Twenty-eight Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnicity Senior Educational Leaders talk about the education policy and infrastructure they need for democracy in education: Global perspectives from the US, Palestine and England

The agency of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnicity (BAME) Superintendents in the US, Arab Israel, and Chief Executive Officers of Multi-Academy Trusts in England is shaped by their nation’s public governance systems.... [ view full abstract ]

The agency of Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnicity (BAME) Superintendents in the US, Arab Israel, and Chief Executive Officers of Multi-Academy Trusts in England is shaped by their nation’s public governance systems. Education systems have been in a state of flux, and have experienced what Grossman (2014) calls ‘turbulence’ for twenty years. Senior Leaders are expected to play pivotal roles in leading the change to optimise students’ learning and students’ outcomes. At the same time, these leaders are sidelined as spectators as education systems are controlled by mechanisms of accountability made possible by data management. Such data management can be reduced to governance by numbers where individual lives can be replaced by a string of exam results, a kind of DNA coding that, coupled with a student’s post code, can predict, or even determine their life trajectory.

We take a social-constructivist approach in the analysis of narrative biographies collected from twenty-eight BAME Senior Leaders in the US, Arab-Israel, and England to address three research questions. First, how do the BAME Senior Leaders understand school governance systems empower them to lead school improvement? Second, how do they understand the role mentors, networks, and the academy play to support their navigation through the turbulence? Third, to what extent do they believe a cultural change is required to Empower Young Societal Innovators for Equity and Renewal? 

Three themes emerged from the evidence. First BAME Senior Leaders state they are prevented from implementing their professional expertise and wisdom, passed onto them by their mentors, because their professional values clash with the national public management systems’ values. BAME Senior Leaders are sidelined, whilst those with no professional credentials, or track records for improving students’ educational outcomes, perform on the dance floor. Second, the BAME Senior Leaders state they need legislation and infrastructure to empower them to mentor their school principals, school staff, parents, and students, supported by the academy as an institution of knowledge creation, and mobilisation. Finally, the BAME Senior Leaders want legislation and infrastructure to support their role as bridges between the academy, diverse schools, diverse communities, and public governance systems. They see their role as co-creating networks that implement culturally relevant curriculums for knowledge mobilisation and social mobility. These curriculums celebrate diverse cultural histories, and describe and promote values and behaviours of good leaders, through inclusive pedagogies for equity, renewal, and leading a good life.