Session Information
Contribution
Diversity is a natural part of human communities. Responding to the increasing diversity among students is one of the biggest challenges for school leadership in the 21st century (Leithwood, Jantzi and Steinback, 1999. Research conducted in recent years has shown promising attempts in this direction, promoting education based on the principles of social justice, human rights and equity (UNESCO, 1994). The concept, philosophy and practice of inclusion is one such example. Research has shown how school leadership can be gear school systems towards inclusive practices by influencing the underlying assumptions of different members of the school community and thereby the organizational cultures in schools (Reihl, 2000).
The present paper is based on the doctoral work conducted in the UK and Indian context. It explores the underlying assumptions of leaders and teachers about learner diversity and the role that leadership practice plays in shaping those assumptions. It also looks at organizational factors that facilitate and constraint leadership roles in responding to learner diversity in the Indian context, particularly in comparison to schools in the UK. In the study, diversity is explored in its broadest conception as referring to issues of religion, ethnicity, caste, class, gender and ability.
Socio-cultural theories of learning, in particular, communities of practice perspective or CoP (Wenger, 1998), is used as an analytical tool to understand the culture of shared beliefs and practices of teachers and leaders in different contexts and examine them in relation to learner diversity. Analysing the shared beliefs and practices of different members of school communities provide deeper insight into how meanings about diversity are socially negotiated and co-constructed by the members through participation in routine activities and reified in school vision and mission and other school process. At the same time, the CoP perspective provides tools to talk about the exclusionary factors in different school settings that shape and reify meanings of diversity. The CoP perspective thus helps in assimilating the ways in which leadership practice is can respond to learner diversity in more meaningful and productive manner.
Method
Expected Outcomes
References
Leithwood, K., Jantzi, D. and Steinbach, R. (1999) Changing Leadership for Changing Times. Buckingham: Open University Press. Riehl, C.J. 2000. The principal’s role in creating inclusive schools for diverse students: a review of normative, empirical and critical literature on the practices of educational administration. Review of Educational Research, 70 (1): 55–81. Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. UNESCO. 1994. The Salamanca Statement and Framework for Action on special needs education. Salamanca: UNESCO/Ministry of Education and Science. Wenger, E. 1998. Communities of practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Yin, R. K. (2003) Case Study Research: Design and methods, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage.
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