Abstract
In a colonia along the U.S.–Mexico border, some parents rely on other people to help them pay their bills and read mail because they cannot read. Domestic violence often goes unreported or unaddressed by authorities, much of it occurring within sight of children in small one- or two-room homes constructed of cinderblocks or wooden pallets. Violence, extortion, government malaise, and corruption are common and viewed by some as normal or unalterable. Public schools have a 4-hour school day and classrooms with 40 to 50 students. By sixth grade many children drop out in order to work to help support their families. Raw sewage erodes unpaved streets, electricity is taken from power lines using car jumper cables, and trash accumulates alongside streets and in alleyways. Parents in the colonia laughed at Mrs. Donna when she initially talked with them about cofounding a school to prepare children for middle school, high school, college, and professional careers.
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The vignette above is based on interviews and observations with parents, teachers, and administrators and is not meant to cast the community through a deficit lens, but rather to suggest how political and economic failures subdue and marginalize families. As will be shown, this community has tremendous intellect, strength, and persistence. School leaders with social justice orientations seek to address issues of marginalization like those described in the vignette, because these leaders see strength within their communities and recognize how inequality of health, economic opportunity, education, and self-determination limit their students’ long-term opportunities. While considerable scholarship has explored the nature of social justice leadership in the United States, research in highly demanding social contexts across the globe is needed to further develop theory and practical applications. This study explores one school leader’s social justice orientations and actions to establish a community-oriented school in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. Few empirical studies explore the establishment of a social justice–oriented school or the practice of social justice leadership in such contexts; nor have studies tended to delve deeply into leadership for authentic parent and community engagement oriented toward empowerment, capacity building, democratic participation, and community organizing.
This qualitative case study presents a leader’s enactment of social justice leadership 10 years after founding a school. For 1 year, the authors followed the school’s leader as she sought to identify, understand, and address inside-of-school and outside-of-school barriers to student and community success. To understand how this process unfolded, we have drawn on empirical and theoretical scholarship related to social justice leadership and parent and community engagement. We describe the community context as understood by the leader and the actions she took to build trust, engage, empower, connect, and educate her community. Our findings indicate that this community confronted a broad range of educational inequities that created a social justice leadership imperative focused on authentic family engagement and community solidarity, both as an outcome and as a means to providing a quality education to students. A leader emerged with remarkable vision and generosity able to recognize and address systemic educational inequities associated with the extreme poverty, disenfranchisement, and marginalization of an entire community. Exploring social justice leadership in such contexts contributes to understandings of effective leadership practices and orientations that can be applied to address a range of educational inequities relevant not only to K-12 schools but also to social movements, religious institutions, and nongovernmental organizations that seek to empower, advocate, and bring quality education to marginalized communities in the United States and around the world.
Educational Context of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Numerous scholars have studied the development of Mexican colonias along the U.S.–Mexico border (J. B. Anderson, 2003; Hill, 2003; Sharkey, Dean, & Johnson, 2011). Colonias are unincorporated and unregulated settlements with substandard housing and living conditions that present numerous obstacles to student well-being and achievement, including (a) high proportions of adult illiteracy; (b) lack of access to quality public schools; (c) severe poverty; (d) domestic violence, gang/cartel violence, and the persistence of violent and nonviolent crime; (e) government malaise/corruption; and (f) a lack of community cohesion and solidarity (Bejarano, 2002; Hernandez & Grineski, 2012; Heyman & Campbell, 2004; Hill, 2003). Nationally, Mexican children living in poverty confront numerous inequities. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD; 2013) reports fewer than 40% of Mexicans obtain an upper secondary education, female students are less likely to be in school as they move through adolescence, and schools have the highest student–teacher ratio of all OECD countries. Most elementary schools have an AM/PM schedule whereby students attend from 8 am to 12 pm or 2 pm to 6 pm.
Mexican children in poverty are often educated in schools without adequate technology, well-prepared teachers, and financial resources. Poor infrastructure is related to the limited funding that Mexican public schools receive outside of money for textbooks and teacher salaries (OECD, 2013). Government fraud and corruption at federal, state, and local levels also contribute to problems of school governance and infrastructure and considerably affect marginalized communities (OECD, 2013). Colonias’ geographic isolation equates to limited economic opportunities for community members. Individuals who can secure employment tend to travel far distances to work long hours in maquilas for about 400 dollars a month (Semuels, 2016). 2
Ciudad Juárez was named the world’s most violent city in 2010 with an estimated fatality rate of 200 homicides per 100,000 people (Moran, 2012). Between 2008 and 2013, more than 10,000 murders were documented in the city—although this statistic does not include “disappearances.” Bowden (2011) captured the intersection of daily life, violence, and children in the city:
A man found against the metal bars of a window, arms spread in the crucifixion style, feet firmly on the ground, his face hidden by a pig mask. Children walk past on their way to school. A few days later, a man is found at dawn dangling from a bridge. His severed head is located wrapped in a black plastic bag at the Juárez monument to newsboys in the Plaza of the Journalist. (p. 230)
Although extreme violence is more recent and now subsiding, the city has a protracted history of violence. Since the early 1990s approximately 800 women have been murdered or disappeared.
The aftermath of violence has created substantial challenges for schools, families, and communities. Childhood exposure to violence has generally been correlated to physical and mental health problems during adolescence and through adulthood (Milam, Furr-Holden, & Leaf, 2010), including emotional dysregulation and cognitive challenges as well as ongoing life turmoil from destabilized households, families, and communities (Garbarino, Dubrow, Kostelny, & Pardo, 1992). Hernandez and Grineski (2012) found that the wave of violence in Ciudad Juárez produced a broad range of economic, social, cultural, and psychological problems for families and children in colonias and other poverty-stricken communities. Schools are under stress trying to meet the needs of students living in such contexts, especially as students lose access to caregivers, neighbors, community organizations, family, and peers due to displacement stemming from violence (Hernandez & Grineski, 2012; Margolin & Gordis, 2004). Domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse, delinquency, and other social ailments become byproducts of destabilization, poverty, and violence (Martinez, 2013).
Social Justice Leadership and Family/Community Engagement
The Plural Nature of Social Justice
A clear definition of social justice remains elusive, although most scholarship acknowledges a plural conception concerning the equitable distribution of goods and resources and full recognition of marginalized communities (Fraser, 1997; Fraser & Honneth, 2003; Young, 1990). Gewirtz and Cribb (2002) extended on Young and Fraser’s work by offering a third facet of social justice: associational, or the ability of all groups to govern, participate, and make decisions that affect their lives. 3 Accordingly, social justice entails respect for different social groups, opportunities for self-development and self-expression, and full participation of groups in decisions that affect them (Gale, 2000). Actors and groups must have a sense of their own agency and of responsibility toward others (Hay & Beyers, 2011). However, marginalized communities may not be prepared or willing to make decisions because prior history suggests that democratic processes may not be fruitful (Faulks, 2006) or because of consequences related to distributive and cultural injustices. The opportunity to make decisions is of limited importance unless an individual or community takes advantage of this opportunity (Howe, 1997).
New considerations arise when considering the role of social justice–oriented leaders in communities where distributive (e.g., depravity of housing, health care, education, economic opportunity) and cultural injustices (nonrecognition, deficit perspectives) create circumstances that limit or prevent particular groups from participating in their children’s education. These considerations relate to the nature of structural injustices in a given context and the role of a central change agent in instigating change (Gewirtz & Cribb, 2002). We argue that social justice leadership must be contextually responsive and evolving in relation to the plurality and intersectionality of injustices (Dantley, Beachum, & McCray, 2008; Ryan, 2016). Existing social justice leadership research has been centered on leadership actions across a range of purposes or goals, but primarily focused on addressing inside-of-school concerns related to achievement, inclusion, school governance in relation to program adoption, and culturally relevant curricula in the United States (Brooks, Jean-Marie, Normore, & Hodgins, 2007; Cooper, 2009; DeMatthews & Mawhinney, 2014; Kose, 2007; Theoharis, 2007; Theoharis & O’Toole, 2011; Wasonga, 2009).
