Journal Articles by Miriam D Ezzani
Journal for the Education of the Gifted, 2020
Researchers have consistently pointed to teacher deficit views, inequitable identification polici... more Researchers have consistently pointed to teacher deficit views, inequitable identification policies and practices, and differential access to resources to explain the dearth of traditionally underserved learners in gifted programs across the nation. Culturally relevant leadership is one way to remedy this problem through systemic educational reform at the district and school levels. The purpose of this paper was to provide a systematic review of the literature on leadership, systemic reform, and identification and services in gifted education for culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse (CLED) K-12 students in the United States. Drawing from this literature, we report what we know to date on systemic district reforms and their consideration of minoritized populations in gifted education through five themes: systemic bias; equity and excellence; deficit thinking; hiring practices, training, and professional development; and, parent and community networks. We then reflect on the potential for equitable systemic reform efforts inclusive of CLED students.
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Journal of School Leadership, 2020
This case study explores an urban elementary school principal’s efforts to advance reflective and... more This case study explores an urban elementary school principal’s efforts to advance reflective and anti-oppressive practices to counter teachers’ beliefs and behaviors toward their Black male students. Data collected and analyzed include five in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, observations of the school, classroom and professional learning meetings, and document analysis of policies, improvement plans, and
weekly faculty agenda. The findings revealed that data-informed leadership was the impetus to the principal enacting social justice leadership, which involved anchoring systemic professional learning opportunities to teachers’ core values and beliefs and developing the collective consciousness of teachers individually and collectively. Lastly, the principal utilized strategies and instituted structures in and outside of the school to propel a cultural paradigm shift in how students in general, and Black males in particular, were served and cared for. Implications for principal professional learning and educational leadership preparation programs are shared. This article offers recommendations on how social justice leaders can coach teachers and advance
practices that engender respect and dignity for Black male students.
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International Journal of Educational Management, 2019
The purpose of this paper (case study) is to capture a novel school culture that values instructi... more The purpose of this paper (case study) is to capture a novel school culture that values instructional leadership (school leaders and teachers) and serves students in ways that create a culturally responsive and socially just schooling environment.
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Educational Administration Quarterly, 2019
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how leaders in an Islamic school in the United ... more Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore how leaders in an Islamic school in the United States engaged in culturally relevant leadership (CRL) within a diverse school community to develop students' critical social consciousness. Research Design: Data were collected over 4 years at an Islamic K-8 school in the United States and included the following: 12 in-depth semistructured interviews with school and community leaders; 4 phone interviews; 7 focus group interviews with teachers, students, and parents; 5 observations of classroom and school events; and documents from the Islamic center, school, and classrooms. Data specific to the school leaders were analyzed using tenets of CRL. Findings and Conclusions: This article describes how Muslim and non-Muslim leaders in an Islamic school engaged in the tenets of CRL. This study suggests that the tenets of CRL, in this context, were grounded in inter and intrafaith dialogue, cultural syncretism, and a unique focus on the development of an American Muslim identity.
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Impacting Education: Journal on Transforming Professional Practice, 2018
The development of educational leaders, who have a profound influence in shaping a culture of org... more The development of educational leaders, who have a profound influence in shaping a culture of organizational learning; ethical community engagement; advocacy for diversity, equity and inclusion; and theory to practice solutions, is the aim of redesign efforts in one educational leadership (EDLE) program in the United States. These ideas, grounded in a multicriteria framework, are reified in the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate's (CPED) Principles and Design Concepts and reinforced by the University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) criteria. Yet, right from the beginning, faculty struggled with ideological differences and logistical challenges. Without the dean and department chair's collaborative, visionary leadership and support of key faculty, efforts to redesign the program would have been stifled. We argue that the multicriteria framework, underscoring the importance of collaborative leadership, is the cornerstone of the education doctorate program redesign. The article's contributions are intended to inform the planning, implementation, and evaluation of this program redesign and its impact. KEYWORDS: Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED), collaborative leadership, educational leadership program redesign, program implementation and evaluation, University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA)
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Journal of Educational Administration and History , 2018
While case studies have documented how teachers can either
ameliorate or exacerbate situations of... more While case studies have documented how teachers can either
ameliorate or exacerbate situations of ignorance or hate in the
classroom toward Muslim students, the role of educational leaders
in U.S. public schools remains negligible. In response, this paper
aims to develop the knowledge base of educational leadership as
it pertains to the jihad or struggle of Muslim students to deal with
Islamophobia and to provide insights for productive leadership
which deconstruct stereotypes toward anti-Islamophobia. Because
postcolonial theory, as espoused in Edward Said’s work,
emphasises creating spaces for subjects to speak for themselves,
we highlight an oral history account of a Muslim female
immigrant’s experiences as a student and teacher in U.S. public
schools, and as an activist educational leader in a U.S. Islamic
School. The narrative is broadly applicable – as Islam and Muslims
have been painted with a pejorative broad brush due to global
sociopolitical incidences.
