Decolonial, culturally responsive leadership practices are essential for humanizing urban educational contexts, particularly for African immigrant youth. Drawing on a 10-month qualitative case study with Ethiopian immigrant students, we analyze how Eurocentric schooling norms complicated racial identity construction and marginalize students’ cultural identity expressions. Despite academic success, we found that participants experienced racial othering, epistemic exclusion, and harmful treatment from peers and educators. Their narratives challenge dominant assumptions and reveal how traditional leadership models reinforce colonial logics. We propose decolonial extensions to culturally responsive school leadership that reimagine how urban education is led and lived today and into the future.
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