Few studies have been conducted outside of the United States and fewer have located their research within communities confronting severe distributive, cultural, and associational injustices. For example, Bosu, Dare, Dachi, and Fertig (2011) and Jansen (2006) provide case studies of social justice leadership in Africa, although leadership is tied to racial/gender inclusion or academic achievement and not explicitly to empowering marginalized communities. These studies highlight redistributive and cultural justice, but ignore aspects of associational justice. This literature gap is problematic, especially in international contexts where extreme challenges within marginalized communities are present, growing as a result of harmful neoliberal ideology and policies (G. L. Anderson, 2009; Lipman, 2013; Mawhinney, 2004), and apt to negatively affect a marginalized community’s willingness to believe change is possible.
Theorizing Social Justice Leadership
Traditional leadership approaches are heavily concerned with managing organizational effectiveness related to student achievement and often justified by false claims of “social justice” to close achievement gaps through teaching and leading to standardized tests, or engaging parents in order to enhance district or school priorities. Social justice leadership is considered as an alternative approach and framed as a synthesis of dispositions, values, and practices that are contextually responsive and reflective of the plural nature of social justice. Although social justice leadership is still concerned with organizational effectiveness and learning outcomes, it is not as a trade-off for other desired goals, such as inclusion, equity, advocacy, and meaningful family engagement (DeMatthews, 2015; Furman, 2012b; Ryan, 2006). Social justice leadership is also described as defiant and aimed toward not only disrupting the status quo for one group but also toward creating an inclusive approach to challenging dominant beliefs, co-constructing new and empowering narratives, advocating for comprehensive change, and publicly engaging in ongoing candid discussions about race, ethnicity, social class, disability, gender, sexual orientation, and other marginalized groups (Beabout, 2014; Riehl, 2012). This approach considers power dynamics to address symptoms of marginalization within the school as well as the larger structural injustices that single out certain groups for less favorable treatment.
Associational justice plays a central role in social justice leadership, especially in contexts confronting numerous injustices where the “heroic leader” narrative is even less defensible. Yet rebuffing the heroic leader narrative does not suggest a school leader is unimportant. Dantley and Tillman (2010) describe a social justice leader as one who “investigates and poses solutions for issues that generate and reproduce societal inequities” (p. 19). Initiating an investigation of injustices or catalyzing a community to do so often requires leaders to organize, persuade, inform, and empower individuals and communities. Through this process leaders must not simply pose solutions for injustice, but recognize and learn from the “array of cultural knowledge, skills, abilities and contacts possessed by socially marginalized groups that often go unrecognized and unacknowledged” (Yosso, 2005, p. 69). Leadership for social justice begins with addressing deficit thinking about and within marginalized communities, then facilitating a critical dialogue on the status quo within the school and community, and finally more fully developing and sustaining a school–community partnership capable of expressing a more preferred future and charting a new course. Sustainable school–community partnerships can effectively interrogate policies and circumstances and guide family and community decisions related to their children, school, and community (G. L. Anderson, 2009; Cooper, 2009; Khalifa, 2012; Shields, 2004) when leaders consider power dynamics and become more conscious of how they interact with teachers, families, and students.
Socially just leaders recognize that they are not fully able to critically question the nature of organizations, policies, and taken-for-granted notions alone because of their privileged voices. Instead, leadership is about “creating critical conditions and safe spaces . . . for educational transformation” (Goldfarb & Grinberg, 2002, p. 162). This highly personalized process is responsive to the needs of the community at a given moment in time and draws on leaders’ values, personal experiences, religious beliefs, and orientations allowing them to construct and adapt their roles in reforms, prioritize purposes and goals of their schools, and guide interactions with communities, families, and children (DeMatthews, 2016). As Dantley (2005) notes, this process is spiritual in nature and “inspires creativity, inquiry, and transformative conduct. Our spirit enables us to connect with other human beings; it underpins our ability to take steps to dismantle marginalizing conditions. . . . Our spirituality is the core of who we are” (p. 654). In sum, spirituality can enable leaders to interpret, disclose, adapt, and innovate to address injustice and persist despite challenges (Stewart, 1999).
Family/Community Engagement and Social Justice Leadership
School leaders have not historically reached out to families; when they have done so, communication has often been one-way and associated with student discipline or grades (Osterman, 2000). For parents confronting a plurality of injustices, establishing effective school–family partnerships is difficult because of a lack of trust and rapport with their local schools. Families may also be consumed with dealing with more immediate health care, housing, and economic problems that limit their ability to be meaningfully engaged. However, family and community engagement scholars have produced evidence that school leaders are integral to establishing socially just family/community partnerships that can contribute to school improvement, organizational effectiveness, and increased equity for students and families (Furman, 2012a).
Partnerships can be powerful tools for making schools more equitable, inclusive, culturally responsive, giving them a greater ability to address the marginalizing forces in and out of schools (Auerbach, 2009, 2010). Bogotch (2014) suggests,
Educational leaders have a moral and political responsibility to educate (attend to) others—both children and adults—about the dynamics of power . . . the relationship between educational leadership and others is reciprocal, translating the lessons of power so as to create opportunities for others to better their lives. (p. 52)
Bearing this in mind, associational justice becomes a central matter for socially just leaders. They must engage in ongoing investigations to further understand equity issues within a school, community, region, and nation and compel marginalized groups to act in solidarity and on their own behalf.
The perception of “ownership” is central to associational justice and meaningful school–community relationships. Goldfarb and Grinberg (2002) found that members of a marginalized community were not initially interested in partnerships, but as they took charge of maintaining and supporting a community center they began to view the center as their property and became engaged in decision-making processes. A sense of ownership is essential for marginalized communities and supports participatory democracy and self-empowerment. Socially just leaders have an important role to play in building this sense of ownership: “Part of the empowerment process lies in the way in which popular participation takes place . . . through fostering respect, understanding, tolerance, compromise, concessions, critical reflection, argumentation, prioritization, caring, designing services, and volunteering” (Goldfarb & Grinberg, 2002, p. 167). More specifically, leaders create an “ongoing intentional process centered in the local community involving mutual respect, critical reflection, caring and group participation through which people lacking an equal share of valued resources gain greater access to and control over those resources” (Delgado-Gaitan, 1991, p. 23).
These findings stem from a tradition of community-based, participatory action research emphasizing respect for community strengths and assets (G. L. Anderson & Middleton, 2014; Yosso, 2005). Continuous investigation of school–family issues is essential to leadership praxis and fundamental to (re)building socially just family–school partnerships (Furman, 2012a, 2012b). Socially just family–school partnerships are positioned as an ethical and moral imperative driven by critically reflective inquiry (Black & Murtadha, 2007; Dantley, 2005) to search, inquire about, and understand the challenges confronted by marginalized groups (Dantley et al., 2008). Relationships are established and maintained for the purpose of cultivating critical attitudes, values, and habits of mind in teachers, students, organizations, families, and communities. Social justice leaders are not only aware of marginalizing issues but also of their own role in undoing, adding to, and addressing such issues. Learning, empathizing, and understanding are central because through these experiences leaders become knowledgeable about the “welfare and interests of all who stand to be affected by his/her decision or action” (Schrag, 1979, p. 208). Ultimately, leaders help produce a cultural synthesis of lived experiences that emphasizes the agency and wisdom of both the formal leader and followers (Beabout, 2014).
Understanding community needs allows leaders to extend beyond conventional practices. They build trust and appreciate how the community knows the child best and is most able to address challenges of educational attainment. Accordingly, school leaders are better able to shape reforms to context-specific challenges and help families build social capital to take power over their lives. Conceptualizing school leadership as a means to building social capital and solidarity within communities can be considered highly political and is sometimes contested. G. L. Anderson (2009) emphasizes the need for a more politicized notion of leadership that acknowledges that schools are sites of struggle and the need for leaders who are skilled at
. . . getting beneath high-sounding rhetoric to the devil in the details . . . they know that some causes [of inequities], such as inequitable policies may be beyond their immediate control, but they have a deep belief in the power of education to foster not just kids with high test scores, but also powerful and informed democratic citizens with influence over those very policies in the future. (pp. 14-15)
Thus, social justice leadership is ultimately a political orientation because its practice is concerned with community organizing and empowering with a particular purpose: social transformation to establish a more radical and critical democracy at all levels of society (Gandin & Apple, 2002; Mediratta, Shah, & McAlister, 2009). Freire (2007) emphasizes the need to support communities in surmounting oppression by enabling people to critically recognize oppression’s causes, “so that through transforming action they can create a new interaction” (p. 47). Freire’s (2007) notion of “conscientização”—or conscientization—is relevant to social justice leadership outcomes. Conscientization highlights the need of the oppressed to learn about the social, political, and economic contradictions that affect their lives. As Freire (2007) notes, “It is only when the oppressed find the oppressor out and become involved in the organized struggle for their liberation can they begin to believe in themselves” (p. 65). Social justice–oriented leaders provide communities with the tools of liberation to recognize, make sense of, and collectively address their own marginalization.
