The Critical Role of Ethnic Studies in Educational Leadership

The Critical Role of Ethnic Studies in Educational Leadership addresses the urgency of having equity-minded and globally-oriented transformative leaders who seek to empower students and teachers alike through their commitment to integrate ethnically and culturally rich curriculum and instruction in today's schools. The ethnic studies revival movement has emerged to combat the cycles of ignorance affecting society in negative ways. Unless educational leaders possess relevant cultural and ethnic proficiency, have global perspectives, and are eager to lead by example, educators will continue to flounder about the best ways to cultivate pluralism in American schools. Moreover, shifts in mindsets toward ethnically and culturally relevant school learning and teaching culture are needed for leaders to ensure that they not only have the knowledge and skill, but also the courage and will to reform schools through an inclusive and comprehensive approach based on the axioms of ethnic studies education in the K-20 settings.

To amplify the importance and interconnected pathway that exists across these policies that bridge high schools, community colleges, and state universities, this volume details how educational leaders in California are continuing to advance social justice through the implementation of Ethnic Studies and the role that educational leadership-including credential, masters, and doctoral programs-can play in the full attainment of the goals for ethnic studies implementation. The lessons learned in California are relevant across the nation and around the world.

As Ethnic Studies has expanded across PK-12 and higher education contexts, extant studies have both quantitatively and qualitatively detailed how participation in quality Ethnic Studies courses and programs in and out of schools can improve many student outcomes such as engagement, critical thinking, and achievement, as well as attendance, increased GPAs, and graduation rates. The work to effectively implement Ethnic Studies requires strong leadership, including students, teachers, community leaders, and site and district level administrators.

The Critical Role of Ethnic Studies in Educational Leadership is an important book that appeals to a variety of readers. Those interested in a deeper understanding of Ethnic Studies will find the book will better inform them. Educational leaders are provided with both the rational and the methodologies for implementing this important concept in curriculum. It is also a valuable teaching resource for a variety of classroom settings.

Perfect for courses such as: Intro to Ethnic Studies; Intro to Chicano Studies; Climate & Environmental Justice; Educational Reform; Educational Policy Environments; Theories of Cross-Cultural Education

Mahmoud Suleiman is a professor of teacher education at California State University, Bakersfield. He earned his Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 1993. He previously taught at the Maricopa Community College District, AZ; Arizona State University, Tempe; and Fort Hays State University, KS. He joined CSUB in 1999 and has taught a variety of credential and graduate courses in the areas of multiculturalism, reading/literacy, action research, instructional leadership, second language acquisition, equity, social justice and inclusion, cultural literacy, and international education; he also has published in extensively in these fields. During his tenure at CSUB, he served as Director of the Multiple Subject Credential Program and as Chair of the Teacher Education Department as well as Chair of the Advanced Educational Studies. He is currently serving as a Core Faculty member and an Acting Director of the Doctoral Program in Educational Leadership. He is a Fulbright Scholar (2009/2010) and completed his residency at the Bahrain Teachers College, University of Bahrain, Bahrain, as well as Fulbright Scholar (2016/2017) at the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teachers’ Training, An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine.

José M. Aguilar-Hernández is professor and doctoral program co-director in the Educational Leadership Department at Cal Poly Pomona. He is a first-generation academic, whose trajectory in higher education began at Moorpark Community College. Aguilar-Hernández transferred to UCLA, where he earned a B.A. in History and Chicana/o Studies, M.A. in Latin American Studies, and Ph.D. in Education. Aguilar-Hernández’s research and teaching interests include higher education, student movements, and critical pedagogy. Using critical race theory in education & historical methods, his publications chart 1990s student of color activism in higher education in Southern California and engaging critical pedagogy in higher education. His publications appear in the International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, Latino Studies Journal, Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies, and in the First-Generation Faculty of Color: Reflections on Research, Teaching, and Service anthology published with Rutgers University Press. Aguilar- Hernández was awarded CPP College of Education and Integrative Studies’ Advisor of the Year in 2024 and 2017. He is faculty coordinator of the CPP/Pomona Unified School District (PUSD) Ethnic Studies Dual Enrollment Program that enrolls high school students in “Introduction to Ethnic Studies,” a course that grants students high school and college credit.

Liane I. Hypolite, PhD, is an associate professor in her sixth year teaching in the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. She earned a B.A. in Sociology and Psychology from Brandeis University, her Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and her Ph.D. from the University of Southern California. Her research explores how students, educators, and community members find opportunities for success and well-being, despite navigating unjust systems.

Betty Alford, PhD, is a professor, department chair, and doctoral program co-director of the Educational Leadership Doctoral Program at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. Alford's research agenda has centered on leadership for equity and excellence in high need schools, program improvement for educational leadership programs, and sustaining a college-going culture in schools. She has been a faculty member teaching in this doctoral program for eleven years with previous experience as a professor at Stephen F. Austin State University in Texas where she also served as doctoral program director and department chair. Alford attained her doctoral degree from the University of Texas at Austin.