BIO

My name is Jillian McPherson and I am a sophomore at FSU studying Political Science and Human Rights with a minor in Religion. I am from Orlando, Florida and my passions consist of civil rights advocacy, political policy-making, and legal research. Through my undergraduate studies I strive to prepare for my career goals of being a civil rights attorney and state-level politician.

Public School Leadership in Times of Uncertainty: A Rendering of the Influence of Education Policy on Leadership Practice in Florida Schools

Abstract

In the United States, there have been increasing efforts to draw back Diversity, Equity,
and Inclusion (DEI) programs in public education. In response, educational leadership is
dealing with the consequences of attempting to create equitable environments for all
students within schools while appealing to the politics of their state. Current research has
looked at political atmospheres and teacher attitudes but has not identified any solutions
for how educational leaders should respond. We hope to discover how educational leaders
feel in response to these initiatives and how we, as educational leadership trainers, can
adapt our training methods to help leaders prepare to handle politically charged school
environments. For the purpose of this study, we decided to look at 2 counties in Florida
(referred to as River County and Forest County).We solely focused on K-12 public
schools. In order to discover the attitudes of educational leaders, we conducted 30-minute
semi-structured interviews with 4 principals. After conducting the interviews, we
developed transcripts and completed a data analysis. The results of this study indicate
difficulties educational leadership experience managing teachers and faculty in
implementing culturally responsive education. We were interested to discover that in
majority-minority schools, administrators experience an atypical protection from state
mandates, and as a result, feel that they do not need to comply with anti-DEI legislation.

Keywords: Social justice, Anti-racism, Equity, Inclusion, Diversity, Ecological systems theory, Turbulence theory, Systemic limitations