Method
An in-depth qualitative case study approach was used to document one leader’s enactment of social justice leadership in a private nondenominational Christian elementary school located in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico (Yin, 2009). Mrs. Donna was selected based on an extreme or deviant case sampling strategy to provide an important and underresearched exploration into social justice leadership in a challenging school community context (Miles & Huberman, 1994). 4 Pseudonyms were used for all names and places. Concentrating on a single case established a depth of observations and interviews to capture the intricacies of social justice leadership as it relates to school and community context, as well as the opportunity to explore how competing facets of social justice are understood and enacted. In-depth interviews and observations of the school’s leader were the primary data collection tools used to focus on her efforts to provide a high-quality education to all students, create a safe and nurturing learning environment, and engage and empower families to address the systemic inequities and challenges they confront in their daily lives—because each of these areas were relevant to the challenges within the community and related to facets of social justice previously described.
Setting
Colegio Felipe Ángeles (CFA) served a predominately Mexican student body living in poverty, although approximately 10% of students were U.S. citizens who spoke English fluently and lived in the colonia because their guardians were deported or returned to Mexico. CFA was entering its 10th school year in 2014-2015. In 2004, Mrs. Donna and her husband Luis identified a location for the school in Ampliación de Felipe Ángeles. The colonia consisted of mostly unpaved roads and lacked basic infrastructure including electric, water, and sewage systems (see Figure 1). The community was approximately 20 to 30 years old and comprised homes constructed of cinderblocks, wooden pallets, adobe, and scrap metal. Most residents illegally built their homes on unoccupied land and power was accessed illegally and frequently cut off by the power company. The colonia’s public schools were described by parents, teachers, and Mrs. Donna as low-performing, understaffed, and unsafe because of bullying, extortion, and gang intimidation. Schools were on AM/PM schedules, so children only attended school for 4 hours a day. Typical class sizes ranged between 40 and 50 students.
Picture of colonia roughly 500 yards from school.
Data Collection
Eighteen face-to-face semistructured interviews were conducted with Mrs. Donna approximately 2 weeks apart over the course of the study. The lead author was the primary researcher and conducted the majority of the interviews and observations, although the other two researchers helped with data collection and analysis given their extensive international research experience in Mexico and Latin America. Interviewing Mrs. Donna on a continual basis provided a sense of her experiences, how they evolved across a range of emerging challenges, and supported the development of follow-up interview protocols to explore her leadership more deeply. To triangulate her interview responses, additional interviews were conducted with the cofounder, five teachers, eight parents, two local government officials, a community activist, and a local reporter. 5 These interviews captured different perspectives on Mrs. Donna’s leadership, the school/community context, different social justice challenges, and how Mrs. Donna associated the community’s context to her own leadership and the school’s mission.
Sixteen observations were conducted in different contexts. Observations occurred over the course of the school day, lasted approximately 6 to 7 hours, and typically included multiple activities including classroom observations, cafeteria supervision, recess supervision, administrative work, school-wide celebrations and activities, assemblies, and one-on-one meetings with teachers or parents. Field notes focused on Mrs. Donna’s interactions with students, teachers, and parents, as well as her comments and actions associated with facets of social justice, challenges of social justice, and family and community engagement. Field notes were used to document Mrs. Donna’s leadership practice, but also to corroborate findings from her interviews, identify blind spots in the data, and further adapt interview protocols.
Data Analysis
We coded data using NVivo 9 software in multiple phases, although data collection and analysis were ongoing throughout the course of the study. First, we read all transcripts and field notes several times and recorded all data by data type and data source (e.g., Mrs. Donna, parent, observation, interview) and by date in order to triangulate findings and chronologically to identify track emergent issues. Then, we began with an initial coding phase that involved low-inference codes derived from our conceptual framework to classify data associated with different facets of social justice, Mrs. Donna’s worldviews and beliefs about marginalization, and specific leadership actions and foci. We reviewed these codes and wrote analytic memos not only to facilitate our own thinking and generate new insights (Maxwell, 2012) but also to compare our thoughts with each other. We inductively coded data related to social justice leadership and school/community improvement. We focused specifically on social justice outcomes and evidence related to issues of marginalization within the colonia, such as (a) the creation of a nurturing and supportive learning environment, (b) a focus on student achievement and authentic learning outcomes, (c) adult education courses and programs, and (d) adult and community empowerment and solidarity. Next, we reviewed the codes from the initial phase to develop a set of higher inference codes related to social justice leadership and community engagement. We began by drawing on codes derived from our conceptual framework to facilitate comparisons within and across different leadership actions associated with social justice leadership. 6
Additional codes were developed inductively when certain actions, perceptions, or incidents did not fit within the categories above (Patton, 2015). Our secondary coding scheme allowed us to look at Mrs. Donna’s leadership priorities and actions in relation to each facet of social justice and in regard to family and community engagement. We paid close attention to common themes and patterns across social justice facets as well as the dilemmas and challenges that arose as part of the school–community context. Several methodological aspects of the study helped ensure that our evidence represented what actually occurred at the research site. First, when the initial report was written, we applied a member checking strategy to validate findings (Maxwell, 2012). Mrs. Donna reviewed interview transcripts and a summary of findings, but did not offer edits or omissions. We met twice in person to discuss the final manuscript and solicit feedback. The research team consistently read each other’s analytic memos and reflections. The lead author maintained a reflective journal to keep track of assumptions, interpretations, and unanswered questions. Triangulation was used to understand Mrs. Donna’s orientations, actions, and community engagement through ongoing observations and stakeholder interviews. Finally, we maintained prolonged engagement at the research site that allowed for us to build trust with Mrs. Donna and others (Miles & Huberman, 1994).
Findings
Background
Mrs. Donna
Mrs. Donna is the cofounder of CFA with her husband Luis. She is a Mexican American female in her late 40s who grew up on the Texas border. Her friends and family live on both sides of the border and she recalls how growing up on the border during the 1970s and 1980s influenced her life. She witnessed the immense inequalities that existed for Mexicans, Mexican Americans, and the even greater inequalities for people born a few yards south of the border. These life experiences provided her direction and instilled a value of service, commitment, and spirituality. Most of her career was spent as an accountant working in businesses and government agencies. She volunteered for more than 20 years conducting Bible study and teaching consumer mathematics, reading, accounting, parenting, and other skills across El Paso and the colonias across Ciudad Juárez. Her husband of 26 years, Luis, was a retired 911 operator who also volunteered. Donna and Luis observed children and families living in the colonias who were unable to read or complete basic consumer mathematical functions. Mrs. Donna stated, “Parents in the community couldn’t even pay their bills, they were paying other people to read and pay their bills for them.”
Although religious teaching was initially of central importance to Donna and Luis, they asked themselves: “How can we teach the Bible when this community cannot even read it?” She considered the meanings of adult illiteracy, poverty, and its impact on children. Thus, Mrs. Donna’s leadership appeared mostly secular in nature and throughout the day it was often unnoticeable that the school was a private Christian school. In response to this observation, Mrs. Donna said, “We aren’t hear to preach, we are here to love and care for children. We teach the principles of the Bible through our goodness, kindness, and forgiveness. We don’t need to walk around quoting scriptures.” Mrs. Donna’s emphasis on principles of goodness, kindness, and forgiveness were more apparent whereas her religious orientation was subtler. As will be noted, her spirituality compelled her to connect and learn about the lives of people and remain steadfast in the face of pressures, problems, and obstacles.
