding of such issues.

16

In summary, given the linkage of interaction between school leadership and
school social justice effectiveness, this research is interested in highlighting the
importance of this linkage. Largely the policy nexus in which leadership professional
development and training system are designed would determine the extent to which
development efforts succeed in achieving schools’ goals of social justice. LATTICE as a
unique model of administrators’ professional development supports and highlights this
linkage by involving and surrounding administrators in multicultural environment, and by
interaction and dialogue with international graduate students in Michigan State

University to develop values of social justice, fairness, and equity.
Statement of the Problem

Historically, the issue of diversity and multiculturalism has followed at least three
trends- the culture of color, low-income people and a combination of people 'of color, and
population at risk as minorities (Van Soest & Garcia, 2003). Currently, diversity and
multiculturalism include gender, sexual orientation, special needs, religion, language and
ethnicity. The educational system is challenged to teach about and to these categories of
students in a high quality educational process. Educators are also challenged to integrate
the academic trend with the social trend of students. Both of these trends play a
signiﬁcant role in students’ performance and achievement.

Current literature indicates an essential role of leadership—administrators—on
their students’ morale and performance. Therefore, a heavy demand for improving

administrators’ knowledge base for multicultural issues is essential. This research focuses

l7

on a model of administrators’ professional development, LATTICE, to increase
administrators’ awareness and understanding of diversity and multicultural issues.
Through a collaborative learning community, LATTICE is aunique model of
promoting diversity and multiculturalism as a focus of administrators ’ agendas to foster
a high understanding of diversity, ethnicity, gender, language, and religion. In proposing
this research, the researcher anticipates that administrators who participate in LATTICE
as a professional development program have more awareness of multiculturalism and
more understanding of their students’ diversity. Researcher intends to discover whether

or not that awareness is transferred into meaningful action in their schools or districts.
lrnportance of the study

Human resources are the dominant element in any reform process, whether in
planning, production, or development. In education, administrators are a fundamental tool
of change to improve schools. Administrators have a signiﬁcant role in enhancing their
schools to be more socially just. Therefore, this study is expected to offer educational
planners and decision-makers with a unique model of administrators’ professional
development. The importance of this study is deduced from the limited available number
of empirical studies that deal with administrators’ awareness of social justice issues.

This study is expected to contribute to the current literature of administrators’
awareness of their role in increasing school effectiveness and building a safe community

in difference. This will support the current literature that suggests there is a signiﬁcant

relationship between administrators and students’ achievement, and administrators

18

raising students’ awareness of diversity and multiculturalism issues. Also, this study is
expected to highlight the importance of effective professional development programs on

their participants. Administrators need to be life-long learners to cope with the challenges

-- ’of change that schools face in globalizing world.

Moreover, this study is expected to highlight the use of theory of action as a
methodology of changing, deve10ping, and modifying people’s assumptions, thinking,
and values, which supports Argyris and SchOn’s (1974) research of the importance of

changing theory-in- use.

Purpose of the Study

Adrrrinistrators’ awareness of social justice and the connection with school social
justice effectiveness have been the focus of the current leadership literature. This study
has been interpreted to reveal that. Literature related to administrators reports that
administrators show resistance, express distress and anger, and fear in response to
multicultural contexts. This resistance is caused by the lack of theoretical and practical
ﬁamework for diversity and multiculturalism and from the current political realities that
increase backlash and abandonment of collective social action for school change.

At the same time, administrators’ professional development programs often
ignore discussion of these sensitive issues. Furthermore, administrators are not armed
after ﬁnishing their education programs with effective tools and strategies to deal with

multiculturalism and diversity.

l9

Therefore, this study may contribute by focusing the lens on one administrator
educational and professional development program, to revisit this program to pay more
attention to the important role that administrators could play in promoting social justice.
Also, this study may contribute to opening administrators ’ eyes to realize how much
inﬂuence they can have on their teachers and students. The information and knowledge
that could be obtained from this study may motivate administrators to rethink their
practices and experiences in reducing or eliminating the fear related to social justice
issues. Furthermore, this study may highlight the perspectives and attitudes that educators

and especially administrators model that could positively inﬂuence on students’

performance.

Research Questions

This study aims to describe and understand the role of LATTICE to promote
administrators’ awareness and understanding of diversity and multiculturalism. This
study will be realized by interviewing two administrators in order to answer the guiding

questions that follow:

1. What contribution does participation in LATTICE, professional development
with a social justice focus, make to the leadership knowledge, dispositions, and skills of
two school administrators who hold a school vision of providing a socially just learning
environment for students and teachers?

2. What role do the cross-cultural experiences of LATTICE participants play in

the leadership orientations and behaviors of these school leaders?

20

3. Is the learning of these administrators, as a result of participation in LATTICE,

transferred to their public school settings? If so, how is this accomplished?

Deﬁnition of Terms

0 Multiculturalism: Reﬂects groups of people where members share some commonality
among them. It could be the history, culture, or race that make group members feel
that ”they belong to their own identity, which they are all proud of it (Marshall, 2004).

0 Social Justice: Is a ladder of values, skills, and beliefs of equity, justice, fairness, and
advocacy for building a society where differences. are celebrated and supported.
Being advocacy for social justice company an action for development, improvement, 3
and changing (Sheets, 2002; Shields, 2004). A

o LATTICE: Linking all Types of Teachers for International Cross-Cultural Education.
LATTICE is an educational program that focuses on developing multiculturalism and
understanding about social justice in American public schools.

0 Professional Development: Is a process where people meet, discuss and reﬂect to
change some practices and experiences. In education, professional development is a
process where educators meet to discuss some of the challenges that schools faCe to
achieve a high quality and to be more professional (Bredeson, 2003).

0 Collaborative Learning Community: In this study (CLC) presents a methodology for
professional development. It reﬂects a gathering where pe0p1e who share the same

interests or problems to be solved meet to discuss and learn together (Wald, 2000).

21

Organization of the Dissertation

Chapter I of this study introduces the main interest of this research. Social justice,
democracy, fairness, equity, diversity and multiculturalism, and liberty were the main key
words. Chapter II contains a review of the related literature. This chapter is divided in
three sections: section one shows the literature related to diversity and multiculturalism in
American public schools. Section two discusses the role of administrators, professional
development, and CLC in promoting social justice in classrooms. The last section
deseribes LATTICE as professional development program. Chapter III describes the
methodology and procedures for collecting data to answer the study questions. Chapter
IV represents the responses of these two administrators to study questions, and the
interpretations of their interviews. Chapter V includes the analysis of the data. Finally,
the chapter VI represents the ﬁndings of this study, conclusions and recommendations for

future research.

22

Chapter H

Review of the Related Literature

The literature review is divided into three major sections. The ﬁrst section
examines the literature pertinent to describe the different categories of diversity and
multiculturalism, to mirror the stereotypes of educators’ practices during teaching
students from different groups, and to deﬁne social justice as an important focus to
promote democracy in school community and society. The second section discusses
research relevant to leadership, the importance of school administrators to enhance social
justice, and administrators’ professional development. The last section focuses on
LATTICE as a model professional development program that promotes social justice.
This last section will describe the framework and the ongoing process of LATTICE as a

collaborative learning community and as a methodology of theory in action.

Diversity and Multiculturalism in American Public Schools

The American society, as well as its schools, on one hand, witnesses a
continuously growing, diverse population of difference, which makes the United States
one of the most multicultural pluralistic societies in the world. On the other hand, it is
also highly recognized as the most problematic and challenging society in building
community of difference; that appreciates the heterogeneity in individuals, and respects
difference regard for the interest worth of everyone. The research shows that there are
both an ignorance of and oppression of the recognition diversity issues in the American

society and its public schools (Van Sorest & Garcia, 2003).

23

In North America, high failure and dropout rates, over identiﬁcation of behaviors
problems, and placement in low-level academic programs are particularly prevalent
among minoritized children. In the United States, many indigenous, African American
and Hispanic children ﬁnd that schools, as they are currently made up, present particular
challenges and often barriers to their success (Shields, 2004, p. 111).

This ignorance and oppression have been operated a long time in the society by
social, economic, and political forces (Furman & Gruenewald, 2004). This ignorance led
to some conditions of violation, in the pure values of democracy, that have destroyed the
cohesion and uniﬁcation of the nation, that led to exclusion of some groups of individuals
and created speciﬁc settings of challenges:

0 Difference based on race and ethnicity.

0 Difference based on language.

0 Difference based on gender and gender orientation.

0 Difference based on socioeconomic backgrounds.

0 Difference based on physical and mental capability and needs.

First, difference based on race and ethnicity reﬂects the diversity in race and
ethnicity, where the concept of race and ethnicity are frequently interchanged. Members
of group of race and ethnicity share a feeling of belonging to a common history, identity,
or other commonalities such as skin color and other physical traits, African-American for
example (Taylor & Whittaker, 2003). Immigration, interracial marriage, and refugee
status are the main conditions attributed for the increase in difference based on race and
ethnicity, “approximately 41% of all US. public schools report that they have students

for whom the ﬁve standard federal categories of racial, ethnic origin are not accurately

24

descriptive” (Dilworth & Brown, 2001 ,p. 644). Difference in race and ethnicity takes
more than these two perspectives; it expands to cover religion, faith and beliefs
(Mercado, 2001). Consequently with diversity in demographical dimension, the
American society that‘is predominantly Christian, witnesses an increasing number of
people who are Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, and Hindus. Difference based on race,
ethnicity, and religion is a real challenge for education system, which is charged with
educating all students regardless their races, ethnicities, and religions. The research
suggests that racial biases, stereotypes, and other race-linked experiences have a
signiﬁcant impact on the quality of services for minority children (Losen & Orﬁeld,
2002)

Second, difference in language represents the issue of people who do not speak or
are not ﬂuent in English, or are multilingual for example. Dilworth and Brown (2001)
mention that there are more than 100 languages spoken in USA public school system,
such as Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and Hindi. The basic challenge for instruction is often
complicated by lack of teachers on recognition of students’ native language, which is in
primary use in their home with their families. The lack of recognition is problematic for
students who feel “invisible’” as a result, “ethnic identity is twin-skin to linguistic
identity—I am my language. Until I take pride in my language, I can not take pride in
myself”(Mercado, 2001,p. 679). Students’ farrrilies who communicate in their native
language try to do this adherence to the home language, which makes it more difﬁcult for
' children to use English while they are in their schools. Research indicates that languages
differences shouldn’t be denigrated; using native language doesn’t affect the excellence

of acquisition of English, or the development of children, rather it offers many

25

advantages. Research points out “children who are bilingual have advantages over
monolinguals of the same socioeconomic background in their linguistic, cognitive, and
social development” (Suarez-Orozco & Suarez-Orozco, 2001).

Third, difference based on gender and gender orientation refers to the issues of
inequality in social, economic, and political practices and stereotypes related to sexual
choices, behaviors, and expectations (Macgillioray, 2000). Difference based on gender
and gender orientation also refers to school treatment and attitude toward sexual
minorities, including lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered students. Gender
difference is constructed by social, political and institutional prejudices, discrimination,
and violent actions against gender minority. It reﬂects generally on the male domination
and male privilege to determine how women are recognized in this society and how their
contribution should be presented (Gupta, 2001). Continuing dominance institutionalizes
subordinate roles and practices of women. Differences in gender orientation based on
gender show up the domination of boys in mathematics, science and computer
applications for example. Research has pointed out despite the increased awareness of the
injustice of such issues; schools personnel are still inactive in dealing with issues related.
to gender (Bhargava et al., 1999).

Fourth, difference based on socioeconomic status reﬂects the poverty and hunger
rate of some children from low-income, single parent, and minority backgrounds. There
are wide differences between schools in suburbs and those in the inner city or rural areas
related to teaching quality, equal access, certiﬁed teachers, and equal facilities and

services. Research on this source of difference shows that poor children are more likely

26

to achieve less in schools, they are more likely to be sick and underweight, and they are
more likely to drop out than their peers (Schlesinger, 1991).

Fifth, difference based on physical, emotional, and mental capability refers to
students who are recognized as disabled. Given the fact that in the last ﬁfty years, US
schools have attempted to offer free and appropriate public education for children with
special needs. This concern addresses that special needs are merely differences and not
the identity that characterizes these children (Dilworth & Brown, 2001). To the extent
possible, educators should include opportunity for participation with children without
disabilities the same curricula. .

As diversity categories of difference have increased in United States K-12
classrooms over the last century, 90% of the teaching force has remained in middle-
class, white females (N ieto, 2003). Recent research indicates that schools and educational
systems are still not farrriliar with issues of differences to take care of learning for all
children. Understandings of diversity remain clouded by misunderstandings and
mistreatrnents, Dilworth & Brown (2001) mentions that racism and discrimination still
exist in the American society and American public schools, and these prejudices continue
to have negative inﬂuence on the lives of children from minorities or disadvantaged
learners. Many teachers continue view differences as a deﬁcit and develop low
expectations for minority students. This negative inﬂuence can be seen in education
access and achievement performance.

Genevieve (1998) indicates that minority or disadvantaged students often receive
an education that has less quality than that received by their peers. FOr instance, many

disadvantaged learners received direct instruction, which emphasizes memorizing of the

27

basic facts and skills, teacher-controlled instruction, fewer opportunities for students to
practice skills, and less wait time to answer questions. Moreover, teachers rarely use
diverse pedagogy to achieve all students learning. Many teachers who teach
disadvantaged students try to present the content in homogeneous formats that ignore the
difference among students, and the fact that not all students learn by the same way of
teaching (Schulrnan, 1987).

Research also mentions that teachers’ racial attitudes and beliefs play a big role in
teachers’ efﬁcacy. Teachers’ owns personal beliefs, assumptions, and expectations
inﬂuence their teaching practices. Lee (2004) points out that teachers and educators who
work in schools with Aﬁican-American students population hold lower expectations for
their students and take lower responsibility for students’ performance. Moreover, some of '
these teachers view the cultural attitudes of students as being inferior to their own culture.

Dilworth and Brown (2001) mentions that white teachers often believe that the
African-American Community doesn’t support education, and this affects hOW teachers
look at their African-American students and their adjust expectations for their success.

Sheets’ (1999) study conﬁrms that teachers who teach Latino students spend I
most of their classroom time with discipline concerns, and instruction is more likely to be
low-level of direct instruction. These practices, which limit students opporttmities to
develop a higher order of knowledge and skills, result from negative stereotyping, that is
forming basic negative perceptions about the characteristics of a group, and then applying
these beliefs to all members of that group (Lee, 2004). Beyond limiting access, negative

stereotyping can destroy self-conﬁdence and self-esteem.

28

Keller (2001) studies gender stereotyping of mathematics as a male domain. She
points out that the interaction between teachers / students indicates a stereotyping of
mathematics as a boys’ domain. She also provides evidence that students themselves
stereotype mathematics as a male domain, and this student perception is strongly
correlated with mathematics achievement. This stereotyping behavior and attitude of
teachers and students causes a negative reaction for girls.

Some research (Bhargava et al., 1999) pOints out that gender inequities persist
stereotyping still determines who uses computers and how they are used. Bhargava
indicates that girls are less interested in computers and attend fewer computer classes
than boys. Bhargava relates this fact with the issue of male bias. Most of the software that
are used in schools are designed for boys, about boys, by boys, and there is no interest for
girls. Also, the stereotyping of teachers and parents that computers are more appropriate
for boys affects the girls’ attitudes toward computers.

Futrell et al., (2003) mention that in many schools with a largely minority'student
population offer substandard education and are poorly equipped to prepare students for a
modern technological world. Furthermore, these schools are more likely to hire teachers
who completed an alternative certiﬁcation program, and they are more likely to have
substitute teachers. The result is that poor minority students have lower levels of
education opportunities because teachers who are less prepared and lower quality teach
them.

In conclusion, while American public schools witness a continuing growing in
diversity, the critical literature attests that race/ethnicity and discriminatitm are still

problems that challenge schOols with a range of negative consequences. To sum, students

29

of difference are victims of their schools, and inadequate structures, resources, and
opportunities, as a result of educators who have low expectations for their success and
achievement. The literature concludes that these practices and conditions have a negative

inﬂuence on students’ performances and their choices in a democratic society.

Social Justice as Introduction to Democracy

In philosophy, if not always in practice, American society is founded in the belief
that people anywhere on this earth are born free (Van Soest & Garcia, 2003). Based on
the fact that they are humans, they deserve to live a respected life and have equal
opportunities. During the 1960’s and early 1970’s, there was an urgent consensus that in
order for all students to experience educational equity, democracy values should be
embedded in American school’s policies, practices, and curriculum to achieve social just
society (Nieto, 1992).

The three pillars of US society: equality, liberty, and eﬂiciency represent the
morality of democratic and just society (Gutheric & Reed, 1986). Education has been
integral to democratic society, enabling citizens “to build fair institutions and social
relations recognized as the foundation of democratic life”(Glass, 2003, p. 15 8). The
democratic values of equality, liberty, and efﬁciency directed the twentieth century
educational policy toward achieving greater equity and enhancing social justice to create
citizens who comprehend the major features of democracy.

Equality, as the ﬁrst major path of promoting social justice, refers to the belief
that all students deserve equitable opportunity and access to leamable educational

services, regardless of race, gender, ethnic, age, language, geographic location, and socio-

30

economic status (Wade, 2004). This demand of equality includes equal distribution of
resources, whether ﬁnancing, personnel inputs, or materials and resources (Cooper,
2003)

Liberty, the second path of enhancing social justice in schools, refers to the
freedom of choice (Gutheric &Reed, 1986). The American society is one of the most
diverse societies in the world; this diversity is presented by race, ethnicity, language,
religion, etc. Even so, all the parents in this society are not satisﬁed with the public
educational system, particularly those who prefer their children have a religious or other
value—based education. Therefore, the freedom of choice among alternatives opens, the
door for these parents to be happy and satisﬁed with the nature of their children
education.

Efﬁciency, the last path of promoting social justice in educational system, refers
to the relationship between the inputs and the outputs, that is, productivity (Gutheric &
Reed, 1986). Schools and educational system have been long criticized such things as for
low academic standards, poor student performance, students disciplines, low caliber
recruitment, poor professional preparation for teachers, and insufficient attention to
science, mathematics and technological preparation. Consequently, the education system
has pushed to provide accountability for improving all these aspects and to give attention
all students’ academic, emotional, and physical development.

Belief in these three values of democracy has historical roots that are deeply
embedded in America’s common heritage and history. Dewey in the early of the 20th
century dreamed “of a dynamic democracy where gender, race, class, and territory were

not longer barriers to participation” (Rush, 2004,p. 14). The participation in the society is

31

for all people; it shouldn’t marginalize any group (Rush, 2004). Under the umbrella of
democratic society, people from all the groups should be treated equally.

In the middle of the 20th century, Martin Luther King, Junior, expressed his dream
of creating and having a society where differences in color, race, ethnic, gender mean
nothing. “I have a dream” is the powerful phrase King used as he called for desegregation
between the white and black in the American schools, neighborhood, and facilities. His
dream for equity extended to expands to include health service, gender equity,
individuals’ rights, democracy issues, minorities’ rights, hunger, and poverty that affect
human rights.

Persistent evidence of unequal educational outcomes resulted in a series of
government mandates over the last decades intend ended to improve schooling. The most
recent, the Bush administration’s No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB) was a call
to eliminate “the gaps that have long existed between the academic success of white and
middle —land upper- income children and that of children of color and children from low-
income homes,” (Skrla et al., 2004, p. 133) and to “increase academic achievement levels
for those students who are not demonstrating success in schools” (Leh, 2003, p. 261).
Thus, NCLB’s goal is to improve the education and life chances of poor and minority
children through changes in schooling (Furman & Gruenewald, 2004).

NCLB hopes to reduce racism and classism by requiring schools to demonstrate
yearly progress by students across categories of difference. The real fact is that there
remains evidence of fault lines in the daily practice and lived experiences of students
(Rush, 2004; Urrieta, 2004). There are actually children who are left behind, who don’t

have the equal opportunities and equal access to the services as their peers, and there are-

32

teachers and administrators in. schools with big minority populations who have low
expectation for students’ success. Educational leaders continue to press for change. “As
advocates for social and environmental justice perspectives in education, we believe that
profound changes are needed in the education system to address [multicultural] issues”
(Furman & Gruenewald, 2004, p. 48).

Just and caring education addresses the needs, abilities, and interests of all

students. . .Moreover, access is free and open to all students...education that is just

must also be caring-not in a fuzzy-feel- good way, but in terms of committed to

the welfare and success of every student (Shields, 2004,p. 39-40).

Diversity must be approached continually and seriously to achieve a social just
school community and, ultimately a clean society. This is not easy task to do or to talk
about, particularly with a continuous ﬂow of immigrants and refugees who seek ﬁeedom,
economic Opportunity, and a “drearnland” (Glass, 2003). The number of school-age
students continues to grow, and schools have to ﬁnd school seats for these children under
the age of 16 according to compulsory educational legislation. The changing
demographics of the last century reﬂect an increasing number of minority students;
population projections indicate that by 2020, students of color will comprise
approximately 46% of school-age population (F urman & Gruenewald, 2004; Marshall,
2004). The rapid expansion of the educational system has eroded quality and equity.
There is an increasing awareness of the achievement and economic gaps between
mainstream and rrrinoritized children. Increasingly, researchers are conducting
sophisticated analyses of social justice as played out in schools, including those that may

arise from the high-stakes accountability movement (F urman & Gruenewald, 2004).

33

However, even after a half century of working for democracy in American society and
schools, it is obvious that, the US. remains divided by region, race, religion, language and
more (Glass, 2003). Thus, changing and restructuring the educational system in a sense of
a democratic, equal, and social life has not been evenly succeeded.

To respond to the changing needs of a changing society, schools need to reform
their educational structure, and educators need more knowledge, skills, and attitudes to
provide quality and equity in education. In general, the educational system needs to work
toward social justice to reform the status quo and perpetuate various forms of injustice
and inequity in schools and society.

Social justice as a philosophical stance is a deep commitment to a social change,
problem solving in human relationships, and the empowerment and liberation of people
to enhance equity, justice, and fairness. Understanding social justice means
understanding of the practices, actions, sources, and dynamics of inequity and injustice
that are inextricably linked with categories of difference (Van Soest & Carcia, 2003).

. Understanding social justice associates with translating into actions designed to facilitate
social change for social justice. A social justice perspective is related to the principles of
equity, fairness, and democracy based on facets of one’s social identity that are
associated with access or lack of access to power and privilege (Van Soest & Carcia,
2003)

Schools and educators can create socially just learning climates that inspire
students to reﬂect upon and openly discuss problems and issues facing them, their
communities, and humanity at large. They should be able‘to encourage students to ﬁnd

alternative solutions and communicate their preferences in sensitive humane way. At the

34

same time educators need to be equipped to deal with cultural, ethnical, and interracial
issues by a professional knowledge and practices (Kennedy, 1991). Because educators
will encounter children different from themselves in race, ethnicity, culture, language,
socio-economic status, and lifestyles, they will be challenged both as individuals and
educators to recognize the ways in which their teaching can advantage or disadvantage
these diverse children (Shields, 2003).

The efforts of adults need to support positive student interactions to improve the
chances of these groups being treated equally. “Awareness of and sensitivity to diversity
and equity are learned and are a fundamental, critical step in efforts to change the
culture” (Rush, 2004, p. 23). This would involve transforming conventional schools and
classrooms into dynamic creative environments that provide for constructive
interpersonal communication, problem- solving, and consensual decision-making. “We
need a vision of multiculturalism and democracy that goes beyond mere tolerance, to
move beyond schooling embedded with racism, classism, sexism, and other illegitimate
forms of exclusion” (Marshall, 2004, p. 60). In spite of the obvious development of
democracy in this country, the schools are still not fully aware of the general concept of
democracy as its deep conceptions. Though students still recognize democracy as a
training process to elect representatives (Furman & Starratt, 2002), one of the main
objectives of democracy in school life is establishing understanding, acquiring skills and
values that help harmonious coexistence with “others” in society.

In summary, democracy and social justice don’t mean creating “a sense of
community in schools, through emphasizing traditional commonalities” (Furman &

Starratt, 2002,p. 105), that is, encouraging individuals to subvert their uniqueness, as with

35

the metaphor of the melting pot. Rather, social justice demands accepting “others” with
their differences of race, ethnicity, language, religion, and gender orientation as the basis
for democratic school community. As a result, schools will become the natural
environment where students acquire values and practice democracy that focus on
working within a society and awareness of the bases, forms, and practices of democracy.
School communities are informed by the idea of “community of difference” where
difference is celebrated, interdependence is recognized, and the common good, locally'
and globally, is the “glue” (Furman &Starratt, 2002).

Dewey argues “education for democracy must involve students in collaborative
efforts to solve meaningful problems. . .that actively deliberate important matters
affecting justice and the future of the nation” (Glass, 2003, p. 164). He speaks of the
future civic society, of a consensual interaction, which should start in embryo, in dialogue
in schools. Schools need to support students’ positive self-concept, self- conﬁdence,
tolerance for divergent views, understanding and appreciation of diverse cultural values,
beliefs and social practices, sensitivity to the feeling of “others” and above all, respect for
human rights, ﬁ'eedom, dignity and respect for the integrity of global environment and _
ecology. Research offers very few examples of explicit attempts to “cultivate democratic
community in schools” (Furman & Starratt, 2002, p. 122). Even so, there is a consensus
in research that achieving social justice is related to the role that leaders can play to
establish supportive conditions (Marshall, 2004).

Education doesn’t take place in a vacuum. It takes place in the social, economic,
cultural, and religious contexts of communities. As a democratic society requires that

citizens identify with freedom, justice, equity, and respect for group differences and

36

international human rights, schools are inﬂuential in teaching students these values by
committing to practice them. Therefore, educational leaders would be wise to identify
ways to change current practices to meet the challenges of an increasingly diverse school
population. Leaders with a vision of multicultural education that embeds values of
democracy in an inclusive learning community can build nurturing relationships with
their students, which lend to better understand their racial, ethnic, and class background
(Marshall, 2004), as Martin Luther King, Jr., once said,

The best leaders operate on the souls of their followers. Good leaders get to know

their followers, learn their perspectives, understand their values, respect their

beliefs, take time to treat each person with absolute regard, and bring them

together in community (Shields, 2003, p. 41).

Social Justice is a Challenge to School Leadership

“Racism is the elephant in the middle of the living room that no one wants to talk
about”(Rush, 2004, p. 20). Many close their eyes to tensions caused by diversity, racism,
prejudices, and injustices stretch across stakeholders’ roles: within people as teachers,
administrators, students, and parents. Fortunately, educators are becoming increasingly
aware that the elephant exits in our classrooms and some reasonable steps need to be
taken to get rid of it. Currently, research is being conducted to understand the role of
administrators in reducing or eliminating the inequitable access and service to ethnic and
language minorities in existing educational programs (Glass, 2003; Lambert et al., 1995;

Sheets, 2003; Shields, 2004).

37

This strong emphasis on educational leadership to make a difference in school
learning results from the persistent gap between the minority students’ achievement and
their peers of the mainstream culture. To address these gaps, the roles of leadership in
education are expanded from the narrow traditional management functions to
instructional and transformational roles (Furman & Starratt, 2000; Marshall, 2000,
Shields, 2004). Leadership exists within social relationships and serves social ends,
therefore, school leadership is required to believe, act, support, and enhance social justice
equity. Some educational adnrinistrators are taking initiative for social justice,
particularly for equalizing achievement outcomes. As a result of this momentum,
educational administration schools focusing on social justice are emerging (Marshall,
2004)

The literature supports a relationship between the part played by the school
administrators and enhancing students learning (Marks & Printy, 2003). .To the extent
that administrators exhibit knowledge, skills, and attitudes to promote social justice in
schools regardless of the type of schools they lead, schools increase their potential for
social justice. “A successful leader must adhere to both social justice and academic
excellence because one implies the other” (Glass, 2003, p. 38).

“Children, parents, and teachers need [administrators] who prevent inequity in
the school system” (Marshall, 2004, p. 9). Administrators are change agents, who can
change things truly, make differences and make schools better places. As mentioned
earlier, administrators’ roles were traditionally limited to management, discipline, and

school representer. Now, administrators are expected to

38

Develop learning, build the professional capacity of teachers, take advice from
parents, engage in collaborative and consultative decision-making, resolve
conﬂicts, engage in effective instructional leadership, and attend respectfully,
immediately and appropriately to the need and requests of families with diverse
cultural, and socio- economic backgrounds (Shields, 2004, p. 109).

Particularly, administrators can infuse moral emphasis into the system to reduce
disparities. Increasingly, educators believe that the value ends of leadership should be to
enhance equity, social justice, and the quality of life, to expand access and opportunity to
encourage respect for difference and diversity; to strengthen democracy, civic life, and
civic responsibility, and to promote cultural enrichment, creative expression, intellectual
honesty, and advancement of knowledge, and personal freedom coupled with
responsibility (Shields, 2004, p. 113).

Current research is paying more attention to the linkage between leadership and
school effectiveness. Marshall (2002) calls for research on educational leadership and
the linkage with the achievement gap affecting minority students’ life outcomes. She
highlights the importance of such research for improving the role of leadership toward
transfonnative actions that include more equitable climates, cultures, curriculum, and
instruction in schools. The transfonnative actions are necessary for changing leadership
orientations toward social justice.

Brown (2004) talks about the importance of leading leaders to become
transfonnative learning agents. Transforrnative learning tries to change the way people
see themselves and their world. It attempts to explain how their expectations ﬁ'amed

within cultural assumptions and presuppositions, directly inﬂuence the meaning they

39

derive from their experiences. This process of changing involves, ﬁrstly, critical inquiry,
which reﬂects the conscious consideration of the moral and ethnical implications and
consequences of schooling practices on students. Second, it involves self—reﬂection. This
dimension adds the deep examination of personal assumptions, beliefs and values for
learners to change their meaning schemes, they should engage in critical reﬂection of
their experience that in turns leads to a perspective transformation.

