The UW College of Education Leadership for Learning (L4L) program trains education leaders to promote social justice and equity across entire educational systems. This summer, Tony Byrd and 24 other L4L students interviewed non-English speaking immigrant families about their interaction with the schools in their community. L4L Program Director Margery Ginsburg organized the interviews to help the L4L students learn research skills, but their conversations provided far more than insight into field research protocol. In the following article, Tony Byrd shares his recollections of the interviews he conducted and their lasting impact on him.

During my career as an educator, I have pecked away at finding ways to fight for justice for kids.  I’ve taught, I’ve recruited teachers to teach, I’ve spent in time very under-resourced communities, I’ve completed two master’s degree programs focused on social justice, and I’ve led two buildings to better places. During this journey, my fire for justice has dwindled and been rekindled many times.

The L4L home visits I made mattered tremendously for my social justice and equity fire. It was made abundantly clear that if we are going to fight for change in our school communities, we must really understand what is happening in those communities in the first place. 

I visited two families – one Somali and one Latino- each causing me to realize how little I have understood the communities I have worked in and led.  Relationships mattered to each of these families – relationships with their immediate communities and with the school.  Neither spoke of test scores, homework or teacher selection processes.  Instead, they spoke with passion about what great care teachers at Rainier View had given their children. They worried about what type of connection a new school would make with their families. Importantly, they were very grateful for the time we were spending seeking to understand what mattered to them.

As a teacher in Los Angeles, I visited families routinely. I did the same as a teacher in Redwood City. However, as a leader of two schools over the past seven years, I have only visited families during a crisis. I’ve spoken at length with our PTAs about the importance of increasing parent involvement, particularly in our communities of color, but I have rarely gone to the homes of our representatives of these communities. Simply put, these two family visits made me realize how much deep understanding I have missed as a leader. I will seek to never allow that to happen again.

I shake my head as I realize just how patronizing we can be as leaders and teachers when we speak of the needs of our communities. I have played a role in many conversations about addressing the “needs” of our community and, in most cases, have had no true understanding of those needs. Safire, the Somali mother we visited, made this point incredibly clear as she spoke about the routine discrimination many Somali children feel in some Seattle schools. We could sense that it was cathartic for her to share this and, most likely, that not a single teacher/nor leader in her school community had heard her discuss this issue before. Her thoughts meant everything in terms of what might happen next for her and her family. They also meant everything to me as a future systems leader who will fight hard to truly seek to understand the communities we work in.

Simply put, I leave the week changed.  On Monday morning, as typically, I gathered my readings, notebooks and cell phone, hopped into my car and went to learn more about “social justice and equity” within the confines of a beautiful location – one that does little to symbolize the struggles of the families of Seattle and its surrounding communities. As I did, I wondered how in the world home visits would fit into this program – truly-- but I trusted there must be some connection.  I leave the week wondering how in the world I ever considered leading an effort for social justice and equity without truly making concerted efforts to connect with families.

For more information about the Leadership for Learning program, go to: http://depts.washington.edu/k12admin/l4l/