238 CRITICAL THEORY AND LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
areas as discipline, pedagogy, or content experience to effectively meet the increase in demands
established by states for grade-level content curricula. While ESL teachers lack the content
knowledge needed for students to be successful, content-area teachers lack background
knowledge of second language acquisition or even second language teaching methodology.
Poverty is another cultural barrier to closing the learning gap. According to Orfield and Yun
(1999), African American and Hispanic students, with limited English speaking abilities, were
more likely to live in urban areas where schools tended to be over-crowded with limited
resources compared to majority white suburban school districts. Non-English speaking students
were likely to live in areas where there was little interaction with native English speakers and no
access to private tutors or computers connected to the internet (Suarez-Orozco & Todorova,
2003). Gutierrez and Rogoff (2003) noted that although socioeconomic status is an influence on
student opportunities, it is important to avoid labeling individual students. These researchers
proposed that circumstances such as origin, neighborhoods, school attendance, or activity
participation should not be seen as traits, but as one’s individual background.
According to Tatum (2006), the field of education has been saturated with studies showing
poor achievement levels among African American males. Tatum argued that barriers such as
self-confidence and identity issues affect achievement levels, and that the African American
male’s culturally specific coping mechanisms such as acting tough, failing to retreat from
violence, and avoiding self-disclosure subject these students to disproportionate grade retentions.
Fashola (2005) has argued that like the Hispanic student, the African American student’s
external structure of community racism, parental education level, and socioeconomic status
contribute to success in the classroom. Many African Americans live in high-risk neighborhoods
and are distracted from learning by concerns over mortality and safety.
Fashola suggested that the educator must seek to understand these multiple sources of stress
in order to help the African American male begin to work toward a self-definition as well as a
desire to be successful in an educational environment. Hurwitz and Hurwitz (2005) proposed
that a direct link existed between teacher competency and student achievement, pushing the goal
of teacher quality to the forefront of the education agenda. The preparation of teachers to be
successful in a multicultural setting was important because teachers have the most impact on the
academic engagement and achievement of their students (Tucker et al., 2005). Clearly, it is
important to understand what school superintendents have implemented in their districts—
including the preparation and continued training of teachers and other administrators—that have
resulted in minority student success.
METHODOLOGY
Qualitative phenomenological narrative inquiry methodology was used for this study.
Creswell (1998) indicated that the phenomenological method describes the meaning of lived
experiences of individuals and their experiences with a concept or phenomenon. According to
Clandinin and Connelly (2000), narrative inquiry results in collaboration between researcher and
participants that attempts to reconstruct stories of individual lives lived and the stories told of
those lives.
Sixteen superintendents in Education Service Center Regions 4 and 6, which were within a
radius of 200 miles of Houston, met pre-determined criteria. These service areas were selected
because of convenience for the researcher. Criteria for selection required that each of the
superintendents had been in the district since 20 02, and that each district represented changing
demographics with diverse populations that had a minimum 30% minority population. The Texas
Education Agency lists the following populations for accountability purposes: White, African-