Shields’ (2004) mentions that successful education leaders who lead diverse
schools require grounding in the moral principles of social justice and academic
excellence for all students and care about relationships, understanding and dialogue. A
community of difference emerges when leaders develop a shared understanding around
four criteria for decision-making: justice, caring, democracy, and optimism. School
leaders are responsible for protecting the curriculum, encouraging teacher leadership and
nurturing a school climate in which both teachers and students feel safe expressing
themselves.

As school administrative requirements change, leadership curriculum preparation
change, so Marshall (2004) makes it clear that traditional education for school leadership
introduces just the surface of issues of social justice. She states that leadership programs
don’t prepare education administrators to address inequalities. She mentions that research
concerning thisissue concluded that there is little focus on the areas of race, gender,
ethnicity and social class throughout the entire education leadership curriculum.
Improvement means revisiting these curricula to redeﬁne some important concepts such
as democracy and pluralism to help structure the knowledge base, practices, skills, and

values to challenge the demands for creating more socially just societal outcomes.

40

Furman & Gruenewald (2004) argue that school administrators must be attentive
to social justice extending beyond school into the ecology, meaning such issues as the
environmental and economic develbpment. She critiques the absence of ecological
thinking in education. F urman expands the pedagogical methodologies and strategies that
suggest that educators in schools can experience for wider education of the ecological
injustice that affect social and culture practices. Natural history, cultural journalism, and
action research are strategies that educators'in schools can use to experience the living
world outside the classroom, create connections between teachers, students, and the
cultural life of the communities that schools serve, and engage teachers and students as
change agents.

Rush (2004) also studies the literature in this area, and indicates that research
shows most leadership programs don’t focus on issues related to diversity and
multiculturalism. One of the reasons might be that the faculty who teaches these
programs has a limited knowledge and skills about how to introduce or deal with issues
and problems concerned with diversity and multiculturalism. Consequently, the
curriculum marginalizes contents and contexts of such issues. Furthermore, Rush '
mentions that faculty demonstrates minimal understanding of democratic practices and
social justice. Rush cites that the literature displaced a rupture between theoretical
frameworks and the real experiences in the ﬁeld. Rush gives an example of such fault
lines; she mentions that some school leaders accept the low achievement, dropout,
unequal access, inequitable achievement and low rate of graduation of minority students
without question. Rush implicitly says that these leaders have low expectation and

prejudice for these groups cf students.

41

Many believe that the shortcomings in leaders’ acknowledgement of equity is
related to the poor educational preparation of administrators: “There has been very little
systematically and formally taught in the areas of race, gender, ethnicity, social, class and
other areas of difference throughout the entire educatibnal administration curricultun”
(Marshall, 2004, p. 6-7). The poor education of leadership in those sensitive areas results
in hesitation to prefer not to talk about these signiﬁcant problems, and leaders became
often uncomfortable with difference, “[they] fail not to develop strong relationships but
even to hear or acknowledge some of the diverse’varies that make up our school and
classrooms. Moreover, {their} discomfort often manifest itself in what [is] called
pathologies of silence” (Shields, 2004, p. 117).

Without proper training, “these leaders had not been prepared with tools to
analyze racial or ethnic conﬂict, or with speciﬁc strategies for building positive
interethnic communities” (Brown, 2004, p. 80). This direct and indirect ignorance
cultivates ignorance and removes ethnicity, cultural, and racial discourse ﬁ'om
administrators’ agenda (Marshall, 2004).

The invisibility of the problem in adrninistrators’ organizational life makes the
situation more complicated and sensitive, and doesn’t reduce the fact that “children ﬁom
certain minoritized ethnic groups and/ or from impoverished social classes generally fail
' to perform in schools to the same levels as other children” (Shields, 2004, p. 111). The
elephant is in the middle of the school, and leaders can’t keep ignoring it any more, there
should be action to take it out or lower its size. “Silence about color and ethnicity is
another way of perpetuating the dominance of the status quo both in the wider school

community and in the pedagogy of the classroom” (Shields, 2004, p. 119).

42

Silence will not solve the problem because it means that there is no problem, and
that children are the same, and there are no differences among them. Instead,
leaders in education should look at these issues from another approach that
presents differences as something not to fear, or to avoid, but part of the rich
fabric of human existence with which we interact on a d ay basis... Differences
that may lead to deeper and richer relationships and increased understanding of
ourselves and of others (Shields, 2004, p. 116-119).

School leaders should involve themselves in continuous learning so that they gain
the skills to be transfonnative change agents, inﬂuential, instructional leader, and
champions of equity. Better preparation programs could illuminate the inequities. But
also, currently in practice will need to gain relevant knowledge and skills through their

life practice. Leaders need to learn how to support social justice and demonstrate values

for diverse population.

Social Justice in Administrators ’ Professional Development

This thesis stems out of researcher’s own faith in the importance of school leaders
as change agents and of the need to analyze their democratic practices, values, beliefs,
and ideas concerning justice, equal opportunity, and equity in school system in order to
depict a clear picture of school as a democracy community environment. Also, this thesis
presents one example of professional development as a hope for a better future in
American diverse schools. In this thesis the researcher will not describe the current status
of administrators’ curricula, or the effective components that should be in these curricula.

Instead, she will show how a model of administrators’ professional development can lead

43

to developing administrators’ understanding of social justice. She suggests that effective
professional development can develop abilities and consciousness and how it can
establish directions for growth and professional renewal. Recognizing that not all
professional development meetings can be effective nor thinking and reﬂection, the
researcher presents an effective example of educators’ professional development, which
can make a signiﬁcant difference in leadership practices and thinking.

The literature related to effective schooling supports a relationship between
students learning outcomes and school leadership. Therefore, calls are made to engage
administrators in a life- long learning not only is the professional grth of
administrator] vital to their job performance, but “there are also indictors suggesting that
[administrator] learning has positive effects on teachers development, school culture,
systemic educational reform, and student learning (Kochan et al., 2002, p. 289).

Also, the effective schools studies reﬂect the view that the direct responsibility for
improving instruction and learning rest in the hands of the school administrators (Shields,
2004). Additionally, they document that the perception of the teachers that the
administrator is the instructional leader is essential to the achievement of students,
especially, low performing at risk students.

Instructional leaders have a clear and informed vision of what they want their
schools to become, vision that focuses on students and their needs, and then translates
these visions into goals and expectations for their teachers, students, and administrators.
Instead, leaders continuously monitor progress, and intervene in a supportive or

corrective manner when necessary. Schools visions must keep pace with change and

leaders must know how to respond to change. Therefore, administrators’ life-Ion g
learning or professional development is essential for socially just schools.

Talking about administrators’ professional development in the domain of social
justice means talking about commitment, responsibility, active, and caring leadership.
Regardless of the type of school they lead, administrators should be optimistic in
defending the No Child Left Behind Act and reasoning that they can make a difference in
school (Shields, 2003). Even administrators who acknowledge the elephant in their
schools/districts might not know how to deal with such issue that is related to inequity
and injustice. The lack of emphasis on social justice in preparation programs has resulted
leaders in who aren’t armed and prepared with knowledge, materials, strategies, and
skills related to issues with social justice and equity among students (Founder, 2002).

Professional development can address these difﬁculties. Professional development
is the “process of improving staff skills and competencies needed to produce outstanding
educational results for students” (Hassel, 1999, p. 1). People, who share same interest,
meet and discuss certain issues and concerns, which are, involved their jobs
commonality. The discussion can take various forms of representations; it could be small
groups, large group, dialogue, activities, and lecture by expertise. In the educational
realm, the phrase professional development often “conjures up a vision of people sitting
in small groups or lecture style rows, listening intently as an expert explains the secrets of
how things shall or must be done”(Kochan et al., 2002, p.289).

Bredeson (1999) deﬁnes professional development for administrators and other
school members as organizational learning opportunities that engage educators’ creative

capacities in ways that strengthen their own practice and the practice of their educators.

45

These opportunities may take many forms of learning beside administrators learning
inside the school settings, shadowing, peer visitations, and job exchanges, and taking a
sabbatical to learn in another context have all proven effective in administrators growth
(Kochan et al., 2002). There is evidence that engaging in a network of meeting,
discussion, exchanging, and, reﬂecting with other colleagues about their professional
practices and experiences, is more likely to have a signiﬁcant influence in their school,
teachers, and students than other forms of profeSsional development beyond changing
administrators’ own beliefs and values.

Scholars agree on the importance of administrators’ professional development to
enhance leaders’ transformative and reﬂective skills necessary to develop their school
settings and promote social justice. However, most of these attempts that are supposed to
enhance administrators’ ability, and performance, are inadequate and are ineffective in
prompting multiculturalism and multiCultural skills among administrators. Also, these
programs are seldom related to the realities of the job and rarely result in changes in
participants’ behavior or in improving either the school or students learning (Kochan et
aL,2002)

Diversity in American schools presents both a challenge and opportunity for.
public schools to forge a common community, culture, nation, and destiny from the
ethnic, cultural and language diversity that exists within American schools.
Administrators often participate in professional development related to these concerns,
but rarely does this professional development result in changes in administrators’
behaviors or improvement to school situations (Kochan et al., 2002). Thus, discussion

about issues related to social justice in these meetings and what administrators can lean

46

from them seem to be isolated in real school life (Marshall, 2004). Driving from the
belief that administrators can help students and teachers develop higher order of
multicultural thinking skills, LATTICE, as an educational learning organization, starts to
identify and change some of the educators’ stereotyping that affect students’ achievement
and learning.
LATTICE as a Promising Model of Professional Development
LATTICE is a unique professional development model that engages teachers and
administrators in learning about diversity and multiculturalism. Having a hope of making
schools more coherent with a celebration of diversity, Sally McClintock, a formal
principal, convinced Michigan State University and two neighboring districts (local urban
school and a neighboring suburban school) to sponsor the project and to invest resources
to get it started in 1995. LATTICE is committed to certain goals and objectives:
0 Actively promoting individual and collaborative awareness and responsibility
of diversity and multiculturalism in the local, national, and global community.
0 Developing and implementing social action strategies through collaborative
activities and discussion.
0 Developing awareness of the impact of multicultural ignorance or
appreciation.
0 Creating an active support network for teachers, administrators in K—12
schools who are engaged inschool justice in classrooms.
0 Providing professional development to enhance competency in social justice.

0 Acting as a resource for individuals and groups involving social justice.

47

o Presenting differences among cultures as a tool for a richer comprehension of
others and ourselves.

«- Inspiring the participants to take what is learned to the real school life.

0 Establishing a group in which international students ﬁnd people who care and
love you the way you are, and people with whom you can share your
problems and concerns.

LATTICE is a dynamic tool that focuses on the good of humanity and a respect
for individual interests. LATTICE teaches participants to learn strategies for reducing and
eliminating the structures of inequity in our society such as racism, ethnicity, and gender.
LATTICE believes that all educators including leaders play a powerful role in enforcing
social justice; therefore, LATTICE links thirteen schools districts in mid-Michigan with
international graduate students and scholars at Michigan State University.

LATTICE concentrates on adult learning and promotes practical links to K-12
classrooms. LATTICE’S agenda of sessidns does not have ﬁxed or speciﬁc. interests in
issues that relate to multicultural perspectives. All sessions’ agendas have some common
parts that focus on respecting and appreciating others. These areas are addressed when
designing and delivering LATTICE sessions for members.

A member’s identiﬁcation is the ﬁrst part in every LATTICE session; each
member presents him/herself as the way he/she likes to be named and introduced. Each
member will say his/her name, how to pronounce and write it in English and the native
language, will explain the order and the meaning of names in the original culture.
LATTICE, by emphasizing the importance of names and original country, is promoting

awareness of respecting others and respecting the way that people like to be named or

48

called, and promoting self-pride of each member’s identity. LATTICE emphasizes this
“Naming part” as a communicative skill to achieve critical successful function modes for
participants to be committed to value and establish warm relationships (Levy, 2002).
Second, “What is happening in Our Schools and in Our Countries” is a very rich
part of LATTICE. In this part, LATTICE members are introduced to other educational
systems including schools’ physical and personnel characteristics, the students’
population, and the effects of political and social power on the educational system. Also,
participants are introduced to cultures, politics, and customs from around the world. This
exposure to other educational systems and countries makes LATTICE participants reﬂect
and compare. Participants are introduced to all this knowledge while they are sitting
under the LATTICE umbrella. Recently, a local newspaper interviewed one participant,
and she said, “ I always know that there is going to be wonderful conversation. These
people are incredible. I’m in awe of them and their knowledge and their experiences.”
(Mui, 2001) I.
Third, “Main Topic” is always a challenging context. LATTICE sessions concern
topics related to multicultural issues such as gender equity, race, religion, refugee status,
hunger, health, and poverty. This part is not centered only in presenting how the issues
affect the life in America, but also, how these issues affect the whole world as a global
society. In reviewing LATTICE agendas, one can notice the development of topics that
the LATTICE planning team chooses. In the ﬁrst years of LATTICE life, the topics
were around family, countries, and cultures. These topics were chosen for their simplicity
for building relationships, trust and comfort among LATTICE participants. The group

during its ﬁrst years discussed social topics, such as how different people deal with death,

49

hunger and gender, or cultural themes, such as art or music (Papanastasiou & Conway,
2002). The topics that are now selected by the planning team deal with the current global
events. For example, after September 11, LATTICE spent more than one session tallcing
about Islam, and tried to give more understanding of Islam for teachers to discuss with
their students. These main topics are usually presented and addressed by people who
actually lived the experience of the particular situation. For example, when LATTICE
talked about the refugees, some of the guest speakers were refugees who came from Latin
America, Aﬁica, and Europe. By listening, talking, and questioning speakers, LATTICE
participants developed awareness of unfairness, cruelty, and hard life that refugees,
especially children, can experience in our neighboring societies.

Fourth, “Activities” in LATTICE reinforce the idea of the main topic. One
example of an activity is the session based on the book “Material World”. After seeing
the photographs of family possessions around the world, LATTICE members were asked
to name ﬁve things that they would take if they have a ﬁre in their houses. The new
information that shocked American participants was that all international students
mentioned that they would take ﬁrst of all ofﬁcial documents such as the passport. The
American participants were informed that ofﬁcial documents signify internationals’
identity in this country.

Fifth, “Announcements” are considered a very social part in LATTICE sessions.
Most of these announcements are related a wards or social events such as celebration of
birth, wedding or engagement, or traveling outside the States. The stories behind each
announcement are considered as a resource of knowing, understanding, and leaming

about other cultures.

50

Sixth, “Book Club” is an intellectual part of LATTICE. At the book club
members read books, novels, and stories about other cultures. They then invite a guest
speaker who is originally from the country in the book, to tell them what is happening,
and what is meant by the main story. Book club is a small group outside of the regular
LATTICE meetings, which occasionally comes to a regular session. In one situation they
introduced “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Naﬁsi; LATTICE became a source of
ﬁnding the truth. The autobiography, which was a best seller, talked about the author’s
life when she returned to Iran after many years living in the United States. Naﬁsi started
to criticize all the aspects of life in Iran, the culture, religion, government, male
domination, and the lack of women rights. LATTICE invited guest speakers who are
originally from Iran to share their perspectives about the book. The guest speakers
explained that the book doesn’t present the mainstream of the life in Iran. Moreover, they
contradicted many “facts” that the author mentioned. The guest speakers concluded that
the book was just a personal story that can’t be generalized to the real life in Iran.
LATTICE members started to reﬂect that not all the publications that are written about
other cultures could be a good and neutral source for ﬁnding the truth.

Seventh, “Food” is a cultural part in LATTICE sessions. Participants register each
session to bring food. There will be food from all around the world. Each participant will
tell the rest of the members about the food, the name, ingredients, the occasion of
offering such a plate, and from whom he/she learned to cook it. This is a good
opportunity to teach people to try new food, know some new ingredients and know that

many cultures cook without measuring these ingredients.

51

At the end of each session, LATTICE members ﬁll out a Mo-minute learning
survey consisting of questions that evaluate the learning of the session. Participants
reﬂect on-what they have learned in small and large groups discussions, and what is
needed to be organized or-delivered in the next session. These questions are:

1. Describe one thing learned or interpreted in a new way that is worth
remembering.

2. How well were you served as a learner in this session? Be speciﬁc about what
helped your learning and what got in your way.

3. What do you want to learn more about?

4. What part of today’s experience could you replicate for your students or
colleagues?

5. What have you done recently in your schoolwork that reﬂects previous
LATTICE experiences you have had?

These questions assess what each member learns and also indicate what was
missing in the session or should be added to in the next session. An essential purpose of
these questions is to challenge the participants to identify what he/she taken from
LATTICE to his/her school and claSsroom, and how LATTICE sessions contribute to
understanding of other people and difference. The survey guides the planning team to
know what interests LATTICE members, as it plans, designs, and organizes the next
session.

In addition to the monthly LATTICE sessions other related activities have
emerged including local school visitations by LATTICE’s international participants, a

weekly LATTICE e-mail letter, and a Zulu basket project. The Zulu basket project is a

52

collection of baskets by Zulu women. These baskets are brought to Michigan by
LATTICE members to sell in order to help pay for schooling and required uniforms for
the children of the basket artists. LATTICE members have also created other links, for
example, LATTICE member Ken Bialek uses his personal connections with local and _
international LATTICE members to create, through technology, teacher exchanges and
collaborative lessons between classrooms in USA. and South Africa.

To continue working effectively and enthusiastically, LATTICE is ftmded by
some of the Michigan school districts, and the international studies centers at Michigan
State University, such as, Asian Studies Center, African Studies Center, Center for Latin
America and Caribbean Studies, Center for European and Russian Studies, Women in
International Development, Center for Advanced Studies in International Development,
the College of Education and the Graduate College.

To join LATTICE, one can be an international student, an American educator, a
graduate student, or a community leader. There is no cost for joining or annual fees for
renewal. Actually, LATTICE pays every international student a small stipend, “40
dollars” each session, as a “thank you.” LATTICE also provides transportation for
members who don’t have cars. When teachers leave their classes for a LATTICE
session, their school district provides a substitute teacher.

There are usually eight LATTICE sessions per the academic year. Three of these
sessions take place during the fall (September, October, and November), and the other
ﬁve sessions take place in spring (January, February, March, April, and May). LATTICE
members meet on a Thursday afternoon. LATTICE’s organizer sends the time and dates

for all the sessions before the beginning of the school year in fall. Each session meeting

53

runs from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm, except the ﬁrst meeting of the year, which will be all day
from 8:30am to 4:30pm for the newcomers and the Planning Team. During each session
there is an agenda; all the previous mentioned parts of LATTICE would be written along
with the names of the people who will lead the presentations.

The objective of LATTICE as an activist project is to challenge participants’
thinking, develop a positive understanding, and appreciate the social justice approach on
major multicultural issues that have signiﬁcance both globally and locally. The
LATTICE agenda is grounded in the theme of social justice, and the belief that the role of
educators is not only to act ethically in the many individual situations of their daily
professional lives, but more importantly to see that the institutional structures and
processes of the school are themselves reﬂections of a system of care and justice. This is
an opportunity to learn more, work with others, and begin to change things truly to make
a difference.

As a group, LATTICE members, through a series of presentations, case studies,
discussions, personal relationships, activities, and reading, are exposed to cultural
principles and cultural arguments to link to school settings. LATTICE members are
encouraged to discuss multicultural issues in school. They are challenged to deve10p
multicultural learning in the classrooms and to be able to argue and explain multicultural
issues.

LATTICE sessions do not involve only lectures and listening exercises; rather
“dialogue and conversation are pledged to the valueof continuous discussion and debate,
not only regarding the ends but also regarding the means of reaching goals” (F urman &

Starratt, 2002, p. 115). Therefore, LATTICE sessions are based on the contribution of all

54

members, who are encouraged to talk and present their opinions and feelings of the
discussed issue. In a small group dialogue, each person has the chance to openly express
his/her thoughts and feelings. It is guaranteed that these thoughts and feelings will be

received without argument or judgment (Wilson, 1996).

9

Papanastasiou and Conway,(2002) examine the impact of LATTICE on teachers
thinking and practices. When LATTICE was in its ﬁfth year, two researchers were
interested in evaluating the overall impact of LATTICE on all involved. Their research
was designed to shed light on how teachers, university personnel, school administrators,
and international students’ international perspectives and related work practices have
developed through participation in the LATTICE project. The research used a
questionnaire to develop an understanding of the overall impact of LATTICE over the
last ﬁve years on both past and present project participants. The results of the study
indicate that there are positive changes that have occurred in the personal and
professional lives of LATTICE participants. The changes were around international
issues, US issues, and the changes in participants’ practices. The participants showed a
signiﬁcant impact of LATTICE and that LATTICE helped them know more about the
inequities, poverty, racism, various conﬂicts, and customs around the world.

McClintock (2002) describes LATTICE as a unique professional development
program for teachers and administrators. She mentioned that LATTICE isn’t like the
regular professional development meetings that are a one or two day workshop;
LATTICE holds monthly sessions throughout the school year. LATTICE is unique
because of its process and framework that are based on constructivist learning and non -

hierarchical decision-making. LATTICE is unique because it is based on the belief that

55

when professional educators become inspired and committed to multicultural education,
they will create more and better ways to bring multicultural education. They need to be
given the tools rather than a plan. LATTICE is unique because it is a collaborative
partnership between K-12 educators and administrators, international graduate students,
and internationally minded university faculty.

Inzunza (1999) describes what makes LATTICE a unique professional
development program. LATTICE has not been about providing educators with a ready-
made curriculum or units. The goal for LATTICE is connecting American educators. with
international students so their experiences from the personal relationships will develop
changes in practices and skills. However, the thousands of students of LATTICE
members are the ultimate beneﬁciaries of the LATTICE project. These children of today
can be effective participants in the world of tomorrow by becoming more aware of the
outside world.

In his paper, Glew (2003) writes about the objectives for LATTICE. LATTICE is
to ensure that a global perspective infuses K-12 classrooms, heighten awareness,
sensitivity and understanding of global issues including ethical, cultural and religious
diversity and to promote adult learning links to K-12 classrooms. Also, Glew mentions
the awards that LATTICE that has received Finalist such as Best Practice Award for
Global and International Teacher Education, American Association of Colleges for
Teachers of Education (AACTE) 2003, LATTICE Book Club awarded funds from Teach
for Tolerance, Southern Poverty Law Center 2002, Fulbright-Hays Group Study Abroad -
South Africa 1999, “Michigan’s Best,” Michigan Association of School Boards 1998,

“Glen Taggart Award for Community Contribution to International Understanding,”

56

Michigan State University 1998, National Peace Corps Association's Disseminator Grant
1998, and Sally McClintock Crystal Award Michigan State University 1999.

LATTICE is designed to exemplify the interdependency of the professional
collaborative learning community and theory in action methodology to promote
democratic school community, social justice, and human agents to school improvement
and change. .

LATTICE is considered as a professional development process, whether it is for
teacher professional development, or leadership professional development. LATTICE is
embedded with the four areas that Kochan et al., (2002) propose while addressing and
designing an effective professional development. The ﬁrst area is considering leamer’s
motivation. Kochan believes that learners must have a role in their professional
development. A respect for every voice in planning, designing, and in the decision-
making processes all these are welcomed and considered. LATTICE participants
contribute to the planning of each session when they respond. to the survey. A planning
with members representing the diversity of LATTICE organizes the next session based
on the survey results. Thus, respecting every voice in LATTICE sessions is important;
these diverse voices are like a brainstorm, or even thinking aloud together, to achieve an
understanding of other people and ourselves, and to give others more attention.

Second, according to Kochan, there should be a rich combination of learning to
meet leamer’s needs. As mentioned before, exposing learners to multicultural issues that
interest the diverse group occurs through a series of presentations, case studies,
discussion, activities, conversation, and reading. This combination of learning includes

approaches to religion, politics, culture, economics and social constructs.

57

Third, Kochan mentions that learning opportunities should include peoplewho
are supportive, willing and available to help learners to achievethe professional
development goals. LATTICE members are from diverse groups including local leaders,
teachers, graduate students, and international students. They are also diverse religiously
and ethnically. Some outside guest speakers are invited to assist the learners in
comprehension and understanding of the discussed topic.

Finally, Kochan mentions that professional development should be related to the
practice and role of the educational leader. LATTICE is interested in topics that help
educators, administrators as well as teachers to be more aware of multicultural issues.
The role of leaders is to enrich the educational environment by presenting
multiculturalism as a natural part in society.

LATTICE exempliﬁes the interdependency of the professional development and
theory in action methodology to promote social justice in school organizations by
encouraging double-loop learning to improve organizational learning (Argyris and SchOn,
1978)

LATTICE has completed a ten-year learning organizational project that aims to
develop appropriate and sustainable ways of building the capacity of educators to use
their experiences for promoting more inclusive practices in their own school
organizational communities. By analysis and reﬂection on their experiences of
multiculturalism in their schools, LATTICE encourages participants to work together to
develop more multicultural practices in the future, “organizations learn only through the

experience and action of individuals” (Argyris and Schdn, 1978, p. 9-10).

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LATTICE as introduction to theory in action.

Learning is a complex and continuous process where people make sense of new
knowledge (Argyris & Schdn, 1978). This complex process is the integration of two
factors: the context — what is learned, and the structure — how to learn the context.
LATTICE is focusing on how participants structure and construct their context of social
situations under social assumptions, norms, and strategies, which affect them as
individuals and educatOrs in their own communities. The exploring of the structure of
how people build knowledge leads to acknowledge people’s own theory in action.

Chris Argyris and Donald Schdn (1974) developed a way of representing
knowledge through what they call “theories in action.” Theories in action include
strategies of action, the values that govern the choice of strategies, and the assumptions
on which they are based (Argyris & Schén, 1974). A theory of action is deﬁned in terms
of a particular situation; a particular intended consequence of the situation, and an action
strategy for obtaining that consequence. Additionally, a theory of action takes into
account the values related to the intended conSequence and the assrunptions that suggest
that the actions taken will result in the consequence (Argyris & SchOn, 1974). Theory of
action, then, refers to how human beings design action to achieve results they intend.
Action skillfully shows know-how or tacit knowledge we can represent as a theory of
action. To learn, in this view, is to become able to produce the learning in action
(Putnam, 2000). Theory in action is a powerful tool that leads to problem-solving, that is,
learning, while simultaneously developing individuals, teams, and organizations (Senge,

l 994).

59

Argyris and SchOn (1974) distinguish two kinds of theory of action: Espoused
theory and theory-in-use. Espoused theory means the theory of action given to explain or
justify a pattern of activity. Theory -in -use means the theory of action implicit in the
performance of the pattern of activity. As regards administrators’ actions related to social
justice, one would hope that they stated espoused theory would match their theory-in-use.
Expressed differently, one would expect that an objective observer as aligning or
matching the outcomes they deﬁne as intended could interpret the actions administrators
take to achieve intended consequences.

Argyris and SchOn mention that the consequences of people’s actions — which
may be for the self, and for other — may be unintended and may work against people
governing values. They explain this unintended consequences or results in the term of
single and double-loop learning. In single loop learning, organizations or individuals look
for solutions to problems, “by looking for another alternative strategy to solve the '
problem” (Argyris & SchOn, 1996, p. 20). On the other hand, double-loop learning
involves challenging the context in which the problem arises. “We mean learning that
results in a change in the values of theory-in-use, as well as its strategies and
assumptions” (Argyris & Schdn, 1996, p. 21). Argyris and SchOn described two models
for improving or inhibiting organization double-loop learning: Model I and Model H.

In Model 1, people usually use their pure or original governing norms to judge
others’ action, behaviors, or beliefs depending on ones own assumptions. Model I is
shaped by assumptions of winning and not failing, controlling and not trusting the other

people. Model I is a defensive Model to avoid threat or embarrassment. This model

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inhibits double-loop learning to become productive; therefore, LATTICE does not
emphasize this kind of Model of learning because of certain reasons:
0 Model I emphasizes achieving the goal or purpose as the actor deﬁnes it,
without paying attention to whether this goal is true or not.
0 Model I emphasizes winning as the end of the process. This makes it
' defensive and not trusting of others.
0 Model I emphasizes maintaining the governing variables, the thing that
may lead to unintended consequences.

Argyris and Schdn describe Model H as an effective model of learning which
leads to productive learning in difﬁcult circumstances.

It includes the ability to call upon good quality data and to make inferences. It
looks to include the views and experiences of participants rather than seeking to impose a
view upon the situation. Theories should be made explicit and tested; positions should be
reasoned and open to exploration by others. In otherwords, Model H can be seen as
dialogical — and more likely to be found in settings and organizations that look to share
leadership (Anderson, 1997).

Within this Model H, LATTICE is looking to change its participants’ mental
models in issues related to multiculturalism through an open dialogue, where
communication takes the shape of a two way channel, and where participants are
encouraged to change their knowledge by re—examine their norms and assumptions. Even
that this goal of change and learning through actions is not an expected part of LATTICE

participation, but through this theoretical framework, LATTICE is simply encouraging

61

participants to self- reﬂection and inquiry into social situations in order to enhance more
social justice in school.

In summary, given the linkage of interaction between school leadership and
school social justice leaming, this research is interested in highlighting the importance of
. LATTICE as professional development program for educators including administrators
and this linkage. LATTICE, as unique model of professional development supports and
highlights this linkage by surrounding participants in a multicultural environment and by
interaction with international graduate students.

LATTICE is designed to exemplify the interdependency of the professional
collaborative leaming community and theory of action methodology to promote

democratic school community, social justice, and human agents to school improvement

and change.

LATTICE is a collaborative learning community.

