Introduction
In today’s organizations and institutions, there are employees with diverse backgrounds and socio- is a process to influence, guide, and motivate groups of people in an institution towards cultural features. Differences in employees into advantages are an essential issue for leaders. Although managing diversity and leading are interrelated, it can be accepted that it is not easy. Management is the act of using resources or facilities effectively to attain set goals (Gronn, 2003). While, leadership a common purpose (Grissom, 2018). Diversity in education sectors is an opportunity to explore the creativity of teams of people with cultural, racial, and ethnic backgrounds through leadership. The rationale for this topic arises from the fact that most school districts are experiencing rapid changes in students of culturally and linguistically backgrounds. As learning institutions experience transformations, it is paramount leadership focus on addressing diversity and inclusion issue. The focus of this paper is on diversity and inclusion issues in education leadership or teams.
Literature on Diversity and Inclusion Leadership in School
Grissom (2018) assert that diversity is a process of acting respectfully, tolerably, and sensitively against the population with many differences such as religion, gender, race, and ethnic origin. People with widening differences in age, ethnicity, or any other cultural difference have participated in the workforce due to globalization and economic purposes. Where differences are managed at an organizational level, the gaps between workers might help emerge new ideas in directions of perspectives or opinions. As such, an organization is productive and, primarily, academic success in learning institutions. According to Sherbin and Rashid (2017), where diversity differences are handled, and the level of education is managed well, there is a facilitating effect to achieve organizational goals. Otherwise, there are instances of mission failures, lack of commitment, and dissatisfactions when diversity is not considered effective.
Mateescu (2017) states that diversity leadership can create tolerance and mutual understanding between people who have cultural and social differences within organizations. Educational centers exemplary incorporate much diversity from teachers and students. School administrators must utilize diversity leadership skills through equity, justice, empathy, cultural conflict management, widen harmony, and cooperation among people. Leadership skills are vital to achieving school goals, while the central aim is to prepare learners for life towards interests and abilities. A crucial factor in attaining school aims is ensuring teachers’ effectiveness. There is a need to increase motivation and performance by establishing a positive school climate in that context. Furthermore, with adequate guidance, diver among instructors contribute extra benefits to students’ development. Thoughtfully, school administrators leading diversity in education institutions contribute to school effectiveness (Carter & Abawi, 2018). Moreover, when cultural issues are well handled, there is an increase in commitment from teachers and students, reducing absenteeism, job turnover, and conflicts.
According to Carter & Abawi, (2018), effective diversity leaders must recognize themselves first before attending to people. Organizational leaders have a big role in acknowledging social differences and cultural gaps while determining approaches such as raising awareness to embraces everyone. Carter and Abawi (2018) list the primary characteristics of effective diversity leaders as meditation, optimism, communication, tolerance, sensitivity, and objectivity. In other studies, features of diversity leaders include justice in the form of equity, utilization of differences, and awareness (Gunter & Fitzgerald, 2007). Consequently, it can be inferred that diversity, inclusion, and integration of equity matter.
Diversity inclusion and integration aim to protect people’s attributes by integrating them with organizational functions and decision-making processes. Inclusion plays a crucial role in incorporating employees’ thinking styles, occupational backgrounds, and skillsets. Diversity focuses on the development of workers and how to integrate them into systems or processes. According to Grissom (2018), equity is not basing preferences for people over others upon biases and stereotypes. The central aim of a diversity leader is to create shape policies, practices, and beliefs of people towards building objectivity.
In Juvonen et al. (2019) work, inclusion is increasingly a significant challenge for educational leaders. Schools require the need to thrive on uncertainties and greater capacity for collective problem handling with continuing diversity. Typically, there are mutual reinforcing components vital for effective leadership. They include moral purpose, relationship building, creation of knowledge, and coherence making. Juvonen et al. (2019) argue that the obstacles of student diversity and current approaches to leadership may get in the way of improvement efforts. Two primary reasons for failures may include the tendency to view leadership as a behavior and not actions. In this support, Juvonen et al. (2019) argue for constructivist leadership view, and this is where participants construct common meaning that leads to common purpose on schooling. Leadership is an interactive process that educators and students enter. Hierarchical structures get replaced by common responsibilities in communities characterized by agreed hopes.