Mrs. Donna and Luis initially sought to help local public schools, but they were quickly dissuaded. Donna and Luis explained during a joint interview:
You walked into those schools, 40 to 45 kids in a small classroom, there isn’t much going on. . . . Most of the students leave the sixth grade unable to read. . . . Not all the teachers cared. . . . We saw a principal encourage them to go to work for their families, rather than attending junior high school. . . . We just couldn’t see ourselves spending hours and hours trying to help in a place that didn’t even want their students to go on to junior high school.
Mrs. Donna partly believed schools in the colonias were failing because parents did not hold schools accountable, did not advocate for change, and were not engaged with the school. Drugs, violence, poverty, and single parents who moved to Ciudad Juárez from rural Southern Mexico to work in maquilas made establishing a true community very difficult because it lacked, as Mrs. Donna observed, “long-term roots and access to elders.” At a general level, Mrs. Donna understood larger political and economic conditions associated with globalization led to displaced families, high-density urban poverty, and the breakdown of community. Her conversations with single parents helped her make sense of these difficult situations and their accompanying feelings of helplessness and hopelessness. She concluded that communities and families needed to work together with schools and take collective action. Mrs. Donna also realized parents needed to understand the root causes of their marginalization. These formative experiences led her to an important conclusion: “Ultimately, parents and the community are the most important part of a child’s education. It cannot be left up to the school.”
Founding of CFA
In 2004, Mrs. Donna and her husband identified a location for a school in the colonia Ampliación de Felipe Ángeles. They purchased land from the city using their retirement and life savings, moved their children, and began construction on the school on December 26, 2004. Volunteers from the United States and the local community developed architectural plans, purchased supplies, and built the school brick-by-brick. On September 2, 2005, the school opened, enrolling Grades K–3 with one grade being added each additional year; by 2010, the school had approximately 150 students in Grades K–6. Mrs. Donna and the community drafted CFA’s mission: “to provide hope to the people of Juarez by: (a) providing excellent academic opportunities to our students; (b) teaching general life skills to students and parents; and (c) building a strong sense of ownership and involvement in the community.” A veteran teacher and administrator was hired as principal and would handle general administrative tasks, support teachers with professional development, and provide evaluations. The school was 100% free to all families and included books, uniforms, supplies, and two to three meals a day. CFA received monies primarily through community-based fundraisers in El Paso and external grants. Costs were partly offset by a parent contract requiring each family to volunteer 5 hours a week. Parents ran the school’s main office, monitored common areas, supported teachers, and cleaned classrooms, bathrooms, hallways, and common spaces.
Recognizing Inequities and Their Root Causes
When Mrs. Donna was asked what challenges the community faced and which challenges most directly affected students, she sarcastically responded: “Where should I begin?” She explained how the community was isolated, how families were dependent on maquilas for work, how most families had limited access to health care or basic necessities, and the prevalence of drug/alcohol abuse and domestic violence. She described these issues at length and highlighted how the nature and severity of these issues were too large to be addressed singlehandedly:
We have many students and families in need of healthcare, others don’t eat well and struggle day to day. . . . Some families are really struggling, there is issues in the home. . . . Some of the families live in one room basically, so all the problems that go on, the kids see it . . .
Luis discussed the impact of gangs and violence on students and the community. He pointed out locations where adolescents and adults were murdered or executed. We visited a soccer field where children were shot and killed and stopped in front of a small cinderblock home where a group of brothers were pulled out of the house at night and executed. During school hours we frequently saw school-age children ranging from 6 to 17 years working and selling goods. Mrs. Donna was very aware of this type of violence and recognized CFA must “feel safe” and allow students to share their feelings. She concluded, “People become hardened to life when they have no options. They stop feeling. If you give children a safe place, they can remain children and have self-esteem, and make good decisions.”
Throughout the study Mrs. Donna understood and sought to address systemic violence, poverty, delinquency, and gender discrimination through actions and the application of CFA’s resources. However, she also recognized a deeper and more pervasive issue associated with hope and self-determination. She said,
When we were going to start the school, we had a meeting and we gathered, invited the people of the community to come. . . . Just to ask them if they would want a school here and to ask them about what we wanted to do. . . . I still remember so clearly, I was so excited because I was thinking even though I’m not an educator, I love learning, I mentioned, what we can accomplish with your kids. They can go finish elementary, and go to junior high school, and go to high school and university. And they [parents] can have lawyers and teachers and even the president of Mexico. And the whole bunch, it was not something like they talked amongst themselves, they starting laughing at me. They really started laughing at me. That’s when I realized that they really didn’t have any vision for their children beyond even elementary. They thought it was a joke, how could our kids become these professionals.
Mrs. Donna asked herself, “How can you expect children to overcome all the challenges that are here without parental support? This is not the United States, life here can be very harsh. There is no safety net.” Mrs. Donna was then asked, “How did you make sense of the parents’ laughter?” She began by describing the colonia: “This is a squatter’s community, many of these people, women, moved here from rural Southern Mexico for work and a better life.” Her words reflected a contextual understanding of some of the larger geopolitical forces that isolated families, made poverty even more unbearable, and muted voices and feelings of hope.
Mrs. Donna recognized the women of the community lacked access to their families, had to work extremely long hours (if they could find a job), and how the government failed to protect them from systemic violence or poverty. These injustices meant an abused wife could not escape violence because she had no place to turn and felt dependent on her spouse. She added, “Today’s parents were raised in this community, they never had the protections or support they needed.” From her perspective, the only solution to these issues was recreating family and community connections and providing families with a sense of hope, ownership, and self-determination. Mrs. Donna believed the school must “challenge their [parents’] beliefs, we have to push them to speak up and have their voice heard, and we need to model it for them. We need to prove that they have strength and they matter.” Mrs. Donna added, “We also have to listen to them, care about them, and give them the tools they need so they can be fulfilled.” When asked how does a school go about doing this work, she replied, “One day at a time.” Her words also highlighted her spirituality by feeling compelled to support parents despite challenges and the need for “faith” when challenges seemed impossible to overcome.
Mrs. Donna deeply considered how children experienced the weight of poverty, violence, and other hardships. Although she did not share personal stories of student violence with the research team, interviews with parents and other staff members revealed how students struggled to cope with violence and related issues. Some parents expressed concerns for their children’s safety or how losing a family member or friend to violence had affected their child. Mrs. Donna’s own observations of violence as well as the shortcomings of some public schools added to her conceptions of marginalization:
Students can’t learn when they have a teacher who doesn’t care or hits them . . . Or if a principal tells them its okay to drop out after the sixth grade . . . and they can’t learn if they are hungry or don’t believe in themselves.
This quote exposes how Mrs. Donna understands the complexity of community challenges as well as the way inside-of-school factors (e.g., student motivation, academic skills) and outside-of-school factors (e.g., parent engagement, poverty, violence) coalesce to influence student achievement and identity.
Numerous critical events emerged that reinforced her beliefs. For example, after parents laughed at her for thinking the school could produce future professionals she said,
We’ve helped parents understand their kids can do things they couldn’t. We’ve built on that, and now parents know and they are like, “What we need to do for our kids to get an education?” Now they have a vision for their kids.
When Mrs. Donna saw a shift in parents’ attitudes she recognized the importance of family engagement and the centrality of parents with vision for their children. In part, Mrs. Donna’s Christian values guided the belief that parents must have faith and hope in something better. This recognition triggered her to downplay her leadership role:
We believe that if the parent is educated and understanding of what the role is as a parent with their child, that’s going to benefit the child 100 percent . . . especially if the parent knows how to read and write, add and subtract, multiply, they can help their kids with their homework, they can understand where their kids are, they can encourage them to continue to go to school.
Mrs. Donna’s recognition of the important and interconnected role of parents with children is not driven by dominant beliefs about educational excellence where the school, teacher, or leader knows what’s best for the child. She believed that such an approach was problematic to building parent capacity and empowerment because it overemphasizes the importance of the school. She said, “It’s not important that I have answers, it’s important they do and you can’t just tell them. They have to see it for themselves.” She downplayed her role:
I’m not what’s important. This community is what’s important. I see intelligent, strong, skilled ladies. . . . They can do a lot, a lot more than they believe. You know, it’s convincing them how great they can be is the real obstacle.