LATTICE considers its organizational arrangement as a collaborative learning
community (CLC), with an eye toward a diverse population including: geographical,
academic, nationality, gender, cultural, and ages. All members have a common goal and
dream for more justice. LATTICE as CLC gives participants the opportunity to challenge
their social assumptions and values, and their corresponding attitudes and behaviors to
construct a new knowledge, skills, and attitudes that could empower them to become
active change agents in their schools. LATTICE is based On the hope that CLC
knowledge can provide the sensitivity and awareness of diversity, which could inﬂuence

on students performance and achievement.

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To achieve these social challenges, LATTICE as CLC considers ﬁve attributes for
collaborative learning: shared vision and values, supportive school leadership,
collaborative creativity, supportive conditions, and shared personnel experiences (Wald,
2000)

1. Creating a shared vision and values. Participants answer of the following-
question: What is/are our purpose(s) in this organization?

Creating a shared vision is the big picture of the collaborative learning
community, commonness to “verbalize their hopes and dreams for the future of the
children in their schools. A vision becomes the community’s road map to the future: It
connects dreams and aspirations; offers hopes for a different future, and bonds diverse
people and their perspectives”(Wald, 2000, p20,) to guide its actions. Creating shared
values is a moral and ethical basis of CLC’s members’ behaviors, communication, and
decision-making. In shared vision and values, members of the community feel that he/she
has a voice, role, and he/she actually belongs to this organization. LATTICE creating
shared values and vision such as; we believe that all children have the right to learn
equally, and we value and respect individual differences, guides members’ actions and
behaviors to more social justice in schools.

2. Supportive and shared leadership. “Leadership in education is an ambiguous
and complex concept” (Murphy, 2002, p.1). The traditional roles of the leadership as
manager and disciplinary were expanded to more instructional, constructivist,
collaborative, transfonnative and developmental. LATTICE leadership, as CLC, is more
aware of the challenges that public schools face within the issues of social justice,

inequity, race, and diversity. Therefore, from the belief that good leadership can endure

63

good and healthy schools, Sergiovani (1996) describes shared leadership as “ a
commitment to administer to the needs of the schools as an institution by servicing its
purposes, by servicing those who struggle to embody those purposes, and by acting as
guardian to protect the institution integrity”(p.88). LATTICE has been joined each year
by education leaders to increase their involvement and create a natural opportunity for
communication and understanding.

3. Collective creativity. This refers to what Senge (1994) calls the learning
organization.

Increase organizational capacity, and creativity moved into the educational

environment. The idea of learning organization is where people continually

expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and

expensive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free,

and where are continually learning how to learn together (p.3).

This network is improving their practice in ways that have the potential to affect
student learning.

4. Supportive conditions. Thisrefers to “several kinds of factors that determine
when, where, and how the staff can regularly come together as a unit to do the learning,
decision-making, problem solving, and creative work that characterize CLC” (Wald,
2000). Time to meet and small group decisions making require that individuals be
productive in CLC is a willingness to accept feedback and move toward improvement. In
addition, respect and trust among colleagues are needed.

5. Shared personnel experiences. Relationships that are built within an

environment of trust, respect, and care are the main stones of CLC. In LATTICE,

64

members do not judge, evaluate, or assess the others’ opinions, thinking, and beliefs. It is
an open atmosphere where each member feels connected to the others.

These CLC attributes are the road map for building an environment for the
challenges of multiculturalism. LATTICE’s sessions include all ﬁve CLC in a cycle of
issues related to diverse population. These activities are intended to help members
achieve new understanding, knowledge, skills, and beliefs about these issues.

LATTICE makes differences by having people increase their commitment to its
. visions and values, and to the responsibility to connect them to school. By using more
than one method of presentation, LATTICE opens the door for a variety of pedagogical
skills, methods, knowledge, and to transformative these skills, knowledge to their I
classrooms and schools. Continual learning in LATTICE takes many collaborative work
methods: reﬂective process, small groups discussion, large group, and reﬂective dialogue
in which people conduct conversations about students and teaching and learning, identify
related issues and problems. '

LATTICE as a CLC encourages its members to reﬂect their different
perspectives, knowledge, and beliefs about the context within an atmosphere of trust.
They respect, value and appreciate the ideas and beliefs of their colleagues. Members are
able to speak openly to express their opinions without loss of status (Brody & Davidson,
1998). In this reﬂective process, members learn to revisit their knowledge, assumptions
and construct a new understanding.

A small group is the typical reﬂective practice in LATTICE. This practice

involves ”more than two people and provides opportunity for teachers to collaborate with

others to reﬁne their knowledge and improve their implementation of cooperative

65

learning” (Brody & Davidson, 1998, p.57). This small group discussion and reﬂection
can help members to have a voice in the discussion. Whatever one thinks and says is
highly appreciated by the other members of the group. Every voice is adding
understanding to the topic from different perspectives. This makes LATTICE session
fruitful and joyful discussion. In this stage participants feel comfortable, thinking out
loud with another, sharing their fears and strengths” and exchanging knowledge, skills,
and understanding.

These small group discussions also “have a speciﬁc social goal — respect for
others’ ideas, shared participants, and careful listening”(Watson et a1, 1998, p.147).
Small group discussion opens the door for each participant to think and reﬂect in his/her
attitudes, lmowledge, assumptions, and make them aware of how their information is
perceived and structured, and how they should be more critical to the sources bf
information that they depend on.

Through these small groups, LATTICE invites participants to be:

1. Opened. Invite participants to learn and teach each other in an opened
atmosphere, each can offers his/her experiences, knowledge, and skills.

2. Sharing. LATTICE offers participants to share their experiences, knowledge,
and resources to help the group more toward the goal.

3. Accepting. Build a positive communication regard to other group members
about their contributions to the work and emphasizing the participation of all members.

4. Supportive. Recognizing the strength and weakness, and capacities of group

members.

66

5. Intentionally cooperative and collaborative. Expecting all members to function
cooperatively and collaboratively to achieve the large grouppurpose. (Wald, 2000)

In summary, LATTICE is a strategic network of educators who are interested or
involved in using action learning or participatory and experiential process facilitation to
generate collaborative learning community within constructivist process to transform
schools as educational organization to enhance social justice and equity. The idea of
LATTICE as collaborative learning community underpins theory in action. Theory in
action is one of the most dynamic models for developing organizations learning. In this
approach, LATTICE, which transforms the assumptions and values that lie behind racial,
ethnical, and religious conﬂicts, for example. In LATTICE learning is a continuous
process. LATTICE members learn by re-visiting their previous knowledge, assumptions,

and beliefs. Their new knowledge transforms their thinking and inﬂuences their actions.

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Chapter HI

Research Methodology

LATTICE aims to accomplish a goal of better preparation for the education force
to work effectively with students from different backgrounds. To get some insight in this
process, this research studies the stories of two school/district administrators who are
active members in LATTICE as a professional development program. Both subjects
manifest greater awareness and sensitivity to diversity and multiculturalism and support
for efforts in order to provide their school/district with knowledge and skills that would
help their organizations promote social justice.

The researcher uses theory in action as a method to understand people’s espoused
and in-use- theories of action with regard to how to act in social situations. The
researcher argues that LATTICE as a Learning experiential professional development,
enables participants to be aware of their espoused and in-use-theories to increase the
productivity and efﬁciency and to decrease the defensive routines in their organizational
learning system. Theory in action helps organizational learning by examining
individuals’ theory-in-use to discover the construction, testing, and restructuring of
knowledge to understand and predict their behaviors (Argyris & Schén, 1-974). LATTICE
develops a reﬂective level of thinking that helps participants to improve their in-use
theories, through knowledge, skills, and dispositions that govern their actions and
decision-making. Through engaging in dialogue among people and encouraging self-
reﬂection, it helps participants improve their social practices for social justice,

challenging participants to explore personal meaning in the context of professional values

68

of social justice, multiculturalism, and globalization. LATTICE helps people to inquire
about the strategies, assumptions, and norms in the existing theory-in-use so that they
might respond to changes in the internal and external environment of the organization by
inventing new strategies and assumptions.

The design for this study involves determining the appropriate tools for collecting
data. Modifying the traditional format of interview, the researcher interviewed the
participants four times, three before the hill two days of observation, and the fourth took
place after the observations. The reason for the modiﬁcation was the small sample size.
The design of this study involved deﬁning the sample of the study, and ﬁnally,

determining the appropriate procedures of analysis of the data.

Design of the Study

Qualitative research is the best method to study the effect of LATTICE
participation with the two study participants. The researcher isn’t interested in the
generalization of the phenomena or in general explanation of the experience; the
researcher’s main interest is to dig deeply to understand and generate information
regarding the role that LATTICE experience plays in prompting social awareness of
diversity and multiculturalism issues. Also, the researcher is interested in understanding
the LATTICE experience, through making sense of personal narratives of two
administrators who attend LATTICE and examining how their concepts of diversity and
multiculturalism may change over time. Through this research, one major goal is, through
the two administrators’ narratives, to focus on how LATTICE experiences could alter

educators’ thinking about themselves and their profession (I-Iatton, 2005). Also, the

69

qualitative method is aligned with the nature of the sample of this study, to make the
participants the main focus all the study subjects by narrating their own personal stories
(Clark & O’Donnell, 1999).

The interview method for data collection is necessary so that the participants can
tell the stories of their experiences through reﬂection on their stories, memories, and
history of their lives (J osselson, 1996). Interviewing is a meeting of two persons where
they exchange information and ideas through questions and responses, resulting in.
communication and joint construction of meaning about a particular issue (J anesick,
1998). According to Seidman (1998), interviewing “provides access to the context of
people’s behaviors and thereby provides a way for researcher to understand the meaning
of that behavior.... Interviewing allows us to put behavior in context and provides access
to understanding their actions” (p. 4). Interviewing subjects is a powerﬁrl process
because subjects can rethink their actions, assumptions, and practices (Hatton, 2005).

There has been an increasing interest over the past years in qualitative research as
a method that explores how individuals construct knowledge about identities and makes
sense of the way people deal with differences from a developmental perspective.
Qualitative research also sensitively assesses the difference issue, and links changes in
cognitive structure to an evaluation of attitudes and behaviors around multicultural
differences (Seidman, 1998; Glesne, 1999). In this study, using narrative method to
collect the data helped guide participants’ personal reﬂections and guide their memories
and stories to focus on diversity and multiculturalism awareness. Narrative could be used
in teacher education and professional development programs to help educators reﬂect on

how their life experiences have inﬂuenced their concepts and perspectives of their

70

practices. Narrative research could impact the education force’s intentions to develop and
change their ideas of diversity and multiculturalism (Riessman, 1993). The inclusion of
educators’ experience narratives has been advocated as a way to legitimize the educators’
voice in educational research, document inﬂuences on educators’ professional
development over time, and provide opportunities for educators to reﬂect on their own
socialization concerning multiculturalism and diversity issues (Howard, 1999).

As Seidman (1998) notes, the main claim for the use of interview in educational
research is neither to get deﬁnite answers to the interviewer’s questions, nor to test the
validity of the research hypotheses. The purpose of interview research is “an interest in
understanding the experience of other people and the meaning they make of the
experience” (p. 13). Glesne (1999) argues that interviewing is a process of getting words
to ﬂy. Interviewing in this regard leads to narrative stories that the participants have to
share to explain and induce the understanding of their experiences.

Therefore, the main data sources for this research are interview narratives and two
full days of observations of two administrators in local districts. The data developed,
through a series of interviews in which each administrator was asked to talk about her
participation as an administrator in LATTICE and to answer the interviewer questions
about this participation. The researcher used a mini tape recorder for all interviews and
later had them transcribed. The researcher and her advisor developed the interview
protocols used in this study (See Appendix C). The questions asked in these interviews
were intended to elicit the administrators’ perspectives of social justice, democracy,

multicultural education, diversity, and change in practice and knowledge.

71

After completing the series of three interviews, described fully in the procedures
section, the researcher shadowed the school/district administrators for two full days to
observe them in contexts where she observed selective social situations that had
implications for social justice. After deciding the dates of the observation, the researcher
shadowed Roberta Smith two days in her school building. During these two days, the
researcher attended a professional development meeting, an administrators’ meeting, and
two students’ meetings. In the case with Catheryn Robinson, the researcher shadowed
her in her district building where there was a principals’ meeting. The other day for
shadowing, the researcher observed Catheryn in her involvement in the LATTICE project
for integration in South Africa’s schools. The researcher kept notes of everything I
observed, but took special notes of some situations for each participant that required
decisions and actions to be taken (J anesick, 1998).

After Collecting and transcribing the data, the researcher analyzed administrators’
interview narratives and the ﬁeld notes for the two full days of shadowing to generate
information regarding in -service professional development inﬂuences on their concepts
and practices of multiculturalism and diversity. A ﬁnal interview focused on critical
incidents of the observations to understand how the participants incorporated values and
knowledge of multiculturalism, diversity, and social justice into their practices. This ﬁnal
interview aimed to explore whether or not there were connections between participants’
narratives and the social incidents that the researcher could observe during the two days
of shadowing. All the steps of the process were reviewed and approved by the University

Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects (UCRIHS) (See Appendix A).

72

Determination of the sample.

To determine the sample, the researcher constructed some criteria according to
Seidman (1998). The following points were the main criteria for choosing the study
sample. Participants in LATTICE should met these criteria to be considered as a subject
in this study:

0 Participant who occupied a position as school/district administrator.

0 Participant who was actively attending LATTICE for the year 2004/2005.

While LATTICE has more than 65 participants who are actively involved

in LATTICE for the year 2004/2005, most of them are teachers. There are about eight
administrators, who occupy administration positions in different levels of education, but
most of those are university administrators. Only two LATTICE participants meet the
previous criteria, and both of them are females. The two selected administrators have
numerous similarities: Both of them were born in the same year, 1949, and both of them
witnessed the segregated periods of schools and the civil right movement. Both subjects
have experience teaching with special needs students. Both of them have worked in a
school with predominately white students. Finally, both of the subjects have worked very
hard to break the isolation of their students to experience some representations of
diversity and multiculturalism; therefore, both of them deﬁne themselves as proactive to
promote social justice in their buildings progress.

The participants.

Two administrators who lead schools with predominantly white students in Mid
Michigan participated in this research. Potential participants were identiﬁed according to

the criteria for selection research sample. The two administrators are the only

73

administrators who are active in LATTICE for the year 2004/2005. One of the two
participants works as the Assistant Principal at Sunny Valley High School. The other one
is a Curriculum Coordinator for the Central City District. The sampling process included
making initial contact with the coordinator and organizer of LATTICE, Sally
McClintock, and requesting the names of all administrators who are members of
LATTICE for the year 2004/2005. The researcher then personally cOntacted both of these
administrators and talked with them about the study, and they showed a big interest in
participating in this study. The researcher informed both participants that the interviews
would be tape- recorded then transcribed, and subsequently received their informed
consent on a form approved by (UCRH-IS) (See Appendix B).

The procedures.

Interviewing is a method of knowing and understanding people through narratives
to collect data to understand their experiences. According to a process introduced by
Seidman (1998), interviewing involves conducting a series of three separate interviews
with each interviewee. Because of the limited number of the subjects for this study, the
data source for this research included four interview narratives and accounts of two days
of observation. The ﬁrst three interviews for the ﬁrst subject -Roberta Smith- took place
in her house. The fourth interview took place in her'ofﬁce at her school. For the second
subject (Catheryn Robinson) three of the total interview took place at her church. The
V fourth interview took place in her ofﬁce in her district. All of the eight interviews with
both participants took place during January and February for the year 2005, and they

were of 70 to 90 minutes. The order for data collection follows.

74

The ﬁrst interview was intended to generate a focused life history. The researcher
asked the two subjects abOut their early K-12 experiences as students, teachers, and
administrators, in order to understand their experiences before participatingiin LATTICE.
The interviewer asked each participant to tell as much as possible about herself in light of
the topic up to the present time. Initial questions in this ﬁrst interview were open-ended
to elicit stories about developmental periods in the interviewees’ lives. The researcher
asked both participants to talk about themselves, where they grew up, what their
backgrounds were, and if they experienced diverse peers in their early day of schooling.
The researcher also asked the two participants about their teaching experiences: did they
teach in a diverse school? If so, what they think about this diversity? The researcher
expanded her questions to let the two participants explain the change that they had of
their thinking of multiCulturalism. As a teacher, the researcher asked the two participants
to talk about what each one did to enrich her-students’ understanding and awareness of
multiculturalism and justice. Then questions were followed with probes and further
questions about the inﬂuence of teacher and administrator professional development
programs. Through analyzing the ﬁrst interview, the researcher could highlight some key
themes that both subjects mentioned while they answering questions and probes.

The second interview focused on the two subjects’ experience of LATTICE.
Questions centered around their motivations to attend LATTICE, their attitudes about
LATTICE, and LATTICE’s framework and activities. Interview two asked for the details
of the LATTICE experience. Here the interviewer asked the two respondents to
concentrate on the concrete details of participants' present experience in LATTICE. How

long have they participated in LATTICE? How did they hear about LATTICE? And what

75

encouraged them to participate in this multicultural program? In this second interview,
the interviewer began asking participants to verbally describe how their participation in
LATTICE enriched their awareness, knowledge, skills, and practice to become more
awareness of multiculturalism and diversity. Through analyzing the data of the second
interview, the researcher could answer research questions number one and number two.
The third interview focused on the two subject’s experience of LATTICE as a
resource for action. Questions spanned the integration and inﬂuence of LATTICE
experience in the daily w0rk of the two subjects in their school sites. The researcher in
this interview was interested in knowing how LATTICE assisted the subjects in taking
action that promotes social justice in their school or district. Interview three asked
participants to reﬂect on the meaning of their experience in LATTICE. Here the
interviewer hoped to uncover the intellectual and emotional connections between
participation in LATTICE and their work. The researcher in this set of interviews was
interested to understand how the two participants experienced their greatest change in
thinking and understanding of multiculturalism. The researcher was interested in
understanding what the school administrators’ experience in LATTICE revealed about
their views of leadership over time around issues related to diversity, multiculturalism,
and justice. The researcher let them talk on details about the greatest growth of thinking
according to their experiences they had during LATTICE sessions. At the end, the
researcher was interested to know if both of them are welling to continue attending
LATTICE for more years. Through analyzing the data of the third interview, the

researcher could answer research question number two and three.

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The two days of obserVation were to gather additional data for how the
administrators put their LATTICE experience into action 96. g. theory-in-use) and for
triangulating the data from the three interviews, described above. The two subjects
introduced the researcher for the whole staff. In each case, the participant told staff that
observation was limited to her and would not include members of the staff. The
researcher took. ﬁeld notes during and after the days of observation. The researcher wrote
notes that describe the observation contexts, researcher thoughts and feelings, and
questions for interview number four. Also the researcher could take notes of the diverse
personnel in the building, students, teachers, and adrrrinistrators. The researcher could see
that in Roberta Smith’s building, there were a few students of minority, she could note a
few of African American and Asian students, one Muslim girl who covered her hair with
hij ab, and a few special need students. The researcher didn’t see any minority staff; this
includes teachers, administrators, and personnel building. Observing Roberta, the
researcher saw a very big size picture in her ofﬁce of two African women making grain.

In the case of Catheryn Robinson, the researcher could see that the majority of
principals in the district were white, beside Catheryn; there was another African-
American principal. The researcher could also see some pictures that include racial
minorities in the hallways of the building.

. The purpose of the two days of observation was to gain a more complete picture
of the context of each Subject’s life narrative as a change agent. The researcher looked for
cumulative evidence of each interviewee’s theoretical narratives and their continuum of
practices of diversity and multiculturalism in their building. The researcher was able to

note patterns in how the two subjects think and make decisions about situations and

77

problems related to social justice. By doing that, the researcher was being able to '
observe whether there is split between the two subjects’ espoused theory for action and
their theory-in-use (Argyris & Schdn, 1978). The researcher wanted to evaluate whether
LATTICE participation of the two subjects led them to be more aware of their theories-
in-use, and how they are trying to ﬁll the gap between the implicit and explicit theory of
action in what they do and say.

The fourth interview took place after thetwo days of observation to connect
LATTICE to administrators’ beliefs and actions. The researcher asked the subjects about
some selective social situations that she observed related to social justice and probed
speciﬁcally about why the subjects responded as they did. The researcher’s interest was
to understand whether LATTICE participation of the two subjects led both of them to self
reﬂection and inquiry about social situations in order to improve the social justice of their

practices, their understanding of these practices, and the effects of these practices on

students.

Data Analysis.

In order to understand the data, the researcher analyzed and interpreted the data of
the four sets of interviews to construct meaning. Data in row form is meaningless
because it represents other people’s stories of their experience while they are involved in
a phenomenon (Sheidman, 1998). Therefore, the ﬁrst step of making meanings of the
interviews is to transcribe the entire interviews. The researcher hired a professional
person for the transcription to provide a complete record of the interviewnand facilitate

analysis of the data. The researcher in her turn read all the transcripts and made

78

corrections where the transcriber could not clearly hear the taped recording. The
researcher also checked with participants to make certain that their statements are
accurately represented in the transcripts.

The researcher read each subject’s four interviews more than one time to be
familiar with the data. Then, the researcher started to code the data based on the research
questions and emergent themes. The researcher highlighted and labeled any data that
reﬂects administrator’s knowledge and action about social justice. By highlighting and
labeling, common trends and patterns began to appear within the answers and
observations of the subjects.

The next step was to’ analyze the content of the each interview. By analyzing the
trends and patterns, the researcher was able to compare responses of the two participants
of their participation in LATTICE, and how they did or did not change over time. During
reading the interviews, the researcher traced each interviewee’s hierarchal ladder of how
LATTICE promotes members’ awareness of social justice (See ﬁgure 1 and 4). Then, the
researcher traced each interviewee’s conceptual and hierarchical ladder for achieving
social justice in their organizations (See ﬁgure 2 and 5). Also, ﬁnally, the researcher
traced each interviewee hierarchal ladder of effective leadership (See ﬁgure 3 and 6). The
researcher used anonymity for keeping subjects’ identities not known. For protecting
subjects’ rights; the researcher used names that both subjects chose. Also, the subjects
’chose the names of their school/district buildings. Finally, the researcher let participants
read the initial ﬁndings for the study so that they had the opportunity to clear up any

incorrect representations.

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Limitation of the Study

This study is the narratives of two administrators who attend LATTICE and share
their stories, feelings, and life experiences. The small size of sample was because of the
limited number of administrators who attend LATTICE for the year 2004/2005;
therefore, the ﬁndings of their stories limit the generalization of such experience. Also,
the researcher in this study is interested in the linkage between leadership and school
learning of diversity and multiculturalism issues to foster social justice. This linkage
includes different variables such as increasing student academic achievement, self-
esteem, awareness, and psychological development. This research was mainly interested
in showing the relationship between school leadership and the increasing the awareness
of diversity and multiculturalism.

Even though the sample of this study only contains two female administrators, the
researcher didn’t analyze the data from feminist or critical theory, because gender doesn’t
represent a variable to study in this study. Both participants supported taking a gender

free approach to the research.

Researcher Concerns of the Study -

The researcher showed many concerns before and during the process of collecting
data. First, the c6ncem of the fact that the sample of the study was just two subjects,
made the researcher worried about the validity and credibility of the study. Meeting, e-
mailing the researcher’s committee members and then securing their approval, and taking
UCRH-IS (University Community Research Involving Human Subjects) approval for

starting the study was a relief for the researcher (See Appendix A). Second, the ' '

80

researcher was also concerned about the fact that members of LATTICE could identify ‘
the two participants; therefore, the researcher warned and informed both participants,
more than one time, of the risk of being known by LATTICE people. This possibility
was included as a risk in the consent form. Third, the concern of the researcher of being
an active participant in LATTICE herself concerned internal validity and the
trustworthiness when interpreting the data. The researcher emailed the analysis and
ﬁndings of the study to both participants to check for correct interpretation. Finally, being
a Muslim woman from Middle East who wears the scarf “hijab” made the researcher,
during the two full days of observation, feel worried of other people’s reactions and
feelings of stereotypes Muslim people. The smiling and indirect support of Roberta and
Catheryn gave the researcher all the conﬁdence and self esteem. Their introduction of the
researcher for other people in their building as a researcher and a doctoral student

heightened the researcher’s sense of self-esteem and pride.

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Chapter IV

This chapter presents the data, which had been collected from four series of
interviews and two full days of observation of two school/district administrators. The
chapter is designed to introduce each subject according to common patterns. The chapter

begins with Mrs. Roberta Smyth, beCause she was the ﬁrst subject who was interviewed.

A Close-Up Look at Roberta Smyth

Introduction

“ I’m just there for support. And yes, if they’re on the ﬂoor I’m on the ﬂoor”

(02/25/2005).

It was a very cold morning in February, the temperature was about 15 °F, the
wind was low, but still it was very, very cold. Michigan is known for its strong cold
winter. Even though the calendar says that February is the spring season you can’t relate
this to the real weather. Sometimes, people wonder if there is really spring or summer in
this area.

Sunny Valley High School is located in Mid- Michigan. It is one of the highest
ranked schools in the area. The student population is evenly divided by gender. The
majority of students are from white and middle class background. There are very few of
Aﬁican-American students.

Mrs. Roberta Smyth, the assistant principal, was one of three adults who attended
students meeting that day. It was Diversity Club planning team meeting, one of the

student organizations in Sunny Valley. The meeting included 12 students; four boys and

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eight girls, one African—American and eleven white students. The meeting was about how
Sunny Valley’s students responded to the Indian Ocean tragedy that left parts of a dozen
countries in ruins (Tsunami tragedy). The planning team announced that the school
collected $500 to send to a center for helping the victims. The students were
enthusiastically talking and suggesting ways for collecting more money to send. The
students were the ones who led the meeting, and watching them impressed Roberta, “I
ﬁnd tremendous pleasure in watching how students create their own organization and
their own goals and activities. I’m just there for support. And yes, if they’re on the ﬂoor
I’m on the ﬂoor” (02/25/2005). Roberta shows a big passion for involvement in students’
organizations, because it helps her to have a relationship with students that is closer than
most administrators have. She doesn’t see herself as their leader; if she sees the need or if
they ask, she will advise them. Otherwise, she listens and watches future leaders. “If you
want to teach the students to be a, certain way, then you model that” (02/25/2005).
Listening and being a role model are the main elements of her administration
style.
By listening we learn a lot more by listening then by “yakking.” It is still
important to share and talk when it is important, but if you listen carefully and
long enough we will have a greater understanding of whatever the situation is, and
I think that then the work that you’ll have to do is more streamlined because
you’ll have a better understanding of it (02/25/2005).
Being a role model for student reﬂects her style of administration leadership to
create a safe, clean, learning, and respectful environment. She would bend down to

collect papers on the ﬂoor to put in the trash.

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I want our students to take care of our building, to value the building, so I’m more
than happy to help keep the building clean, hopefully they’ll see me. Uh, now

and then they’ll join in. But I, I believe that you should live as you want to teach

(02/29/2005).

Welcome to Roberta Smyth 's World

“I went to school in Detroit Michigan, so it was a large city, I would say in were

the children much different then I am, no not really”(01/29/2005).

Roberta was born in Detroit, Michigan, in 1948 and was raised Jewish. Her father
grew up in Detroit in a large Jewish family. He went to dental school for a while, but then
when “babies came” he dropped out and he started his own house painting business. He
was a painting contractor; it was manual labor and he had a painting truck. Her mother
converted to Judaism, but her mother’s family was Catholic. Her mother worked in a
doctor’s ofﬁce until she had babies; then, she stayed home with the kids to take care of
six children, ﬁve daughters and one son. Roberta is the second of her siblings. She met
her husband (Keith) in the high school, though they were just ﬁiends. Then in her senior
year of college they reunited and got manied a year later. He is also from Detroit, from a
Baptist family. He was a police ofﬁcer, then an entrepreneur, and now works in school
transportation. Roberta has one daughter who is 27 years old and one son who is 25 years
old. Her daughter has a double degree in anthropology and English, and now she is
ﬁnishing up a master’s degree in teaching English, and she is going on for her doctorate

in the fall. Her daughter was in the Peace Corps. Her son got his bachelor’s degree in

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linguistics with minor in Asian studies. He is ﬁnishing up his master’s degree in urban
planning.

Roberta is a beautiful white woman; she has brown big eyes, which announce
love, passion, and welcoming. Her brown hair is short but it is shorter in the back and has
some gold hair. She is thin; she weights 147 pounds and 5 feet 6 and half inches tall. She
has scoliosis, which means curvature of the spine. She always wears pants, gray or ecru
pants. She likes to ski; in April 2002, she skied to the North Pole with a team of all
women. I

Roberta entered the administrative level in Sunny Valley High School in 1999.
She is now the assistant principal. Her leadership position increases her passion and
responsibility for creating a safe and learning climate in the school setting. Caring and
loving are the two ﬁrst notions that attract you to Roberta’s personality. Undoubtedly,
these two characteristics make students feel that they are welcomed, valuable, and
belong. Roberta believes that students not only do better academically, but also socially,
emotionally, and psychologically when they feel safe, that they belong, and they are
valued. This is how Roberta, the assistant principal, sees her leadership and her role in
building a community of difference in her high school.

Walking down in the corridors at Sunny Valley High School, she calls out her
students by their names, “Good morning Jean, how are doing Erick?” The students turn at
her and smile to see someone who cares about them and knows them; it is like a personal
relationship. “How do you know their names,” the researcher asked. “ Sally teaches us
in LATTICE about the importance of names,” she said. (02/25/2005) She reports that,

unfortunately, in the United Sates there isn’t a lot of focus on names, it is not a

85

tremendous value (02/01/2005). Roberta mentions that names are deeply personal and
important to human beings. “I think it’s important for me to know their names, so that
they know they’re more than a number to me, they’re a person “ (02/25/2005). When the
researcher'asked her whether she knows all istudents’ names, she replied,

No. And that’s a frustration. But I know a lot of their. names. What I have done,

um, and it’s been more difﬁcult last year because we were short one administrator

but I have made it a goal each year to call in every new student and every new
freshman and talk with them as a person, see how it is here, learn their name,
learn something about them, write down a description of them and memorize their

name (02/25/2005).

