Chapter 8: “I’M Going to Show them that I Can Do this… Con Más Ganas!”: The Educational Journeys of Latina Principals

Despite multiple entrenched structural barriers, many Latina educators, like the one quoted above, have attained leadership roles and thrived in such positions. Many Latina principals are educational leaders who draw on community cultural wealth to build successful academic environments. According to Latina scholar Yosso (2005, 2006), community cultural wealth comprises the key strengths of the Latinx community that are frequently overlooked in traditional research. There are six forms of community cultural wealth that Yosso identifies: resistant, familial, linguistic, social, aspirational and navigational (Yosso, 2005, 2006).

The data in this chapter draws from a larger study that examined how eight Latina principals experienced all forms of community cultural wealth during their personal student experiences as well as how they utilized community cultural wealth in their professional practices. This chapter focuses on the critical role one form of community cultural wealth—resistant capital—played in the personal student and professional experiences of these eight Latina principals. As will be seen in this chapter, while all forms of community cultural wealth are important, resistant capital plays an especially critical role in the leadership practices of Latina principals. An understanding of the impact of resistant capital, both in the student and professional experiences of Latina principals makes a significant contribution to the knowledge base of educational leadership research.