Chapter 13: How To Actualize Transformative Outcomes Via Participant Engagement

This chapter outlines a leader’s committed work to acknowledging and dismantling the inequity and injustice within her sphere of influence by applying Karl Marx’s conflict/critical theory with the more recent transformative paradigm to ensure the district was meeting its strategic plan goal for equity, diversity, and inclusivity. Far too often, educators and educational leaders have seen strategic plans collect dust on shelves or move deeper into the recesses of district webpages. Unkept promises and unmet commitments lead to cynicism and distrust within any organization. Based on my experience in education, the damage is amplified when there is a lackluster response to initiatives tied to responding to inequitable access to learning opportunities, harmful attitudes, and beliefs about learners, or unjust responses to academic, social, emotional, and physical needs of every student. I conducted mixed-methods action research to support the district’s strategic plan for equity, diversity, and inclusivity in order to bring explicit recognition of the values and knowledge of the diverse community it served. This chapter highlights the ethical reasoning for conducting similar research, the existential need for leaders to move beyond performative activities to transformative responses to inequity and injustice within their sphere of influence, and it provides an illustrative example of how districts might reframe their engagement.