Critical Comparative Study of Equity-Oriented Educational Leadership Practices in Multicultural Contexts
Abstract
The current study focuses on equity-oriented educational leadership amid multicultural school environment using a comparative critical approach. Six primary and secondary schools situated within one metropolitan region, which comprised over 30% of ethnically, linguistically, and economically different students, were chosen for investigation. Data were gathered from school administrators, middle-level managers, teachers, students, documents, and observations in classrooms. Four areas were considered while assessing the efficiency of the leadership: distributive equity, cultural recognition, participatory engagement, and discrimination management. Qualitative data were analyzed by utilizing NVivo 14 software together with SPSS 29 and Excel. Simulation experiment results showed that those schools demonstrating better harmony between leadership style, policy, and actions demonstrated a significantly higher level of equity leadership (4.05 ± 0.26) compared to the schools with low levels of harmony (3.21 ± 0.39). Furthermore, a higher self-efficacy rate among teachers was recorded at schools with good harmony (4.12 ± 0.31) in comparison with poor harmony ones (3.37 ± 0.42). Greatest difference was found in distributive equity and discrimination management.
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