Her words reflect a profound understanding of community, a need for inclusive leadership, and a leadership approach grounded in service, network building, modeling behaviors, challenging dominant beliefs, and creating safe places for others.
Finally, Mrs. Donna recognized not all challenges or issues could be satisfactorily addressed despite CFA’s overwhelming success. She was open to providing researchers with evidence of families not meeting CFA’s expectations, teachers failing to teach according to CFA values, funding shortfalls, and other emergent challenges. In these instances, Mrs. Donna was reflective, considered alternatives, and continued to do what she believed to be best for the school and community. For example, she learned that engaging parents in leadership and decision making could mean some parents might take advantage of others or make unjust decisions. These dilemmas prompted her to be reflective and further recognize the importance of community as a long-term structure for success: “I can’t say I do everything perfect. We can be doing a better job in a lot of ways, but we do our best and learn from our mistakes.” Taken together, her own understanding of mistakes and community challenges further suggests to Mrs. Donna that a school–community partnership is the best strategy going forward.
Leadership Actions: Reclaiming and Advancing Human Rights
Mrs. Donna acted in response to challenges the community identified and confronted on a daily basis. Her leadership primarily centered on (a) creating a safe, caring, and supportive learning environment; (b) providing parents and students with meaningful experiences and learning opportunities; and (c) developing critically engaged student and community leaders. It is important to highlight that each of these objectives were interrelated and were tools to create a more socially just school community.
Creating a safe, caring, and supportive learning environment
Observational data documented Mrs. Donna’s focus on the needs of teachers, families, and students. She was consistently observed interacting with parents and students throughout the school day. Mrs. Donna had developed close relationships with parents who were aligned to learning about their lived experiences. She asked how a sick family member was doing or how a high school-age child was progressing in school. She knew where each family lived and about any community issues that affected their lives, like a washed out road, a new park or recreation center, or a surge in violence. We jotted down in field notes that “she’s like a mayor, she knows everyone, she smiles, hugs, and greets everyone inside of the school and out. She always takes the time to engage.” Parents used words like “friend,” “caring,” “counselor,” and “supportive” to describe Mrs. Donna. One parent called Mrs. Donna: “el pegamento” or, “the glue” because she connected and pulled the community together.
Simple acts of kindness and listening were frequently observed. She believed that these acts fostered a safe, kind, and caring school and community. She said,
Our purpose is to make sure we build the child, that we build confidence, that we build the ability to say “yes, I can do it, even though it’s difficult for whatever reason,” that it is okay to forgive and its okay not to use violence to take care of problems or situations. We feel that together with all those things, together with the relationship with their parents, if that is taken care of, or if we are working on it, their academic part comes naturally, they just flourish.
She worked to build a “can do” attitude by engaging parents in dialogue, presenting them with new ideas, challenging their preconceived notions, and daring them to hope. Her statement above represents not only the relationship between parent and student success but also the role of CFA in meeting students’ social and emotional needs so the outside environment does not affect traditional schooling. Mrs. Donna recognized parenting deficits, but did not place blame because she understood how parents’ unmet needs limited their ability to fully support their children.
Violence, marginalization, poverty, limited economic opportunities, and a lack of self-determination caused despair and hopelessness. She explained: “Some families need the child to work.” She added, “Some parents don’t support education enough because they themselves can’t help, they can’t read or write.” Other parents did not think education would make a difference. During this discussion she asked the lead researcher:
Do you listen to people? Do you really talk to them and hear their stories? Some of these women, they’ve never been asked what they think. They’ve never told their story. You’d be amazed what you could learn about them, about their strength. Strength they don’t even recognize.
Mrs. Donna believed that many parents, especially women, were silenced. Her leadership was partly centered on giving voice and creating an environment for parents to begin friendships, develop trust, and establish networks of support.
Mrs. Donna’s parent interactions prompted conversations, intense listening, and requests for ideas and feedback because she viewed parents as an untapped strength. Mrs. Donna knew that just asking parents “What do you think?” could be empowering. She sought to find out what parents were interested in learning more about and then connect them with people or learning experiences that can pique their interests and allow them to further develop themselves. CFA provided job skill development, academic coursework, parenting and cooking classes, workforce training, and some paid positions in the school. This was done not only because these supports would benefit children in the long term but also because the outcomes of these learning experiences could provide voice, dignity, and independence. She said, “It is my hope that now these ladies know they have a voice. They don’t need a man. They can provide for themselves, they are smart.” Mrs. Donna especially believed that female empowerment was critical in homes where domestic violence occurred not only for parents but also for children to witness and consider.
Mrs. Donna also held parents to high expectations. Although parents were on an honor system as volunteers, she paid close attention to who was volunteering and who was not. She stated, “Luis and I live here, we do the same jobs and the same things as many other parents. So we know who’s coming and who’s not.” Mrs. Donna held very critical conversations with the parents who did not meet their commitments without a legitimate reason. Ultimately, students would be removed from the school if necessary. The research team questioned Mrs. Donna and Luis on their stance. We asked, “Aren’t you punishing the child for the parent’s shortcoming?” Mrs. Donna responded,
We can’t really help any child here if parents aren’t committed and we don’t have any extra resources to use on someone who won’t take advantage of them. . . . This isn’t just about giving students a sixth grade education, this is about giving them the opportunity to be a high school graduate, to be a teacher or doctor . . . it also demonstrates to us that parents are willing to sacrifice a great deal so that their children will be successful beyond sixth grade. That’s what we need here. Here, things are so difficult that if parents aren’t committed, the children won’t go beyond sixth grade. So yes, we need parents to help us, but more important we need them to be willing to sacrifice so their children can be successful beyond our school.
Her remarks not only reflected the necessity of a cooperative relationship between parent and school but also highlighted that the context of the colonia and the school meant that some students may not benefit from what CFA has to offer.
For Mrs. Donna, creating a safe, caring, and supportive environment for parents was central to replicating that same context for students. She participated in lessons with students, talked to students about what they learned, and promoted and participated in the school’s after-school activities. She was highly concerned with instruction, but was intentional and careful with her efforts; she tended toward helping a teacher or sharing ideas to improve teaching practice rather than evaluating or criticizing when something went wrong. She also recognized her students confronted numerous challenges in their lives that could limit their long-term life opportunities without meaningful support from their parents and the school. Mrs. Donna was observed modeling her expectations as well as displaying kindness, understanding, and an eagerness to listen with students. For example, students were not suspended or aggressively confronted when misconduct occurred. Instead, Mrs. Donna clarified rules when students misbehaved, asked students to reflect on why they made their choices, and prompted them to apologize if appropriate. This was purposeful, as she believed that “students need to feel safe and build an identity that they belong in school and not elsewhere.” Mrs. Donna also created a supportive environment for students by including parents in all aspects of the school. She said, “Including parents in activities makes students feel safe and at home. We want them to enjoy school, enjoy learning, and want to be here each day.”
During the celebration of El día de los niños (Children’s Day), the school staff and parents dressed as cartoon characters, sang and danced with students, and equally distributed previously donated toys. Most parents were in attendance while all students participated in an assembly on the importance of sharing and helping one another. Older students helped younger students select toys and play games. As adults and students played and enjoyed the day, there were no fights, disputes, or overt jealousy over toys. Observations of kindness and sharing were commonplace—and not just on special days. When students did well on a test or assignment they could quickly show their parents the results. These acts of kindness and excitement for learning materialized Mrs. Donna’s underlying belief in children’s innate willingness and ability to be kind when well treated.
Meaningful experiences, supports, and learning opportunities
Mrs. Donna expected parents and students to challenge and question the status quo in their communities, their city, and their state. She had a large mural commissioned at the school that depicted males in traditionally female jobs and vice versa. When she supervised the courtyard she made it a point to talk to students about the mural and their life goals. She empowered students and families to address individual and community issues. For example, she counseled victims of domestic violence and compelled them to take action. She publicly questioned the federal, state, and local government for its corruption, inefficiency, and lack of services in the colonia. CFA required weekly community service that often dealt with community infrastructure issues that should have been addressed by the government (e.g., trash collection, repairing roads, repairing homes). These actions were purposeful in that learning experiences built consciousness, enabled reflection, and prompted students and parents to reimagine their futures and communities. For Mrs. Donna, these activities were not single acts of kindness, but part of a larger plan of bringing people together and helping them taking ownership.
