Abstract
This chapter chronicles the story of how the nonprofit intermediary organization Intercultural Development Research Association (IDRA) and a community organization, A Resource in Serving Equality (ARISE) Adelante, also known as ARISE, worked together to expand servant leadership among Mexican American immigrant families living in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas. With their strong focus on equity, IDRA and ARISE embraced and then expanded the traditional 10 characteristics of servant leadership to include advocacy and action. This chapter describes the history and background of both organizations, relates the work of these two organizations to servant leadership, shows how they were able to expand servant leadership to advocacy and action, provides lessons learned, and discusses next steps for how other organizations might apply these additional two characteristics to increase equity.
TopOrganization Background Of Idra And Arise
IDRA is an independent, non-profit organization whose mission is to achieve equal educational opportunity for every child through strong public schools that prepare all students to access and succeed in college. IDRA strengthens and transforms public education by providing dynamic training; useful research, evaluation, and frameworks for action; timely policy analyses and advocacy; transformational community engagement and innovative materials and programs. The organization is committed to an asset-based philosophy, respecting the knowledge and skills of the individuals we work with and building on the strengths of the students and parents in their schools.
IDRA developed its Family Leadership in Education model out of its rich history of almost 50 years of work with families and communities. The model (IDRA, 2022) is embodied in grassroots organizations with effective community outreach, particularly among recent immigrant families. The model employs the approach of servant leadership with its focus on Greenleaf’s central concept, “The servant-leader is servant first” (Greenleaf, 1970, p. 27).
The 1980s saw the beginning of the IDRA Family Leadership in Education approach. Using funding from the U.S. Department of Education, IDRA held training sessions across Texas for parents of children in bilingual education. The approach was different because it honored participants’ language and culture and focused on family engagement in non-traditional ways. Key components included family participation, bilingualism, and the understanding that parents influence their children’s education.
Since those early years, IDRA has continued to facilitate family leadership with a focus on its model, Family Leadership in Education. Funders have included: the Ford Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the National Center on Immigrant Integration Policy, the U.S. Department of Education, and many other federal and state agencies. The list of programs and partnerships is long and includes Mobilization for Equity, Families United for Education: Getting Organization (FUEGO), the federally-funded Texas IDRA Parent Information and Resource Center (PIRC), PTA Comunitario and the current Education CAFE (Montemayor & Chavkin, 2016; Cortez, 2015; Montemayor, 2007b, 2010).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Community-Based Organization (CBO): Non-profit groups that work at a local level to improve life for residents.
Collaboration: Working together to produce something.
Colonia: Semi-rural area in an unincorporated area of town.
Distributive Leadership: Shared, collective leadership that builds the capacity for improvement and change.
Intermediary Organization: External organization that supports the work of another organization.
Education Projects: Activities that focus on improving a specific aspect of educational practice or policy.
Family: Individuals who are legally, morally, and practically responsible for children and mostly likely the advocates for the best possible education for the children they rear.
Andragogical: Self-directed, independent learning for adults.
Actionable Data: Data that can be acted upon. Actions should be taken and are clear.