Skip to main content
Log in

Diversity, Privilege, and Us: Collaborative Curriculum Transformation Among Educational Leadership Faculty

  • Published:
Innovative Higher Education Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this article we describe an educational leadership faculty’s collective efforts to improve its curriculum by examining meanings, implications, and challenges of sociocultural identity differences for its graduate programs in educational leadership. We employed a case study method to examine the process and interim effects of faculty engagement in a diversity across the curriculum project. This study was completed after the second academic year of a multiyear process. The analysis and interpretation of data revealed themes of identity privilege, silence relative to privilege, and organizational and curricular change. Implications and resulting recommendations derive from an analysis of the enabling and inhibiting factors involved in this curricular change process.1

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ball, H., Berkowitz, S. D. & Mzamane, M. (Eds.). (1998). Multicultural education in colleges and universities: A transdisciplinary approach. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogdan, R. C., & Biklen, S. K. (1992). Qualitative research for education: An introduction to theory and methods (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • C. Capper (Ed.). (1993). Educational administration in a pluralistic society. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chism, N. V. (1999). Taking student diversity into account. In McKeachie, W. J. (Ed.). Teaching tips: Strategies, research, and theory for college and university teachers (10th ed., pp. 218–234). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, B. R. (1977). Faculty organization and authority. In G. L. Riley & J. V. Baldridge (Eds.), Governing academic organizations (pp. 64–78). Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clark, C., & O’Donnell, J. (Eds.). (1999). Becoming and unbecoming white. Westport, CT: Bergin and Garvey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coffey, A., & Atkinson, P. (1996). Making sense of qualitative data. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, M. D., & March, J. G. (1974). Leadership and ambiguity: The American college president. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cohen, M. D., March, J. G., & Olsen, J. P. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellsworth, E., & Miller, J. L. (1996). Working difference in education. Curriculum Inquiry, 26, 245–263.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fine, M., Powell, L., Weiss, L., & Wong, L. M. (1996). (Eds). Off white: Readings on race, power and society. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters: The social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant, C. A., & Gomez, M. L. (2000). Campus and classroom: Making schooling multicultural. River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, A. G. (2001). Privilege, power and difference. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kincheloe, J., Steinberg, S. R., Rodgriguez, N. M., & Chennault, R. E. (Eds.). (1998). White reign: Deploying whiteness in America. New York: St. Martin’s.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lindsey, R. B., Robins, K. N., & Terrell, R. (1999). Cultural proficiency: A manual for school leaders. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorde, A. (2001). Age, race, class, and sex: Women redefining difference. In P. S. Rothenberg (Ed.).(2001), Race, class, and gender in the United States (5th ed., pp. 588–594). New York: Worth.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, J. G. (1994). A primer on decision making: How decisions happen. New York: Free.

    Google Scholar 

  • March, J. G., & Olsen, J. P. (1976). Attention and the ambiguity of self-interest. In J. G.March & J. P. Olsen (Eds.), Ambiguity and choice in organizations (pp. 38–53). Bergen, Norway: Universitetsforlaget.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCormick, T. M. (1994). Creating the nonsexist classroom: A multicultural approach. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • McIntosh, P. (1988, 2001). White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack. In P. S. Rothenberg (Ed.). (2001), Race, class, and gender in the United States (5th ed., pp. 163–167). New York: Worth. (Reprinted from paper of Wellesley College Center for Research on Women by P. McIntosh, 1988, Wellesley College Center for Research on Women)

  • Miles, M. G., & Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative data analysis: An expanded sourcebook. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morey, A. I., & Kitano, M. K. (Eds.). (1996). Multicultural course transformation in higher education: A broader truth. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn and Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morgan, G. (1998). Images of organization: The executive edition. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler & Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nieto, S. (1999). The light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities. New York: Teachers College Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Grady, C. R. (Ed.). (2000). Integrating service learning and multicultural education in colleges and universities. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Orfield, G. (Ed.). (2001). Diversity challenged: Evidence on the impact of affirmative action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Civil Rights Project.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pharr, S. (2001). Homophobia as a weapon of sexism. In P. S. Rothenberg (Ed.).(2001), Race, class, and gender in the United States (5th ed., pp. 143–151). New York: Worth. (Reprinted from Homophobia: A weapon of sexism, by S. Pharr, 1988, Inverness, CA: Chardon Press)

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothenberg, P. S. (Ed.). (2001). Race, class, and gender in the United States (5th ed.). New York: Worth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothenberg, P. S. (Ed.). (2002). White privilege: Essential readings on the other side of racism. New York: Worth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shakeshaft, C. (1989). Women in educational administration. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sklar, H. (2001). Imagine a country. In Rothenberg, P. S. (Ed.).(2001), Race, class, and gender in the United States (5th ed., pp. 257–266). New York: Worth. (Reprinted from Z Magazine, July/August, 1997)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sleeter, C. E. (1996). Multicultural education as social activism. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tatum, B. D. (1999). Why are all the Black kids sitting together in the cafeteria? And other conversations about race (Rev. ed.). New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tierney, W. G. (1993). Building communities of difference: Higher education in the 21st century. Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turner, C., Garcia, M., Nora, A., & Rendon, L. I. (Eds.). (1996). Racial and ethnic diversity in higher education. ASHE Reader Series. Needham Heights, MA: Simon and Schuster Custom.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weedon, C. (1999). Feminism, theory and the politics of difference. Maiden, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weick, K. E. (1976). Educational organizations as loosely coupled systems. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 1–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, C., & Fenstermaker, S. (1995). Doing difference. Gender & Society, 91, 3–37.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Elizabeth J. Allan Ph.D. or Suzanne E. Estler Ph.D., M.A., B.A..

Additional information

Elizabeth J. Allan is Assistant Professor of Higher Educational Leadership at the University of Maine. She earned her Ph.D. at The Ohio State University in Educational Policy and Leadership. Her current research and teaching interests center around campus climates in postsecondary education as well as student development, classroom teaching practices, and college student experiences outside classrooms.

Suzanne E. Estler is Associate Professor of Higher Educational Leadership at the University of Maine. She earned her Ph.D. at Stanford University, her M.A. from Ohio University, and B.A. from Douglass College of Rutgers University. Her current research interests include the dynamics of diversity in higher education and college and university culture and leadership related to intercollegiate athletics.

An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the April 2002 national meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New Orleans. The project producing this research was also the basis for a symposium at the 2003 American Educational Research Association meeting in Chicago.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Allan, E.J., Estler, S.E. Diversity, Privilege, and Us: Collaborative Curriculum Transformation Among Educational Leadership Faculty. Innov High Educ 29, 209–232 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-005-1937-y

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-005-1937-y

Keywords

Navigation