The purpose of this study was to determine principals' attitudes toward the use of culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive leadership in predominately African American schools. Culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching, culturally responsive urban leadership, and ethnohumanist leadership are the study's theoretical underpinnings. The research question was as follows: To what extent, if any, do principals of predominately African American schools promote culturally relevant pedagogy and utilize culturally responsive leadership? The sample for this mixed methods study was secondary school principals and teachers in predominately African American schools. Seven principals and 43 teachers participated in the study. The research methods used were vignettes, interviews, surveys, content analysis, and document analysis. Vignettes containing 10 scenarios of principals performing culturally responsive leadership practices were distributed to principals who were asked to rate them with a Likert scale. In addition, principals were asked 13 open ended questions about culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive leadership in an interview. Teachers were asked to complete a 10 question on-line survey about their principals' leadership from a culturally responsive perspective. Reviews of school improvement plans, principals' messages, and mission and vision statements were also conducted. / The study found that (a) principals admitted that they had a limited knowledge of the concepts of culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive leadership, (b) principals theoretically viewed culturally relevant pedagogy and culturally responsive leadership as useful tools in educating African American student populations as evidenced by their responses to the vignettes, (c) principals had a general understanding of African American culture and exhibited sensitivity to the cultural needs of African American students, (d) stressed the managing of difficult students or the diffusing of problematic situations as a benefit of having teachers trained in culturally relevant pedagogy and (e) principals in the study did not actively encourage teachers to utilize culturally relevant pedagogy as a means to improve the academic achievement of African American students. / by Tressey Weaver. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Currently, Eurocentric theories and practices of urban teachers and students are often studied under a White gaze of expected deficits. Much of this research is quantitative (e.g., documenting the number of teachers of color); the qualitative research that documents the experiences of people of color usually lacks the personal lived experiences of racial marginalization that only one who has endured them can tell. Addressing this research problem, in this dissertation, I share findings generated from a 9-month autoethnographic study of my experiences in light of the blockade of anti-Black epistemologies and ontologies in (music) teacher education. Framed by Critical Race Theory, Critical Pedagogy, and Postcolonial Theory, the aim of this study is to examine the lived experiences and narratives of a Black-queer doctoral student and teacher educator—in dialogue with majority Black and Latinx preservice early childhood and elementary students in his music teacher education course—considering how Eurocentric frameworks position teachers and students. Inquiries into how curricular stories are constructed as mirrors and windows (Bishop, 1990) are woven to reveal the ways in which dominant theories and ideologies affect the discourses and identities of soon-to-be teachers and point toward the need for students and educators of color to be taught to analyze and name injustices documented within life histories, all the while transforming oppressive encounters to affirm individual and collective humanity. While the focus of this self-study and autoethnography is the researcher, this ethnographic composition of teaching and teacher education is informed by the researcher’s teacher education practices, experiences, and learnings in the context of an early childhood and elementary teacher education course for non-music majors at a primarily-Hispanic serving urban institution of higher education. It examines classroom discursive interactions and archival data (e.g. journal reflections, course assignments) using ethnographic research methods and critical narrative analysis (Souto-Manning, 2014) to make sense of data. In doing so, it co-constructs a polyphonic space for multiple perspectives to stand in counterpoint (conflict), reimagining and reclaiming the discourses that purport to hold knowledge about peoples of color lived experiences. Findings are rendered by engagement with a range of Afrocentric visual and multimodal data.