Mrs. Donna acted when opportunities arose to further a “community ownership” agenda. For example, Mrs. Donna and Luis filed charges against two young male adults who stole the school’s freezer despite being warned by parents not to press charges in fear of violent retaliation. It took numerous court appearances and appeals to the police, but ultimately the two men were brought to trial. Then, Mrs. Donna advocated on behalf of the men to have them serve community service hours rather than being incarcerated. Mrs. Donna talked about the teachable moment for the community and the men:
We tell parents they need to fight for their rights. Well then, we have to believe and follow our own advice. . . . Some of the parents warned us about pressing charges and then said nothing will come of it. Well, we are persistent and followed through. Yes, we wasted a lot of time going back and forth with the courts. . . . So now, it’s clear, you can follow up and get justice. . . . Then, that’s not to say we don’t believe in forgiveness. . . . More importantly, now these two men are friends of our school . . . People see that now.
These efforts were taken to provide students and families with an example of how they could reimagine their futures and communities through action. Mrs. Donna summed up these facets of her leadership and CFA’s mission: “We aren’t here to teach to the test and we aren’t here to tell parents what to do.” Rather, she added, it is important that students and families feel “empowered to solve their own problems. . . . We just want to show them a way that might be better for them. They can decide for themselves.”
Mrs. Donna shared how principles of community service, kindness, and forgiveness were embedded in the school’s nondenominational Christian values, but added they were “universal values shared by all religions.” She continued, “We aren’t here to preach, we want people to make their own decisions about what they believe. What we want is for everyone to treat each other with respect.” The message to students was to feel compelled and empowered to be successful, happy, and kind despite outside pressures. Mrs. Donna had another mural commissioned to communicate the importance of youth in the community (see Figure 2). The extended school day and after-school programs were key components of CFA. Mrs. Donna said,
We know many of our students are behind so four hours a day isn’t enough. We try to keep students here as long as possible so they can get the skills they need to be successful in junior high school and high school.
Courtyard mural of scripture.
This quote highlights how Mrs. Donna was not only concerned with creating a nurturing environment or critically questioning problems in the community but also the role education can play in preparing students for academic success, opportunities that might lead to professional jobs, and keeping students safe after regular school hours. Learning experiences extended beyond core academic subjects.
Mrs. Donna recruited teachers based on their willingness to engage students academically, socially, and emotionally. Not all teachers would be successful at CFA, and at times Mrs. Donna struggled to fill vacant positions. Mrs. Donna noted that it was not easy to recruit teachers to a community perceived by many as unsafe and difficult to travel to given the lack of paved roads. Some teachers quit or did not come back a second year, and a select group were removed for ineffectiveness or failing to meet CFA expectations regarding student discipline and family engagement. Parents participated in interviews with teachers, and since they were heavily involved in the school’s daily operation, provided feedback and support to teachers. One parent said, “We love our teachers, they are a part of this community. They want to work with us. We work with them together.” Classroom observations highlighted how parents and teachers frequently worked together. In some classrooms, parents worked as a teacher’s aide or helped with discipline. Mrs. Donna noted that in certain classrooms, “an outsider might not be able to tell the difference between teacher and parent” because they worked together seamlessly.
CFA parents and volunteers maintained a competitive track team that competed across the state of Chihuahua. American flag football was played at the school and Mrs. Donna encouraged females to not only play, but to take key positions like quarterback. She hired parents who had lived in the United States and developed relationships with local community centers to provide additional classes like English and computer technology.
As previously noted, service learning and community service were systematically integrated into the school. Mrs. Donna said, “Each week we go out into the community and we help. Sometimes we pick up trash, or help repair a home, or repair a washed out road.” Parents, teachers, Mrs. Donna, and Luis are all engaged with students in these activities. One teacher captured the meaning of these service experiences: “The kids love it, they feel good about what they are doing and it’s reinforced by the community.” Another teacher reported that these experiences prompted students to do service on their own and even keep the school and community clean. A parent said, “Initially, I didn’t really see why they asked us to do this, but the children had a good time. . . . I see my child correct people now, for littering. . . . Yes, I think it gives them pride for our community.”
The persistent presence of parents working and learning was powerful for students and parents. One parent said,
The school is our community. I’ve learned a lot here and I’ve made friends. We all get along really well. We help each other out. We don’t fight. We are here for our children, to help them get a better life and for ourselves.
Students had opportunities to see their parents learning and taking ownership of the school. Parents got to know other children and develop connections with other CFA parents. They talked about building relationships with other families and seeing other children’s success or failure related to their own children’s success or failure. Mrs. Donna and teachers noted that students would no longer have excuses for not doing their homework or not achieving because their parents were in the school with them. Mrs. Donna said, “When parents set the example, children have no choice but to follow in their footsteps. . . . It all takes care of itself.” CFA’s focus on parental engagement created an atmosphere where students would thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
Developing critically engaged leaders
“We are not what’s most important and we cannot solve this community’s problems. We can only help parents and kids, and point them in the right direction.” Mrs. Donna’s words reflect a belief that the school is not more important than the community. An underlying assumption is that parents must be community leaders. She also realized her impact on the community and how parents looked to her for help and to solve problems. She said,
Yes, they look to me sometimes, but I usually just push it back to them or help them solve their own problems. . . . Plus, I really don’t know everything. They are just as smart as me, they can figure it out if they give themselves the chance.
Mrs. Donna was frequently observed in three capacities when attempting to empower and develop parent leaders. First, she served as a conduit of knowledge where she helped parents navigate structures or access resources that they could then use to address a problem. Second, she used her trust and rapport to compel parents to move out of their comfort zones and address their own concerns. Third, she established a parent–school culture that emphasized respect, helpfulness, and collaboration across families. For example, parents were charged with cooking meals and managing the cafeteria. Multiple parents wanted to be in charge and cook their own recipes, but no one wanted to clean up. Mrs. Donna decided to step in after witnessing the bickering, bullying, and fighting, especially after the kitchen was left dirty. This early example highlighted that even shared governance in the simplest of terms could be problematic. Mrs. Donna said, “I finally stepped in, I gave them some structures, helped them creating a rotating leadership schedule, and then worked in the kitchen with them each day until things settled down.” Problems in the cafeteria were not observed over the course of the study, during numerous visits. Parents in the cafeteria reported a supportive culture. One parent said, “The older moms take the newer moms under their wings” so problems no longer occur. Veteran parents were observed mentoring and coaching newer moms.
Multiple parents reported that the school’s adult education program was helpful. Each parent interviewed described courses and their impact. Mrs. Reveles, a parent said,
The school offers parents lots of classes. There are cooking classes, parenting classes, reading classes, math classes, Bible classes, classes on administration and others. Mrs. Donna teaches a lot. . . . If you can’t make one, she will go to you or find someone. . . . Many parents are now starting to teach the classes as well. . . . I think it helps the younger mothers. They see Mrs. Donna as different, she is special. When they see other parents teaching and saying I learned, now I can help you. Then they go to class and believe. It gives them confidence. . . . Mrs. Donna is also relentless in giving confidence. She just believes in you so much.
When Mrs. Reveles began volunteering at the school she did not know how to alphabetically file paperwork, use a copy machine, or take phone messages. She is now a paid office administrator. Mrs. Donna noted, “Mrs. Reveles is invaluable to us.” Throughout every observation, Mrs. Reveles was present and viewed by many teachers and parents as a leader in the school. Other parents looked to her for help, support, and information about the school.
Parent interviews also revealed a group of parents who had financially helped CFA. Parents found out that Mrs. Donna took on many financial hardships in subsidizing the school. A parent, Mrs. Julia, spoke to how Mrs. Donna’s selflessness compelled parents to financially help CFA. Another parent said,
If the school can’t pay its bills then we lose our school. So, we went out and decided to do this . . . We asked other parents for the money or supplies. . . . Most of them helped.
