On Tuesday, July 16, 2019, over one hundred participants
from all nine component districts gathered at Monroe 2-Orleans BOCES
Professional Development Center for the Third Annual Regional Leadership
Academy. After a warm up exercise, keynote speaker Dr. Muhammad Khalifa
presented on Creating Culturally Responsive School Leaders.
“Educators are at the forefront of this issue,” said Khalifa. “I go to the same districts year after year. People come back year after year but the practice hasn’t changed. The data hasn’t changed. Change requires critical consciousness, learning and unlearning.”
Khalifa led the group through a series of discussions and activities including a historical overview of the marginalization of minoritized groups. The presentation’s overarching theme was creating cultural, systemic change within districts that permeates all decisions and actions.
Khalifa is a professor at the University of Minnesota whose research addresses “how school leaders can engage multiple areas, most notably: school climate, inclusionary practice around student identity, community engagement, and CRSL of pedagogy, curriculum, and development.” He is the author of several published articles and four books, most recently Leadership in troubled times:
Culturally responsive leadership for minoritized youth (2018).