In work by Brimhall et al. (2017) about a comprehensive approach to school leadership, the authors emphasize on work of school principals. Leaders should attend to broad types of tasks, including fostering meaning about diversity, promoting inclusive practices within the learning institutions, and creating a connection between schools and communities. On the contrary, diversity in the teaching profession is not as comprehensive as it should be in many settings. At the moment, gender is common diversity indicators followed by indigenous status (Peixoto et al., 2018). Even so, data on these aspects is not comprehensive, and diversity is not generally captured well.
Approach on Diversity and inclusion in Education Setting
In the rapidly transitioning schools, things are not the same as institutions embrace diverse populations. Essentially, it is imperative that stakeholder in schools embraces diversity as an opportunity and not a hurdle. In some districts have where the student population was previously dominant of a particular population, there is now a mixture of different races, including low-income people (Rusch & Horsford, 2009). Educators have a significant task to re-examine these changes as ignoring the transformation could hurt academic progress. The key driver towards embracing of change is leadership and teamwork. Rapidly evolving demographics demand schools to engage in vigorous, ongoing, and systematic improvement of professional growth to prepare all instructors to function efficiently in diverse environments. Most educational leaders in diversity-enhanced institutions have considered moving beyond blame or befuddlement and work to transform schools to serving all people equally. Based on observations, transformative work is possible in phases such as establishing trust within organizations, recognizing personal culture, involving communities in organizational changes and reforming teaching practices.
Ideally, a large population of public schools in a society such as the US is whites. The population grew and attended middle class and received preparation from predominantly white teams (MacBeath, 2007). Thus, both students and educators may not have had much experience with diverse backgrounds. The priority in such cases is trust-building to acknowledge the associated challenges positively and honestly. School leaders are tasked to base discussions of diversity on assumptions such as inequality in school is not a function of intentional discrimination. Moreover, it should be assumed that instructors of all racial and cultural backgrounds must develop new competencies to engage the changing population successfully.
Another approach is to recognize owns personal culture in that instructors must realize their backgrounds and how this difference can impact other people. In so doing, it becomes easier to establish trust and effective relationships within an organization. Young persons, especially from marginalized communities, have sensitivity for authenticity. Studies show that intellectual performance is fragile and varies considerably based on social and interpersonal contexts of learning (Ngurruwutthun & Stewart, (1996). In other research, it is asserted that vital factors significantly affect students’ motivation or academic performance. They include the feeling of belonging, trust in people around them, and personal belief that educator value intellectual competencies (Mulcahy, 2003). Moreover, research suggests that adults’ capacity to form trusting relationships with learners can significantly influence achievements or outcomes.
Social dominance and social justice are confronted as ways to embrace diversity and inclusiveness in schools. The system of privileges and preferences arouse enclaves of exclusivity in learning institutions. Some demographics groups are observed to be better served and attended but others especially the minority groups, are more disadvantaged. With an increasing diversity in changing school districts cultural gaps are more pronounced and leaders are forced to confront the historical inequalities impacting learning process. Employing social justice approach is a significant step to recognize differences and ways to make everyone comfortable in the workplaces. School leaders and educators engage in conversations about social aspects such as sexual orientation, gender, race, or class (Peixoto et al., 2018). To unravel social dominance, it takes great courage that is demonstrated in committee leadership.
The other approach embraced to face diversity and inclusion changes in schools is a transformation of instructional practices. In this phase, learning institutions assess and transform where necessary to implement instruction in a more responsive approach to diversity. To instructors, this means examining curriculum and expectations or interaction patterns with learners. Transforming instructional practices means looking at outcomes data and innovating new approaches designed to serve students where current teaching processes are not reaching. To leaders there is a need to embrace the limits of personal knowledge and join educators in determining ways to reform inclusive learning practices. Taking this step has the potential to achieve inclusion and acknowledgment of diverse populations in institutions (Robinson, Lloyd & Rowe, 2008). Along this step, leaders should take keen considerations such as forming authentic relationships with students, integrating curriculum that honors people backgrounds, and shifting instructional methods to meet diverse needs.