Parents now supply all bathrooms with paper towels, soap, and toilet paper. Mrs. Donna was initially against the idea. “I didn’t want their money and we could have found the money another way, we always do, but they wanted to give. I realized I couldn’t say no.” Ultimately, she accepted the money because she understood parents pulled together, sacrificed, and contributed because they cared. Mrs. Donna ultimately understood these actions reflected true parent ownership for CFA. The few dollars a week per family was not insignificant given their low wages at maquillas and was evidence of family empowerment and leadership.
Critical Event: A Rallied Community
One critical event stood out over the course of the study because of the seriousness of the circumstance and how Mrs. Donna, CFA, and the community responded. In April 2014, Anna, a recent graduate of CFA and now a seventh grader at a local junior high school was diagnosed with Stage 3 brain cancer. Anna’s family was unable to afford a second opinion after being informed she would surely die within months. The family reached out to CFA. Mrs. Donna refused to accept that Anna would pass away without a fight. She initiated school-based fundraisers, provided counseling to Anna’s family, and began contacting hospitals and charities to obtain free medical consultations. To Mrs. Donna, Anna’s situation provided yet another opportunity to empower the community—though, internally, Mrs. Donna had her uncertainties:
It was very difficult for us. It seemed like there wasn’t a lot of time, and it’s not like we had extra money lying around. We don’t know doctors or who to turn to, but we said to ourselves, we are going to do this and that there is a plan and it will work out. . . . We barely have enough money to pay our own bills, but God will make a way.
CFA gained an additional consultation that provided new treatment options. Anna underwent brain surgery and multiple rounds of chemotherapy. The community saw her continued survival as giving hope for Anna and became motivated to join her in her battle against cancer. However, the financial burden of travel, hospital visits, medication, and time away from work for her parents were well beyond the family’s means and Mrs. Donna’s ability to fundraise.
CFA continued to raise money through traditional fundraisers, created collection cups for students and parents to donate spare change, and collaborated with churches and local businesses to gather supplies and host bake sales featuring tamales, empanadas, and other homemade goods. Then, the larger CFA community became involved and took control. Parents and children became increasingly involved in preparing and selling items, parents began preparing food for fundraisers outside CFA, and men in the community (including many students’ fathers for the first time) became involved in the school and in fundraising efforts. Groups of male and female parents came to CFA to use the kitchen. This shift was more than just charity to Mrs. Donna. She recognized a turning point:
Initially, it was us doing all the work, cooking, organizing, asking for help from the community. Then, all of a sudden, it was like everything we’ve been saying for years here, it just happened. People started pitching in. Dads were showing up at the school helping, a community baker donated tortillas, families were collecting recyclables together on their free time, children were buying less candy or other goods and giving their pesos for Anna.
Luis added, “Everyday now, we have people coming with donations, recyclables, it’s constant.” Pickup trucks backed into the school’s courtyard to drop off large donations.
Mrs. Donna was extremely proud that the children of CFA donated hundreds of dollars over the months they attempted to raise money for Anna. Observations revealed parents’ deep commitments to each other while CFA’s courtyard filled with hundreds of trash bags of recyclables donated to the school by local families. CFA would sell the recycled goods for Anna’s family. Observations also revealed students and parents constantly talking about Anna and eagerly awaiting her return to the community. Students and CFA community members would frequently visit Anna and help her family. CFA’s Facebook page provided ongoing updates.
By the end of the study, Anna’s health had significantly improved. She had undergone multiple surgeries and rounds of chemotherapy that the family might not have been able to afford without the community’s ongoing support. In November 2014, she was cleared to return back to school for 2 to 3 days a week. Mrs. Donna remained optimistic about Anna’s future despite warnings from doctors about long-term health issues. Mrs. Donna was also enthusiastic about what she had witnessed in the community:
This has changed people. This wasn’t us [the school or herself and family], this was them sticking together and helping one another. . . . We might have known who to call and how to set some things up, but the community really took the lead on this. They went about and beyond what we were doing.
Although Anna’s long-term prognosis remained uncertain, the events surrounding her recovery reflected Mrs. Donna’s leadership for inherent human rights as well as the multiple and intersecting social justice challenges confronted by families in the colonia. Mrs. Donna believed Anna and her family had the right to fight for her life and not simply accept her death. She hoped for community support despite not having all the answers. The manner in which students and parents rallied behind Anna further highlighted how the community sought to reclaim control over their lives and establish a caring school and community.
Discussion
Ampliación de Felipe Ángeles continues to confront serious community challenges related to education, health care, economic opportunity, housing, and self-determination. Public education might have mitigated some of the impact of poverty, but was chronically underfunded and failing. Mrs. Donna founded a private school in this context, led in the midst of extreme violence, and demonstrated tireless effort using her school as mechanism to address injustices affecting children and families. She was a committed leader with remarkable foresight, vision, and generosity that expressed dissatisfaction with the status quo on numerous fronts. Her leadership reflected a desire for change that consisted of a school–community partnership rooted in parent ownership, hope, and service. CFA developed after-school programs, struggled to maintain funding for an entirely free school, and had missteps where parents or teachers failed to meet expectations. This case study reflects the pluralistic nature of social justice, the leadership complexity associated with distributive, cultural, and associational injustices, and the persistent effort necessary to value families and meaningfully engage them in the school improvement process.
Mrs. Donna was a change agent in the short term by organizing people and programs while strategically supporting long-term community capacity development to understand and address its own problems. Associational justice was prioritized in this context because Mrs. Donna understood the severity of challenges CFA and the community confronted. She did not think a heroic leader was necessary or appropriate, but she understood that parents needed to be empowered and critically question the society in which they live. As a nontraditional leader without formal educational leadership preparation, she demonstrated a nuanced understanding of leadership as advocacy and the importance of socially just family engagement. As researchers, we found ourselves inspired by her skill, passion, and deep commitment to social justice in the midst of serious challenges and significant personal sacrifice. We do not argue that leaders like Mrs. Donna are commonplace, since moving into a violent and impoverished community, spending retirement money, and giving almost every day to create a safe-haven exceeds beyond most empirical descriptions of social justice leaders (Furman, 2012a, 2012b). However, her primary goal was not to serve as the heroic leader, but to enhance the capacity of parents, families, students, and communities to understand and address their own issues. This goal was centered both on developing individuals to meet their unique needs as well as developing communities and networks to address larger and more systemic issues.
Mrs. Donna developed multifocal, cross-cutting policies, programs, and opportunities with CFA’s limited resources to simultaneously address multiple challenges associated with life in the colonia through an iterative process that required ongoing learning, evaluation, and refinement. Each policy or program was not a reaction to a specific injustice, but rather an amalgamation of ideas and strategies developed over time to address multiple community and school-based challenges. For example, after-school programs provided students with extra academic support to close achievement gaps while emphasizing community engagement and the dissolution of traditional gender roles through sports. Parent classes were not only aimed at developing personal and professional skills but also enabled parents to help their children with homework, mentor other/newer CFA parents, and build relationships with peers within the community. Other activities helped parents and students build their own capacity to lead, serve, and take action over their lives. Mrs. Donna’s ability to recognize how learning opportunities and policies can address multiple equity issues highlights her ability to catalyze change through leadership that maximizes available resources and assets. Although unfamiliar with Yosso’s (2005) specific writings on community cultural wealth, Mrs. Donna recognized how community cultural wealth could be burgeoned through a school–community partnership.
Community cultural wealth provided Mrs. Donna with faith that positive change was within reach if parents could join together in solidarity. Consequently, her leadership centered not on the problems she could solve on her own, but how families in collaboration with the school could collectively apply their skills and assets to empower each other and address commonly shared challenges. Mrs. Donna also understood the importance of ownership as a prerequisite of fully accessing community cultural wealth and family assets. Parent volunteering and consistent school–family interactions allowed parents to develop a sense of ownership, as parents noted that this was “our school” and even raised money on a daily basis despite living in poverty. Previous research on social justice leadership emphasizes the role leaders play in altering inequitable arrangements, advancing human rights, advocating for social progress, and posing solutions for issues. This case study highlights the importance of leadership that fosters a community’s sense of ownership over time, which in turn allowed Mrs. Donna to access community cultural wealth, pose solutions to structural injustices, and take collective action.
