7: Being a Principal in Inner-City Schools: Authentic Connections with the Community

This chapter focuses on the context of the U.S. Southwest. As described in earlier chapters, most Latina/o principals and superintendents serve in areas like the U.S. Southwest and in large urban inner-city schools. The leadership of a Latino principal, and his experiences, exemplifies how the professional identity of principals can be observed as impacting the preparation of students with a strong focus on community uplift. In urban areas, where there is higher socioeconomic variability, lessons from these principals become paramount in the analysis of possibilities in impacting change in schools.

Joseph Cerna, principal at an elementary school in an inner-city, reflects on his development as a Latino leader here. As scholars, we valued a testimonio approach (Brabeck, 2003; Huber, 2008, 2009; Yúdice, 1991) in this chapter, especially as it added to the richness of the quantitative portion of the National Latino Leadership Project. Testimonio is defined by some scholars as allowing for the documentation of a verbal journey, where principal Cerna defines his life experiences with minimal interference from the researchers. Through his testimonio, Cerna validates the leadership knowledge accumulated since growing up in the same neighborhood in which he is now a school leader, including social justice concerns relevant to the local school and community.