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Background/Context: Current estimates show 2,500 Islamic State (IS) jihadists are from the United... more Background/Context: Current estimates show 2,500 Islamic State (IS) jihadists are from the United States, Australia, and Western Europe. How and in what ways formal schooling influences the radicalization process and the development of extremist worldviews is yet to be fully understood. There is little research that explores how religious schooling educates against radical thought and behavior and this article reports findings from a qualitative case study of an Islamic school in the United States that counters religious extremism through the promotion and development of an American Muslim identity in its students, an ideology that advances the idea that an individual can be wholly American and wholly Muslim without any incongruity.
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Cogent Education, 2015
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Values and Ethics in Educational Administration, 2014
Student population demographics in K-12 are diverse in contrast with the administrators and teach... more Student population demographics in K-12 are diverse in contrast with the administrators and teachers, who are predominantly White. In response to an increasingly diverse student body and disparities in academic success, some states have developed policies which tie cultural competence to professional standards of ethics. Districts, without State policy, have been compelled to address ethical dilemmas by developing diversity programs to enhance the (relationships between educators and the students and families they serve) cultural competency of educators. This paper describes one Texas School District’s efforts to foster a critical awareness of diversity over a period of two decades. Findings revealed a range – from pluralistic-minded district leaders to principal and teacher attitudes and behaviors which at times conflict with inclusivity and negate the district’s vision and value commitments to their community.
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Blogs by Miriam D Ezzani
Huffington Post, 2012
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Dissertation by Miriam D Ezzani
Proquest, 2009
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Book Review by Miriam D Ezzani
TCR, 2017
Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space: Where the market meets grassroots resistance. reviewed by... more Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space: Where the market meets grassroots resistance. reviewed by Ciro Viamontes and Miriam Ezzani In Charter Schools, Race, and Urban Space: Where the market meets grassroots resistance, Kristen Buras reveals details of what is the remarkable story of the privatization of public schools in New Orleans post hurricane Katrina. A New Orleans native, Buras brings to this study the influential context of the historical past of New Orleans public schools and educational policy. In tangible ways, this text can be taken as an ethnography of the public policy conflicts between White and non-White communities in the context of extant hegemonic social structures that prohibit educational access. This historical setting takes on deeper significance as we are reminded immediately that New Orleans is the home of Homer Plessy, whose resistance to segregation in that city led to the infamous 1896 Supreme Court decision in Plessy v. Ferguson. Buras' advocacy and activism experience with the Urban South Grassroots Research Collective for Public Education (USGRC) will no doubt be used to attack the validity of this work. Yet Buras clearly addresses her positionality and acknowledges that, " The critique presented in this book of market-based school reform does not imply the preexisting system in New Orleans was ideal " (p. 3). The included appendix on methodology further addresses and clarifies Buras' positionality. Buras' argues that, " black education writ large enough cannot be understood adequately without examining the reconstruction of public education in the South " (p. 9). Moving towards that understanding Buras expands her previously published research. Chapters two and six examine the actions of the White power elite, while chapters three and four examine community efforts to secure equity in educational opportunities. Rather than examine this book in a linear chapter by chapter fashion it may be helpful to think in conceptual terms. Using critical race theory, Buras proposes three conceptual facets to the political ecology of market based privatization efforts: whiteness as property, accumulation by dispossession, and urban space economy. Arguing that New Orleans may be the American city that historically demonstrates the harshest forms of White supremacy, Buras leads us to understand how these factors intertwine to limit educational opportunities for communities of color. Charter school based educational reform in New Orleans is a collaboration which can appropriately be examined as an ecological system (p. 40). The Recovery School District (RSD) effectively represents the interests of the White political establishment and educational entrepreneurs/reformers. The RSD acted with astonishing speed in taking over the public-school system post Katrina. Tacit support of the takeover came from the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE), Governor