0.6 Challenges facing black american principals: a conversation  (Page 12/22)

Suppose a newly hired principal of the established culture is invited to attend a church attended by otherconstituents of the established group. After church, he or she meets the superintendent’s single daughter or son, and is later invited to dinner where other senior level administrators aredining. Discussions emerge and the newly hired principal is invited to join a principal leadership institute. Hence, social class isalive and well. The principal of color observes his or her colleague socially and professionally advancing and is onlyslightly aware of what social capital is available to the counterpart.

An emerging paradigm shift occurs once ethnic minority principals know the paradigm of the dominant culture. Theparadigm reflects the idea that to successfully operate in a world of historical unfairness, they must acquire knowledge about theparadigm of other groups as well as their own. They must find the mechanisms to enter into the frameworks that have unwritten rulesbut direct action within the more powerful culture. They also need to know and understand the history, beliefs, norms, and values ofthe dominant culture, so that their value of self worth and esteem is not dictated by individuals who do not share, or at leastrespect, their paradigm. If the person of color is unable to recognize and understand the paradigms of self and others, theresults can create apathy, loss of cultural identity, lack of motivation, career burnout, and the inability to differentiate whenactions are racist and when they are not.

Other Challenges of Race, Health, Spirituality and Humor

All of the principals expressed racism as a concern they frequently encountered. Lomotey believes thatsubordinates may react differently to their supervisor depending upon the supervisor’s race (found in Parke, 1976). If subordinates act differently to supervisors based upon the supervisor’s race, it could affect the leadership of the supervisor along racial lines,again differentiating the leadership of Black and White teachers. One principal’s sentiments echoed the voice of many survey participants interviewed:

In the South, corporal punishment is an accepted discipline. Quite often it becomes an issue because Whiteparents do not want a Black principal, it doesn’t matter if you are a man or woman, to paddle their child. You can follow all the rulesin the handbook but if my White colleague paddles, there are very few objections.

Another issue associated with race evolves around who is appointed to predominately ethnic minority schoolswith an at-risk population of students. Several principals suggested that when career applications were made to larger Whitepublic schools, the applications are not filled by Black principals but rather White principals. They contend that they are“equally as qualified to mentor White students and teachers”as other their White peers. However, because they are Black, there is anunconscious racist perspective that reverse mentoring is not possible. One seasoned administrator posed the difficulty ofdiscerning when many actions are actually issues of race and when they are not.“Sometimes you encounter racial issues so much you wonder if this is racist or if it isn’t. In the Black culture we use a lot of metaphors to better understand what’s going on and sometimes we still don’t get it.”