Cabrini’s Center for Urban Education, Equity, and Improvement (CUEEI) partnered with American Paradigm Schools to explore “Changing the World Through Culturally Responsive Leadership” at the annual Shirley Dixon Celebration of Urban Education Symposium, presented off-campus for the first time on Thursday, April 27, at First Philadelphia Preparatory Charter School in Northeast Philadelphia.
“When we think about a commitment to urban education…a commitment to social justice, that was the legacy of the late, great Dr. Shirley Dixon,” said CUEEI Director Ronald W. Whitaker II, EdD, during an introduction to the program. Dixon (’84, MEd’89, EdD’18), who is the only person to earn bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees from Cabrini, also served on the University’s Board of Trustees.
Whitaker lauded the host school and its parent organization, American Paradigm Schools, for their partnership with Cabrini and collaborative efforts to maintain excellent schools that serve diverse communities. Cabrini’s Angela N. Campbell, PhD, Vice President, Mission and Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging, and Chief Mission Officer; and Zakia Gates, PhD, Assistant Professor, Teacher Education, also provided welcoming remarks for the event, which was supported by a grant from Partnership for Campus Community Engagement (PCCE).
“It’s an honor to be here today thinking about this partnership—a partnership that our namesake for this symposium…would be proud of,” said Whitaker, who also serves as an Assistant Professor of Education at Cabrini. “I think the next phase of the work that all of us are called to do is in strategic partnerships.”
Partnerships work toward addressing injustices at a systemic level, which was a main focus of the event’s keynote address from Muhammad Khalifa, PhD, Professor of Educational Administration and Executive Director of Urban and Rural Initiatives at Ohio State University.
Khalifa said culturally responsive schools are part of the antidote to structural injustices in the education system.
“The beauty of culturally responsive education is it doesn’t discount micro-aggressions or interpersonal racism, but it goes to the system level,” he said.
Schools should begin reform work with a critical self-reflection of how they are serving their current student bodies, including data and statistics, if available, Khalifa said. From there, administrators and educators must engage with the communities they serve.
“Not just parent-teacher nights,” Khalifa said. “You go into the community as a seeker of knowledge.”
In the classroom, Khalifa said teachers should be empowered by school leaders to meet students where they are with instructional leadership that piques students’ curiosity and engages with their culture and humanity.
“One thing that educators have never really tried is using ancestral community knowledge to change schools,” he said. “It’s a colonial model to think these [students] are empty vessels and you have to fill these empty vessels.”
The Ohio State educator said that reform efforts should avoid operating from a “deficit” mindset that is overly focused on student shortcomings, while maintaining a commitment to excellence through rigorous coursework.
“The entire enterprise of education can only see deficit,” he said. “Culturally responsive leadership teaches educators in a different way that trains them to see the assets.”