Blanco, Senator Landrieu (Democrat) and the State Legislature, with the assistance of national groups such as the Heritage Foundation, Teach for America (TFA), and the Cowen Institute. These actions, seen as a response to the catastrophe, incited little if any resistance to the actions of the RSD. Meanwhile, accumulation by dispossession is evidenced by the RSD's elimination of a school district by taking control of the buildings. This allowed the en masse firing of veteran teachers, predominately people of color who had evacuated, as their jobs no longer existed. Citing a " teacher shortage " BESE then contracted with Teach for America (TFA) allowing the RSD to replace fired teachers with inexperienced, non-certified, non-union, predominately White teachers. TFA recruitment efforts focused on teaching in communities of color as an entrepreneurial opportunity. This entrepreneurial spirit spearheaded by the RSD functions to recruit White people to come to New Orleans. Other examples of accumulation by dispossession through RSD actions can be viewed as malicious. A dramatic example is the diversion of funds, obtained from the state of Louisiana to pay for the soon to be fired displaced teachers' salaries and benefits, to the operating budgets of charter schools that were given the former school district's buildings. Buras also shows how the historically racist political ecology served to shape the space economy of the city. The least desirable, lowest elevation, and thus most vulnerable areas became the predominately African-American areas (p. 12). It is for this reason that the African-American community suffered the brunt of the damage caused by Katrina. In these most vulnerable areas of New Orleans, grassroots groups
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Journal Articles by Miriam D Ezzani
weekly faculty agenda. The findings revealed that data-informed leadership was the impetus to the principal enacting social justice leadership, which involved anchoring systemic professional learning opportunities to teachers’ core values and beliefs and developing the collective consciousness of teachers individually and collectively. Lastly, the principal utilized strategies and instituted structures in and outside of the school to propel a cultural paradigm shift in how students in general, and Black males in particular, were served and cared for. Implications for principal professional learning and educational leadership preparation programs are shared. This article offers recommendations on how social justice leaders can coach teachers and advance
practices that engender respect and dignity for Black male students.
ameliorate or exacerbate situations of ignorance or hate in the
classroom toward Muslim students, the role of educational leaders
in U.S. public schools remains negligible. In response, this paper
aims to develop the knowledge base of educational leadership as
it pertains to the jihad or struggle of Muslim students to deal with
Islamophobia and to provide insights for productive leadership
which deconstruct stereotypes toward anti-Islamophobia. Because
postcolonial theory, as espoused in Edward Said’s work,
emphasises creating spaces for subjects to speak for themselves,
we highlight an oral history account of a Muslim female
immigrant’s experiences as a student and teacher in U.S. public
schools, and as an activist educational leader in a U.S. Islamic
School. The narrative is broadly applicable – as Islam and Muslims
have been painted with a pejorative broad brush due to global
sociopolitical incidences.
Blogs by Miriam D Ezzani
Dissertation by Miriam D Ezzani
Book Review by Miriam D Ezzani
weekly faculty agenda. The findings revealed that data-informed leadership was the impetus to the principal enacting social justice leadership, which involved anchoring systemic professional learning opportunities to teachers’ core values and beliefs and developing the collective consciousness of teachers individually and collectively. Lastly, the principal utilized strategies and instituted structures in and outside of the school to propel a cultural paradigm shift in how students in general, and Black males in particular, were served and cared for. Implications for principal professional learning and educational leadership preparation programs are shared. This article offers recommendations on how social justice leaders can coach teachers and advance
practices that engender respect and dignity for Black male students.
ameliorate or exacerbate situations of ignorance or hate in the
classroom toward Muslim students, the role of educational leaders
in U.S. public schools remains negligible. In response, this paper
aims to develop the knowledge base of educational leadership as
it pertains to the jihad or struggle of Muslim students to deal with
Islamophobia and to provide insights for productive leadership
which deconstruct stereotypes toward anti-Islamophobia. Because
postcolonial theory, as espoused in Edward Said’s work,
emphasises creating spaces for subjects to speak for themselves,
we highlight an oral history account of a Muslim female
immigrant’s experiences as a student and teacher in U.S. public
schools, and as an activist educational leader in a U.S. Islamic
School. The narrative is broadly applicable – as Islam and Muslims
have been painted with a pejorative broad brush due to global
sociopolitical incidences.