0.6 Challenges facing black american principals: a conversation  (Page 11/22)

Sometimes, when a low-income mother with a bad behavior comes into my office, I put myself into check. I say tomyself calm down, smile, offer my hand and offer a seat. I also often change the way I speak. Don’t adhere to the King’s English too much. By all means, don’t be loquacious and you may even want to be complimentary of dress attire. On the other hand, you maywant to infuse a lot of the opposites when you are interacting with a majority culture in which many assumptions are made.

Jones and Shorter-Gooden (2003) believe that African American women shift more than any other historicallysuppressed group. This means they hide their true selves to appease White colleagues, Black men, and other segments of the community.Black women shift to accommodate differences in class, gender, and ethnicity. Shifting is evident in one’s usage of Standard English and shifting to Ebonics, non-standard English used primarily byBlack Americans. Physically, shifting can take place by minimizing social distance. Shifting can occur by styling natural hair toperms. Shifting exists when changing one’s physical posturing and facial expressions to expressionless and neutral positions.Shifting can also reflect changing how one thinks and communicates. According to one principal:

We don’t have a lot of Hispanic children. My school is Black, Whites, or mixed-kids. What I must do is learn thelanguage of young people. I watch BET. I learn hip-hop and rap. I learn what is popular so that I can often infuse Standard Englishwith non-standard forms of communications. If you can’t communicate with young folks, you will lose them.

A male principal, supports this statement but contends that shifting is not simply and solely race-based .“If you are addressing people who don’t have a lot of exposure and resources, you meet them where they are in order to effectivelycommunicate.”

In order to obtain social capital, historically underrepresented groups must understand, and know howand why, information is constructed. The construction of information creates a paradigm, a set of assumptions, concepts,values, and practices that constitute a way of viewing reality by the community that shares them (The American Heritage Dictionary,2000). The manner in which individuals construct information is based upon societal monitoring and subsequent associated andacquired knowledge. Paradigms are created from events that occur in the historical and present context. Paradigms are influenced bysocietal rewards and punishments. Paradigms are also based upon culture, language, thoughts, behaviors, religion, race, ethnicity,gender, and more. Paradigms can be considered as mental frameworks that have unwritten rules but direct actions. When one paradigmloses influence and another takes over, there is a paradigm shift. Knowing in advance how a paradigm shift might occur gives a personan advantage over others.

African Americans and other historically underrepresented principals may enter into leadership positionshaving had stellar presentations from national and international conferences, but may not be rewarded and recognized for thesecontributions. At the same time, a member of the dominant culture may have fewer or equal publications and presentations, and yet is lauded for his or her contributions. The historicallyunderrepresented member may feel slighted and question equity in a society that espouses democratic principles. However, if thisperson genuinely understands the manner in which variables such as gender and race have been manipulated in the United States acrosstime, an awareness and understanding exists.