Leadership magazine Jan/Feb 2016 V45 No 3

Being a Culturally Proficient school leader is not an option, but rather a necessary and welcomed requirement The United States of America is in the midst of a cultural seismic shift. Around the time the 2020 United States Census is conducted, more than half of the nation’s children are expected to be part of a minority race or ethnic group. This proportion is expected to continue to grow so that by 2060, just 36 percent of all children – people under age 18 – will be single-race nonHispanic white, compared to 52 percent reported in the 2015 census. With recent incidents in our nation shaping our societal perspectives, along with significant decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court, it’s not only our population’s demographics that have and will continue to shift. This shift also includes the migration of cultural attributes that are counter to the current mainstream culture. This transformation will need to be absorbed as soon being the macro culture of our country. Essentially, what the census is telling us is that the people who are the fabric of those cultures will soon be the composition of the larger culture in our country. We, as educational leaders, are responsible for ensuring that an environment for teaching practitioners is conducive to cultivate college, career and life ready students and citizens. It is imperative, even morally imperative – and a social justice – that we acknowledge the importance of identifying this cultural shift. We must create genuine, authentic learning opportunities that will foster an acceptance, appreciation and an embracement for all cultures. Hopefully it is duly noted that I did not state that we need to “tolerate” differing cultures, but there needs to be a distinction that we must be accepting, appreciative and embracing of all cultures that are not congruent with our own. The key to being a culturally proficient school administrator is having the realization that accepting, appreciating and embracing differing cultures is an ongoing way of being. By LaDay Smith January | February 2016 17

Leadership magazine Jan/Feb 2016 V45 No 3 | Page 17