School leadership research offers prescriptions for strong instructional and culturally relevant leadership for diverse and urban adolescent populations, yet little evidence describes how school principals impact adolescents’ in-school reading experiences. This qualitative inquiry sought to understand how one urban secondary principal perceived and enacted his role in a school’s effort to teach reading. It also investigated how staff and students perceived his actions. Framed by sociocultural perspectives of reading and a distributed leadership perspective, data analysis revealed that the principal made time and nurtured relationships to grow teacher capacity, support and participate in independent reading, and attend to individual readers and teachers. This study affirms the importance of context in shaping urban adolescents’ reading experiences and raises implications for the urban school principal’s role in their literacy instruction.
AlvermannD. E.EakleA. J. (2003). Comprehension instruction: Adolescents and their multiple literacies. In SweetA. P.SnowC. E. (Eds.), Rethinking reading comprehension (pp. 12–29). The Guilford Press.
2.
ApplebeeA. N.LangerJ. A.NystrandM.GamoranA. (2003). Discussion-based approaches to developing understanding: Classroom instruction and student performance in middle and high school English. American Educational Research Journal, 40(3), 685–730. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312040003685
3.
BanksJ. A.BanksC. A. M. (2019). Multicultural education: Issues and perspectives. John Wiley & Sons.
4.
BartlettL. (2007). To seem and to feel: Situated identities and literacy practices. Teachers College Record, 109(1), 51–69.
5.
BishopR. S. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives: Choosing and Using Books in the Classroom, 6(3), ix–xi.
6.
BostonG. H.BaxleyT. (2007). Living the literature. Urban Education, 42(6), 560–581.
7.
BrooksJ. S.Jean-MarieG.NormoreA. H.HodginsD. W. (2007). Distributed leadership for social justice: Exploring how influence and equity are stretched over an urban high school. Journal of School Leadership, 17(4), 378–408. https://doi.org/10.1177/105268460701700402
8.
BrooksJ. S.NormoreA. H. (2017). Leading against the grain: Lessons for creating just and equitable schools. Teachers College Press.
9.
CervettiG. (2019). Five decades of comprehension research: Informing the future. Journal of Literacy Research, 51(1), 123–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296x18823835
10.
ChajetL. (2007). The power and limits of small school reform: Institutional agency and democratic leadership in education. In CarlsonD.GauseC. P. (Eds.), Keeping the promise: Essays on leadership, democracy, and education (pp. 287–302). Peter Lang.
11.
CharmazK. (2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis. SAGE.
12.
ChildressS.ElmoreR. F.GrossmanA. (2006). How to manage urban school districts. Harvard Business Review, 84(11), 55–68.
13.
ChristenburyL.BomerR.SmagorinskyP. (2009). Handbook of adolescent literacy research. Guilford Press.
14.
CohenD. K.BallD. L. (1999). Instruction, capacity, and improvement (RR-43). Consortium for Policy Research in Education
15.
de Los ReyesE.NietoD.DiezV. (2008). “If our students fail, we fail, if they succeed, we succeed”: Case studies of Boston schools where Latino students succeed. Gaston Institute Publications.
16.
DukeN.PearsonP. (2002). Effective practices for developing reading comprehension. In FarstrupA.SamuelsA. (Eds.), What research has to say about reading instruction (3rd ed., pp. 205–242). International Reading Association.
17.
ElmoreR. F. (2007). School reform from the inside out: Policy, practice, and performance. Harvard Education Press.
18.
EmersonR.FretzR. I.ShawL. L. (1995). Writing ethnographic fieldnotes. University of Chicago Press.
19.
FrancoisC. (2011). The Social Dimensions of an Individual Act: Situating Urban Adolescent Students’ Reading Growth and Reading Motivation in School Culture [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. Harvard Graduate School of Education.
20.
FrancoisC. (2013). Reading is about relating: Urban youths give voice to the possibilities for school literacy. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 57(2), 141–149. https://doi.org/10.1002/JAAL.218
21.
FrankelK. K.FieldsS. S.Kimball-VeederJ.MurphyC. R. (2018). Positioning adolescents in literacy teaching and learning. Journal of Literacy Research, 50(4), 446–477. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296x18802441
22.
FreireP. (1994). The pedagogy of the oppressed. Continuum.
23.
GaldaL.BeachR. (2001). Theory into practice: Response to literature as a cultural activity. Reading Research Quarterly, 36(1), 64–73.
24.
GayG. (2010). Culturally responsive teaching: Theory, research, and practice. Teachers College Press.
25.
GroenkeS. L.HaddixM.GlennW. J.KirklandD. E.Price-DennisD.Coleman-KingC. (2015). Disrupting and dismantling the dominant vision of youth of color. The English Journal, 104(3), 35–40.
26.
GutiérrezK. D. (2008). Developing a sociocritical literacy in the third space. Reading Research Quarterly, 43(2), 148–164. https://doi.org/10.1598/rrq.43.2.3
27.
GutiérrezK. D.RogoffB. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice. Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19–25. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x032005019
28.
GutierrezK. D.StoneL. D. (2000). Synchronic and diachronic dimensions of social practice: An emerging methodology for cultural-historical perspectives on literacy learning. In LeeC. D.SmagorinskyP. (Eds.), Vygotskian perspectives on literacy research: Constructing meaning through collaborative inquiry (Vol. 1, pp. 150–164). Cambridge University Press.
