Cultural Responsiveness Starts With Responsive Leaders

Daman Harris, principal of Wheaton Woods Elementary School in Rockville, Md., and I first became acquainted in my prior work as a teacher in Montgomery County, Md. He is leading a grassroots educator initiative to recruit, develop, retain and empower male educators of color, and over several years, we found we shared a commitment to this work.

Harris exhibits the fundamental characteristics and behaviors of the culturally responsive school leaders identified by Muhammad Khalifa, author of  Culturally Responsive School Leadership.

These qualities include (1) routinely engaging in critical self-awareness of cultural identity and implicit bias; (2) intentionally recruiting, hiring and retaining culturally responsive teachers; (3) promoting a culturally responsive and inclusive school culture; (4) mentoring and modeling culturally responsive teaching; and (5) engaging with students, families and communities in culturally responsive ways.