Culturally Responsive Leadership for Latinx Immigrant Students: Advocacy in a U.S.–Mexico Border Alternative School

Educators on the U.S.–Mexico border work with students’ intricate lived experiences while striving to provide them with an equitable education. For Latinx immigrant students, school discipline is a significant component of the broader educational experience. Nonconformity to US schooling norms and policies may lead to students being sent to alternative schools. In this paper, we explore how educators in an alternative school in Texas on the U.S.–Mexico border enacted advocacy for students. Our research questions ask (1) what relationships or traits facilitate or constrain leaders’ advocacy to assist Latinx immigrant students in obtaining a quality education? and (2) what policies and structures facilitate or constrain leaders’ advocacy to assist Latinx immigrant students in obtaining a quality education? Research for this paper comes from an embedded case study, focusing on one principal and six other educators in one K-12 borderland alternative school in Texas. Culturally responsive school leadership (CRSL) practice frames the work conceptually. Study results reveal the principal and her staff experienced challenges but worked within the realities of the border, utilized critical discretion and courage in response to policy, and strengthened family and community relationships to reduce social and educational barriers for transnational students and families. The study demonstrates that increased professional responsibility among all organizational members is key for the safety, well-being, and inclusion of all students. Schools must develop individual capacity to participate in leadership processes to confront the numerous challenges that limit immigrant students’ equal educational access.