Reforming teaching practices to accommodate individuals form different cultural settings requires a change in perceptions where parents and students are blamed for gaps in academic goals. Instead of scrutinizing academic ineffectiveness, educators must place energy where there is a significant impact to change their attitude., practices, beliefs, or expectations. Moreover, engaging the entire school community is deemed paramount for impactful changes towards inclusiveness. The changing demographics have profound effects on all functions and levels of school systems. To establish a welcoming and equitable learning environment for various groups and families, school leaders must take holistic measures of involving the entire community.
Why diversity in School Leadership is Vital
In the school context, diversity refers to having a working environment reflecting various community demographics such as cultural and social backgrounds. Studies show that there are considerable benefits to diverse teams and diversity in leadership (Gunter & Fitzgerald, 2007). Some of the advantages include making an educational team smarter. Diversity treats information in different ways compared to homogenous one. For instance, during decision-making, racially diverse groups have more tactics with great care and accuracy than the dominant population (Oplatka, 2009). In an educational context, better decisions are constructed around pedagogy in classrooms and how pastoral care is available.
Furthermore, diversity increases innovation in learning institutions, which is a big opportunity to thrive academically. Evidence from financial sectors infers that diverse leadership teams boost innovations and lead to maximize benefits (Johnson, Neville & Scull, Janet, 1999). This translates that leaders potentially adopt new processes to lower educators’ workloads and enhance collaboration in schools. Based on studies in corporations such as finance and banking sectors, companies with great gender or cultural considerations in boards or management show high growth and profitability (Peixoto et al., 2018). This is likely to imply that diversity can lead students academically and more broadly in overall well-being in education sectors.
Ethically, diversity is crucial, and having leadership teams that value inclusions or appreciates people’s background is essential. Diverse leadership teams ensure processes are approaches adopted are not discriminatory to particular groups of teachers or students. Diversity in voice around the leadership table can break entrenched practices that are not exercising best outcomes (Lac & Cumings Mansfield, 2018). In school leadership settings, diversity is vital to demonstrate to students’ populations that people from different groups can strive for leadership positions in the community.
Gender is among the few indicators of diversity, with data focusing on teachers. Gender breakdown in school leadership positions is documented and significantly points out that most schools have a diversity problem in leadership. For example, in some communities, schools have almost equal gender spit with 51% of males and 49% representing women (Kruger, 2007). However, the overall teaching workforce points to the majority of men are leaders. Women are more likely to be under-represented in leadership like what has been revealed in other economic sectors. On the contrary, there is an upward trend pointing women are beginning to trend in leadership positions. The female teacher population is growing both in primary and secondary schools. Given the recent changes, women will likely be more equitably represented in leadership in the aspect of gender factor (Smyth, 2008). Nevertheless, there are still challenges to counter when recruiting females in school leadership positions.
Critiques of Theory-based for Diversity and inclusion in Leadership
Admittedly, increasing diversity is a complex issue dealing with deep-seated beliefs, implicit or explicit biases. Enhancing diversity may not be accomplished quickly as it requires time, planning, and people’s willingness to be uncomfortable. There are qualities and models of leadership that help people steer entities through cultural shifts and foster diversity within educational systems in the community (Bush & Glover, 2014). For example, leadership theories such as transformational, exchange, and authentic leadership can be adopted to promote an inclusive learning environment.
Demographics in societies have shifted over the past years, and this is projected to grow given the social influences and changes. The number of white Americans and non-Hispanic has been decreasing since the1980s (Hall, 2002). With that, it means there is a rise of other ethnicity or racial populations, and these changes would be significantly reflected in schools. As the demographic shift, organizations, including educational sectors, are forced to accommodate the workforce’s diversity to match the population served. Positive changes are witnessed as schools actively hire people who have historically been in the minority regarding sexuality, gender, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The desire to raise diversity stem from the benefits stated earlier.