Roberta appears to be everywhere: in the front of the entering doors in morning to
say “Good Morning Stephan,” in the cafeteria for the two lunch periods, and in the
corridors between classes. She leaves anything she is working on when the bell rings
between classes. She leaves her ofﬁce and walk in the corridors to see her students, as
they already miss her, she wants to see them and wants them to see her care and love.

I think it’s important for the administrators to be visible, and to have a good sense

of what’s going on with the kids. Beyond visible, I think that they should be

approachable, so students know that we’ll be in the cafeteria, and so students will
come over and ask us questions that they don’t need to leave class to come down.

Some, if they have a private issue, will say, “I need to meet with you privately.”

So we’re, we’re more approachable that way. The other thing is, it’s for

management. It’s a safer school because we’re out there. Students know we’re

out there. In fact, one time we were interviewing exiting seniors and they were

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asked, we were not, our superintendent was interviewing them, what about the

administrators, what problems do you see? Problems is, they’re out there too

much (02/25/2005).

Her presence in the building and her familiarity with students provides a base
upon which she is able to build strong leadership.

One of the goals that she is working hard to achieve is making Sunny Valley more
diverse and multicultural. Actually, Roberta mentions that this is a community goal for
the school district. Therefore, Roberta wants her students who are predominantly white,
from middle class backgrounds to move beyond cultural celebration of diversity and
move toward personal and direct connections and relationships (01/29/2005). Her caring
notion moves toward awareness, understanding, valuing, respecting, and appreciation
other identities, cultures, races, religions, and socioeconomic status. This caring feeling
also moves toward a global awareness of other people who live in our world. This
cultivation of caring makes-her vision of creating a diverse student population more
responsible and targeted.

Roberta mentions that the leadership in her school and district supports her to
keep involvement in school, district, and student organizations related to diversity and
multiculturalism. For example, Roberta is the organizer for the “ World One Day” that
takes place in Sunny Valley School. She is also involved in the district wide diversity
team, and she is the district coordinator/administrator for safe and drug free community.
Roberta is also involved in students’ clubs such as Diversity Club. Roberta mentions that
“ World One Day” is an opportunity that Sunny Valley offers to students to experience

diversity and multiculturalism issues by direct connections. It is an opportunity that gives

87

students that focus of diversity concentration, but it was though LATTICE that the idea
was even conceived, “because it was a reachable goal, it was something we knew that we
could probably create because of that connection‘with LATTICE” (02/06/2005).

During the ﬁrst day of shadowing Roberta, the superintendent came to ask
Roberta if she could come to the board meeting to talk about the importance of the trip
that ﬁve students of Sunny Valley School will make summer 2005 to China. The
researcher could see the enthusiasm of both Roberta and the superintendent for the

cultural experience that these students will have.

Roberta '5 Life Experience as a K-IZ Student, Teacher, and Administrator

“I don’t know. . .there is not one person who stands out of mind as one who helped

me embrace diversity’ ’(01/29/2005).

During Roberta’s school days in Detroit, most of the students in her K—12 school
were not different than her — white and middle class background. Her high school had
some African-American students, but not that many. As she was brought up Jewish, she
recalls that not a lot of students were Jewish, but she “didn’t feel like a big difference
though ”(01/29/2005). At eleven years old, Roberta’s family changed their residency;
therefore, Roberta mentions that she experienced some socioeconomic difference with
the neighborhood. She recalls this difference because of the appearance of the houses in
the neighborhood. “Other houses in the neighborhood were not as nice. . .we were not rich
at all, but others in the neighborhood didn’t have the same income as we did, so that one

difference ”(01/29/2005).

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Roberta doesn’t remember any direct inﬂuence of school or any direct discussion
or conversation of issues related to diversity, acceptance, and tolerance, other than some
memories of “Flag Day and Patriotism.” She had a narrow education of things related to
diversity and multiculturalism. This was a mirror of the “curriculum then,” which was
written and published by white people. But she remembers hearing a lot about Martin
Luther King Jr. as one of the most powerful advocates of nonviolence and direct action
for social change.

In terms of her family, she mentions that talking or having conversation within
her family about diversity was uncomfortable. She remembers that there were racial
problems in Detroit at that time, and she had a cousin and uncle who. had been attacked
by Aﬁican-American people and subsequently died. Her father, who was 40 or 50 years
old at the time, was very angry and sad about what happened to them, so he started to
generalize and make racial statements about all ‘ ‘Negroes.” She would disagree with him
and say, “This is unjust.” (01/25/2005) She reveals that her tolerant values and accepting
were learned from her mother who “in a quiet way was just more accepting of all people”
(01/29/2005). Also, her sisters’ choices of ﬁiends and life-mates with persons different in
race and religion also contributed to making Roberta be a more open person, accepting all
people regardless of their race, ethnicity, and religion. Her younger sister went on to
marry an Egyptian man. It was not acceptable by her father, because of the religion,
history, and race difference and conﬂict. Therefore, her sister married secretly because
she didn’t want her father to know. After while, her sister and her husband ended up with
a public wedding in Boston. Her father said that he wouldn’t go, and he couldn’t do it. So

Roberta and her mom talked with him and ended up going and he “just loved it.” Later on

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another sister married another Egyptian man. A third sister married a Baptist, and
eventually one of her sisters married a Jewish man. Her last sister married to a Mexican-
American man.

When Roberta looks back and thinks how was it that all or almost of her father
children were very open in their choices of ﬁiends and spouses, she said,

This was my dad’s karma [to learn] to love and accept people who were different,

and because he was a very intense, a very deeply emotional person, and when I

had to watch him go through these life experiences and he did it and sometimes it

was painful, but he did it and he never failed at that kind of reaching because he
loved his-in-laws, and he thought they were wonderful people. It didn’t matter

what religion they were or what background (01/29/2005).

When Roberta went to college, she didn’t know that she would become a teacher.
In her freshman year in college she chose to do some volunteer service work. When she
looked at a list of varied volunteer opportunities, she did a few things. She read textbooks
for the blind, “at that time they didn’t have textbooks on reading tapes” (01/29/2005). She
also went and did volunteer service at a school for the mentally impaired, who, at the
time, were called “mentally retarded.” She enjoyed it and step-by-step she explored
various areas of special education.

Roberta was fascinated with that area of education, and she decided to be a
special education teacher. While she was still living in Detroit, she taught in two different
treatment centers, she taught children with extreme emotional problem, or impaired,
“back then they called it emotionally impairment problems (or emotionally

disturbed)”(01/29/2005). She taught these kids in treatment centers where they lived, and

90

they were a mix of race and cultures. When she moved from Detroit to Lansing, she
taught in a segregated school, “back then the children who were emotionally impaired
weren’t in public school” (01/29/2005).

When she was 28 years old, she took six years off to take care of her daughter.
Then she and her husband traded places so he would be home to take care of their
daughter. When she went back to work, she decided not to teach in treatment centers
anymore, “because it was extremely intense work” (01/29/2005). So she decided that she
would teach in public school settings. In 1983, she was hired by Sunny Valley where she
taught learning disabled and also those who were emotionally impaired, teaching as a
special education teacher for 16 years.

In the beginning of her experience in Sunny Valley school, she was shocked
because “ I hadn’t that much of a non-diverse, I mean even when I went to school in
Detroit there was always people of different cultures or races, but in Sunny Valley it was
like ...pure white student population” (01/29/2005). She was concerned for her students
and their cultural isolation. This lack of contact with other cultural and ethnic groups
would place students at a disadvantage in terms of multicultural understanding that could
help students’ overcome cultural isolation. She wasn’t comfortable at all, “I remember
talking about it like, ah', this doesn’t seem real at all” (01/29/2005). As a result, Roberta
has tried always to teach her students about diversity.

Always, always I mean that I was able to weave that into the every day lessons...
It was always a focus because I could see ...that some of these kids didn’t have
experiences with [different] people at all. And when I said to you that in Detroit

there was very little diversity, compared to Sunny Valley school there was

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diversity, but I never perceived it as such and so it was part of my lessons and

when I ever had what they call it a teachable moment (01/29/2005).

Therefore, with another teacher, Roberta started the Diversity Club to raise
student awareness about diversity experience. “At that time it was just at least to give the
students a little experience about diversity” (01/29/2005). She also created World One
Day where people from within and outside of the United states would come and share,
with students, cultural items, foods, music, crafts, and clothes. “It was a great adventure,
all the students came and enjoyed it a lot” (01/29/2005). Also, Roberta took her students
to the. African American museum in Detroit and the Holocaust Museum. When she and
her family went around the world in 1992, one of the things that she did was collect
artifacts from certain countries and she made boxes of those artifacts from different
cultures. She had made them available to Sunny Valley’s staff and students ever since.

Her experience as an assistant principal reﬂects her continirous caring and
passion for creating a diverse population of students and staff. Roberta mentions that she
always tried to hire staff ﬁom minority groups.

This is an embarrassment to me. We have no African Americans. And I‘ve even

tried to get them to come. It’s quite a shock. Um, I have one teacher who is

openly with the staff, um... homosexual. But in terms of many other differences,
we have some from different nationalities, not many but a few. Um. .. but we

don’t have a very diverse staff (01/29/2005).

Roberta ﬁnds that as an administrator she is still an educator of children, “it is so
important for administrators to appreciate and understand diversity and help students do

the same” (01/29/2005). Her contribution in the curriculum reﬂects her continuing

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concern for valuing tremendously the richness of this world of difference. She has tried to
facilitate different groups moving into Sunny Valley School, and as a result, the school
now has some African-American and refugee students.

Since Roberta has become an administrator, Sunny Valley started an International
Issues Class and a Comparative Religious Class so that students would have more
opportunity to learn about people who are different and about issues around the world.
“We are trying to start one in Asian studies. We have families that take international
students, and Iwork very closely with them so they have a good experience”
(02/06/2005).

Roberta mentions that the support of Sunny Valley leadership and the district
superintendent gives her the enthusiasm to maintain her push for diversity and
multiculturalism in her school. When ,she watches the culture of her school, it appears to
becoming more open and “less stereotyping. . .to the point to where I think theywelcome
the opportunities to meet with people who are different then they are” (01/29/2005). The
researcher notes that on the ﬁrst day of shadowing Roberta, it was in the lunchroom, she
was following Roberta here and there, and writing in the notebook, one of the boys
invited her to sit with him and his friends at their table. This suggests that students are
open and willing to directly interact with people who are different, especially that the
researcher is a Muslim woman who covers her hair with scarf (hijab).

Roberta Smyth’s vision of creating a diverse population in her school challenges
her to take an active role in increasing awareness of the relationship between the quality
of education available to all of today's students and the future quality of life in the United

States. To reach the goal of education for all learners, students need to critique and

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eliminate all conscious or unconscious prejudices and stereotypes and repressive
practices. As an educator, Roberta’s conceptualization of acceptance and valuing
diversity and multiculturalism has been focused on actions for continual process self-

examination and transformation.

Professional Development Programs

“I, I think that there are administrators and teachers who don’t think about

diversity a lot. Um. .. that’s a little disturbing for me, but I’ve seen

that”(01/29/2005).

Roberta Smyth remembers that her professional development programs as teacher
and administrator didn’t address concerns for maintaining the status quo or, in particular,
the urgent need to improve substantially the educational outcomes for those students most
at risk of educational failure. Roberta mentions that there was an unconscious avoidance
of conversations about issues related to diversity and multiculturalism. She reports that
talking about diversity and multiculturalism in her professional development programs
was limited to issue such as “how to help students understand others who are different so
that we can stop any bullying or harassment or teasing, that kind of thing,” she said
(01/29/2005). These conversations left untouchable and unrecognized any possible
dialogue concerning gap achievement, the need for equitable outcomes in all aspects of
education regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, gender orientation, class, and disability,
and the need for increasing the awareness of white and middle class students and teachers
about race, gender orientation, and global relations. The” ignorance” in the traditional
practices of professional development programs regards issues related to diversity and

multiculturalism serves to maintain the status quo with no critique of the existing

94

inequities in schools among students. All these programs reﬂect privileged perspectives
and approaches. Roberta recalls that these professional programs weren’t designed to
help teachers and administrators increase awareness of the gap achievement, low rate of
graduation, and high rate of dropout among minority student c0mpare with their peers of
the mainstream culture. Therefore, these professional programs didn’t meet the
challenges of or reap beneﬁts from the diversity that characterizes the majority of
American public schools (01/29/2005).

When Roberta came in to her administrative position, she continually focused on
diversity issues as a community goal. She purposely addresses these issues in the
professional development programs for her staff. “I have provided my staff with that kind
of professional development, more than I ever hadas a teacher” (01/29/2005). She sees
professional development programs as both a hope and challenge. It is a hope to open the
closed doors to teach educational practitioners about the richness of diversity by its
ethnicities, cultures, and languages in school community learning. It is a challenge to
teach about how diverse groups interact, inter-group tension, and stereotypes. During the
ﬁrst day of shadowing Roberta, the researcher attended a professional development day
in Sunny Valley. Roberta talked about the “Teen Summit” program, which would take
place in March 2005. Teen Summit is an all day event, but there are events leading up to
it as well as follow-up activities. It is like a big conference for students, and the focus is
on teen safety, health, reducing any bullying, and understanding diversity. The
researcher saw the enthusiasm of Roberta as she spoke about planning and organizing

this event. She made many phone calls to ensure the attendance of the people who would

95

talk in this event. She talked with students about this event. She and two students from
the planning team talked about Teen Summit at the school board meeting.

Important to how she views her practice, Roberta calls for inclusion of diversity
and multicultural issues on professional development agendas. This also includes
teaching tools and strategies for teachers to use in their classrooms to realize this essential
goal of a democratic and pluralistic society. Roberta sees the role of the administrator as
related to student achievement as a huge issue, “that’s gigantic.” The administrator needs
to lead staff and sets the tone for the building. “I think that all children will learn and can
learn. I don’t care if they’re low socio-economic status or they live. . .we have a young
man from Afghanistan, he had one year of school in his life. Every student can and will
learn” (02/06/2005).

Roberta mentions that keeping schools running safety and keeping students on a
developmental path are main goals for administrators, but this can’t be interpreted only as
a focus on helping teachers and administrators developing isolated skills and strategies
for improving one or another aspect of the diversity issues. Roberta acknowledges the
fact that not all personnel feel comfortable with such issues, but she maintains that
insisting on attention to diversity will open people to becoming more comfortable with it.
At the base of fear or anger is “misunderstanding.” “They don’t have enough knowledge
or experience, or they are just ‘i gnorant’” (02/06/2005).

Roberta believes that one of the main purposes for professional development
programs is helping educational personnel in all types of schools understand the complex
characteristics of diverse groups within US public schools and the ways in which race,

language, social class, and ethnicity interact to inﬂuence students academically,

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emotionally, and psychologically. Professional development should assess or explore
ways that can maximize the potential of all students. Indeed, Roberta calls for an urgent
need for fundamental changes in the content and process of schooling and the context for
rethinking the role of professional development in the educational structure. Professional
development programs that reinforce the status quo are maintaining ignorance of the
main principles and values of democracy. She argues strongly that schools should ensure

that all students have equitable opportunities to learn and meet their potential.

Categories of Diﬂerence

“I remember being upset with my dad because he would make racial statements

about all Negroes” (01/29/2005).

During the four sets of interviews, the researcher didn’t intend to narrow or
inﬂuence a narrowing of the deﬁnitions of diversity and multiculturalism. The researcher
aimed to let the two subjects to be open in their stories, memories, and answers.
Therefore, reading, highlighting, then coding the data, the researcher was able to trace
Mrs. Roberta Smyth’s division of differences in two categories: Within and Outside.

Difference Within refers to people who are Americans, who share the language,
history, American identity, and access to opportunity for participation in the political,
social, economic life. At the same time, they belong to one or another of the minority
groups. Such as African-American, special needs, and gender orientation. Roberta
categorizes people who are Within according to certain factors. People Within are
African-Americans since African American students form the largest minority ethnic

group in US. school buildings and construct their own culture, “clothes and language,”

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for example. As a person who grew up in Detroit, Roberta witnessed the racial conﬂict
and the integrated movement for Black people’s civil rights. This made her more aware
of the need to eliminate the negative stereotypes of this group, and value their culture as a
very essential part in teaching about diversity and acceptance.

Special need persons are emotionally, physically, and mentally impaired. As a
teacher of special needs, was always surrounded by them and concerned with fair,
equitable, and inclusive treatment of these challenged students.

Gender orientation students are Lesbian, gay, and bisexual who desire or engage
in same-sex sexual behavior. Roberta mentions that policy makers need to ensure a policy
framework that prevents anyone in the school community to be treated differently or to
be harassed because they are gay, lesbian, or bisexual according to the civil rights of a
democratic society (02/25/2005).

We have a group who have formed the GSA, gay straight alliance... and so,

we’ve had meetings with the kids, with staff members, you know we want to

make this a positive experience for students, we don’t want them to become

targets, so there have been a number of conversations about that. You know, I

mean if there are harassment issues, we address that (02/25/2005).

In her Within conversation, Roberta highlighted needs of ethnic minorities,
special needs, and gender difference students. Her focus, in referring to these three
groups, is on the need for teaching students about these sources of difference and
discussing them openly, because they construct a big part in American society and
schools. The need is to build a safe environment for all types of children to learn

regardless of these differences to build a democratic community learning. The need is to

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welcome the opportunities to meet with people who are different, and watch the students
in schools become more Open and less stereotyping.
Difference Outside refers to people Who aren’t American but are staying in the
United States for one reason or another. These include international students who are
studying in the American undergraduate and graduate schools and have various races,
ethnicities, languages, and religions. Since most of her interactions with international
people are constructed by LATTICE, Roberta remembers meeting people from all over
the world, “it sounded heavenly to me to be able to meet with people from all over the
world, right in my own backyard. Uh... and, I ﬁnd that very, very interesting and
enriching”(01/29/2005). Meeting such groups has multiple beneﬁts. First, it broadens
American people’s perspective of the world. Second, it helps participants not to
stereotype or generalize. Third, sharing their world and their own life experiences of
these people give American people different perspectives, and it makes them be able to
see the world through different eyes (02/01/2005). For example,
I learned from two Israelis that um, there were several, lots of Israelis particularly
young ones, who had a hard time with the, this ongoing ﬁght and they want, really
desperately want to ﬁgure out how end that. And I learned from [Palestinian
woman] whose [parent are refugee] ...that [her] dream is... it’s like a life goal to
be back there. Um. .. so when I watch the news [for the peace process], and I see
what’s happening and I read and I think, oh my goodness, let this happen
(02/06/2005).
Fourth, having relationships with international people that help American people to

deepen their understanding and value other people culture, food, music, clothes,

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costumes, and social traditions. For instance, Roberta remembers the story of a man from
an Arab speaking country sharing the story of his wife giving birth of their child. Men
are not allowed to go in the delivery room when their wives give birth, so it was his ﬁrst
time attending such experience. He was so amazed and proud of her (02/06/2005).

What do international people get from meeting American people? Roberta hopes
that meeting American people is an opportunity to a broadening international people’s
experience of US. For example, Roberta remembers that one international LATTICE
member said that LATTICE .is the only place where she can speak and truly be heard
(02/01/2005). Meeting American people helps international people to learn about some
democratic practice in the American society. For example, Roberta recalls that eight
years ago in the day of national election day, some international people went to see the
voting polls, where people could walked in, gave their names, went vote, and then left.
The discussion that occurred at LATTICE afterwards was amazing because several of the
internationals were shocked because there were no armed guards and people didn’t have
ink put on their ﬁngers. Roberta remembers that meeting American people was a huge
changing of the viewpoints of international people. For instance, some international
people changed very skewed perspective of American people. One international student
expected all women in America to wear a lot of makeup all over their faces and was quite
surprised when that wasn’t true. Another international said that she thought that
American people are easy about sexual involvement. This international student had the
image that when a man touches a woman, that means they would be sexually involved.
Finally, Roberta mentions that another beneﬁt for international people is the opportunity

to observe and explore the American educational system, how it works and how teachers

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implement some of the techniques for diversity in their classrooms (02/01/2005),
(02/06/2005).

Roberta suggests strongly that having conversations, relationships, and direct
interactions with people Within and Outside could help American teachers,
administrators, and other educational personnel broaden their perspective of the world,
which would aid in diminishing stereotyping or generalizing. Having a broader
understanding of life Within and Outside of the United States makes students more
comfortable, open, and able to live a life ﬁlled with equity and freedom. Students get
their beliefs, assumptions, and values from their parents and schools. School personnel
need to be armed with the knowledge, pedagogical tools and strategies, and willing to

raise their students’ awareness of diversity and acceptance.

LA T1" I CE Experience

“It sounded heavenly to me. To be able to meet with people from all over the

world, right in my own backyard. Uh... and, I ﬁnd that very, very interesting and

enriching” (02/01/2005). '

Roberta joined LATTICE in 1995, its ﬁrst year. She learned about LATTICE
when LATTICE coordinators came to Sunny Valley High School and met the entire staff
in a staff meeting, telling them about the opportunity that would begin in the fall of 1995.
When LATTICE coordinators asked the staff if anyone would like to participate, Roberta
quickly decided to sign up.

She remembers that the ﬁrst meeting lasted all day, and the rest of the sessions

were 5 hours, not 4 hours as they are now. In the ﬁrst meeting, she remembers that the

LATTICE group did the presentation of names. Roberta reports that she was impressed

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by the international people because they were so eloquent, so intelligent, and
experienced. She remembers, laughing, that she spoke very clearly when talking with
international people, yet she noted that many of them spoke English better than some
Americans do (02/06/2005). She remembers the power of having these wonderful
conversations at the tables (small group conversations). She loved hearing what others
reported back to the big group. She learned a little more about other’s view of the United
States, how other people experience life all around the world, and “we learn about
ourselves.” (02/06/2005) She reﬂected that the LATTICE agenda for main topics has
grown increasingly more serious over the years, now often including issues such as
terrorism, refugee status, and peace and war.

Roberta thinks that there are two avenues where LATTICE is making a difference
in social justice in the’world. She mentions that LATTICE’s eight sessions and the
interactions among members make a real difference to achieve social justice and to
celebrate diversity and multiculturalism in schools. LATTICE also has some projects that
take place out side the US, which aim to help disadvantaged students to access education
to create a better world. For example, LATTICE brought baskets from South Aﬁica, to
sell them in the Lansing area in order to raise funds for South Africa’s kids to be able to
enroll in public schools. As another example, some LATTICE members including
Roberta are involved in a project for inclusion schools in the South Aﬁica.

An administrator in South Aﬁica had approached Sally McClintock and he

wondered if there was any expertise in LATTICE uh, with the practice of

inclusion, so Sally contacted people that were in special education, and most of

my career was in special education, involving inclusion. And the other motivator

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for me was that I had gone with LATTICE to South Africa for one month about 5
years ago, 6 years ago. And so I knew the communities, I knew the schools
involved, so it made sense that I would at least explore with this cemmittee what
it was that they were, that the administrators in South Aﬁica were looking for and

kind of help, generate some questions and give some thought to it (02/25/2005).

Roberta 's Motivation to Participate in LATTICE

“I think we learn about our... sometimes, just some deeper things about our selves

maybe some uh believes are clariﬁed or you learn that you have places, lots of

areas in which to grow, or you identify those places” (02/01/2005).

As an individual who has experienced diversity in the personal and professional
level, Roberta Smyth was very interested in participating in LATTICE. Her motivation to
participate in LATTICE particularly was her religious education as a youth that made her
more open to experiences like LATTICE experience. As mentioned earlier, Roberta was
brought up as Jewish, and in this period of her youth, she learned particularly about
combating racism and anti-Semitism. As a Jewish person, she has the opportunity in
LATTICE to learn and talk about Israel, which has special circumstances of a history of
international conﬂicts.

Her motivation rose from the personal to the professional level. Roberta reports
she attends LATTICE to take part in the professional exchange of knowledge and
experience about diversity and multiculturalism. Some of her staff would say to her,
“Glad it’s you and not me,” and she would say, “You don’t have a clue, you just don’t

have a clue” (02/01/2005). She believes that teachers and administrators need to‘ come

from various environments, so they can give their students experiences gently, so they

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can become comfortable with people who are different. And, as they become more
comfortable they become more open, and they become more able to live a life ﬁlled with
equity, respect, and acceptance. Roberta reports that some disagreements do happen
during LATTICE sessions, but she mentions this is an acceptable and healthy sign for
any organization. Educators need to teach their students that disagreements are welcomed
with respect.

Roberta mentions that it is important to teach students how to better interact with
each other and how to express themselves in a way that will not offend others who are
different,. Because some students don’t know about issues of equity and freedom. There
is the need to “raise the awareness”.

Therefore, Roberta mentions that attending LATTICE sessions is a very important
part in her monthly routine. Actually, during the ﬁrst day of shadowing Roberta, the
researcher attended Sunny Valley administrators’ meeting. They were talking [about the
weekly agenda, and that week it was LATTICE’s March session, so the principal didn’t
schedule Roberta for tasks because he “knows it is a very important organization”
(02/25/2005). This acknowledgement of the importance of LATTICE to Roberta — both

who she is and how she works — signaled the district support of her efforts.

LATTICE Deﬁnition

“Sunny Valley has a district goal of broadening our students understanding of
diversity and [LATTICE] is a good step to take” (02/01/2005).

The researcher didn’t directly ask the subject to deﬁne LATTICE as an

educational organization because she wanted to trace how the subjects deﬁne LATTICE

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as organizational learning for promoting social justice. The researcher got these
deﬁnitions from the data in the set of four interviews with Roberta.

o LATTICE is a place where we can meet people from all over the world
while we are in our own backyards.

o LATTICE is one avenue for broadening the world perspective of our
students. It is an emotional connection and resource for developing a
greater understanding of the rest of the world in relationship to
themselves.

0 LATTICE is also an intellectual learning experience for me and for my
staff who attend it. They discuss together what happen in LATTICE and
they use what they learn in LATTICE on an intellectual basis.

Roberta’s deﬁnition of LATTICE developed throughout the interviews. In her
next deﬁnition, Roberta used the term social justice even she didn’t use it before. She
connected LATTICE to social justice.

0 LATTICE, is a place where, I really do believe, people are pretty equal. I
mean absolutely equal, where every person’s opinions and experiences are
valued, equally. But it extends further, because I think that LATTICE is
attempting to create awareness in its members about the world and have
them grapple with issues of social justice.

Figure (1) represents Roberta’s LATTICE ladder for promoting social justice.
Roberta mentions that LATTICE members feel comfortable and safe to take and share
their experiences. By listening and sharing, LATTICE raises members’ awareness of

diversity and multiculturalism issues. Raising the awareness makes members understand

105

the uniqueness of each person identity. Understanding the uniqueness happens by direct

connections and personal relationships, sharing experiences, and listening approach.

 

ILATTIIOE
Relieetien

 

 

©i©se ties

 

Sharing threugh epenness

 

Undershgndin uniqueness

 

Raise Awareness

Feel ©0nierlhﬂe

 

 

 

 

Figure (l ). Roberta’s hierarchal ladder of how LATTICE promotes members’ awareness
of social justice

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This sharing and understanding build trust and respect among members to have a
close ties and relationships. This approach of learning experience prompts members to
reﬂect on their assumptions, values, and norms to become agent of change in their

organization.

Social Justice

“Uh, huh, and so you ﬁgured I don’t use that term. It’s correct. Um. .. but when

you say social justice, my, and I think about social justice in my school, I think

about people being treated fairly, people being accepted for who they are”

(02/06/2005). ~

Roberta mentions that she didn’t use the term social justice before. The researcher
didn’t deﬁne it for the core of the research, because the researcher wanted to ﬁgure out
how and what the administrator thinks of social justice, what its elements are, and why it
is very important to teach it f0r students in schools.

Roberta deﬁnes social justice as a “paramount inschools and that we need to
protect that. . .there are district policies that protect it, procedures to follow, and of course
we need to teach students about that” (Ol/29/2005). Roberta relates social justice
particularly to students of diversity. She mentions that social justice is the norm of
valuing the right to be unique and tremendously the richness of this world of differences.

I don’t want everyone to be the same. Sometimes that happens in this country,

people end up, they, they, change their name, so it’s easier for someone to say, or

so it doesn’t show their wonderfully rich heritage. So that’s a loss, so I hope that

people can value those differences instead of trying to diminish those differences

(02/25/2005).

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She hopes that her students would value the right of everyone to live their lives in
the ways that they believe in and they value individually. As long as others aren’t hurting
others, they should be able to live their lives as they choose and believe what they .
choose, without being judged by others, without being evaluated (01/29/2005).

Roberta deﬁnes social justice in her school as a hope where people are treated
fairly and being accepted for who they are. That learning should be taking place for every
student. There be no harassment, no bullying, and there is an acceptance of diversity
(02/06/2005). She mentions a lot of reasons for the need to understand diversity. First,
diversity makes students’ lives so much richer, so much more wonderful if they can be
open to people all the kinds. This leads them to be open to meet people who are not like
them. Learning about how other people live, tasting new foods, hearing music, talking to
other people about how they live their lives, how they raise their children, all these enrich
students’ experience and raise their awareness of diversity and value difference. Second,
diversity helps to make this world a better place. Roberta mentions that we need to strive
toward peace, and we will never reach it if people don’t understand, and more than
understand, appreciate diversity. This kind of appreciation makes a small world of us,
global community that lives in peace and safety (01/29/2005); (02/01/2005);
(02/25/2005). Third, diversity helps one to appreciate his/her own culture and understand
it more closely. Roberta mentions that we need all students, all people to understand the
power of their own words and also to understand other ways of communicating and being
with people that would create an environment of social justice.

