Multicultural Leadership Seminar Final Reflection

Brett Santo

Dr. David McGough

EDU 6630

8/13/15

Seminar in Multicultural Leadership Studies Reflection

This summer’s seminar was truly instrumental in my development as both a leadership scholar and an aspiring educational leader. In my previous seminar I was able to establish foundational knowledge of seminal leadership theories, having read James MacGregor Burns, Robert Greenleaf, and Warren Bennis. This semester, I was able to culturally diversify my leadership scholar portfolio with the writings of Juana Bordas, Adrianna Kezar, Mary Gardiner and Ernestine Enomoto, and Adalberto Aguirre and Rubén Martinez. I found learning about multicultural leadership to be truly illuminating, as it provided me with a breadth of knowledge related to inclusive environments and postmodern leadership theories. 

As a leader, I feel that it is important to challenge the accepted norms, and work toward implementing social change; otherwise, we will maintain living in a world that is exclusionary, hierarchical, and stagnant. I was reaffirmed of this belief while looking through the lens of multicultural leadership as presented by these scholars. Many of the themes that I found in these works aligned with the principles set forth in the seminal leadership books that I analyzed last semester. Thus, this semester’s work has allowed me to delve further into leadership methods and practices, ultimately preparing me for both future research and professional growth. 

One of the concepts that resonated with me the most throughout my studies this semester was the West African concept of Sankofa, described by Juana Bordas as the ability for a leader to look back in order to successfully move forward (Bordas, 2012). Since my undergraduate career, I have tried to live by a quote that I created when I was dealing with troubling times. Life is a series of realizations. Once you realizing something, you look back to determine how you are going to move forward. When I read the concept of Sankofa, I was astounded at how much it aligned with my personal credo. Additionally, I enjoyed learning the derivation of where the concept came from, as it provided me with brief insight about different cultures.

My desire to understand the plethora of cultures around the world was the original impetus for choosing this topic in the first place. Additionally, I chose to make this seminar about studies in multicultural leadership as a result of my passion for discovering the unknown. I had very little prior knowledge of multicultural leadership, thus I found the opportunity to delve into leadership through different cultural lenses to be illuminating. 

I decided to take this seminar as a six-credit course, thus I was charged with completing a second project. Accordingly, I chose to attend a conference that was related to my topic of study. To be honest, I was extremely lucky that a leadership conference was happening during this semester, otherwise this option would have been impossible. I had the privilege of being one of 60 people to participate in the first-ever Leadership Education Academy (LEA), hosted by 14 faculty facilitators and members of the International Leadership Association. LEA was a two-and-a-half day long “un-conference,” (they preferred to refer to it as a retreat-like setting), where leadership scholars from all over the country and even the world came together to enhance their knowledge of leadership education. 

The curriculum for the first day was focused entirely on content within leadership studies. We explored the six major families of leadership theories, (Trait, Behavioral, Process, Situational, Systems, Cultural), as well as different aspects of each. I was introduced to many concepts that I have yet to explore, and as a result, left the event with enthusiasm and a multitude of questions. One of my favorite new topics was toxic leadership, which describes leaders who act in ways that may seem to benefit the group (i.e.-being kind), when in reality, these behaviors could prove deleterious to the group’s success (i.e.-overly complacent). This concept was among many new approaches to leadership that I explored while at LEA, and I will continue to strive to understand new concepts moving forward. 

The second day focused on pedagogical strategies for teaching leadership and ways of assessing your success in teaching. This was an extremely practical day for me, seeing as I had no prior experience with true assessment strategies. Exploring the myriad of ways in which one can assess their teaching methods was both intriguing and helpful. I was introduced to the ideas of formative, summative, and developmental assessment strategies, made famous by Patton (Patton, 2010). I truly enjoyed learning about these three, as they provide a thorough framework for assessment. Formative assessment involves an ongoing process of assessment in which you periodically check on the students while teaching, and provide them with assignments that will show their understanding. Summative assessment involves determining whether or not the students grasped the material at the conclusion of the session, with either a test, a project, or a survey of sorts. Finally, developmental assessment addresses changes with response to the dynamics in the system by assessing how the students feel about their success in comparison to their previous knowledge. For example, a developmental assessment strategy would be to perform a “before, after, and now” survey that asks them to rate their knowledge before, immediately after, and retrospectively compare them in the now section. 

The third day of LEA was simply a coalescence of the previous two days with a strong emphasis on coaching and personal mentorship. This day addressed a major aspect of the conference—establishing relationships. Not only did the facilitators proactively attempt to establish relationships with the participants, but as leaders in their respective fields, the participants made an effort to connect with one another as well. This was my first experience in a conference setting with that many people, and to be honest, I did not know how important networking would be, until that last day. After reading and writing about several leadership theories, it was truly enlightening to witness the concepts in reality as I broadened my knowledge of leadership studies. 

I truly enjoyed this class, and am extremely happy with my decisions in making this a class geared toward multicultural studies and enhanced through LEA. Using my new knowledge of varying leadership theories, pedagogical strategies, and assessment practices, I will work to apply these to my capstone project—one that I have been able to figure out finally, with the help of this semester’s work, and the relationships that I’ve developed in my life thus far. 

Bordas, J. (2012). Salsa, soul, and spirit leadership for a multicultural age (Second ed.). San Francisco, California: Berrett-Koehler.

I also wanted to include a TED Talk that I found both intriguing and apropos of my topic of study...