To increase diversity, the effort requires an overall shift in organizational culture, and this is often said that it is done. Organizational leadership plays a crucial role in establishing and promote workplace culture. Teachers look to leaders to see the context in which they must function within an institution. Establishing an environment that mirrors desired values of a learning institution requires solid actions from leadership and embodiment of stipulated values. The first leadership approach to evaluate is situational, and this style is interesting because it considers the traits of leaders and looks at followers. Situational leadership entails analyzing followers’ competence and goals while diversifying workforce populations and adjusting styles to match (Leithwood et al., 2008). Ideally, there is a need to balance the directive behaviors and supportive actions such as information sharing, listening, and providing feedback. In an organization working on expanding diversity and promoting inclusion, situational leadership is effective due to flexibility. However, the leadership theory fails to take the demographics of followers into account when assigning people to categories.
Exchange theory focuses on relationships established between followers and leaders. For s high-quality relationship to be formed, there is a great deal of trust and partnership. As aforementioned, acknowledging diversity starts by establishing trust, and people find it easier to confide with people they know or relate with (Bolden, Gosling, Marturano, and Dennison, 2003). The practice cannot be integrated into the educational leaders committed to promoting diversity since the model appears discriminative. Establishing relationships with only people that someone is familiar with could prevent minority educators from achieving the same career progress despite the best effort.
Utilizing transformational style has the potential to see leadership success in diversity promotion within educational settings. With this approach, leaders are working towards boosting personal ethics and standards and those of followers. As pointed earlier, diversity and inclusion in educational leadership are ethically important. Transformational leaders are charismatic and can inspire followers to change or find their place within new cultures. The leadership approach is key to enhancing diversity change in learning institutions. It requires administrators and educators to re-examine how they view people and relate with students from cultural backgrounds. Moreover, leaders can recognize the need to be lifelong learners, which is vital when handling cultural competency.
On the other hand, the authentic leadership approach may have significant values to promote diversity. To develop authenticity in institutional leadership, the focus is directed on components enhanced by critical characteristics (Lewis & Murphy, 2008). The first component is awareness, and as mentioned earlier in the literature section, the vital features of a leader are the utilization of differences and raising awareness. The latter is the first step towards cultural competency, and the ability of a leader to known where they go wrong or excel in cultural perspectives allows them to enlighten themselves, emphasizing positive changes to followers.
Recommendations for Future Change
Authentic leadership has been identified as one of the keys to promoting diversity and inclusion in education leadership. Suggestively, leaders adapting this model should practice relational transparency (Bush & Glover, 2014). For example, administrators or other school executives must be willing to share honesty with teachers. Consequently, this will establish a culture that values inputs of minority staff and implicate positive relationships with students. Increasing diversity cannot happen overnight despite the structural mechanism embraced. As such, leaders will be required to be prepared for challenges, and this will be done by better planning and emulating the best approaches discussed, such as transformational style.
As a recommendation, leaders should assess their institutions and note where it is falling short concerning diversity promotion. The approach will enable strategic planning for the future and adequate allocation of resources to serve the diverse needs of the student population and teachers equally. Without first acknowledging the existing problem, it will be hard to address them and ineffective integration of situational approach adequately. Suggestively, educational leaders must often hold discussions or meetings with minority groups of teachers, parents, or students to gain insights.
Furthermore, it is recommended that leaders must incorporate diversity and conclusion parameters in institutional quality assessment tools. Obtaining feedback from parents, instructors, students, or community members is crucial to know how cultural needs are not being met, and this shows where diversity policies in place fall short (Cranston & Ehrich, 2009). An organizational evaluation will help avoid the continued use of approaches that do not meet people’s needs. This calls for the urgency to reform, allowing resources and energy directed towards working programs.
Conclusion
In summary, this paper has addressed diversity and inclusion issues as key themes in educational leadership. Schools are situated in a global community where respecting people’s differences is paramount to remain relevant academically and in leadership in the evolving society. Based on insights from the literature, there are significant benefits of ensuring diversity and inclusion in learning institutions, as insights are provided on which leadership styles could fit in driving the change.
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