Figure (2) represents Roberta’s conceptual and hierarchical ladder for achieving

social justice in her organizations. Roberta mentions that people should be comfortable to

108

the idea of diversity. This acceptance of the idea raises and opens peoples’ minds to
reﬂect on their assumptions, values, and norms. This process of reﬂection makes people
extend respect and appreciation to diversity groups. This leads people to act in fairness

and justice.

 

Rociai Justice

Fairness

 

 

Appreciate

 

Respect

 

Openess

 

Understanding

Raise Awareness
Being Comfortable

 

 

 

 

 

Figure (2). Roberta’s conceptual and hierarchical ladder for achieving social justice in her
organization.

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Developing Leadership Awareness Through LATTICE

“I have watched Sally a lot, and learned from her style of leadership. Facilitating

large groups so that they can function effectively and efﬁciently tap into each

person” (02/06/2005).

Roberta believes that leaders should model for the staff as well as making the
contacts with the students and ensuring that social justice is achieved in the school
(01/29/2005). She is also a role model in terms of evaluating that kind of experience. She
said, “my staff knows how busy I am, and when they see that I take that chunk of time for
LATTICE, they know that’s huge” (02/25/2005). When leaders put out a lot of energy to
learn about diversity issues and to offer these things to students, staff will follow this
learning and try to apply it in their classes (02/25/2005). Therefore, Roberta calls for the
essential role leaders play by modeling and believing that every student will be treated
with respect in this building, and insisting on it. (01/29/2005). Roberta mentions that
teaching about social justice is not just delivered through disciplinary actions or force.
Effective leaders need to role model that kind of lifestyle, and that kind of belief system
through their own actions (02/01/2005). Administrators can hopefully move the staff to a
high level of social justice by insisting on bring it to the table of discussion and in
professional development activities.

Roberta strongly emphasizes a big role of Sally McClintock, LATTICE
coordinator, as an effective role mode. She mentions that she has watched Sally
extensively, and learned from her style of leadership. For example, facilitating large
groups, presenting the small group, and efﬁciently tapping into each person are some
leadership skills that Roberta learned from LATTICE (02/06/2005). That helps her to be

more able to allow things to unfold. She mentions people need time to digest, time to

110

reﬂect, in their own ways in time to apply it to their own lives. LATTICE doesn’t force
anything on anyone. Change through LATTICE occurs naturally and maybe gradually
(02/06/2005).
LATTICE helps Roberta keep high awareness in terms of practice:
I think about our refugee students and my own personal openness to them, beyond
refugee students any international student that comes, I know the richness they
bring to my school, so I welcome them u'uly with open arms and I always, I strive
to make their adjustment to our school positive so they feel comfortable staying
and then all the other students can learn from them. That’silearning. It’s learning
through relationships just like LATTICE. And so, urn, that’s a wonderful I think,
I’m always open to international students coming as exchange. I will start with
just the name because I try to meet a lot of students and have personal
conversations with them as one item. Um. .. and when you focus on their name,
it’s the beginning of focusing on them as a person, interestingly enough so many
of them don’t know why they have their name, and I will say, will you go ask
your parents, how did you get that name? What is the background of that name,
it’s a beautiﬁrl name, and I’ll ask them a week later, did you ﬁnd that out?
(02/25/2005)
She mentions some of the group strategies that have been more likely developed
probably because of her participation in LATTICE, Listening, reﬂecting, sharing
personal experiences, and building trust and relationships were some skills that have been

developed a little more though LATTICE (02/06/2005).

111

Roberta reports that “The two-minute-learning survey” is a very strong technique
to reﬂect on what people just learned and what they need more to learn about special
topic. “I think is great because we used that in terms of reﬂection afterwards and
feedback, and I’ve done that even with the whole school. . .. I think that’s a great thing
and got the feedback in that way,” she said. (02/06/2006)

Also, Roberta strongly emphasizes the technique that LATTICE applies by
sending the agenda of each session

Um. .. and here’s an interesting thing when you send out the agenda early, so

there’s a mindset, some prep, I do that with agendas. I didn’t always. Um. ..

planning team, concept, I do that. Um. .. that might be another leadership thing,
that getting that involvement and the various perspectives. I have a planning team
for professional deve10pment, we meet, process, plan, that concept. I would say
that is a direct result of LATTICE. Um. .. and as I mentioned before always the

small group, large group feedback (02/06/2005).

Figure (3) represents Roberta’s hierarchal ladder of effective leadership. Roberta
believes that this ladder gives leaders the ability and capability to reach a productive
learning organization. Leaders need to be the model in their organizations; therefore, their

staff would follow their steps for developing productive mindset.

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Effective Leadership

 

Encourage

 

[Keep Watching

 

Roie iiiedei
Set the 'Iione

 

 

Focus

iiiodei

 

 

 

 

Figure (3). Roberta’s hierarchal ladder of effective leadership.

LATTICE as Professional Development (The Uniqueness)

“I think it’s beneﬁcial for an administrator in the district to know what LATTICE
is all about, to see the evolution, because I think then that they can support it

more, and support their staff who is involved more, and help to make it
more”(02/25/2005).

113

Roberta believes that LATTICE continues to help her district focus on the
question of diversity and cultural diversity, “If we didn’t have that, I’m not sure if some
of the schools would continue the quest,” she said (02/25/2005). So she strongly calls for
the need to keep LATTICE, to keep introducing this opportunity and offering this
opportunity to various staff members who then keep their eyes open all the time to those
kinds of opportunities for their students. So at a district level, “Yes I continue to have
those conversations with other administrators, and as I mentioned I created the district
wide diversity team... so we meet on a regular basis and continue to bring things to the
district” (02/06/2005).

In reviewing how LATTICE differs from other professional development
programs, Roberta mentions that

o LATTICE is ongoing process. It is not a day or two of professional
development programs; it is the whole academic year.

0 Through LATTICE, people form relationships with others so participants
deepen their understanding.

0 LATTICE is not lecture, or a lesson plan. It is an experience that

individual participants can utilize in various ways.

114

A Close-Up Look at Catheryn Robinson

Introduction

“It is very frustrating because [diversity] is not [administrators’] high

priority.”(02/24/2005)

It was the very cold January in Michigan when the researcher started collecting
the data for this research. All that you could see outside was covered with a white snow
like a bride on her wedding day. During this cold month, the lowest temperature was 13
°F, and the highest was 36 °F. Interviewing and shadowing of Miss Catheryn Robinson
took place during this cold winter, but her interest and enthusiasm to participate in this
research made it less difﬁcult. Catheryn is a very busy person; because of her various
responsibilities as will be mentioned later, most of the interviews took place during the
weekends in her church.

The Central City District is located in Mid-Michigan. The majority of students are
white and middle class. There are a few minority students in the district. As Catheryn told
me, a few minority families mentioned that they preferred not to send their children to
study in Central City District, because they perceive it as “very racist environment.”

Catheryn works in the central ofﬁce at Central City, as the curriculum
coordinator. Shadowing Catheryn in a principals’ meeting with the superintendent
provided evidence of her continuous concern for bringing diversity issues to the table of
administrators’ agenda. The meeting began with the distribution of the meeting agenda
that helped all attendants know the main points that would be discussed in that meeting.
Some of the meeting points were ﬁnancial, such as payroll, copy machine use, and cell

phone distribution. Some were administrative and procedural, such as staffing for the

115

next year, emergency plan. distribution, and, education center sale status. And some were
educational, such as diversity report, safe and drug free report, administrators’ technology
training, and highly qualiﬁed teachers. Some people talked about each part of that
agenda. Catheryn’s part in that meeting was to talk about the diversity group norms and
the safe and drug free report.

One of Catheryn’s job responsibilities is coaching the diversity task force in her
district and she directly works with job responsibilities related to teaching the newly
hired teachers about diversity issues. Her focus is on connecting the relationship between
teaching excellence and social justice. Her vision is that the job of schools is to develop
students’ potential for intellectual, emotional, spiritual, and physical learning. To foster
this potential, schools need to provide a caring, compassionate, and equitable
environment where students, parents, and school personnel understand and appreciate the
diversity of human resources among them. Therefore, schools need to develop collective
norms with school personnel and the community to increase the sense of shared
responsibility for students’ learning, so they will recognize and follow these beliefs,
goals, and values. Catheryn’s vision is that school leaders are the ones who set the tone in
their schools; they are responsible to develop that vision so that students can achieve their
potential in a safe and respectful environment.

The group norms were structured on the basis of the collaborative one-year
teamwork of thedistrict multicultural committee to make a ﬁve-year plan for diversity
goals. The committee works to make people aware of the various groups that exist in
American public schools. The reason for these norms was a few incidents that took place

in the Center City District. Some African-American girls didn’t get the opportunity to

116

participate in the girls’ basketball team. Another incident happened with the boys’
basketball team. Therefore, parents of these students protested that it was a racially unfair
place to send their children to school. Catheryn and the rest of the committee
investigated these incidents, talked with staff, students, and administrators, and put
together goals that appearedto be important to be achieved in the Central City. These
norms were related to treating each other with respect, getting to know each other, and
being able to appreciate each other. To accomplish this goal, Catheryn suggested doing
the consciousness raising activity of LATTICE with her district. Catheryn’s motivations
were concerns for teaching about equity, justice, respect and appreciation of diversity and
multiculturalism in classrooms, concern for the academic success of all students,
establishing a professional work environment that supports diversity, improvement and
professional growth, and understanding of the importance of diversity and equity and
high quality student learning.

Catheryn’s vision was to have one set of posters explaining the diversity norms in
the hall of each school, one set in the library because teachers oﬁen meet in the library
and students are in the library, and one set in the staff lounge. She also wanted to have a
set in all the sporting event areas.

Because. . .sometimes we act really ugly at sporting events and we say things in
the stands that are totally outrageous and so we wanted it also to be in the stands
and even the [comments] announcers make, draw our fans attention to our vision
of public conduct which was appropriate (02/24/2005).

But what ended up in the meeting was that the assistant superintendent gave each

principal only one set of posters to put in his/her school. Catheryn’s intention was to talk

117

about the norms so principals would know the importance of them, and would know how
to present the norms in their school buildings. But what happened at that meeting is that
Catheryn didn’t have the chance to talk about them. Catheryn mentions that this is a
typical avoidance from her district to issues related to diversity. At that moment,
Catheryn felt that all the anxiety that she spent on the diversity force meetings to create
the norms was a momentous waste of time. She had asked all the leaders in her district
whether they had gone over the norms in their buildings. Catheryn showed her frustration
because all of them didn’t know what she was talking about. It was a frustrating feeling
to see that school norms related to diversity are not administrators’ highest priority,
Catheryn reports (02/24/2005).

Though the diversity report was moved over quickly, Catheryn presented the
“Safety and Drug Report,” informing the principals about nutrition, sex education, health,
youth behavior, and other related issues. She informed them about the USDA ‘s new
“Dietary Guidelines for American” report and some facts that help to increase students’
development. For example, she shared the experience of some schools, where, after
throwing out soda and junk food vending machines and contracting for nutritional meals,
grades and attendance go up, dropouts go down, and discipline becomes barely an issue.

Catheryn mentions that one of her goals is for school personnel to develop the
required skills and knowledge that would enable them to teach and lead their students and
schools to achieve very high standards, decrease the achievement gap among students,
and develop an awareness of issues related to diversity and multiculturalism. The end is
to develop a critical and skilled perspective, and to motivate school personnel to be aware

of issues related to social justice and teaching excellence in the Central City District.

118

Catheryn mentions that this goal is not yet achieved in Central City District, because
people think that Central City is a very racist community in which people of color are not
welcomed. Therefore, Catheryn believes that educators need to look at the things that
they actually do and push people out to deal with diversity issues.

During the ﬁrst two interviews with Catheryn, she mentioned some negative
practices of her district leadership in terms of expanding diversity and multiculturalism.
She mentions that her district’s leadership doesn’t give her enough opportunity to talk
about diversity, generally just ﬁve minutes in those meetings. The example cited above
supports this comment. Giving little time to these issues at central ofﬁce meetings

signals the lack of interest at the district level.

Welcome to Catheryn Robinson 's World

“Actually considering I went to segregated schools I had quite a rich background

in terms of meeting people outside of my community because of the proactive

nature of my parents I guess, and our community”(02/O9/2005).

Catheryn Robinson was born in Kansan City, Kansas, in 1948. She was brought
up Christian. Her father, also born in Kansas City, was a musician; actually, he was the
president of the Black Musicians Union. Her mother was born in Jacksonville, Arkansas.
She graduated from Southern Illinois University, and she taught in the public school
system in Kansas City. Catheryn is the only child of her parents. She married her husband
within days of his graduation from the Air Force Academy, but now they are divorced.

Catheryn has one son, who was born in Aurora, Colorado. He is currently a police

ofﬁcer for the East Lansing, Michigan police department.

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Catheryn is a beautiful African—American woman; she has glorious eyes, which
suggest determination, conﬁdence, and strong personality. She has very gray short hair,
sprinkled with black hair. She is 5 feet 6 and a half inches tall, and weight 160 pounds.
She wears a variety of clothing to work and other events including skirts, dresses, slacks,
and shorts. Most of her clothes are green or gray. She wears hats to warm her head from
the Michigan cold winter. Before she started talking, she would lean back in her seat and
take a short breath, which suggested a brainstorm of thinking.

Her job responsibilities are very diverse. She is the curriculum assessment
coordinator for the district, which means that anything relative to assessments comes
under her purview. She is also involved in the dissemination of the MEAP test, which is
the Michigan Educational Assessment Program. And she is responsible for gathering the
information and disaggregating the data and getting that data back into the hands of
principals and teachers. She does some professional development based on the data
results if a school building wants her to come in and work with a group of teachers on
teaching strategies on interpreting the data. She also works with the district assessments;
she assesses each of the subjects that aren’t tested by the MEAP once a year, and she
works with teachers as they write and rewrite those exams, trying to make them more
MEAP-like. Her assessment job helps teachers create classroom assessment that inform
their instruction so that they can really help students in terms of meeting their own
learning goals.

Daily, her job involves her in some issues that directly or indirectly affect
students’ achievement. She is the district health and safe and drug free coordinator.

Research ﬁnds that there is a critical link between nutrition and learning. Nutritious

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school meals empower children to make healthy food choices, which is essential to full
intellectual development (02/11/2005). She is also involved with minority issues, as a
matter of personal interest as well as a matter of job responsibilities. She coaches in her
district at the diversity task force and works with diversity issues. She helps educational
practitioners in schools increase student academic achievement and improve inter-group
skills. And to help schools successfully meet the challenges of and beneﬁt from the
diversity that characterizes the United States and its schools, she is involved in
professional development programs that help teachers understand the complex
characteristics of ethnic groups while they assess their students’ performance.

As assessment coordinator, Catheryn works hard to ensure that all students have
equitable opportunities to learn and to meet high standards. Her interest in diversity
issues makes her active in programs that teach teachers and principals how to understand
and value differences among students. This job. responsibility makes Catheryn an active
advocacte for imposing diversity in her district community. The fact that what is
appeared in her district leadership and community suggests a racial ignorance of diversity

issues.

Catheryn ’s Life as a K—12 Student, Teacher, and Administrator
I really didn’t think about diversity because I was in a non-diverse environment
happy as a clam. I had, I loved my elementary, I never even thought of anything
outside of my world, it was just protected, it was wonderful, there was no conﬂict
other than the usual somebody not picking you to play on their baseball team, but
you know I never thought about diversity until high school (01/31/2005).
Catheryn began kindergarten in 1954, and before 1954, she recalls that in certain

states of the United States, schools were segregated, which means that white people went

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to white schools, and black people went to black schools. She recalls that in 1954 the
“Supreme Court reversed that in the Brown vs. Topeka Act, Topeka Board of Education.
That was the Supreme Court decision of 1954, which reversed that” (01/31/2005). She
began school in September of 1954. Although the schools after 1954 were integrated, the
communities were segregated because there was also housing segregation. She went to
her neighborhood school, which was all black, and she went to all black schools from
elementary school through high school. In her high school, Catheryn experienced some
white teachers ”for the ﬁrst time, and as she recalls, there were two of them.

Therefore, her K-12 experience in Kansas City wasn’t in‘ a diverse environment.
Not only was she surrounded by black people like herself, she also recalls that she didn’t
have classes with physically impaired students because they were segregated in their own
schools.“ When I was growing up, kids with physical handicaps went to a school that was
across the street from my school. It was called R. J. Kelano School,” she said
(01/3 1/2005). She recalls that there were some students in her school who had cognitive
impairment. They were kids that just didn’t learn very well, and they were in separate
classrooms in her school building. She remembers that she would see them in the hall.
“They were just like slow learners and they were in our building ”(02/09/2005). At the
time, schools excluded special needs students from regular classes.

Catheryn had some involvement with other people from different religions. She
recalls that she was involved in her church, as a high school student in an inner-city
community; which had involvement with the Jewish community,

There was a, what were they called, it was an organization, it had a lot of people

with the Jewish faith that were involved in that and they connected with, I don’t

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know how, ‘cuz I was just a kid there were members of our church, I wasn’t the

only kid involved. There were other kids from my church that were involved. We

didn’t actually go to the same school, so it wasn’t necessarily at church that we
had these eonversations, but it was through the church that we got connected with
church groups that were interested in broadening the conversation about who we

are and how we connect in the world (01/31/2005).

With the civil rights movement, she remembers Martin Luther King Jr. on
television, and she remembers the adults around her reacting to him and it wasn’t all
positive.

I remember when he started talking about the Vietnam War, how very nervous my

family and their friends were because they thought, ok, he really stepped over the

edge. As long as we’re talking about black-white relationships, don’t start getting

into international stuff (01/3 1/2005).

Catheryn recalls that from 1963 to 1967, the US. was involved in the civil rights -
movement, and there were people who were afﬁliated with religious and humanitarian
organizations that would go to the south and try to help blacks in rural areas vote. Then,
they would come back and tell their story. She was involved in these organizations
because of her parents who tried to get her involved in activities outside of her school. So
for example,

My family was involved in an inner-multicultural because it was as diversity in

religion as well as in race. The kids, the students my age got together and would

talk about these big issues and we’d go to these meetings and have people who

went down south come and tell us what it was like (02/O9/2005).

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Catheryn recalls that she was in an interracial group with high school students,
was involved in high school exchanges, and she was involved in her high school student
council. She recalls that she and other students from her school would go to the white
high school across town to make connections with white students.

We had a student exchange program with a group at Shawnee Mission High

School, which at that time was kind of an elite white high school, but it was

public. And so we spent a day there and I really don’t remember them spending a

day at our school, but I know we spent a day at their school. And I remember we

had, we were hosted by some students there, and there might have been maybe 15

of us that went there and it seems, as I recall, as you know I am no spring chicken,

I’m trying to remember way back then, but I believe that they were curious and

friendly, we certainly didn’t make any lasting friendships, but they... we went to

their classes and, as I recall, in each class preview there was a time when there
could be conversations that were outside of the scope of the curriculum where we
could talk about our life experiences. It was the very most superﬁcial form of

getting to know you, but it was a place to start. So that’s kind of the way it was. I

don’t think there was enough of us that anybody felt nervous, ‘cuz there was a

whole lot of them. It was the very tip of the iceberg but it was someplace to start

(01/3 1/2005).

Catheryn mentions that her family was a host family to a female student from
Germany. Through the American Field Service Exchanges, the German female student
lived with Catheryn’s family for one entire year. In her community, it was the ﬁrst time

that a white person had gone to a black inner city school, and as a result, Catheryn’s

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family was in the newspaper, and people followed them around. She recalls that it was an
opportunity to expand her concept of diversity to include cultural differences. “It never
occurred to me, there was nothing in my world experience that made me even think that
folks acted differently in other cultures. I mean that’s how unaware of diversity we were
in those days,” she said. (OI/3 1/2005) The miscommunications and misunderstandings
that she had with her “German sister” made her understand and value these differences
among people.

Catheryn recalls that there was not any indication of the value of diversity and
multiculturalism in the school curriculum at that time, for example, textbooks and
curriculum weren’t “reality at all”. White people wrote those textbooks. However, when
she was in high school, she started learning about black experience from a different set of
eyes through literature.

Catheryn recalls that her college experience was totally different from anything
that she had dealt with her ﬁrst 18 years of life because she was a minority in an all white
environment, and that was just “mind boggling.” She debated about going to the
University of Missouri, but that really shaped the rest of her life, because it was totally
unexpected and it was “bittersweet. Sweet in that she would never have given it up, and
bitter because it was hard, very har ” (Ol/31/2005). Catheryn mentions that she was in a
drama group at the University of Missouri and it was an interracial group. Actually, they
were only two kids of color in it, she and another lady. They were part of a children’s
theatre group (01/31/2005).

Her ﬁrst teaching experience was in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in one of the

Air Force schools, because her then-husband was in the air force, and mainly air force

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“brats” were at her school. The air force at that time was very segregated also. Ofﬁcers
were mainly white, and noncommissioned ofﬁcers were mainly black. She mainly had
ofﬁcers’ kids in her classes because noncommissioned ofﬁcers’ kids couldn’t really
afford to go to school off base. As a result, her school had primarily white, middle class
students. It was not very diverse in terms of handicapped students’ conditions.

Her most diverse experience was when she and her family went to Virginia. She
taught at a'school in Falls Church, Virginia, at which there were 54 languages spoken. “It
was just the nature of a suburb of Washington DC, which is a gateway area in the United
States,” she explained. (02/09/2005) She stayed there only a year. Her second year in
Virginia was at a different school. She was special education teacher, so she was all over
the place “and so I did a lot of hopping’ around”(Ol/31/2005). That was in a more
suburban Virginia community and it was not very diverse. Catheryn mentions that
schools were starting to include special needs students, but schools didn’t know how to
deal with impaired students. Therefore, Catheryn went to a learning disability self-
contained classroom to learn how to deal with special needs students in her school. She
had some students who were mildly cognitively impaired, in the fourth, ﬁfth, and sixth
grades.

She came to Michigan in 1984, and most of her teaching career has been in
Central City, which up until recently has not been very diverse, in terms of economic,
cultural, and racial diversity. She felt that the isolation of these students would not
challenge them to look outside of their own surrounding, to try to understand others who
are different from them. To address that need, she has done something every year in her

teaching and administrating career that would extend to as many kids as she could.

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Catheryn remembers that during Black History Month (01/31/2005) she had an
opportunity to let her experience be known. And so for 29 years, since her ﬁrst year of
teaching, she had conducted special activities for Black History Month.

Catheryn remembers one incident with a studentin her school that made her look
very carefully at how students deal with each other in terms of respect. Catheryn
remembers that a student who was African-American came to her one day. He was a very
disruptive kid, nothing criminal, but he” was just one that would give everybody reason
to go home and take a nap aﬁer wor ” (02/09/2005). He wasn’t even in her class. He
came to her and said, “You’ve let us down. You see what’s going on in the halls and the
classroom here, and you’re doing nothing about it.” She said, “0k, come in and tell me
what you’re talking about” (02/09/2005). Basically, he said his life in that place was very
difﬁcult because he was subject to various responses to him that are stereotypic responses
and name calling. He said, “ It is happening in the halls,” and suggested that Catheryn is
one of the staff that passes by and closes her ears. She said, “You know what, I’ve never
heard this, I’ve never seen this. I’m not ignoring anything, I’m very proactive”
(01/31/2005). Therefore, Catheryn started looking and listening. She was shocked to
learn and hear the negative statements, naming, and stereotypes. So she started the
Multicultural Club at Central City high school 20 years ago, which is still going today.
Catheryn is proud of that because it was Central City’s ﬁrst step. From early on, as a
teacher and administrator, she did something to affect as many kids as she could to bring
them a different level of awareness outside of their own personal experience.

When she was a principal, teacher professional development in service days

occurred six days a year, Catheryn devoted one day to talk and discuss issues related to

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diversity, to open teachers’ eyes to issues, even small things that could affect student
learning potential negatively. In her current administrative position, Catheryn brings
diversity and multiculturalism up to the school leaders’ level. She hopes that school
leaders consider diversity a priority in their agendas. She hopes also that school leaders in
her district would be aware of the urgent need to occupy a good deal of attention of
diversity issues. However, the reality doesn’t seem as Catheryn hopes. Catheryn mentions
that she had an argument with some of her district administrators about the importance of
diversity. She recalls that these administrators told her to spend her time on more
important things than diversity. And when Catheryn mentioned to them that diversity is
very important to take care of, they told her “You’ve gotta be kidding” (04/17/2005).
Catheryn mentions that these incidents make her question how she might tell school
leaders to prioritize diversity and how she might help leadership understand the issue at a
larger level than their small schools. Catheryn thinks that the key for leaders is to keep
looking at what that big picture is and keep trying to make sure that the key things that

they are focusing on are the really the true issues.

Professional Development Programs

“1 have been very active in bringing that type of professional development to
Central City” (02/04/2005).

In terms of her “teacher training,” or in terms of like professional development on
the job, Catheryn recalls that there wasn’t anything related to awareness of diversity and

multiculturalism, she even remembers that she was trained in the early 70’s when the

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United States was just trying to ﬁgure out “which end was up and then, urn, King has
been assassinated, Malcolm X had been assassinated, so, you know, my teacher training
was, everybody was trying not to be blamed for anything” (02/09/2005). Thus,
discussions about diversity and multiculturalism topics were very limited during
professional development. She remembers that it was not an easy task to talk about
diversity issues, but she recalls that she had one superintendent in her district supported
diversity issues and brought it to the table of principals meetings.

I believe his interest was based on his daughter having profound hearing loss, and

so she fell into the category of, um, uh, special needs student because she was

hearing impaired and so he was very aware of the needs of people that weren’t the

majority (02/09/2005).

Catheryn mentions that what brought him to the table, meaning the table that
discusses diversity issues, was the fact that he had a child who was not part of the
“majority.” Therefore, he started the diversity task force on a district level, and one of
the things that he did was, tie school improvement money to diversity goals. He said that
every school should get X amount of dollars to help articulate or complete a diversity
goal, which implies they had to have a diversity goal. Therefore, Catheryn mentions that
her school had an ethnic fair every year, and they had demonstrations of everything that
could be imagined related to diversity. They had dances, songs, and readings from
various diverse groups, and children came with their families. Everyone enjoyed it, and
teachers were encouraged to participate with their classrooms (01/31/2005).

As an administrator, Catheryn has been very active through her entire professional

career to try to bring that type of professional development to schools as well as

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experiences for the kids. For example, Catheryn recalls that they had a committee that

looked for original Michigan art from artists from various backgrounds.
Each one of our schools had uh, not just the art done by the artist, but an 1
experience for the kids. For example,rour Hispanic artist was someone whose
background was in performance art. So this is what he did, he created an art
piece. Performance art is alive, so he created a cube made of students of all
different students heights and colors and sizes and shapes, and so he of course
made platforms and stuff so that the cube looked perfectly square although the
kids are different sizes and, and then he, and so that, the art was that experience
that the kids had, he of course explained what the class is and all of this, and then
we took a picture of that, and the picture of the cube is in that particular building

(01/31/2005).

When she becarrre an assistant principal, the biggest deal with diversity was the
whole notion of power, harassment, and intolerance asstudeirts interacted with each
other. It did not make any sense to Catheryn that school has all these rules of human
interaction at school and the kids could go home, and on their way home they could be
harassed. Most school’s administrators don’t care about these issues, because they don’t
think it is a school issue, but Catheryn believes that it is still school issue. “Not all
principals had that perspective, and I would have to say the time I was an assistant
principal most folks didn’t want to deal with that kind of stuff ”(01/3 1/2005). She had
her superintendent’s support, even thorough she had many issues with parents who were

upset because kids would get in trouble because they were calling each other racial slurs

or taunting each other based on their handicaps or socioeconomic status. “Because I just

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wouldn’t let it drop,” (01/31/2005) so that was the ﬁrst part of it and that was in terms of
trying to establish a sense of safety, and she doesn’t think that one can establish a sense I
of safety unless the organization supports the issue.

When Catheryn was an administrator, one year she decided to do a program called
the “Sounds of Diversity.” It occurred to her that kids had never heard other languages
spoken, therefore, she invited some people form her school and community who spoke
another language, and talk about an issue in their native languages. They would translate
it to English.

Catheryn’s continuous concern of teaching about diversity extends to school staff,
and she wanted to do some “diversity training at least for some of the district
administrators,” Catheryn said. (01/31/2005) And so her superintendent told her about a
woman in Battle Creek that did this training. And so Catheryn got one of school board
members, assistant superintendent, and a couple of counselors to take part in professional
deve10pment about diversity. “You know you just have to go and bug them and harass “
them in fact we need to do this because we consider them electives, you don’t have to do
it and folks won’t do it,” (02/09/2005) What surprised Catheryn that the administrators
were very uncomfortable, and she felt that they totally missed the point.

I mean the whole point is that there are these different perspectives and it’s up to

us to help the kids understand that. But of course, whenever you have

professional development that makes you reﬂect on your own experience. . .then it
makes you like guilty, or, err, anxious, or whatever, and I have come to realize

that that’s not going to get us anywhere. I mean I have created those

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environments for my district, too, and those have been negative experiences

(01/31/2005).

Contrarily, Catheryn thinks that her experience with LATTICE has been positive
because there’s no guilt involved in introducing yourself, describing your name, and
saying your name. People wouldn’t feel like other professional development that they
have “done that, have often left the adults felt like I should, could, might, you know,
they’re feeling like they ought to feel guilty and they resent that” (02/09/2005). And so
Catheryn confesses that she is personally tired of trying to ﬁgure out what environment of
professional development would be most effective. “Although I do have a diversity
training session for my new teachers and every year I struggle with what that’ll be,” she
said. (02/09/2005) She doesn’t want to turn them off by thinking guilt (02/09/2005),
because this would take them away from the point of any conversation that she is trying
to have. Catheryn mentions that other reasons of making. people don’t feel comfortable to
talk about diversity issues are the prejudices they have about something or somebody.

