Abstract
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are institutions of higher education that have established cultural norms reflective of a predominantly Black student body. Throughout history, HBCU leaders have preserved the HBCU experience through culturally responsive leadership. Culturally responsive leadership practices at HBCUs include faculty-student relationships, a student-centered campus culture, and racial uplift. This chapter will take the reader through higher education leadership theory, a brief history of HBCU leadership, the modern-day significance of HBCUs, and how culturally responsive leadership preserves the HBCU experience. The aim of this chapter is to highlight culturally responsive leadership practices in HBCUs that may be adapted in a multitude of education settings to further academic and social equity and justice across all higher education institutions in the United States.
The HBCU campus experience and African American cultural elements are so interwoven that one cannot be separated from the other. This element of the campus environment is not merely a byproduct of the historical mission of these institutions but is the result of a longstanding intentional effort by leaders, faculty, and staff. (p.12)
Reverberations of the HBCU leadership are imitated in the practices carried out by administrators, faculty, and staff. From the classroom to the cabinet, past and present leaders across campus employ asset-based approaches to foster HBCU student success, as well as validate Black students in their cultural identity (Williams et al., 2019). The aim of this chapter is to highlight culturally responsive leadership practices in HBCUs that may be adapted in a multitude of education settings to further academic and social equity and justice across all higher education institutions in the United States.
TopHigher Education Leadership Theory
Understanding leadership theories within the context of higher education permits the institution to explore various methods of addressing challenges, conveying influence, and managing and leading organizational goals through stakeholder buy-in and alignment, notably of students. Early leadership theories focused on what qualities distinguished leaders from followers, while subsequent theories looked at other capacities, such as situational factors and learning environments. While higher education employs multiple leadership theories and styles, this chapter will seek to review three seminal early theories, adaptive, transactional, and transformational, as related to education as a platform to introduce culturally responsive leadership theory.
Within the field of education, one of the most prominent theories that can be seen is that between the instructor and student, which often presents as transactional leadership. The functions of transactional leadership are “largely based on the exchange of rewards contingent on performance” (Avolioi et al., 2009, p. 427). Transactional leadership focuses on the leader-follower relationship yet leans towards being ‘leader-centric.’ Components of transactional leadership include contingent reward (setting expectations and providing rewards in exchange for products), passive management-by-exception (remaining uninvolved until an issue arises), and active management-by-exception (anticipating problems through monitoring progress, then issuing corrective measures to prevent errors) (Bass & Riggo, 2005). Higher education provides many examples of how transactional leadership theories can be applied to the organizational and functional practices of stakeholder interactions.
Whereas transactional leadership encourages and motivates followers through the use of transactions, transformational leadership seeks to motivate and influence followers in shared goals of the institution and that by engaging in such communal behaviors contributing to their own personal leadership development. Robbins and Judge (2018) defined transformational leadership as those who “inspire followers to transcend their self-interests for the good of the organization and can have an extraordinary effect on their followers” (p. 382). Bass (1985) stated that transformational leadership was a process where leaders and followers engage in a mutual process of lifting one another through increased forms of integrity and motivation. Bass argued that transformational leaders motivate their followers to ascend their own self-expectations by emphasizing an idealized future that encourages followers to transcend their own self-interest in exchange for addressing and accomplishing the institution's needs and goals. Components of transformational leadership include idealized influence (prioritizing the followers’ development through acting as a role model), inspirational motivation (utilizing motivational strategies then aligning the followers’ interests with a common goal), intellectual stimulation (nurturing the follower’s creativity towards problem-solving and innovation), and individualized consideration (mentoring followers by focusing on their individual needs) (Spencer, 2006). However, the components of transformational leadership theory still present ambiguity around the role of fully understanding the uniqueness of the influencing factors of individuals’ motivation to follow (Zainab et al., 2022).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Student-Centered Campus Culture: An education system that prioritizes the needs and desires of the student body above institutional demands and research agendas ( Association of American Universities, n.d. ).
Culturally Responsive Leadership: A leadership approach that acknowledges systemic racism and takes activist approach in dismantling structures that maintain racialized inequities ( Rice-Boothe, 2022 ).
Academic Equity: Achievement of the same academic outcomes across groups of students by recognizing the variables that may impact academic achievement (sex, class, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc.) and providing resources necessary to help students reach academic goals ( Amaral, 2022 ).
Culturally Affirming: Individuals backgrounds, experiences, and culture are respected, and positive self-concept is stimulated through the inclusion of historical and modern contributions of the individuals’ racial group ( Allen et al., 2013 ).
Racial Uplift: A shared belief that elite Black individuals share a responsibility to improve the welfare of the entire Black race ( Gaines, 2010 ).
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs): Institutions of higher education, established before 1964, with the distinct mission of educating Black Americans ( National Center for Education Statistics, 2010 ).
Transformational Leadership: A leadership approach that inspire followers to put aside self-interests and work towards the good of the collective (Bass, 1985 AU86: The in-text citation "Bass, 1985" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).