Mrs. Donna encouraged stakeholders to develop their voice and reconsider existing power dynamics and dominant beliefs. CFA provided tools like healthy cooking classes, family counseling, job training, examples of how to hold the government accountable, and other forms of assistance. These tools added to families’ sense of ownership of the school and community. Unlike the archetype of heroic savior-leader, Mrs. Donna sought to work herself “out of a job” as she said. She foresaw parents taking ownership over their children’s educational needs as well as other marginalized conditions that affected the lives of their families and community. Parent leaders were already present at the classroom level and running the day-to-day administrative work of the school.
Mrs. Donna’s approach can be understood through four multifocal practices:
A leadership orientation directed at learning about the lived experiences of marginalized communities paired with a willingness to consider how multiple inequities inside and outside of the school interact with implications on student achievement and well-being.
A deep and reflective leadership commitment aimed at balancing purposes of schooling (e.g., academic, economic, political, social-emotional) so that academic achievement does not overshadow community engagement, a culture of respect and tolerance, challenging dominant ideologies, and the social and emotional needs of children and families.
The fortitude to recognize that leaders: (a) do not have all the answers, (b) must invest in parents because they are most important to student success, and (c) understand the limited role a school can play without the full participation of engaged, empowered, and supported parents able to act in solidarity.
A commitment to promoting socially just family engagement through school–community partnerships that draws upon cultural community wealth and prioritizes the needs of students, families, and communities.
Her approach exemplifies social justice leadership that is not a prescriptive or universal, but embedded within a given school, community, and society at a given place in time. It is a courageous practice requiring hope, optimism, and the willingness to trust in the goodness of others. In order for leadership to proceed as such, leaders must have faith in the process of engaging and joining with others in complex problem-solving processes. Leaders must also have the ability to co-construct and understand the complexity of marginalization, think in multiple dimensions, and ensure that the school simultaneously meets the needs of parents and students. Mrs. Donna’s leadership exemplified how schools can meet the academic and emotional needs of parents and students together, rather than seeing adult and child learning as separate. CFA used parents in ways that individually benefited parent and student by addressing each group’s specific academic, economic, and social needs.
Mrs. Donna’s leadership did not ignore the social, political, and economic consciousness of parents. Scholars have previously suggested that schools are sites of political struggle and leaders have a role in engaging communities in political action and social capital building (G. L. Anderson, 2009; Rapp, 2002; Ryan, 2016). Social justice leadership emerged as a mechanism to transfer knowledge, skills, critical attitudes, and optimism to parents and communities. The results of this work were evident in the number of parents participating in volunteer work or attending classes, the sense of parent ownership at the school, the manner in which the community rallied behind Anna and her family, and the social, emotional, and academic success of parents and children across the community. In the case of Anna and in regard to community service work and parent volunteering, one might question whether or not this example constitutes social change or is more reflective of charity. From Mrs. Donna’s perspective, parents learned that they could work together and support each other through a network and a diffusion of skills and efforts (e.g., people cooked, raised money, sold items, recycled materials) while parents witnessed their children grow and learn.
CFA became a place where children, families, and strangers rallied together and made personal sacrifices for each other. Whether the community network that emerged for Anna can be sustained over time may be in question, but we argue that Anna’s example can be viewed as evidence of an awakening. Families did not settle for a diagnosis or allow money to limit Anna’s future. Children practiced selflessness, prayed for Anna, and spoke of her constantly. The power of community solidarity was exercised with positive results and now serves as an example in addressing future challenges. This was perhaps one of the few examples of community-oriented effort within this community. Given the context of the colonia, we find this example to be evidence of liberation and collective responsibility aligned to Freire’s notion of conscientization.
Finally, we want to emphasize what we did not find. Mrs. Donna never mentioned the terms instructional leadership or organizational efficiency. Mrs. Donna, parents, and teachers never discussed state-mandated assessments, although this did not mean that they avoided talking about improving instruction, considering student data, or identifying more engaging learning opportunities for students. Teacher interviews and observations offered no evidence of student suspension, teachers spending hours on test preparation or data analysis of standardized tests, or fear of formal evaluations. This silence was noticeable because students did break rules from time to time, students took state-mandated exams, and teachers at times struggled pedagogically and were formally evaluated. We did not overhear conversations where teachers or leaders blamed parents or made excuses for why students could not learn, nor did we hear deficit language related to any subgroups, “bubble kids,” or special populations. We did not observe Mrs. Donna or the principal engage in lecture-based professional development for teachers. We also did not observe many of the “core” vocabularies, practices, policies, and technologies of educational leadership and school improvement pervasive in the United States. Perhaps, such a “core” can be a distraction from genuine socially just engagement with families, communities, and students. It may also keep principals too busy, confused, or inattentive to learn about their communities or unable to think outside of the box about how the school can be reimagined to best support all children across multiple purposes of schooling.
Implications
Researchers should continue to investigate the experience of leaders with social justice orientations in a variety of contexts throughout the world. We invite researchers to consider social justice through a broad and multifocal lens to closely examine how leaders balance numerous and competing purposes of schooling and think about how social justice leadership practices can not only address one specific injustice but also more comprehensively disrupt status-quo thinking, reveal hidden power dynamics, develop parent and community capacity, and simultaneously support the academic, social, and emotional development of children. This means researchers should consider how leaders make sense of the community context, how they use their limited school resources to address multiple needs and challenges, and how specific leadership approaches are used to engage or reengage marginalized communities. The relevance of social justice leadership research for practitioners will remain limited without a more robust understanding of how social justice leadership can be applied to address multiple issues associated with marginalization while considering the school and community context.
Our research also contributes to debates on how poverty, violence, and community context intersect to create inside-of-school and outside-of-school barriers to academic achievement and the social and emotional well-being of children. In this study, the role of parents was central because the leader recognized how the historic issues of marginalization in the colonia generated disconnectedness, despair, and the maintenance of the status quo. Parents needed to be recognized and empowered so that students would receive the necessary support from their school and community. Educational leadership scholarship continues to emphasize parental engagement as a means to supporting teachers and school programs whereas less attention has been given to how schools leverage their resources to simultaneously support marginalized families. Further research focused on family engagement can provide greater insights into how schools can work with families in an inclusive and democratic manner. Potential findings might help expand the practice of social justice leadership beyond the school and into the community, state, and national contexts.
This research contributes to debates on how leaders should be prepared and professionally supported. Mrs. Donna had no formal leadership training, but had the wherewithal to learn about the distinctive needs of families in the community. When leaders take action by prioritizing the needs of families and communities and refuse to focus solely on academics as measured by state assessments, they are more able to build capacity, trust, and rapport within the community. Principals, teachers, and parents can work together to address a wide range of student needs that would be difficult or impossible for either group to provide in isolation, especially when considering the context of the community in this study. Unfortunately, educational leaders seldom seek to fully engage families, provide parents with systems of support, and effectively encourage them to play active roles in the school. Parental involvement is often viewed by leaders as a tool to control student behavior and academic performance or as a means of justifying their own beliefs, programs, and leadership decisions. Not every school can have parents actively volunteering and learning at the same degree as CFA or ignore the power of high-stakes accountability in test-driven districts, but preparation and in-service professional development programs can ensure that all leaders have a family-centered orientation and receive appropriate training in a number of areas, including (a) building family and community trust and rapport, (b) developing tools and leadership practices to encourage family and community engagement in school governance and educational decision-making, (c) identifying and building partnerships with community organizations that can provide adult learning opportunities, and (d) engaging in community organizing and advocacy work to help families and communities proactively address their own challenges and barriers to academic, social, and emotional success (Brown, 2004).
Numerous individuals played a significant role in the development of the school and community that we could not fully document given space considerations and the scope of this article. Finally, we want to emphasize that while we have offered a collection of evidence on Mrs. Donna’s leadership and the impact of CFA, we have certainly not captured the significant effort, dedication, and persistence of all stakeholders involved in the development of CFA.
Footnotes
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.