Catheryn mentions that the “ignorance” and “uncomfortable” state of school
leaders make her very scared. She sees it as having something to do with social justice.
Some leaders have a low expectation of students’ from subcategories, therefore, they
don’t question their exams’ results nor they question their behaviors and attitudes.

I had a conversation the other day with a friend and she said at her school and she

works in an urban school, she say you go into that principals ofﬁce and you see

kids with sweatshirts with hoods sitting there, listening to urn, their CD radio, and
they have a no hood rule in the school, and no CDs, and the principal will walk

right in and right past those kids and never say a word to those kids. And she said

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it’s like, what’s the point. I mean so, just little things like that. Most better

principals know that every little thing matters. Um, and I think that’s the message

we’re going to have to teach the young principals in the job because there’s so
many people retiring now, that you can’t let stuff like that slide, because you’ll
never get that academic rigor when you’re dealing with, or not dealing with this

kind of stuff (02/24/2005).

Catheryn painfully criticizes what she had read and experienced in the last two
years related to NCLB. It has been relative to the core curriculum and the strict
interpretation of what that means and does not look at the whole student and their health
needs, their interaction with other needs, and to ignore that, we’re still going to leave a lot
of kids behind in no child left behind.

Because you cannot teach the core without looking at all those other issues,

because that’s what they are. So, I don’t know, I mean that’s why it’s a tough

question to answer, because I think there is a saying in American, don’t throw the
baby out with the bath water. In other words, or don’t miss the forest with the
trees or whatever, I mean I think in trying to, have this level of academic
excellence, we cannot afford to lose sight of who it is we’re trying to teach. And
their experiences and what make them who they are. And, and, and that just so, in
terms of social justice I’m just very nervous about that, and I see it as having
something that teachers with passion have to step up to the plate and say this is

still very important and we need to make sure it happens (OI/31/2005).

In summary, Catheryn as a teacher, principal, and administrator did many

excellent actions to increase school personnel awareness about diversity and

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multiculturalism. Primarily, she believes that social justice calls all educators to do what
they can to ensure more equitable patterns of learning. She does some professional
development based on the data results, and she would work with principals and teachers
to interpret what the data means and how and what teaching strategies are essential to

increase student learning experience.

Categories of Difference

“I spent all of K—12 in Kansas City in a predominantly (99%) black school

Community” (03/21/2005).

The researcher was interested in ﬁguring out what Catheryn descried as diversity,
in terms of her categories and how she delivers these categories. While the researcher
was in the process of analyzing the data from the interviews, the researcher ﬁgured out
two types of categories related to diversity. One of these two categories is the difference
of minority, and the other is the difference of culture. There are some overlaps where the
two categories meet together.

Difference of minority refers ﬁrstly to the difference of skin color of skin.
Catheryn witnessed the segregation and integration era in the United Sates. She recalls
that difference between white/black people was based on the segregation laws, which had
isolated the connection and relationships between the two groups.

Catheryn remembers that the segregation included schools and all the aspects of
education. That means that white peOple have their own schools and their white teachers,
and black people have their own schools and their own teachers. She explained that by

saying that before 1954 in certain states of the United States education was separate but

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equal, so schools were segregated by law (01/31/2005). The segregation ended in 1954
when the Supreme Court reversed the law (01/31/2005).

The segregation also included housing (neighborhood). Based on the law, black
people were not allowed to live within white neighborhoods. Catheryn recalls, “because
there was also housing segregation and so I went tomy neighbor hood school which was
all black and I went to all black schools from elementary through high school”
(02/09/2005). Catheryn mentions that as a child of black family, she didn’t experience
difference of socioeconomic status, because that all Black people lived in the same
community regardless of their economic status.

So there were people in my neighborhood that probably were a lot less
economically stable than my family. I was an only child. My boyfriend for
example, who became my husband, was the oldest of 7, and they struggled, but
the families probably pulled in the same amount of money, so it was not like the
neighborhoods now like, the middle Class lives in one neighborhood, the lower
class in another neighborhood, and the upper class. . .because we had no other
neighborhoods, that was the only place we could live. But in terms of my
neighbors they were all African Americans, it wasn’t because of laws that said we
couldn’t live in any other neighborhood, we were forced to live there
(02/009/2005).

The segregation was also in the economic and job opportunities. Black people
were not allowed to work in some places, or even to have the same salary as a white
person who does the same work. Even the educated persons of the black community were

not allowed to achieve high levels of responsibility as white peers. Also, Catheryn recalls

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that all the aspects of the life that time were segregated; the unions were segregated, there
were black bricklayers union and white bricklayers union, and there were black
musicians union and white musicians union. The unions were segregated until 1966, and
she recalls that her father was the president of the Black Musician Union. Black people
couldn’t go into white clubs to dance and enjoy themselves, but black musicians could go
into white clubs to entertain. And one of the things that her father had to do was make
sure he got paid, so he “had to do a lot of things as a union president including
demanding payment for his musicians. . .those early labor unions... were so important
because people were just not being treated fairly and equitably” (02/09/2005).

Catheryn as a teacher and administrator experienced color difference to extend
also Hispanics and Asian students. Her concern is how school and staff should guarantee
a safe place for minority students where they feet valuable, appreciated, and recognized
by mainstream people.

Difference of minority secondly includes persons who are categorized with
special needs. Catheryn recalls that as a student in K-12, she didn’t have students with
special needs in her school. At that time, these students were learning in separated
schools. Even with students who had problems of not learning well, or slow learners,
these kids were not allowed to be in the same classrooms as regular students, Catheryn
remembers, that they were in separate classrooms in school building. And she would see
them in the hall (02/09/2005).

Difference of minority thirdly includes students who speak languages other than
English. Catheryn has always concern and passion that all our kids in our schools are

treated fairly and equitably. Her ﬁrst experience of a difference in language goes back

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when she went to teach in Virginia. She taught in' school where there were 54 languages
spoken at that school. Therefore, one year she decided to do a program called (The
Sounds of Diversity). Her motivation for creating this program was when shei“lt occurred
to me that our kids had never heard other languages spoken, you could tell because you
hear someone speak and they’d giggle and carry on and they think it’s the funniest thing
because they aren’t aware of it” (02/09/2005). So she used the parents of her students, she
had a parent in her building who was French, she had a parent who was Mexican, and she
had a teacher who was African from Togo. It just so happened that her German sister
happened to be visiting then, so she also had her German sister. And so they were asked
to bring something that was near and dear to their hearts that would be something that
would articulate their experience as middle school students, so they had to explain it to
the kids in their native language and then translate it into English. The Aﬁican man
brought clothing ﬁ'om his country, and he and his wife and explained what it was in his
language, and in English. And the French gentleman brought a picture of his
grandparents who worked on a farm and he explained his background in French and then
in English. The Mexican man brought a Mexican ﬂag and talked about its symbolism.
And then the German woman brought a poem from their sixth grade textbook and she
read it, in German, and explained it in German and in English.

Difference of culture refers to difference among people who aren’t Americans.
Catheryn’s ﬁrst experience with difference of culture goes back when her family hosted a
German woman in their house. She recalls that there were misunderstandings because of
the differences of culture, and it never occurred to her that people act differently because

of cultural differences. Other experiences were related to her attendance in LATTICE

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where she met people from over the world. Catheryn remembers that once in LATTICE
session in 2004, a Chinese student was reading an essay that described the experience she
felt when she came to U.S.A, and what challenges she felt in classes.

She came to the United States a bright, brilliant person. But somehow or another,

she lost her voice. And somewhere along the line, she found her voice. And I

said, “Oh my God, she’s describing me.” And, and, and, we’re from way

different parts of the world. Our experiences come from way different
perspectives. But that’s how I feel and in my world of work, all of the time. And
just the fact that we came from such different perspectives and we came to that
table so differently, the fact that internally we felt the same, it was just like, wow,

so that would be (02/04/2005).

There are some spots where both kinds of difference overlap. While she was
talking about diversity, Catheryn mentioned religious differences in both categories. She
experienced religion differences when she was in school. Through her church, she
remembers that she had involvement with the Jewish community; the involvement was
about broadening the conversation about “who we are and how we connect in the world ”
(01/31/2005). Conversations about religion according to cultural difference are related to
understand religions that are in and out U.S.A., such as Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism.

The beneﬁts of having connections and relationships with minority people are
very important here in U.S.A. Catheryn explained why it is very important for teachers
and administrators to know about minority differences in their schools and classrooms.
Catheryn also thinks that the assumption generally speaking is negative, and they are

wrong perceptions “although in the attempt to deal with the environment they may make

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you feel that way, m but its too easy to write a student off based on what you
perceive.”(Ol/30/2005) Catheryn explicitly says that the problem is in privilege.

I mean to me I think that’s a problem because [majority people] never are given

the challenges of looking outside of their own lenses to try to understand others, I

think that’s a tremendous limitation, and I think that’s one of the things I try to do

at [Central City], is to open up their eyes to the world around them so they aren’t
so limited, because as the world becomes more global, that will be a detriment to
them, in the future, but I would have to say one of the problems that they have,

this is a stereotype (01/30/2005).

Catheryn extends the beneﬁts of understanding each other in the United States for
the same race or ethnicity. Though people came from basically the same United States,
they have their own family heritage regardless of how many generations they have been
here or their own traditions.

Because we all have a different... we have what we bring to the table that’s a list

of which we look at our experience for example, the experience I bring to the

table comes from the African American experience. But my Aﬁican American
experience having grown up fairly comfortably in an urban setting in the Midwest

is totally different than somebody who might have grown up either hungry or in a

different part to the south or you know (02/04/2005).

But her experience with LATTICE has changed Catheryn’s perspective in the
world of the need of respecting others in the global view. Catheryn recalls that her

experience in LATTICE has helped her to understand her own culture.

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As well as my own perspective because Black history has been way, not

represented in our textbooks well, so we’ve had to clean up our perspective of our

history, but not only that but global perspective needs to come into our classrooms

and only... so how do you do that? Well the Internet helps, but I still say the best

way to do this is one on one contact with people (02/09/2005).

Therefore, Catheryn calls for self, other, and global openness to accept,
understand, and value each other in this world, which became smaller and smaller with

the rapid technology effects of what could happen far away could affect us here.

LA TT 1 CE Experience
“I’ve been active in LATTICE for 2 years”(02/04/2005).

Catheryn recalls that the ﬁrst time that she heard about LATTICE was in 1995, in
the ﬁrst years that LATTICE was forming, because a teacher in her district had heard
about it and was excited about it. Then, Catheryn met with the LATTICE coordinator at
lunch and both of them talked about it. Catheryn mentions that she didn’t have any idea
what people did or talked about, or how she would ﬁt into the picture.

I think I was a uni. .. I think I was an assistant principal maybe a teacher at the
time. So that was ‘when I ﬁrst heard about it. But then um, when I moved out of
my role as a principal into the role of curriculum I thought well maybe this would
give me a chance to participate (02/04/2005).

Actually, Catheryn was on the LATTICE e-mail-list for a year before she was
actually involved in LATTICE. Catheryn remembers that it was around the time of

September eleventh, and she got a responsibility in her current position to connect With,

140

to get understanding of the Middle Eastern community, therefore, reading LATTICE

electronical letters, Catheryn got involved in LATTICE.
I wasn’t active in LATTICE except being a member of the LISTSERV, and
[LATTICE coordinator] and I went to a meeting in Dearbom. We spent the day
together, and time down there and back, and um, so that was prior to my actual
active participation in LATTICE (02/04/2005).
Catheryn remembers that her very ﬁrst meeting with LATTICE was really a

turning point in her life.
I just happened to sit at a table; I didn’t know anyone at the table. Um, actually
there were people from my district that were-there but we didn’t happen to, well
they... one person was there because they were the planners. She’s been involved
for so long. You know, and so, she of course sat at my table cause she knew she
wasn’t supposed to. And we had the introduction. And, and that was pretty
awesome. Now, what was, I don’t know if this was just coincidence... but this
person sat down with me, and she was an Aﬁican American female from another
district and it was her ﬁrst experience with LATTICE too. And actually, we’re
like best friends. There was something about her and that group that was at the
table that day that we just clicked. And the fact that she shared something about
her name that triggered something in my youth growing up, just, it was just a
word or phrase, I don’t know. But it was the fact that there was a connection that
we made that let me know that she understood where I was coming from because
we had a shared experience that was all due to some piece of her name. And it

wasn’t that, but it was the fact that that introduction could stimulate such a strong

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connection between people, about things that you would never suspect in a
million years about that whole naming piece. That let me know that this was a
real unique experience, a unique adventure that I was about to become a part of
(02/04/2005).

Catheryn sees her experience in LATTICE as a chance to connect with people
who are different and who are from almost unknown places. Now she can tell that after
having been involved in LATTICE, she is more proactive in getting holidays, dates, and
events out to principals and administrators (02/24/2005).

Figure (4) presents Catheryn’s hierarchal ladder of how LATTICE promotes
members’ awareness of social justice. LATTICE is a place where people don’t feel guilty
or uncomfortable. When they feel comfortable, they start to point out their own blindness
or ignorance around issues related to differences. This process broaden people’
perspectives to begin understand differences among them. After people achieve a step

where they value the uniqueness, they start to make actions to promote social justice.

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MWUGEE

 

Encourage an Action

 

Waine uniquness

 

tindentand olrferrcesen
Broaden Perspectives

 

 

Point own Ilindness

 

Feet not @uiitgy

 

 

 

Figure (4). Catheryn’s hierarchal ladder of how LATTICE promotes members’ awareness
for social justice.

Catheryn ’ 5 Motivation to Participate in LATTICE
“I think initially it was curiosity” (02/04/2005). '
Catheryn mentions that her willingness to participate in LATTICE initially was

her curiosity. She had teachers in the district that had been involved in LATTICE for

143

years, maybe 5 years, 6 years or more. And even as a very active member of the
multicultural community, Catheryn recalls that she did never really understand what
LATTICE participants were doing or what they got out of it. These teachers weren’t in
her building. So, unfortunately, Catheryn mentions that at her district and at many
districts everything is pretty much “building. speciﬁc.” And so, after being on the
LISTSERV for a year, she was just curious “I still didn’t get a sense to what the meetings
were like ” (02/04/2005). So she decided to be a part of that and experience it for herself.
Catheryn recalls also that she had another experience that motivated her to
participate in LATTICE. There was a LATTICE member in her team who had
experience dealing with groups and experiential learning and when Catheryn came into
this position and curriculum, she met with her a couple times just to talk about what I
might do to promote experiential learning in the district. So “that was sort of a tangential
connection, tangential connection with LATTICE ”(02/04/2004).
Catheryn remembers that when someone ﬁrst described [LATTICE as an exchange
of food, she thought that was negative.
Because we often talk about multicultural experiences as eating or singing or
dancing without really getting to know about the culture. So when someone ﬁrst
described LATTICE as we eat well, I really thought that was um, a disservice to
LATTICE because um, the eating and the singing and the dancing to me
sometimes, at least ﬁom an African American experience, is a... uh... reinvention
of a stereotype, I thought was not a positive thing, but actually experiencing it.
And I tell you what, the best thing is about the food is, when, for me, is when

people describe the contents, because never before in my life did it occur to me

144

that people had dietary restrictions based on culture, based on religion, as well as
based on preference. And I must admit, I. .. yet have to recall to leave out meat
when I’m preparing something, I’ve had many LATTICE people say, “boy I wish
I could have eaten that but it had pork in it or something like that.” But food is so
much more than just a potluck and I wish there could be a way when you describe
the LATTICE experience to be able, to describe it as more than just a potluck

(02/09/2005).

LA T T I CE Deﬁnition
LATTICE zeroing in on the thing, having a conversation about it, having people,
having that exchange, with comparing what we do, with what whoever is presenting our
perspective versus ours and theirs and compare and contrast and all of that, what I’m
grappling with is how to translate that into a classroom experience (02/09/2005).
Following are a set of deﬁnitions drawn from the interviews with Catheryn.

o LATTICE ‘s introduction could stimulate such a strong connection
between people about things that you would never suspect in a million
years about that whole naming piece.

- LATTICE is a real unique experience, a unique adventure that I was about
to become a part of.

o LATTICE is the whole notion of experiential learning. I have not had an
intense experience anywhere else; the whole notion of experiential
learning is what has been pretty amazing to me about LATTICE.

o LATTICE makes me aware of things that I didn’t aware of before. So

I’ve learned that there’s so much that I don’t know.

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Social Justice

LATTICE always seemed to be a place that with each meeting I felt more
and more comfortable. ’

LATTICE is the best way to do this one on one contact with people, which
is of course, another message that LATTICE has sent out loud and clear.
(02/09/2005)

LATTICE is a transformative process. It is a growing experience, which
makes educators more aclmowledgeable of diversity and multiculturalism
in their schools and classrooms.

LATTICE is a unique place to understand people who live in and outside
the United States.

LATTICE is an exchange of food where you smell, taste, and know the
whole cultural story beyond it.

LATTICE is a hope for better future. Better future for all people who want
to. be recognized as their uniqueness in this large society within the

democracy values of freedom and equity.

“Oh there’s that word again, that S J word, um, I don’t know that, as I hope our
conversations have revealed over time”(02/O4/2005).

Catheryn mentions that she and her building don’t use the term social justice to

refer to equity and fairness. Even though it was a new term for her, she thinks that it goes

much deeper than the term diversity, which is a term that she has come to use, in terms of

what she and her building are focusing on or what they should be focusing on. Catheryn

146

distinguishes between social justice and diversity. Diversity means understanding. It has
a sense of understanding, a sense of broadening a perspective, a sense of tolerance, and a
sense of acceptance. Social justice is a call to action that is different than contemplating
things differently. She believes that if there’s an injustice and one discovers it, one can’t
help but do something about it. She mentioned the pandemic of AIDS, and related doing
nothing about social justice to “slavery.”

Slavery, in all of it’s forms, either though child labor, abuses or obviously the
typical notion of slavery or a country serving another country unfairly. The
differing wage discrepancies betweens workers and stuff, and social justice would
cause, is an action word, diversity is a thinking word. Kind of a, I mean and you
can’t do the action without understanding the need for it I mean they really go
hand in hand, but it’s way, way different, a whole “different point or direction than
just, um, broadening your perspective for the sense of global understanding.
Which of course once you do that you’ll discover famine, and how can you be a
human being and not try to do something. I mean that’s what to me personally
social justice impels, or implores you, or demands you to go forward in your
seeking if not in your action at least in your thinking (02/09/2005).

Analyzing Catheryn’s data of what she thinks of social justice was a complex and
not easy task. First, even that she deﬁnes the term social justice; she mentions that it is a
vague term. In other words, each administrator sees it from a different perspective. Each
leader sees the term according to his/her leadership style and priorities. For example, how
can we determine which leadership is which? Is it increasing students’ learning,

leadership that focuses on teaching teachers strategies that promote their teaching style so

147

students would learn more effectively? Another leadership may be interested in
improving reading, based on research ﬁndings. Another leadership style thinks that
students’ personal needs are what are standing in the way of learning. They can’t learn if
they come to school hungry, they can’t learn if they’re being beat up every night at home,
and they can’t learn if they’re cold or hungry or don’t know where they’re going to sleep.
So this leadership thinks that what is going to work best is providing more and better
counselors and early intervention for social issues, including going to go out to the
homes. Catheryn wonders who is to say which style is the most effective for increasing
student’s learning.

Catheryn, whose district is very homogenous, thinks that it is very important to
understand diversity and social justice, to broaden her students’ perspective on
socioeconomic and racial groups in the United States. But she is also feels an emotional
connection and commitment to the idea of having our students better understand those
who are different from themselves.

This connection extended to her international perspective. This international
interest is based on the fact that her students, generally speaking, come from the same
area. They have not moved around, out of the state or out of the region. Catheryn had
taught in different states, had taught in different classes of students, and was of a different
race, so she thought she brought a lot to the table. But her experience with LATTICE has
changed her appreciation of the perspective ﬁ'om which views the world of the United
States, and how it has become more and more obvious over the years that not all

countries admire the United States and want to be like AmeriCans.

148

Which is the prevailing message that we send, and of course that I’ve grown up
7 with, so it has become increasing obvious to me, intellectually, that all Americans
need to understand, ﬁrst of all we need to clean up the facts of our history... but
not only that but global perspective needs to come into our classrooms
(02/09/2005).
Catheryn recalls an example that made her aware that there is difference among
Americans. ,
Sometimes there was a cultural challenge or a traditions challenge because they
[international students] weren’t in their homeland where they had all that support
system that is built into that, they were here and you know. Then we turned to the
table and described, which was interesting, that was, that was quite interesting
listening to what the birthing process was in the various cultures, then we shared
at our table various... well we reﬂected on what they said and then shared various
birthing rituals or processes. and at the table of I guess there were maybe 8 or 10
of us at the table, I had no, no idea, I mean, I felt it’s like I lived under a rock, but
I had no clue that even in the United States, typical birthing experience at our
table, there was no typical birthing experience, even though we came from
basically the same United States, but we had our own family heritage regardless
of how many generations we were here or our own traditions (02/04/2005).
Catheryn is a self-motivated person; she said that doesn’t need an external
stimulus to make her do something that she believes in. She guesses that LATTICE has .

backed her up with the courage to continue doing things that she thinks are important.

149

Figure (5) represents Catheryn’s conceptual and hierarchical ladder for achieving
social justice in their organizations. Catheryn called for breaking the privileges that raise
unjust among people. People would start look out side from different lenses. In this step,
people would be aware to their ignorance to be advocacy to diversity. Advocacy leads to
clean up the facts and realities of history that disguise people’s minds about diversity and

multiculturalism. This step leads to higher action toward social justice.

 

iociai Justice

@aii ior Actions

clean up [History

Advocate tor [diversity
Loollt outside trorn
different [Lenses

lreaii Priuiieges

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure (5). Catheryn’s conceptual and hierarchical ladder for achieving social

justice in her organization.

150

Developing Leadership Awareness Through LA TT I CE

The staff wants to know that you know where you are going, even though the best

thing is that you don’t know where you are going because there is a world of

possibilities out there but they want to think that you have got the roadmap, so
you have to do certain things to let them think that you have got to have the

agenda (02/24/2005).

Catheryn believes that administrators in their schools and districts should set the
tone in their buildings. This can provide a great opportunity for the development of
energized teachers, principals, and other staff who might revitalize public education and
redeﬁne progressive education according to current needs and struggles. Catheryn
characterizes an effective leader as one who tells the staff where they are going, in effect
giving them a roadmap. Also, the staff needs to see their leaders working side by side
with them.

Administrators that impressed her the most were the ones that rolled up their _
sleeves and ﬁgured out a situation with their staff. Where leaders join with their staff in
ﬁnding the answers and decision-making, they feel a lot more comfortable. Both
principals and teachers can do a lot of things wonderﬁrl together for kids in that method
of leadership (02/24/2005).

Catheryn mentions that LATTICE continuously makes her develop a sense that is
focused explicitly on issues of social justice as they relate to school settings. This implied
clarifying the curriculum about issues related to social justice in the United States.

We need to clean up the facts of our history. Urn, LATTICE has helped me to

understand as well as my own perspective because black history has been not

represented in our textbooks well, so we’ve had to clean up our perspective of our

151

history, but not only that but global perspective needs to come into our classrooms
(02/04/2005).

This also implies preparing leaders as agents of change and organizers. LATTICE
has as its goal to infuse issues of social justice into all of its parts, which is the whole
notion of experiential learning. The intellectual and emotional connections of LATTICE
have made Catheryn learn a lot of things on the personal and professional levels. In terms
of intellectual development, also, in terms of professional practice, she tries to articulate
what an experiential learning situation is and how it might take place in the classroom. It
is emotional learning because the one-to-one contact makes the connections and dialogue
more effective and efﬁcient. More over it is multi-sensory.

Um, sights and sounds and smells and food and everything, its multi-‘
dimensional. So it’s not just an intellectual experience, and it’s hard to describe
the emotional impact except that, uh, I think is really important. I mean that’s
how it’s boiled down. The emotional impact leaves me with the riotion that this is '
something that is very important and we need to have other communities of
learners and teachers. Learners meaning adult learners have this experience so
that they can bring it alive in their classrooms too (02/09/2005).

Catheryn mentions that because of her experience in LATTICE, she has learned
that there is so much that she does not know. She has learned to respect her “ignorance”
and the fact there is so much more she yet has to know about people and places in order
to make even the tiniest dent in understanding between people who are different.

I mean that it’s not like I thought I knew so much, but it’s just, LATTICE has

pointed out to me, I guess my own understanding... not even just my own

152

assumptions, but my own blinders, that they are there and, and, and I just have to

always understand that they’re there and do something about it. So I guess that’s

what I’ve learned. I’ve learned that there’s so much that I don’t know

(02/04/2005). .

Catheryn sees LATTICE as professional development that always seems to be a
place where a lot of people feel comfortable to engage in dialogue, learn, share, and
disagree.

I really thought about that and I thought that it’s no wonder that we have such,
hatred and anger and fear and misunderstanding in the world, because um, of the
messages we send about ourselves and other people. Well of course the fact is
when you have inexperience with someone else, you have to question those
messages. And so I mean, whether you believe it later or not that becomes
personal, but once you have that experience, you begin to question those
messages. And that of course is the advantage or strength of LATTICE with so
many different cultures represented and the personal commitment of members of
LATTICE to sit with different people so that they can meet with different people
so that they can break through barriers and stereotypes (02/09/2005).

Catheryn thinks that LATTICE’s LISTSERV is as a chance to connect with
former LATTICE members because they use it to communicate some of their current
experiences and send invitations to people to get involved in this, that, and the other. It’s
also a place to keep people informed about what’s happening in the community today.

Now I can tell you now after having been involved in LATTICE, I am more

proactive in getting those dates and those events out to others, because in my

153

current role I can do that. So often I copy and paste something and send that out

to all the principals or send it out to a particular department like social studies or

whatever at the high school if I think that’s something the students might be
involved in. And one of the things that I do every month, is I have a list, I get it
off the web, it’s called celebrations, and it talks about various monthly '
celebrations which again I have personal problems with this, but it’s also better
than the never, like black history month or whatever, and so if I can connect what
came on the list with the celebrations that I’m reminding the principals of that
month, I make that connection for them. And so that’s one of the ways I’ve been
able to use... so I guess maybe the change has been more in me than the listserv

because I see ways that I can use it to keep people informed better than I did

before (02/09/2005).

Catheryn mentions that the best way to teach about diversity and social justice is
one-on-one contact with people, which is of course the message that LATTICE has sent
out loud and clear.

The best that we have is, urn, a lot of teachers understand. . .when they create a

mini—society, I think that that’s what they call it in the classroom, when they

teaching about sometimes math, or sometimes social studies, they create a mini
society and they try to replicate that and it’s a six week kinda thing and they end
up with some event that kids have to exchange money and show how they count
and have some kind of governmental system. The closest we have to
understanding experiential learning is maybe that but I don’t think that we have to

have a whole six week project create a whole different climate and community to '

154

understand experiencing another person, but the LATTICE zeroing in on the
thing, having a conversation about it, having people, having that exchange, with
comparing what we do, with what whoever is presenting our perspective versus
ours and theirs and compare and contrast and all of that, what I’m grappling‘with
is how to translate that into a classroom experience I don’t know. The closest
we’ve done so far is some Internet connection with other students that teachers
have met their teachers through LATTICE, which are of course a great start
(02/09/2005).
Catheryn recalls some beneﬁts that she took from LATTICE. One thing that
happened as a result of her participation was the LATTICE introductions.
We did this year with all the staff, in heterogeneous groupings so that people talk
to teachers and custodians and bus drivers were all talking together. That was a
ﬁrst in our district and that clearly come from my involvement in LATTICE bring
it back to the district. I would say that something would happen bigger than just a
classroom if other administrators were involved (02/09/2005).
Catheryn thinks that LATTICE. would probably cause her to question the way she
has inﬂuenced groups in the past.
I am a great one for planting seeds, I mean I’m one of these people they call an
idea person, and my brain is my curse, it’s just like I have an idea about
everything. And so I, my strength is connecting with various people that might be
interested in something that I have an idea in planning a seed. LATTICE I think,
if I were to dissect their message it would be, that’s not good enough, you need to

drop a landmine so that you got their attention, a total emersion of an experience

155

would be the way to go, and so the question that I have is, how do to that without
like I said, without sanction to do that, I mean other than just have people
experience LATTICE for themselves and then we have a conversation as to how
we might do that in a classroom, and so, so if anything, LATTICE has cause me
to question this, you know I still think it’s a good idea to drop the seeds and how
they grow, but I mean LATTICE would certainly say you got to do more than
hope that something happens. You have to be more direct, and you know, bring it
to them (02/09/2005).

Catheryn mentions that LATTICE has helped her reinforce and clarify for her
how she deals with names “because it is very important.” This message that LATTICE is
sending is on a racial level, but LATTICE has also reminded her of that on an
international level:

Because we are really good at giving folks different names that are easy for us to
pronounce and they seem to be ok with it, but then ok, are they? You have to ask
yourself, why would they be? You know, they’re helping us out. Yeah, so I .
would say LATTICE has helped me to understand the value of the whole person.
Not that I didn’t have that perspective before but it’s taken to a deeper level
(02/24/2004).

Catheryn recalls that LATTICE helps her deal with large-group facilitation:

I don’t do anything that requires group discussion if I’m with the whole staff. So
I might meet with a department, like all the 6th grade teachers or the 7th grade
teachers or the English teachers or whatever, and you communicate much better

in a small group and you can report out to the large group. So although that is a

156

[LATTICE] technique it’s a technique that was not familiar to me and I used ’

anyway (02/09/2005).

