Culturally Responsive School Leadership

Culturally Responsive School Leadership focuses on how school leaders can effectively serve minoritized students–those who have been historically marginalized in school and society. The book demonstrates how leaders can engage students, parents, teachers, and communities to promote learning by honoring indigenous heritages and local cultural practices.

Based on an ethnography of a school principal who exemplifies the practices and principles of culturally responsive school leadership, Muhammad Khalifa provides educators with the pedagogical tools and strategies for immediate implementation in today’s urban classrooms.

“Not only does Khalifa challenge us to understand our own implicit biases, but he provides practical solutions for change. Culturally Responsive School Leadership couples real-world examples of systemic marginalization with specific strategies for how leaders can truly learn to interrupt systems that work only for some.”
—Christine Osorio, superintendent, North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale, MN

“Khalifa draws on his own experience as an educator in Detroit to provide others who choose to take on this difficult but important work with insights that are invaluable and not typically learned in graduate school. For educational leaders who genuinely seek to make a difference this book will be an invaluable resource.”
—Pedro A. Noguera, distinguished professor of education, Graduate School of Education and Information Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles

Muhammad Khalifa is the Robert H. Beck Professor of Ideas in Education in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development at the University of Minnesota. Lisa Delpit is the Felton G. Clark Distinguished Professor of Education at Southern University and A&M College. H. Richard Milner IV is the Cornelius Vanderbilt Endowed Chair of Education at Vanderbilt University.