29.
HeathS. B. (1983). Ways with words: Language, life and work in communities and classrooms. Cambridge Core.
30.
IveyG.JohnstonP. H. (2013). Engagement with young adult literature: Outcomes and processes. Reading Research Quarterly, 48(3), 255–275. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.46
31.
JacobsV. (2008). Adolescent literacy: Putting the crisis in context. Harvard Educational Review, 78(1), 7–39.
32.
KhalifaM. (2018). Culturally responsive school leadership. Harvard Education Press.
33.
KhalifaM. A.GoodenM. A.DavisJ. E. (2016). Culturally responsive school leadership: A synthesis of the literature. Review of Educational Research, 86(4), 1272–1311. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654316630383
34.
Ladson-BillingsG. (1995). Toward a theory of culturally relevant pedagogy. American Educational Research Journal, 32, 465–491.
35.
Ladson-BillingsG. (2006). From the achievement gap to the education debt: Understanding achievement in US schools. Educational Researcher, 35(7), 3–12.
36.
LeeV. E.SmithJ. B. (1999). Social support and achievement for young adolescents in Chicago: The role of school academic press. American Educational Research Journal, 36(4), 907–945. https://doi.org/10.3102/00028312036004907
37.
LeithwoodK.HarrisA.HopkinsD. (2020). Seven strong claims about successful school leadership revisited. School Leadership and Management, 40(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1596077
McCartheyS. J.MojeE. B. (2002). Conversations: Identity matters. Reading Research Quarterly, 37(2), 228–238.
40.
MilesM. B.HubermanM. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: A methods sourcebook. SAGE Publications.
41.
MollL. C.AmantiC.NeffD.GonzalezN. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory Into Practice, 31(2), 132–141. https://doi.org/10.1080/00405849209543534
42.
MorrellE. (2017). Toward equity and diversity in literacy research, policy, and practice: A critical, global approach. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(3), 454–463. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296x17720963
43.
MuhammadG. E.HaddixM. (2016). Centering Black girls’ literacies: A review of literature on the multiple ways of knowing of Black girls. English in Education, 48(4), 299–336.
44.
MurphyJ. (2004). Leadership for literacy: A framework for policy and practice. School Effectiveness and School Improvement, 15(1), 65–96.
45.
OrfieldG.LeeC. (2005). Why segregation matters: Poverty and educational inequality. Harvard Civil Rights Project47.
46.
ParisD.AlimH. S. (2014). What are we seeking to sustain through culturally sustaining pedagogy? A loving critique forward. Harvard Educational Review, 84(1), 85–100. https://doi.org/10.17763/haer.84.1.982l873k2ht16m77
47.
PayneC. (2008). So much reform, so little change: The persistence of failure in urban schools. Harvard Education Press.
48.
PerryT. (2003). Achieving in post-civil rights America: The outline of a theory. In PerryT.SteeleC.HilliardA. (Eds.), Young, gifted and Black: Promoting high achievement among African-American students (pp. 87–108). Beacon Press.
49.
PetersonD. S. (2014). A culturally responsive alternative to “drill and kill” literacy strategies: Deep roots, civil rights. Multicultural Perspectives, 16(4), 234–239. https://doi.org/10.1080/15210960.2014.951489
50.
PolleckJ.EpsteinT. (2015). Affirmation, analysis, and agency: Book clubs as spaces for critical conversations with young adolescent women of color. Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts, 54(1), 5. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/reading_horizons/vol54/iss1/5
51.
PolleckJ. N. (2010). Creating transformational spaces: High school book clubs with inner-city adolescent females. The High School Journal, 93(2), 50–68. https://doi.org/10.1353/hsj.0.0042
52.
PollockM. (2005). Colormute: Race talk dilemmas in an American high school. Princeton University Press.
53.
SciurbaK. (2017). Journeys toward textual relevance: Male readers of color and the significance of Malcolm X and Harry Potter. Journal of Literacy Research, 49(3), 371–392. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086296x17718323
54.
SeidmanI. (2006). Interviewing as qualitative research: A guide for researchers in education and the social sciences. Teachers College Press.
55.
SpillaneJ. P.HalversonR.DiamondJ. B. (2001). Investigating school leadership practice: A distributed perspective. Educational Researcher, 30(3), 23–28.
56.
TatumA. W. (2005). Teaching reading to Black adolescent males: Closing the achievement gap. Stenhouse Publishers.
57.
TheoharisG. (2010). Disrupting injustice: Principals narrate the strategies they use to improve their schools and advance social justice. Teachers College Record, 112(1), 331–373.
58.
TheoharisG.HaddixM. (2011). Undermining racism and a whiteness ideology: White principals living a commitment to equitable and excellent schools. Urban Education, 46(6), 1332–1351. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042085911416012
59.
ViloriaM. D. L. (2019). Culturally responsive leadership practices: A principal’s reflection. Journal of Latinos and Education, 18(2), 171–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2017.1371604
60.
VygotskyL. S. (1978). Mind in society: Development of higher psychological processes. Harvard University Press.