Catheryn remembers expecting to be bored by having to ﬁll out the two-minute
survey that LATTICE encourage its participants to do. She felt that it would be a waste of
time. But when she read the survey, she thought that

Oh wow, these are important. I thought it was just for that ﬁrst meeting. Then of

course the next meeting it was the same survey with the same questions, and I

thought oh, duh! This was a great idea. I could be doing the feedback survey.

It’s a way to communicate to the people that you are interacting with in terms of,

whether they got it, what it was you were trying to teach them or have them

experience, or not, and what else you can do to meet their needs (02/09/2005).

Therefore, Catheryn believes that the uniqueness of LATTICE remains in the
following points:

- LATTICE is an experiential learning. People can get to new information
and skills be experiencing small group skill, engaging in dialogues,
sharing stories and experiences, and listening to other’s ideas and
opinions.

o LATTICE is an ongoing process. LATTICE is different than other
professional programs that take a form of workshop to address diversity
issues. LATTICE is a continuous learning process.

0 LATTICE is the building of relationships with people from around the

world to learn from them and to learn more about ourselves.

157

Figure (6) represents Catheryn’s hierarchal ladder of effective leadership.
Catheryn mentioned that ﬁrst of all a leader should establish a sense of safety. Building a
safe climate requires that a leader should care and focus on every little thing that could
happen in school. After this step, a leader should have high expectations for all students.
This belief should be translated in leader’s vision for their organizations. Leaders should
be role models in their organization toward achieving organization’s vision. Finally,
leaders set the tone in their organizations. Leaders should be productive mindsets to

promote productive reasoning to improve and develop organizational learning.

 

Effective Leadership
set the ‘i’ one
Rollo iiodeﬂ

 

 

 

[Keep the vision

 

High Expectation to all Students

 

Focus on every iittie thing

Estohiish a sense oi

 

 

 

 

Figure (6). Catheryn’s hierarchal ladder of effective leadership.

158

Chapter V

Analysis of the Data

This research uses methods of narrative and observation to collect the data, to
answer the three main research questions. This research aims by describing and analyzing
the data of the two subjects to support the related literature of the important role of
education leaders.

The journeys of these two administrators moved us as readers to travel in their life
from their early school age until now and particularly. until their currently active
participation in LATTICE program. During the analysis of the data of both subjects, the
researcher found numerous overlaps between the two journeys, as well as some crucial
differences in the extent of school/district leadership and community support for diversity
and multiculturalism issues.

The next pages discuss what are the coMon themes that emerged from the
analysis of the data. The themes are:

1. Family, community, and church support to promote diversity awareness.

2. Limited experience with diversity in K-12 schooling.

3. Avoidance of diversity issues in teacher education and the content of
professional development programs.

4. Increasing awareness of diversity and multiculturalism through participation in

LATTICE.

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Family, Community, and Church Support to Promote Diversity Awareness

Both subjects mentioned the signiﬁcant role that their families had in their lives to
establish values of acceptance, understanding, and appreciating community of difference.
Roberta Smith framed farrrily by father, mother, and sisters. She mentioned that the
biggest inﬂuence was from her mother, who was more willing to accept people from
different groups. Also, Roberta mentioned that her sisters’ spouses inﬂuenced Roberta to
accept not only people who are different in race, but also in culture, religion, and
ethnicity. Even when she talked about her father, who used to make some racial
statements about blacks, she justiﬁed his anger by the racial conﬂicts of that time and the
two accidents that his relatives had. Her justiﬁcation came from her deep sub-conscious
of a nice and loving father, because she ended her narrative by saying that he loved his
sons- in-law and he enjoyed meeting them. Roberta didn’t say a lot of her community or
church inﬂuence, but she mentioned that her youth religious teachings made her more
acceptant to the idea of tolerance, understanding, and openness.

Catheryn Robinson mentioned that her family strongly inﬂuenced the rest of her
life of how to build a community of difference and enhancing social justice. Catheryn
framed family by father, mother, and black community. Her parent’s involvements with
interracial meetings shaped her personality of being strong, determined, and active
toward diversity and social justice. Their involvements in the civil right movement, their
host of a foreign white female student, and their partnership with the religious community
shaped Catheryn thinking and personality to work and ﬁght for equity and justice.

Catheryn’s involvement with community and church provided her with a rich and

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respectful history of black people and slavery encouraged her to read more and more
about it and to dream of a free life in America.

The two subjects showed feelings of admiration and love for their families,
communities, and churches that together made them believe that a community of
difference could be built and bridges of communication could be found. For example,
Roberta’s story of her father suggests that there is a hope to change people’s minds about
diversity. People may look at diversity from another lens if they have personal
connections and relationships with other people. Also, Catheryn’s story of her parents’
involvement in interracial group suggests a ﬁrst step to break the racial and cultural
isolation among people. People could start building a fair community when they create
channels of effective communication.

Church involvement provided both of them with spiritual and social skills to
combat discrimination and racial hate. Roberta mentioned that her youth religious
teaching encouraged her to participate in programs such as LATTICE to combat racism
and discrimination. Catheryn also mentioned that her church offered her an Opportunity
to learn values of tolerance and determination. This suggests the big role that religion has

to seed values of tolerance, justice, and equity.

Limited Experience with Diversity in K—12 Schooling
The journeys of both subjects stopped in the time of their K-12 experience. With
some overlaps and differences, the journeys took us as readers to some major incidents

that inﬂuenced both subjects’ schooling experience.

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Roberta and Catheryn mentioned that their schools, from kindergarten through
high school, were homogeneous in students and staff population. Roberta went to white
schools and teachers were also white. Catheryn went the schools in her neighborhood
because of the segregation law. Her schools had an all black population. Both of them
mentioned that in their early schooling, they didn’t think of diversity issues. They
mentioned that they liked their school and they felt safe in it.

Roberta and Catheryn mentioned that in their K-12 school experience they didn’t
have any student with special needs, because at that time students with disabilities had
been excluded from the regular public schools. Even with slow learners, both of them
mentioned that those students were not in their regular classes; they were in special
classes. Catheryn mentioned that she could see them in the halls of her school building,
but not. in the regular classes.

Also, both subjects mentioned while they were in school, they could see some
difference in the economical status in the neighborhood. Roberta mentioned that some
houses in her neighborhood didn’t look new or clean. Catheryn mentioned, because of the
segregation law, black people lived together regardless their economic status. She
mentioned some houses looked poor and old.

In terms of talking about diversity issues in schools, both subjects agreed that
there wasn’t any conversation or dialogue in their schools about diversity. Both showed
that there was a missing curriculum about these issues. One thing that both of them]
agreed about was that the curriculum was written and published by white people who

were biased in showing the real history of the United States. Both of them showed a

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strong feeling about Martin Luther King jr. and his inﬂuence in changing the history of
America to build a peaceful community of difference.

Roberta and Catheryn both witnessed the effects of the segregation law in the
United States. Roberta remembered racial conﬂicts and civil right movement that time.
She recalled seeing Martin Luther King Jr. on television, and hearing him talking about
freedom and equity. Catheryn’s situation was different. Catheryn lived racial
discrimination; schools, neighborhoods, social group unites, and jobs were all segregated.
She also remembered Martin Luther King Jr. providing her with high spiritual and mental
thoughts and spirit.

Catheryn mentioned that she was very active in an interracial group in her high
school. She mentioned that she and other students from her school went to a white school
where they spent a day. She also mentioned that she experienced cultural difference when
her family hosted a German student in their house for entire year. These events opened

Catheryn’s eyes to expand her perspective of difference.

Avoidance of Diversity Issues in Teacher Education and the Content of Professional

Development Programs

The j oumey'of the two administrators stopped when both subjects were teachers
and administrators. While analyzing the data, the overlaps became obvious more and
more.

First of all, Roberta and Catheryn reported that their teacher education and
professional development programs didn’t discuss issues related to diversity and

multiculturalism. One reason that may explain this lack of discussion is that the teacher

1,63

education and professional development programs at that time had a narrow focus on
such issues. However, Roberta and Catheryn reported that when they became
administrators, they provided their staffs with a very rich professional development
focusing on broadening staff understanding and valuing diversity and multiculturalism.

Both Roberta and Catheryn reported that they were teachers of special education.
The motivation for being a teacher of special needs education varied in each case. For
Roberta, one motif could be the scoliosis that she has in her shoulders that made her more
aware to students with special needs. Another motif could be explained through her
volunteering work with peOple with special needs, such as the blind, mental, and hearing
impaired. For Catheryn the motivation was the era of inclusion in school. She mentioned
that her school had some special students needs, and the school didn’t know how to deal
with the impaired students. Therefore, Catheryn took some classes to learn how to teach
those students.

Both Roberta and Catheryn witnessed the exclusion and inclusion of special needs
students in the regular public schools. This added a more conscious awareness of social
justice that all students should have access and learn in an equitable environment. This
awareness motivated both of them to be involved in the LATTICE project for inclusion in
Aﬁica. This particular project is to help a community in South Africa initiate inclusion of
special education students in a regular school. Sally McClintock, LATTICE coordinator,
emailed both of them about this project. Both Roberta and Catheryn showed enthusiasm
to be on the team of people to brainstorm answers to questions that they might need to

think of as they engage in this kind of project.

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Both Roberta and Catheryn work in predominately white population schools.
Both subjects indicated their uncomfortable feelings of the homogeneity of the students’
body. Both of them showed enthusiasm to break the barriers of students’ isolation by
connecting and communicating with others who differ from them. Therefore, both of
them worked very hard to enrich their students’ experiences of meeting and connecting
with other students. For example, Roberta mentioned that she created the “Diversity
Club” in her school to engage students in diversity and issues of multiculturalism.
Catheryn mentioned that all her teaching career she engaged her students in “Black
History Month” activities. This continuous passion for bringing diversity to their students
suggests active strong persons who dream of building social justice in their organizations.

Both subjects mentioned that they had a limited concept of diversity, which was '
used for race talk, white/black discussion. But, with their professional growth and their
active participation in LATTICE, both indicated an expanding of the term. Diversity.
includes all the aspects that could differentiate one from another.

Talking about diversity, both subjects divided diversity in two main categories.
The idea of both subjects is similar, though they use slightly different words. Roberta
divided it into Inside and Outside people. Inside people refers to people who are
Americans, but they are part of one or another group where people feel a belonging,
sharing the same communality, such as African- American, special needs, and lesbian-
gay groups. The other category is Outside, which refers to all people who aren’t
American but are here for one reason or another, and they represent different races and

ethnicities, religions, cultures, languages, and histories. Roberta strongly mentioned that

165

American people should learn and understand about diversity categories to live in peace
and safety.

Catheryn also divided diversity into two categories. The ﬁrst one is people who’-
are American but are different from the mainstream peers, in race, ethnicity, language,
and needs. They form minorities such as African-American, Hispanic, Asians, and
special needs students. The other category is people who are not Americans but have
different cultures, such as Chinese and German, each of which shares some commonality
of language, history, tradition, and religion. Catheryn, like Roberta, stressed the
importance of learning and understanding diverse people in national and global
perspectives.

Believing in their inﬂuential role as a teacher, Roberta and Catheryn tried very
hard to build a foundation of diversity and multicultural understanding in their classes
and their schools. Roberta created the “Diversity Club” and “World One Day” to bridge
the gap between her students and diverse people. She is very proud of this event, which
broke the isolation of her students and helped them meet and connect with people who
are different from them.

In the case of Catheryn, she worked hard through “Black History Month” to have
a voice in her district to talk about diversity. She created the Diversity Club and Sounds
of Diversity to help students make direct connections with issues related to diversity and
multiculturalism.

This continuous passion and strong determination kept Roberta and Catheryn
proactive in issues related to diversity and multiculturalism all through their education

careers. Therefore, as administrators, Roberta, an assistant principal, and Catheryn, a

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curriculum and assessment coordinator, continue working hard to achieve students’ high
level of acceptance, understanding, and appreciation of differences within the
community. Interviewing and observing both of them showed a caring, loving, and
determined leadership to build a community of difference. Their continued devotion to
such issues led to insist that these concerns be brought the table for discussion in their
buildings. Both of them are involved in district diversity forces to increase the awareness
of diversity and multiculturalism.

Roberta and Catheryn both model effective leaders who believe they can make a
difference. Both work hard to change their school/ district and community environment
to be more various. Roberta mentioned that she” is the district-wide diversity team
administrator. She and other educators in her district meet to ﬁgure out how to bring
diversity and multiculturalism to their community. She mentioned that her district invited
some students from Aﬁica. Community families hosted these students for two weeks.
Also, Roberta mentioned that her district leadership supports any event or project that
would help broaden students’ understanding. For example, the superintendent asked her
to talk to the board about the importance of the trip that ﬁve students would make to
China.

The situation differs in Catheryn’s case. Catheryn showed many times her
frustration and disappointment from her district leadership and community who were not
committed to diversity and multiculturalism. She mentioned that her district is known as
a mostly white racial community. For example, the African-American girls who left the
school because they felt that they had been unfairly treated exempliﬁed’the damage done

by insensitivity in the district. Such incidents make Roberta sure that diversity is not her

167

district’s priority. Working against the grain of the norm means that she experiences
challenges regularly. In fact, she expressed concerns that she was getting tired of the

daily battle.

Increasing Awareness of Diversity and Multiculturalism through LATTICE Participation

The last stop in Roberta and Catheryn’s journeys landed us in their participation
in LATTICE. This participation has enriched their knowledge, skills, and dispositions
toward promoting social justice in their organizations.

Roberta and Catheryn mentioned that their participation in LATTICE has
increased their knowledge and skills related to diversity and multiculturalism. Both
mentioned that during LATTICE participation they explored new national and global
learning. Both of them for example, mentioned that LATTICE encouraged them to
change their perceptions about some negative stereotypes on the national and global
level. Roberta and Catheryn mentioned the importance of LATTICE to raise ladders of
communication among people. Both of the subjects reported a big emphasis on the
methodology that LATTICE follows in making its vision translate into action. The direct
and personal connections and relationships are the most effective tools that LATTICE
creates through its sessions. Both mentioned that these direct connections make the
uniqueness of LATTICE. LATTICE is not a lecture where some experts talk. LATTICE
brings together people who lived the experience to all the present it to all the members.

Roberta and Catheryn agreed that their leadership was growing because of their
attendance in LATTICE. Both of them mentioned that LATTICE inﬂuenced them to use

some techniques and skills in their jobs. Small group discussion, large group facilitation,

168

introduction and the power of knowing people names, the two- minute survey feedback,
focusing on one topic of interest, and the direct interaction with various people were
some of the effective strategies that Roberta and Catheryn took to use in their leadership.

Both subjects mentioned that neither they nor their buildings used the term “social
justice” to describe diversity and multiculturalism issues and conﬂicts. Roberta used the
terms “fairness” and “acceptance” to talk about social justice. Fairness and acceptance
refer to the need for every student to be valued for her/his uniqueness to be treated with
respect and fairness and to learn in a safe and positive environment.

Catheryn used the term “advocacy” to describe the value of collaborations and
alliances for policies, programs, and funding that promote active involvement of the
community in the school at the local and national levels. Both subjects started to use the
term “social justice” to talk about or describe diversity and multiculturalism in a broader
perspective. They started to realize that social justice is more comprehensive term to use
in talking about issues related to diversity and multiculturalism. ’

Both Roberta and Catheryn agreed that social justice is a goal that can only be
achieved if all school partnerships--students, parents, staff, administrators, and
community-- work together to recognize, understand, and appreciate, and celebrate
diversity and multiculturalism. Therefore, both of them agreed on the essential role that
leaders play in their building to set the tone, and articulate the vision of what they want
their schools/districts to achieve. That isn’t the only thing. Leaders should be role models
for their staff and students so they could follow leaders’ example in practice. Promoting

social justice isn’t just lip service; it is an action of policies, decision-making, and

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reﬂections on school climate and environment to build a safe and equitable community of
difference. I

Roberta developed three key strategies that leaders should follow to promote
social justice in their organizations:

1. Modeling. Leaders have to show in their behaviors and decision-making the
sensitivity and awareness to understand other’s identities. While shadowing Roberta for
two days, the researcher noticed three big pictures on her walls. Two of them were of
natural views, but the third one was the one that made the researcher recognize Roberta’s
modeling of leadership and her willingness to achieve a goal of a community of
difference in her school. The picture was of two Aﬁican women who were working in a
ﬁeld. When the researcher asked her about this particular picture she mentioned that this
picture was a reason that she mad a connection and built a relationship with a student
who came as refugee to the school. When he entered Roberta’s ofﬁce, he told her, “ This
is what my country looks like.” When he saw the picture on the wall he felt that his
culture is recognized and valued.

2. Conversation. Roberta is always involved with students and teachers in
conversations related to diversity issues and values of respecting other identities. These
conversations help them revisit their assumptions, stereotypes, prejudices, and beliefs
related to diversity and multiculturalism.

3. Action. Roberta keeps saying that teaching about diversity and multiculturalism
isn’t just lip service or lecture work. It is a set of actions by which we show what we

mean by awareness and valuing diversity. Direct relationships and connections are

170

essential parts of broadening people’s perspectives of diversity. Through these
connections, people could acquire knowledge and skills.

Roberta hoped that her participation in LATTICE affects her teachers in their
classrooms. She mentioned that she always shares LATTICE with her teachers,
especially teachers who teach history and social studies. Shedidn’t mention evidences of
how they use LATTICE in their classrooms, but she was conﬁdent that when they have
the opportunity, they would use LATTICE with their students.

Catheryn developed her own three key strategies for promoting social justice:

1. Self-awareness. The issue of diversity does not get addressed in American
public schools in a constructive way that ensures schooling for all children. Self-
awareness of diversity and multiculturalism must move beyond cultural celebration and
fairs and toward a serious conversation about issues related to equity and social justice.
The self-awareness is essential for re-creating equal access education for all students;
therefore, educational personnel need to understand their students’ identities as well as
their own cultural identities.

2. Cultural knowledge. The real issue in teaching about diversity and
multiculturalism is having knowledge. People form their knowledge, assumptions, and
beliefs from different resources, one way to clarify and correct own knowledge and
biases is to discuss them in a safe and respectful climate. Lack of knowledge about
diversity and multiculturalism could instill values of inferiority and stereotypes.
Therefore, educational personnel need to gain a deep knowledge to understand the

difference among students.

171

3. Action practice. As humans we have a mission in this life to make life easy for
all people. It is enough to know, we have to act to change the current injustice in
communities locally and globally.

Catheryn also hoped that her participation in LATTICE affects her teachers and
principals in their schools. She mentioned that she shares and sends LATTICE activities
with them. She didn’t mention evidence of how they use LATTICE in their classrooms
and schools, but she sincerely hoped that they would use LATTICE practices with their
students.

In summary, Roberta and Catheryn see LATTICE as a place that works to let
educators become more sensitive to understanding how issues related to diversity and
multiculturalism could affect student learning and in building coherence among school
and community personnel. The goal of LATTICE is to improve teachers, and
administrators’ quality, and to increase the number of highly qualiﬁed educators in
schools. To achieve accountability, educators need to share responsibility for success, and
implement policies and decisions that positively affect school.

LATTICE is a model of lifelong professional development. It is based on the idea
that learning would be best facilitated through a reﬂective and shared experience. This
model provides a way of thinking about how we can learn from experiences through
comparing our experience with that of others, learning how to analyze the experiences,

and planning new steps to put our knowledge into actions.

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Chapter VI

Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations

There is an agreement among researchers who study administration and school
development about the importance of administrators’ role and function in school
development (Marshall, 2002, 2004; Shields, 2004). Among other issues, school
development refers to the intention for establishing a safe, equitable, fair, and just
environment where all students can access eqmtable leaming to achieve their potentials.
Equitable access refers to factors of social justice that include fairness and equity
regarding categories of difference. School leaders can help construct organizational
learning to promote social justice to achieve equitable access for all students. This
research aims to continue bringing social justice issues to the surface of administrators’
table discussion and agenda. The focus is to revisit and re-conceptualize administrators’
role and function of leadership for organizational learning in issues related to social
justice, equity, and diversity in American public schools. Argyris and Schon (1978) argue
that organizations can’t be effective, unless people act as change agents. The researcher
studies a unique form of professional development programs and its inﬂuence on
school/district administrators to be productive and efﬁcient and less defensive mindset
toward social justice.

The sample of the research is two administrators who are active participants in
LATTICE-Linking All Types of Teachers to International Cross-Cultural Education. The
data was collected through four series of interviews and two full days of observation for

each subject. The researcher used narrative methodology to collect data because she

173

 

 

 

wanted to present subjects’ own stories, memories, and reﬂections as they narrated so it
would give more trust worth and validity to the nature of the research (Hatton, 2005;
Herda, 1999).

During data analysis, the researcher found some common themes that both
subjects share. First, family, community, and church support to promote diversity
awareness. Both subjects reported that their families, communities, and churches support
them to be open, tolerant, and caring for working hard to cultivate social justice to build a
community of difference. The support and love that their farrrilies offered them shaped
their lives to be caring and loving persons. Feiman-Nemser (1983) mentions, “Learning
to teach begins long before formal programs of teachers preparation. Its roots are
personal experiences with parents and teachers and impairs and patterns of teaching
shaped by the culture” (p. 166).

Second, limited experience with diversity in K-12. Both subjects responded that
they didn’t experience very much diversity and multiculturalism in their K—12 school
experience. They mentioned that during their K-12 schooling, there was no curriculum
that included teaching for tolerance, acceptance, and valuing diversity among students.
One reason could be that the law had segregated schools with other aspects of society;
therefore, there was no mixture of students ﬁ'om different races and ethnicities. Both
subjects mentioned that the civil right movement, Martin Luther King Jr., and religious
teachings inﬂuenced both perspectives to be open and tolerant.

Third, avoidance of diversity issues in teacher education and the content of
professional development programs. Both subjects reported that their education

preparation didn’t designed to educate teachers about diversity and multiculturalism in

174

American schools. One explanation could be that subjects’ teacher education was not
dedicate its vision to educate teachers about these issues that time. Even after more than
three decades, Kennedy (1991) reports that teacher education preparation programs still
lack of awareness of diversity and multiculturalism issues. These programs have little
inﬂuence on their perspective teachers’ view of diversity and multiculturalism.

Fourth, increasing awareness of diversity and multiculturalism through
LATTICE’s participation. Roberta and Catheryn reported that LATTICE was an effective
resource for action, has affected their knowledge and skills about diversity and
multiculturalism. Their continuous focus in enhancing and promoting social justice

discussion and dialogue increased their organizations’ awareness of equity and justice.
Research Questions

This research is designed to answer the three main questions, which framework
for data analysis. Data analysis in its turn, provide the meanings and answers for

research questions (Anfara et al., 2002).

Question (1). What Contribution does Participation in LATTICE, Professional
Development with a Social Justice Focus, Make to the Leadership Knowledge,
Dispositions, and Skills of two School Administrators who hold a School Vision of

Providing a Socially just Learning Environment for Students and Teachers?

175

Given the importance of school leadership in promoting social justice to foster
equitable schooling, raising leadership skills and knowledge are important tools for
professional development and learning (Marshall, 2002, 2004). This professional
development is based on a collaborative.relationship with school personnel to enhance
the accountability for learning all students.

Roberta and Catheryn reported that LATTICE experience contributed to some
growth in their knowledge, skills, and dispositions in issues of social justice, diversity,
and multiculturalism. Both of them mentioned that LATTICE’s “introduction part” of
sharing names could stimulate a strong connection between people. Levy (2000) ‘
mentions that knowing people’s name is one of the effective functioning skills to
successful communication. Both subjects reported a signiﬁcant role of LATTICE
“sharing names” to build relationships with their building personnel. Roberta mentioned
that by knowing students’ names, they would know that they are not just number for her.
Catheryn mentioned that sharing names is critical to leader growth in the organizational
learning to motivate people to work together in teamwork by appreciate each one name
and the story behind it. Also, both of them sadly agreed on the fact that American people
don’t make an effort to remember or say correctly pCOple’s names. It is normal that they
abbreviate names or say something like it, and they think that it is acceptable with people,
but it shouldn’t be the case, American people should try hard to know how to say
people’s names correctly. LATTICE helps participants to build skill that leaders and
educators should practice to establish a warm and close relationship among people.

Knowing people’s names make them feel valued and appreciated (Levy, 2000).

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Roberta and Catheryn mentioned other skills that had been stimulated or
generated from their participation in LATTICE, such as small and large group strategies.
Wilson (1996) deﬁnes a group discussion as “a collection of three or more individuals
who interest about some common problem or interdependent goal and can exert mutual
inﬂuence over one another” (p. 7). Pavitt (1990) deﬁnes small group as dynamic based on
interdependence rather than similarity. With varying degrees, both subjects mentioned
that they use small group discussion in their building meetings, which makes every voice
heard and has the opportunity to speak and reﬂect on the conversation in the meeting.
The small group reﬂects more input and perspectives of a sharing communicative
perspective, which enrich the level of the dialogue to include more knowledge and skills
(Pavitt, 1990).

Using small group discussion and engaging in dialogue are crucial skills-to
successful oral communication. LATTICE helped participants to open up dialogue by an
experiential learning. The mixing of participants’ perspectives with deep broad based
knowledge adds a dimension that offers valuable insight into people’s perspectives
(Wilson, 1996).

Roberta and Catheryn mentioned that listening skills were more developed
through LATTICE participation. Both mentioned that in LATTICE they started to listen
more than talk because they wanted to learn from this unusual learning experiential,
therefore, they became more depended on their ears to hear these great experiences that
they would never suspect in a million years to acknowledge. Therefore, in their work,
Roberta and Catheryn reported that listening to their organizational personnel is very

important, which let them reﬂect on what people in their building talk, how they think,

177

and what are their interests. LATTICE helps participants by developing listening skill, to
learn about themselves, and about other in this world. Learning to express their
reﬂections and inquiry to respond to other’s ideas to participate in society successfully
(Wilson, 1996).

Roberta and Catheryn mentioned that LATTICE helped them develop their
knowledge to be resources in their organizations. Both of them mentioned that LATTICE
made them aware of the need for development to acquire more knowledge and
information regarding topics of diversity and multiculturalism on the national and global
levels. Also, haVing relationships and direct connections with different educators in
various schools, grades, and environments gave Roberta and Catheryn opportunities to
acquire knowledge, skills, and dispositions that could be used in their own organizations.
Therefore, both subjects mentioned that they make repots to their staff buildings about
LATTICE sessions, and how staff could deploy in their schools and classrooms. Sending
the dates of celebrations for different groups holidays, using materials for social and
history classes, and sending articles related to issues of diversity and multiculturalism are
some of the areas that Roberta and Catheryn became resources for their organization
learning (Papanastasiou & Conway, 2002).

Both subjects reported that LATTICE helped them to develop the reﬂection and
inquiry dispositions. Reﬂection refers to the process of think of information to form new
models of thoughts (Argyris & Schon, 1974). Inquiry aims at exploring the productive
reasoning and attitudes, which underline people’s actions (Argyris & Schon, 1996).
Roberta and Catheryn reported that LATTICE strengthened their reﬂection and inquiry

mental models to achieve a high level of change. Roberta and Catheryn see themselves as

178

 

 

|J

agents of inquiry to bring new knowledge and perspectives to their buildings to support
professional growth in issues related to social justice (Little, 2003).

The signiﬁcant emphasis of both subjects on LATTICE as an ongoing
professional development supports McClintock (2003) ﬁndings .of the uniqueness of
LATTICE as an ongoing process. It is not like other professional development programs
that are designed for one or two days as lectures to be given by some experts who present
theoretical methods and knowledge. These programs don’t support participants with
skills, practical knowledge, strategies, and tools to deal with diversity and multicultural
issues. This ﬁnding supports the related research (Genevieve, 1998; Henze, 2000; Rush,
2004), which mentions that administrators’ curriculum, and professional development
programs reﬂect insufﬁcient skills, knowledge, and training with the way to deal with
diversity and multicultural issues. .

Also, the emphasis of both subjects on attending LATTICE’s sessions supports
the related literature (Bencivenga & Elias, 2003; Brody & Davidson, 1998; Clark, 2003)
that professional development requires a commitment from all the personnel to
strengthen their abilities to promote life-long learning in a continuously increasing
diversity in American Society. To respond to the diverse society, leaders in schools need
to more knowledge, skills, and attitudes to provide equity in education.

This strong emphasis on the knowledge, skills, and tools that both subjects
acquire through their participation in LATTICE, which still help them to make a
difference in their organizations, highlights the importance for improving the role of
leadership toward transformative actions. This ﬁnding supports what Brown (2004)

mentions that transfonnative learning leads to change the way people see themselves and

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their world. Brown mentions that this process of changing involves critical inquiry and
reﬂection of the moral and ethical implications and consequences of leaders practices in

schools.

8 Question (2). What Role does the Cross-Cultural Experiences of LA TT ICE Participants

Play in the Leadership Orientations and Behaviors of these School Leaders?

Because leaders serve a complex function in providing organizational learning
(Argyris & Schon, 1978), school leaders are expected through collaborative learning
communities to create culturally diverse schools that enable all students to learn (Wald,
2000)

Roberta and Catheryn mentioned, to varying degrees, that their participation in
LATTICE as a cross-cultural'experience inﬂuenced their styles of leadership. They
mentioned that LATTICE showed them about the importance of a leader role and
function in an educational organization. Observing and learning ﬁom LATTICE
leadership made both of them more aware of the role that leaders could play in their
organizations in terms of setting the tone, being a role model, bringing up diversity and
multiculturalism in discussion, and being active to make a difference in their students’
lives. These approaches support the related literature about the role of leaders in
improving school settings by focusing on teacher professional development around the
issues of diversity and multiculturalism in order to increase school accountability

(Marshall, 2002; Shields, 2004). LATTICE helped participants to develop Opportunities

180

 

 

for staff to share information and work together to infuse curricula and instruction on
topics of diversity and social justice.

Roberta and Catheryn reported that LATTICE’s continual focus on promoting
social justice, made them more engaged in achieving a vision for enhancing fairness,
equity, and justice. Senge (1994) mentions that vision is a process of verbalizing
organization hopes and dreams. A vision becomes the organization’s road map to the
future; it connects dreams and aspirations (Wald, 2000). Both Roberta and Catheryn
worked hard to raise their vision ﬁom the theoretical ﬁarnework to practical action.
LATTICE helped participants to transform their buildings into loci of organizational
learning. Through collaborative learning community, LATTICE encouraged participants
to engage in conversation and dialogue with their buildings personnel to live out actions
to promote social justice (Fawcett, 2004).

Both Roberta and Catheryn reported that the supportive rrrixture of LATTICE
participants, teachers from different grades, administrators of various levels, graduate
students, and local, national, and international organizations made them aware of the
importance of having various voices and inputs to enrich the learning/teaching process
and to achieve a collective creativity. Also, the direct and personal connections and
relationships with various educators have enriched their leadership through exposure to
pedagogical strategies and techniques to use in their buildings. Wheatley (1992) mentions
that the power in transforming organizations to learning buildings is the capacity
generated by relationships among individuals. ’

Through LATTICE’s supportive conditions of small and large group discussion,

both Roberta and Catheryn reported a big inﬂuence on their ways of facilitating group

181

discussions in their buildings. This enhanced their democratic leadership style of letting
every voice be heard and every experience be valued. Even during disagreements,
LATTICE insists on creating a safe environment where each participant feels
comfortable to be Open and share personal and professional experiences with no
evaluation or pre-judgrnent. This has inﬂuenced Roberta and Catheryn to welcome and
appreciate all input at their personnel buildings.

Roberta and Catheryn reported that their participation in LATTICE as a cross-
cultural experience has inﬂuenced their perspective of a caring, determined, and
responsible leader to make changes in their schools. There are always new things to
know. LATTICE made them see their “ignorance” of issues related to social justice, and
they became more aware of their essential role as leaders in confronting such issues. Both
subjects agreed that LATTICE is a place where they feel comfortable to share their
experiences and be Open to other people’s ideas and opinions.

In viewing the ways LATTICE had inﬂuenced Roberta and Catheryn’s orientation
and behaviors, Wald’s (2000) ﬁve attributes of collaborative learning stand out: shared
vision and values, supportive school leadership, collaborative creativity, supportive
conditions, and shared personnel experiences (Wald, 2000). This ﬁnding Of LATTICE as
CLC supports Sergiovani (1996) of a collaborative learning as a collaborative
commitment to service the needs of all students through relationships that are built within
an environment of trust, respect, and care.

Roberta and Catheryn mentioned that their participation in LATTICE helped them
recognize how their communities, as organizational learning groups, work to promote

awareness of diversity and multiculturalism. Senge (1994) argues that leaders play a

182

signiﬁcant role in building organizational learning. Marshall (2004) argues that school
leaders are the key for school improvement.

Roberta mentioned that she works in a collegial environment where she feels
supported in her efforts to implement diversity and a multicultural curriculum by the
other staff and the administrators. The continual support from district leadership for her
has made her aware of the, importance Of her role to infuse staff and students with a
concern for diversity issues. This support provides Roberta with the sense Of competence
and self- conﬁdence related to producing effective action, such as World One Day,
International Studies, Comparative Religion Class, and Asian Studies. This productive
organizational learning is a result of a productive mindset that seeks valid knowledge and
tries to examine current reality. In this case, learning espouses an increase in the capacity
for effective action. The focus is on learning to do, which enables the organization to
continually develop greater knowledge and capacities (Argyris & SchOn, 1996).

In Catheryn’s case, LATTICE represents the dilemma Of who is she versus where
she works. Catheryn believes that to achieve social justice in her district; leaders need to
self recognize that they are working very hard at the “wrong stuff” and they should more
highly prioritize diversity and multiculturalism in their agenda. This dilemma has caused
Catheryn to question the 22 years that she has spent in Central City working hard to
ﬁgure out ways to make a difference in this realm where people Obviously don’t embrace
diversity as a priority. People’s ignorance, prejudices, and stereotypes reﬂect the implicit
theory of the working environment, which reﬂects the defensive reasoning that Argyris

and SchOn (1996) talk about.

183

 

 

 

Defensive reasoning is a process in which the organization rejects any knowledge
that could disturb the foundation of their management approach (Argyris & SchOn, 1996).
This rejection might be caused by a fear Of embarrassment or by a perceived threatening
to the organization setting. Therefore, defensive reasoning supports a defensive mindset,
which perpetuates limited organizational learning. Catheryn mentioned more than once
that families of students who are different from the mainstream students who portray
Central City district as racist and not welcoming. Therefore, Catheryn recalled that some
basic improvements should take place in her district community. The improvements
should be in the governing variables: norms, assumptions, and beliefs that Central City
community has. Changing these aspects would transform Central City to a higher level of
reﬂection and inquiry.

The ﬁnding of the importance of leaders in establishing an environment where
diversity and multiculturalism is celebrated supports the related literature (Brown, 2004;
Marshall, 2002, 2004; Shields, 2004) that stresses on the signiﬁcant role and function of
school leaders to promote social justice in their schools. The role and function Of
leadership should expand from the narrow traditional management to instructional and
transformational role and function.

However, this ﬁnding also supports the ﬁndings of Dilworth and Brown (2001).
They reported that Racism and discrimination still exist in the American Society and
public schools, and these negative practices continue to have negative inﬂuences on the
lives of students ﬁom subgroups. -

Also, this research supports Onick’s (2003) ﬁnding that school leaders in their

meetings, seldom discuss issues related to students’ learning, instead they are busy with

184

political and procedures issues. This results that talking about issues such as diversity and

social justice is not a priority in these meetings.

Question (3). Is the Learning of these Administrators, as a Result of Participation in

LATTICE, Transferred to their public School Settings? If so, how is this Accomplished?

Argyris and SchOn (1978) mention that people design action to achieve ends that
they intend. These actions emerge from the knowledge that human beings acquire from
internal and external factors, such as family, community, work, and media. The question
that Argyris and SchOn pose is, How could knowledge be presented as a productive
learning action? TO answer this question, Argyris and SchOn distinguish between
espoused theories and in-use theories. They mention that as humans we are aware of our
espoused theories, but we are not aware of our in-use theories. They report that our
espoused theories are not necessarily the ones we use in particular situations, but in-use
theories are the ones we use (Argyris & SchOn, 1996). Therefore, they call for improving
theory in action by developing skills, knowledge, and competences that enable people to
develop their productive learning. Through self -examination and reﬂection, Argyris and
SchOn suggest that a theory of action could improve people’s assumptions, values,
knowledge, and choices and lead to continuing learning.

This present research presents two administrators’ vieWpoints of a professional
development program, which discusses diversity and multiculturalism in a comfortable
and respectful envirOnment. The purpose is to revisit participants’ conceptions and

assumptions about issues related to the previous topics to foster social justice and equity

185

in schools. LATTICE as a professional development program focuses on diversity and
multiculturalism to put social justice into practice. LATTICE provides a dialogue
learning for educators to examine their social identities, reﬂect on how sociO-cultural
beliefs, assumptions, and values affect their social practice, and develop perspectives and
approaches to working with and across social identities. LATTICE aims to help them
develop the competencies of critical self-reﬂection, multicultural values and ethics,
knowledge, skills, and awareness. In a variety Of ways, they can act against
manifestations of social injustice and promote greater diversity and justice.

LATTICE focuses on personal and professional development toward social
practice for social justice. LATTICE employs a reﬂective self-assessment, experiential
and dialectic learning process to engage them to explore productive meanings in the
context of professional values Of social justice, multiculturalism, human behavior, and
globalization.

Roberta reported that this process Of productive learning is not rigid but
continually evolving. She mentioned that it is a slow process, according to each person
willing to change, but LATTICE is the seed for improving and encouraging this high
thinking to achieve better understanding Of diversity and multiculturalism.

Catheryn mentioned that LATTICE provided the Opportunity to identify
situations, dilemmas, misunderstandings, and dialogues that encourage people to act to
help make this world respectful and appreciative of difference. This is why she thinks
that her experience with LATTICE has been a different approach because there’s no guilt
involved in introducing yourself or describing the background to your name, and people

wouldn’t feel, as in other professional development settings, that “adults felt like I

186

should, could might, you know, they’re feeling like they ought to feel guilty and they
resent that”(02/09/2005). I

Both Roberta and Catheryn reported that a lot of their learning in diversity and
multiculturalism related to their direct participation in LATTICE. They consistently tried
to transfer their LATTICE knowledge and skills to their organizations. Therefore, both of
them reported that they introduced to their school/district personnel the LATTICE
experience the mix of staff levels, introduction part, small group and large group
discussion, and two minutes feedback. Both of them reported that their building
personnel were very excited and enthusiastic to experience LATTICE activities.

Roberta reported that she created in Sunny Valley High School a “World One
Day” activity. It is a full day of exposing students to diversity and multiculturalism.
There would be peOple from “Inside” and “Outside” who would share their stories, arts,
crafts, food, cultures, clothes, and languageswith students. Roberta stressed that it was
directly inﬂuenced by LATTICE, and a lot of LATTICE participants would be speakers
at that day. 8

Roberta recalled some experiences that she and her students had. With help from
LATTICE, her school brought a group Of South African students to the United States and
Sunny Valley hosted the majority of them. Many families welcomed them into their
homes for two or three weeks. Also, one Chinese member who used to attend LATTICE
but now she is a teacher in China, asked if Sunny Valley School would be a sister school .
to the one in Cheng- Du China, so, Roberta tried to let her kids have that experience.
Therefore, this summer, ﬁve of her students will go to China. And some Chinese students

will come the next summer and will stay for six weeks.

187

Catheryn mentioned that LATTICE was a good resource for her job. One of her
responsibilities was, after September 11"” to learn about Middle. Eastern communities;
therefore, Catheryn through LATTICE went to Dearborn and spent some time with the
Arab community there. Another responsibility is her involvement in “Task Force
Diversity” in her district; so, she transferred a lot of LATTICE parts and discussion to it.

Roberta mentioned that her participation in LATTICE increased her involvement
in curriculum development. She started in her school classes in comparative religion and
Asian studies to increase students’ knowledge and skills about such topics.

Catheryn mentioned that her participation encouraged her to have a calendar of all
the holidays celebrated by of students of different racial and cultural backgrounds in the
US. Catheryn mentionedthat she would send principals reminder about these holidays,
articles, and activities to have in classrooms. SO, students would be reminded through the
school year to diversity and multiculturalism.

This research highlights the importance of sehool leaders to transform their
organizations to organizational learning. The related literature (Darder, 2003; Founder
2002) stresses on the role and function of leaders tO act ethically to transform their
organizations to a democratic environment. Acting ethically means that the institutional
structure and processes Of school system are reﬂections Of a system of justice and equity.
Shields (2004) mentions that to act ethically, school leaders need tO expose students to
ethical principals and ethical arguments. This approach of exposing students to sensitive
issues help students break the isolation, begin making intercultural sensitivity
assessments that enable them to engage on interventions that meet the values of

democracy and citizen rights.

188

Roberta and Catheryn see the growing and changing that LATTICE accomplished
in participants as ascending ladder of understanding, acceptance, and valuing. They both
highlighted diversity and multiculturalism in their schools and districts. Their themes
particularly germane to their leadership practice include: (a) high visibility of diversity
dialogue, (b) values of respect for differences among students and insisting in building
communication and relationships among them, and (c) high professional development
associated with moral principles Of social justice and academic excellence for all
students.

In summary, both subjects reported that LATTICE helped people improve their
own social knowledge, skills, practices, and assumptions. This process Of improvement is
achieved though a series of elements. These include designing a productive dialogue
within an experiential learning, through small and large group discussion, and. structured
and unstructured dialogue which help people construct better understanding of each other
and shift their perspectives of miscommunication, and clarify misunderstandings. This
productive learning provides people of a network of communication and relationship so
people could learn from each other what has worked and not worked, so people change
social situations that appeared challengeable through a process of re-framing and action
steps. Such exploration through intensive involvement is effective in helping people

develop a strong foundation for self-reﬂection.

189

Recommendations

The major ﬁndings in this research lead the researcher to recommend future
research in the area of educational leadership and diversity and multiculturalism. The
present study needs to be replicated to test the validity of the major ﬁndings reported in
this research. Future research is needed tO know to what extent the ﬁndings Of this
research seem to hold true with other administrators who are active in LATTICE. The
purpose is to know the effects of LATTICE as a cross-cultural professional development
program on other administrators from various levels and responsibilities. Also, future
research is needed to examine the inﬂuences of LATTICE on increasing teachers’
awareness of social justice, to compare it with the present research ﬁndings.

The researcher recommends that LATTICE should formally stress the need for
increasing the number of participants from the administrative level. This need could be
justiﬁed by the ﬁndings of this research, which suggest the signiﬁcant role that
administrators play in promoting social justice in their organizations. Also, the researcher
calls for adopting LATTICE as an effective professional development model, which
fosters and expands knowledge and skills to promote social justice in the educational
settings.

The related literature needs to examine whether there are other programs that are
dedicated to promote social justice. The need is to present these programs, so educational
personnel will have more opportunities to learn ﬁ'om.

Also, the researcher recommends that, because teacher and administrator

education, preparation, and professional development has a little inﬂuence on their

190

participants’ awareness of diversity and multiculturalism, these programs should Offer
immersion experiences in diversity and multicultural issues, and use case studies and

narratives as an instructional methodology.

Implications for the Researcher

Five years ago my family and I came to US to continue my study in Michigan
State University. I came to study the educational administration in the College Of
Education. Coming to America was a challenge for all of us. The culture, religion,
language, and tradition were completely different than what my family and I used to. The
majority Of people in Jordan have the same race, language, religion, and tradition.
Therefore, it was a quiet difﬁcult to adjust at the beginning of our residence in US.
Especially with the negative stereotypes that we had about the American society.
African-American men are criminals, Chinese men are drug dealers, Arab- Muslim men
are terrorists, and white-females are easy sexual active were some of the negative
prejudices that the American ﬁlms present outside about the American society. I was
really worried and afraid especially I am Muslim woman that wears the hijab.

I started my study in Fall 2000; I was in the ﬁrst cOhort in the educational
administration program in MSU. During my study in the ﬁrst semester I met an American
teacher (Nancy Lubeski) who became a very close ﬁiend of mine. She told me about a
very interesting program that discusses issues related to cultures and differences. I went
and watched what is LATTICE, and then I decided to participatein LATTICE. I have

been an active member in LATTICE ﬁve years ago.

191

 

 

I was the only Arab member in LATTICE. I knew that there was a Jordanian
member three years ago, but he ﬁnished his study and went back home. My interest in
participation was an approach to know about the American educational system and how
the system deals with differences and diversity. Then I was interested to know and learn
about the beauty of differences, the injustice and unfairness of prejudices of others, and
the important need to know about other cultures in the national and global level to
construct a peaceful and harmonic world. I have the Opportunity to talk and teach about
issues related to Arab civilization, lslarn, and traditions in the Middle East. I talked about
Arab culture, customs, art, food, education, and family. It was a fascinated experience to
me to learn new information and perspectives about other cultures in all the aspects of
life; social, economic, and political.

September 11th was a challenge for me as a Muslim woman Who covers her hair
with hijab. LATTICE was a supportive family for me and for other Muslim members in
that difﬁcult time; LATTICE formed more than one session tO teach schools educators
about Islam and the peaceﬁrl principles of it. Many LATTICE teachers invited me in their
classrooms to talk about Islam and Arab traditions. Some LATTICE international
members talked about their worries and concerns from the new immigration laws which
affected us as international students, therefore, some LATTICE members listed their
private phone numbers and gave it to the international student in case of having
problems.

My background as a Muslim with values of forgiveness, acceptance, respect, and
tolerance has encouraged me to continue participation in LATTICE. Therefore, as

predisposed person, I was always interested and willing to change in my thinking and

192

assumptions about issues related to other cultures, religions, and races. It was a
tremendous experience to be exposed to sensitive and important issues within an
environment of respect, not judged, and free guilt in LATTICE.

As a Jordanian from a Palestinian reﬁrgee family, I had the opportunity in
LATTICE to talk about the Palestinian/ Israeli conﬂict. I talked about the miserable
social and economic status that the Palestinian people suffer every day in their country.
But, two years ago, I was challenged to seat in the same room and discuss the related
issues with new participants in LATTICE from Israel. I didn’t imagine in million of
years, with the long history of war and conﬂicts with the Israel, that I can stand meeting
and discussing such issues with Israeli. people. I didn’t have previous personal or school
experience to deal with such situation. It was a very difﬁcult time to me to attend
LATTICE with these worries.

LATTICE doesn’t push anything on anyone; it exposes participants to difﬁcult
and sensitive issues to let them rethink in their assumptions and values that they have.
And because I am very committed to LATTICE’s mission I decided to give my self a .
chance to talk and discuss the previous issues with the Israelis. I had the opportunity in
LATTICE book club, when LATTICE invited me to read and discuss two books about
the Palestinian! Israeli conﬂict. There were a number of American educators, librarians,
the two Israelis, and my husband and 1. Each one of us talked about his/her point of view
around these issues. I learned that there is a lot of Israelis who are against the current
dramatic situation in the Middle East. I learned that there are people in Israel who want to
live in peace together with the Palestinian neighbors. I learned also that there are peOple

who are worry about their kids to live in such frighten and hate environment. It was a

193

huge change for me to see the other side of people. I started to think that there are people
who want peace, and against killing and hate.

What LATTICE teaches us as participants that even we are not predisposed
persons to some issues that we could face in our life, LATTICE arms us with tools how
to deal with such issues in climate of values of respect and appreciation. Even action is
not expected from attending LATTICE, but starting to be open to listen and revisit our
own assumptions, values, and beliefs, I believe, is the ﬁrst step of making action.

During the conduct Of this study, I kept in my mind how to use it in my country,
Jordan. Jordan is located in the Middle East. It is near Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and Saudi
Arabia. It is a ﬁve million population. The capital is Amman, which has more than one
and half million people. The educational system is divided in three stages. The ﬁrst stage
is elementary school, which goes from ﬁrst to sixth grades. The second stage is the
middle school, which is goes from seventh tO ninth grades. The last stage is secondary
school, which goes ﬁ'om eleventh to twelfth grades. At the end of the last year in the
secondary school, students sit for the national exam. Depending on the results, students
apply to continue their study in the universities. The results Of this exam reﬂect the
achievement gap between students who live in the big cities and students who live in
rural areas. The educational system has undertaken many reforms to decrease the gap.
One reform is the “Less Chance Schools.” This reform categorized schools depending on
the results of the national exam. Less Chance Schools are schools whose students have
had a bad showing on the national exam. Therefore, a very low percentage of students in

these schools join in the higher graduate schools.

194

The Jordanian educational system witnesses a high rate of dropout among
students in the rural and suburban areas and who stay in the same grade more than one
year. Even with the compulsory law, we can see that students in these areas leave their
schools at the elementary schools. The low economic status and big family members
force these students to leave their schools and work.

Gender achievement gap is also a problem in the educational system. Many girls
in the rural and suburban areas are forced to leave their elementary or middle schools.
The educational level of parents in these areas is low; therefore, they don’t support their
daughters to continue schooling.

Students who have special needs study in their own schools. There are no special
needs students in the regular schools. Even with less impaired needs, public regular
schools don’t accept them, therefore, families who can offer, send their kids to the private
schools.

With the conﬂicts that the neighbor countries witness, the educational system
doesn’t play a signiﬁcant role in establishing a peaceful and understanding environment
in the kingdom. Schools—by the law-can’t discuss such issues with their students or even
to hear what they think and feel about these conﬂicts, which affect Jordan in the political,
economic, and social level.

Scholars and educators talk always about reforms to solve educational problems.
Educating teachers, hiring qualiﬁed teachers, and expanding principals’ responsibilities
are some of those reforms. There are a few studies, which study the linkage between
school leadership and students’ performance. Even more, there is no study, according to

my knowledge, that studies the role of school leaders to promote social justice in their

195

schools. Therefore, I believe that this research will open leaders’ eyes, especially
effective ones, to study this linkage and work to promote social justice.

The power and efﬁcacy of LATTICE as professional development program and
the collaborative learning and shared inquiry among teachers and administrators suggest
the need for building such collaborative program that critically leads participants to a self
questioning and reﬂection on how they foster transfonnative learning. F ullan (1993)
states, “ There is a ceiling effect on how much we can learn if we keep to ourselves. The
ability to collaborate ...is becorrring one of the core requisites of post- modern society.
People need one another to learn and accomplish things” (p. 17). Therefore, I am willing
to introduce LATTICE to the educational system in Jordan. The focus will be on the need
to teach educators, especially leaders, how to learn to inquire as well as advocate to
issues related to social justice. Educators need to work together to successfully improve
educational outcomes. Therefore, programs such as LATTICE, with its experiential
learning, could be very helpful in building teams commitment to ensure that challenging

conditions and practices within our schools wouldn’t widen.

196

APPENDICES

197

 

iii

4'

 

OFFICEOF

RESEARCH
THIGS AND
IANDARDS
Oommlltoo en

torch Involving
umsnSubjoeto

1 State University
202 Olds llall
East tarelng. MI
. 48824

517/355-2180
X: 517/432-4503

usdir/user/uulhs
ucrlhs©msuodu

n llﬂmnﬂW-wflon.
comm/(y list/Won.

 

MICHIGAN STATE Inltlal IRB
U N I V E R S I T Y Application
January 4. 2004 Approval ’

T01 Susan Pnnty
412 Erickson

Re: IRB 004-999
Approval Date:
Expiratlon Date:

Category: EXPEDITED 2-6. 2-7
January 3. 2006
' January 2. 2006

Title: LATTICE: STRENGTH IN DIFFERENCES 'AND RESOURCES FOR ACTION.

The Unlverslty Commlttee on Research Involving I-Iuman Subjeds (UCRIHS) has completed Ihelr review in
yourproject lam pleased toadvlseyouthatyourprojecthss beenspproved.

Thecommltteehasfoundthatyourresearchprcjedlsapprcpdatehdedgn. protectstherlghtssndwell‘areof
human subjects. and meets the requirements of MSU‘s Federal Wide Assurance and the Federal Guldellnes
(45 CFR 46 and 21 CFR Part 50). The protection of human subjects In research Is a partnershlp between the
IRS and the Investigators. We look forward to worklng with you as we both fulfill our responslbllltles.

Renewals: UCRIHS approval Is valld until the explratlon date llsted above. If you are ccntlnulng your protect.
you must submlt an Application IorRenewsl atleastone month beforeexplratlon. Iftheprojedls.
completed. please submlt an Application for Permanent Closure.

Revlslons: UCRIHS must review any changes In the project. prlor to Inltlatlon of the change. Please submit an
Appllcetlon for Revlslon to have your changes reviewed. It changes are made at the tlme of ienewal. please
Include an Application for Revision with the renewal application.

Problems: lf Issues should arise during the condud of the research. such as ’unantlclpated problems. adverse
events. or any problem that may Increase the risk to the human subjeds. notlfy UCRIHS promptly. Fonns are
avallable to report these Issues.

Please use the IRB number listed above on any forms submitted whlch relate to this project. or on any
correspondence with UCRIHS. .

Good luck In your research. If we can be of further assistance. please contact us at 517-355-2180 or vla small
at W. Thank you for your cooperatlon. .

. Slncerely.

/

Peter Vasllenko. Ph.D.
UCRIHS Chalr

c: Rana AI-Smadl,
1633 Wlntercrest. East Lansing. MI. 48823

198

INFORMED CONSENT STATEMENT
LATTICE: Strength in differences and resource for actions.

This study primarily concerns your experience as a school administrator who participates

in LATTICE for professional development. The study expects the following speciﬁc
outcomes: '

1- Evidence that LATTICE is an effective professional development program
forpromoting administrators’ awareness of social justice issues.
2- Evidence that demonstrates how LATTICE shapes your beliefs, attitudes, and
. actions for issues related to social justice.
3- Knowledge that will enhance the transferability of LATTICE to other districts.

Informed Consent: For her dissertation research, Rana Al-Smadi wishes to
interview you in order to understand your experience in LATTICE. A set of three
interviews, two full days of observation in your work setting, and a ﬁnal interview
constitute the data collection methods for this research. Each interview should last about
90 minutes. The interviews will be audiotaped, with your permission. Taping allows the
researcherto listen more closely to your comments and to keep records accurate. The
audiotapes will be coded for conﬁdentiality purposes and, after transcription, will be kept
in the secured ofﬁce of the primary investigator. Your name and the name of your
school/district will not be revealed to any individual or group outside of this research '
team. Although the researcher will invite you to select a pseudonym for use in research
reports, you have to be aware of, because you are one of only two persons in the study,
that LATTICE group members may be able to link your comments in the study even
though you will be using pseudonym. Your comments and opinions will not be shared
with others at LATTICE sessions or used in any Way outside the research purposes. The
researcher may use quoted materials from interviews and /or observations in products '

resulting from this research, but no individual or schoolwill be associated with this
material. ‘

RiSkSZ There are no risks for participants involved in this research.

Voluntag Participation: Your participation in this study is voluntary. You may
choose not to participate or may discontinue participation at any time. Interviews will not
be audiotaped if that is your preference.

Conﬁdentiality: Your privacy will be protected to the maximum extent allowable by
law. Your identity will be known only to the investigator and will be used only when the
researcher considers it necessary to. contact you. All data are kept conﬁdential and in a
secure location. The researcher will contact participants to discuss their results after the
data have been analyzed to assure that their words and beliefs are accurately repreSented.

199

Contact Information: This study is led by Rana Al-Smadi, a doctoral candidate,
under the direction of Dr. Susan Printy of Michigan State University. If you have any
questions about this study, please contact Rana Al-Smadi or Dr. Susan Printy. If you have
questions or 'concems regarding your rights as a study participant, or are dissatisﬁed at
any time with any aspect, you may contact- anonymously, if you wish— Dr. Peter
Vasilenko, Chair of the University Committee on research Involving Human Subject

 

.(UCRIHS). Contact information is given below.

Consent:

I voluntarily agree to participate in this study.

Date

 

 

Participant's signature

' I agree to have interviews audiotaped.

Date

 

 

Participant’s signature

Date

 

 

Rana Al-Smadi, Doctoral Candidate

Rana Al-Smadi, alsmadir@msu.edu
517-336-3567 '

Susan Printy sprinty@msu.edu
Education Administration

412 Erickson Hall
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
(517) 353-4508

Dr. Peter Vasilenko, Chair
UCRIHS/202 Olds Hall ‘
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
(517) 355-2180

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ucans APPROVAL FOR *
THIS project EXPIRES:

JAN - 2 2006

sue n RENEWALAPPLICA '
NE MONTH PRIOR To"ON
ABOVE DATE TO com-mus

Administrator Interview and observation
Winter 2005

The First Interview (a focused life history)

Tell me a little about your K-12 experiences as a student. Did you go to school with
students who were different than you?

(If yes) How would you describe these differences?

(If no) Probe: Any students with physical differences? From other cultures or who spoke
a different language?

(If no) Probe: Were there any children in your neighborhood who were different than
you?

Can you recall any speciﬁc situations that involved students different than you?

Did you talk about issues of diversity in your home? In your church? Or anyplace else?

Did you learn anything about diversity in other? ways, such as reading books?

Tell me about your experiences as a teacher. Describe the extent to which this school
was diverse. ' "

What problems did you perceive for minority students related to diversity or fair
treatment? What problems did you perceive for majority students related to diversity or
fair treatment? ‘

Tell me what, if anything, you did to enrich your students’ understanding of diversity of
various kinds.

What does social justice mean to you as it applies to schooling?

The Second Interview (LATTICE experience)

I want to know about your participation in LATTICE. How long have you been a
member in LATTICE? '

How did you know about LATTICE?

What was your motivation to participate in LATTICE?

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Can you tell me about the ﬁrst time you attended LATTICE?
Probe: How was it different than other professional development you attended?

Probe: What did you like about LATTICE?
Is there anything you didn’t like?
What do you learn 1n LATTICE?

Can you tell me about a learning situation in LATTICE that challenged your or made you
uncomfortable?

Did members of LATTICE respond in any personal or organized way to your
discomfort?

What LATTICE activities do you like the most, and why?

The Third Interview (LATTICE as a resource for action)

Can you describe the intellectual and emotional connections between participation in
LATTICE and your work?

How have your experiences in LATTICE inﬂuenced how you think about school
leadership?

How have you beneﬁted as a school leader from meeting people of many cultures in
LATTICE?

How does LATTICE assist you in taking action that promotes social justice in your
school or district?
Probe: Can you give me an example?

Have you spoken about LATTICE publicly in your ofﬁcial school capacity?

Does you participation in LATTICE inﬂuence how students in your school or district
learn about democratic values or tolerance of difference?

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Observation (Shadowing) for Two Days

Document situations requiring decisions or action related to social justice in their day to
day tasks

Get a sense of the importance of a socially just approach to:
Interactions with other adult professionals
Interactions with students
Interactions with parents
Interactions with adults other than school personnel

Document discussions, decisions, or acting relating social justice concerns to the
designed or taught school curriculum

The Fourth Interview (Connecting LATTICE to beliefs and action)

Having completed the shadowing, I select 3 situations [for each participant] that I
observed which required decisions to be made or actions to be taken.

The interview focuses on having the participant make sense of what I observed.
For each situation, I will ask:
What is your understanding of the situation?

Probe: What is the issue?

Probe: Who are the people involved?

Probe: What are the situational realities that you had to pay attention to?
How did you decide what to do?

Probe: What are the goals you wished to achieve?

Probe: What values or principles underlie your decision or action?

How satisﬁed or dissatisﬁed are you with the development [not necessarily the outcome]
of the situation?

203

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